I tested last week computing performance and battery life under Windows 8 Beta (Consumer Preview) versus Windows 7 on a laptop PC. The notebook used for this purpose is a 15.6″ HP 630 with the Intel Pentium B950 CPU, Intel’s HD integrated graphics, 4GB RAM, a 320GB 5,400rpm hard drive, and 6-cell battery. It’s a typical full-size notebook with widely used processor and GPU.

Computing Performance Benchmarks

Likely due to compatibility issues, PC Mark Vantage, PC Mark 05, and Sisoft Sandra benchmarks didn’t finish properly. But, we have PassMark, Geek Bench, 3D Mark Vantage, and partially Sandra benchmark results, as well as performance comparison in Crysis and Just Cause 2 games. They show that Windows 8 Beta and Win 7 have almost identical performance. There are, however, exceptions. Windows 8 is better than Microsoft’s current OS in PassMark CPU score, due to much better performance in SSE (Streaming SIMD Extensions, important for graphics calculations) test – 10.0 vs 7.2 points. The second big difference is in Crysis game GPU test, where Beta has noticeable lead. Except that, I didn’t notice any meaningful results gap between the OSs’ speed.

Here are some important benchmark figures:

Battery Life Tests

I benchmarked battery run times with Balanced Windows power settings and Wi-Fi turned on. The battery life was measured from unplugging the power cord to the moment when the laptop went into sleep mode, due to low battery level.

Under these conditions, Windows 8 delivers 1 hour and 35 minutes of run time in power-hungry Battery Eater Classic test. The less stressful Reader’s mode drained the notebook’s 6-cell unit in 4 hours and 33 minutes.

The same tests under Windows 7 resulted in battery lives of 1:28 and 4:45 in Classic and Reader’s modes, respectively, so comparison between Windows 8 and 7 gives mixed results.

Windows 7 vs Windows 8 Power Options - Battery Levels

Conclusion

Windows 8 Consumer Preview Beta obviously doesn’t deliver any significant performance or battery life boost, when compared to Windows 7. But, it’s still on Beta stage, so further system improvements and tweaks may lead to better results in the final version. Today, laptop (and desktop) users won’t get better system responsiveness or improved power efficiency by switching to Consumer Preview.

This is the Dell Inspiron 17R N7110.

The Dell Inspiron 17R N7110 we reviewed last week is a 17.3″ inch laptop which belongs to the popular and affordable Inspiron R series. The model we tested had a Core i3-2330M processor, the Nvidia GeForce GT 525M dedicated graphics combined with the on-CPU Intel HD, 4GB RAM, a 500GB hard drive, DVD burner, and 1600×900 display resolution.

Dell Inspiron 17R N7110 Specifications

Here are specficiations of available N7110 models:

• Display: 17.3″ HD+ (1600 x 900), LED backlight, glossy
• Processor:
  - Intel Core i3-2330M 2.2GHz, dual core
  - Intel Core i3-2350M 2.3GHz, dual core
  - Intel Core i5-2450M 2.50GHz with TurboBoost up to 3.1GHz, dual core
  - Intel Core i7-2670QM 2.2GHz with TurboBoost up to 3.1GHz, quad core
• Graphics: Intel HD 3000 or Optimus with Nvidia GeForce 525M 1GB (128-bit) + Intel HD 3000
• RAM: up to 8GB DDR3
• HDD: up to 1TB at 5,400rpm
• Optical drive: DVD burner or Blu-ray Combo
• Audio: 2.1 speaker system with 2x2W and 1X3W subwoofer
• Webcam: 1MP at 1280×720
• Networking and connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 10/100 Ethernet LAN, 2xUSB 3.0, 1xUSB 2.0, 1xeSATA/USB 2.0, HDMI, VGA, 8-in-1 media card reader
• Battery: 6-cell 48WHr Li-Ion and separately sold 9-cell 90WHr Li-Ion Battery
• Dimensions: width 16.50″; height 1.23″-1.40″; depth: 11.30″
• Weight: 7.14 pounds
• OS: Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-Bit

Design and Build Quality

The glossy lid of the Dell Inspiron 17R N7110.

As you can see on the images above, the 17R N7110 sports an all-glossy design and the finish is a real fingerprint magnet on both the lid and palm rests. Even space between keyboard keys is glossy, not to mention the LCD bezel and the display itself. The only matte surfaces are the touchpad and the bottom of the case. A nice and unique feature on this laptop, like on the other R series, is its switchable lid, which can be easily removed by pushing a button located on the low end of the LCD back panel. The hinges keep the display firmly in a chosen position, but the whole screen panel wobbles considerably. The keyboard is surrounded by chrome-like plastics which gives this budget laptop a somewhat classy look.

Keyboard and Trackpad

The keyboard.

The keyboard is a chiclet-style one with a large space between the keys, but the keys could have been larger to avoid constant hitting keys’ edges. The keys provide good tactile feedback with a mid-range travel. The flex is present only on the right side of the keyboard – around the enter key and on the num-pad. But, that flex occurs only if you use bigger pressure on the keys. In normal typing, you won’t notice it.

Above the keyboard, there are three dedicated buttons for access to Windows Mobility Center, Dell’s support service, and for turning the screen on and off. Although these buttons can be useful, Dell could have included at least basic multimedia buttons, like volume and mute, besides or instead of them.

We had no problems with the touchpad, which is off the center in order to match the keyboard with numeric pad. It’s spacious and precise, and the separate left and right touchpad buttons have a mild stiffness. However, these plastic keys are pretty loud when clicking.

Display

The display is a TN panel, which provides good viewing angles from the sides, but when you only slightly tilt the screen from the ideal position you will notice big contrast and color changes. That’s common for TN-based displays. In terms of colors and contrast, we have nothing to complain about, but brightness could have been better. The 1600×900 resolution is standard for 17.3″ consumer laptops and does provide a noticeably larger work space than 1366×768 15.6″ screens.

Speakers and Webcam

Stereo speakers accompanied by a subwoofer on the Dell Inspiron 17R N7110 deliver a pleasant sound. They provide a decent sound volume, but the problem is their location on the front-bottom of the case so high tones and sound sharpness are reduced.

The 1.0MP camera performs well in lower light conditions, such as room lighting at night. On the other hand, the frame rates are pretty low so you won’t be able to stream a fluid picture.

Performance

The Core i3 processor used in the review unit belongs to the lower end of the Core i-series family, but it’s a mid range chip if you additionally take into consideration Pentium and Celeron chips. Similarly, the GeForce GT 525M is an entry-level dedicated video card, but on the other side it’s much faster than widely used Intel’s integrated GPUs.

Here are Windows Experience Index, PC Mark Vantage, and 3D Mark Vantage results for the system we benchmarked:

Dell Inspiron 17R N7110 Core i3 GT525M Windows Experience Index

PC Mark Vantage

3D Mark Vantage Performance

In a real world use, performance of the laptop is sufficient for everyday web and office tasks and HD multimedia playback. What differs this system from the vast majority of other budget laptops is the discrete GPU which enables playing hardware-demanding games on up to medium graphics settings at 1280×720. With these settings, Crysis and Far Cry 2 run at 43 and 54 frames per second on average, respectively.

If you are interested in comparison between the GT 525M and Intel HD 3000, you can can read the separate benchmark article.

Battery Life

In a simulation of everyday PC use involving web surfing, word editing, and playback of about 30 minutes of Youtube videos, the battery was good for only 2 hours and 20 minutes or operation. That’s with Balanced power plan, default Nvidia Optimus settings, and Wi-Fi turned on. Although we didn’t expect to get a long battery life on a 17.3″ laptop with a 48WHr battery, the run time is really short on the model we reviewed.

Heat and Noise

In this field the N7110 does a good job, most likely due to the spacious casing of the notebook. The laptop ran very cool on both palmrests and bottom, even during intensive benchmarks such as PC Mark Vantage. The only area that was mildly warm was on the left side of the touchpad and space bar. Since the system didn’t get hot, the fans were kicking in rarely and when they run noise isn’t much noticeable.

Dell Inspiron 17R N7110 Review Conclusion

The Dell Inspiron 17R N7110 doesn’t stand out from the dense crowd of 17-inch entry multimedia laptops available no the market today. It’s a machine with plastic casing and it isn’t a top performer, but that’s kind of usual for the current affordable consumer laptops. The biggest selling point for this notebook is its price. For $700 you can get a better specced configuration than we reviewed. This N7110 at Dell.com includes the Intel Core i5-2450M with Turbo Boost, 8GB RAM, and a 750GB HDD. Not bad at all for a $700 laptop. We have checked out the comparable HP g7t with the same main specs except the Radeon HD 7450M GPU instead of the Nvidia and it’s $920 at HP.com.

The notebook has both the 128-bit GT 525M 1GB GPU for more intensive graphics tasks and the Intel HD 3000 integrated graphics on the CPU for better power efficiency, so it’s pretty handy for comparison of these two. 3D Mark Vantage, PC Mark Vantage, and Crysis benchmarks we did on the system can help you decide if the Nvidia GeForce GT 525M is worth extra money when choosing between a more expensive laptop configuration with the 525M and a cheaper one with integrated Intel HD only.

The tested 17.3″ Inspiron 17R also has 4GB of RAM, a 500GB 5,400rpm hard drive, and Windows 7 Home Premium OS.

In the Nvidia Control Panel, you can choose which application will run on which graphics processor.

GPU Switching Between Nvidia GT 525M and Intel HD 3000

First, we ran 3D Mark Vantage, where the GeForce GT 525M scored 3771 points in Peformance mode, while the Intel HD 3000 had more than two times lower result – 1453. GPU selection also had an impact on overall system peformance measured using PC Mark Vantage, but the difference (4930 vs 4529 points) is not that big since graphics is only one factor besides many others in PC Mark calculations.

Nvidia GT 525M vs Intel HD 3000 3D and PC Mark Vantage Benchmarks

In Crysis, different GPU choices also reveal big performance difference of up to 3X in favor of the Nvidia chip.

Nvidia GT 525M vs Intel HD 3000 Crysis Test

Obviously, the GT 525M enables playable frame rates on low and medium settings even in hardware-demanding games and that’s not the case with Intel’s integrated graphics built into their “Sandy Bridge” processors. For casual gamers, an investment of about $75-$100 for the discrete GPU would be justified. But, the GPU doesn’t help much in other computing tasks, such as web browsing, office apps, etc. Even 1080p video playback runs equally smoothly on both GeForce and Intel HD, so if you don’t plan to use your next laptop for any gaming, you will be fine with the integrated solution.

Note: Full Dell Inspiron N7110 review is here.

On higher-end notebooks, the difference between web surfing speed using different browsers is much less noticeable than on the slower ones, especially netbooks. So, we conducted this test to show you how web browser selection can help you do web surfing more smooth on a lower-performance machine, such as those cheap AMD E-series based Black Friday laptops.

For this test, we have used Peacekeeper browser benchmark tool, the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, and Apple’s Safari, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OS, and the recently reviewed Asus K53U laptop with the dual-core E-450 and 4GB of RAM.

These are results of PeaceKeeper web browser bechmark, done on a laptop with the AMD E-450 chip.

As you can see, the fastest is Google Chrome. It’s slightly faster than Opera. There’s a larger gap between the vice-champion and 3rd Safari. It’s followed by 32-bit Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer and their 64-bit versions. It’s interesting that available 64-bit editions lag behind their 32-bit counterparts.

For a more detailed info on the web browser benchmark, take a look at the table below.

These are detailed results of PeaceKeeper web browser benchmark, tested on a laptop.

That was the synthetic benchmark. When it comes to real world use, our experience is that Google Chrome and Opera are really faster when you load and scroll web pages, and switch between browser tabs. So, choose one of these two for a faster web browsing on a lower-end laptop. If you still want to use Firefox or Explorer, avoid 64-bit versions.

AMD E-450, Radeon HD 6320 sticker

AMD E-450 & AMD Radeon HD 6320 Specifications

The E-450 doesn’t bring any revolutionary improvement over the E-350, both belonging to the AMD “Zacate” E series. Its dual CPU cores are clocked at 1.65GHz versus 1.6GHz in the E-350. As for its ingegrated graphics, the E-450 includes the AMD Radeon HD 6320 instead of the 6210. The graphics refresh is the biggest improvement in the new APU. The 6320 GPU can run in Turbo mode, dynamically adjusting graphics clock speed in a range from 508MHz to 600MHz, in order to deliver better performance and lower power consumption.

Another upgrade is regarding memory clock. The E-450 supports up to 1333Hz RAM, versus previous maximal 1066Mhz. However, not many E-450-based laptops will be able to support the increased memory speed, because they come with 1066MHz memory modules.

Here are the specifications of the AMD E-450 with the Radeon HD 6320 graphics:

• dual CPU cores at 1.65GHz, with 512KB of L2 cache per core
• 80 graphics shader units; clock speed of 508MHz to 600MHz, adjusted by Turbo technology
• UVD3 full HD video decoder
• Thermal Design Power of 18W
• 64-bit computing and virtualization supported
• support for 1066 and 1333MHz memory
• 40-nanometer production technology

Test System

Our test system is the recently reviewed Asus K53U 15.6-inch laptop with the AMD E-450, 4GB of DDR3 1066MHz RAM, a 500GB 5,400rpm hard drive, 1366×768 screen resolution, and Windows 7 Home Premium OS.

AMD E-450, Radeon HD 6320 Windows Experience Index

AMD E-450 CPU Performance Benchmark

The dual CPU cores are not fast, even when compared to budget-class Intel counterparts, such as the latest Celeron processors. On the other side, it is faster than the fastest Intel Atom processor – the N570, and is way better in terms of performace than the 8W “Ontario” C-series AMD APUs.

AMD E-450 PassMark CPU Benchmark Score

AMD Radeon HD 6320 Gaming Graphics Benchmark

The AMD E-450 with its AMD Radeon HD 6320 integrated graphics is good for playing older, less hardware demanding games, such as Quake 4 or Half Life 2: Lost Coast. You can play Quake 4 at 1280×720 resolution at High Settings at 45 frames per second. Half Life 2 at laptop’s native resolution of 1366×768 with all settings set to max, including anti-aliasing and anti-strophic filtering, scores 42fps. With AA and AF disabled, it scores 46fps.

Newer games which require better hadrware specs – like Crysis, Lost Planet 2, and Far Cry 2 – are playable only on minimal settings at 1280×720. Crysis at its lowest settings runs at 26fps on average, while for Lost Planet 2 and Far Cry 2 it’s 24 and 23fps, respectively.

AMD E-450 Radeon HD 6320 PassMark GPU Benchmark Score

HD 1080p Video Decoding

One of the important features on the E-450 is the Unified Video Decoder 3, which provides hardware decoding of high-definition videos. Without it, HD video decoding would throttle the CPU cores, but with it the CPU load during decoding increases only between 6 and 14 percent. So, with the APU, you have ample of processor capacity for other tasks and smooth full HD video playback.

Conclusion About AMD E-450 & AMD Radeon HD 6320

This single-die CPU/GPU combination is good for usual computer tasks, which doesn’t demand high-end hardware. The E-450 is good for Web, e-mail, light work in office suites, and fully supports 1080p video playback thanks to the UVD3. It’s Radeon HD 6320 integrated graphics is good for playing older game titles. It is also possible to play newer games, but only on lowest settings. When compared to the E-350, performance improvement exists, although it’s not big. However, the main advantage of the E-450 over many other chips is its affordability, enabling full-size laptop prices of as low as $400.

Asus K53U Laptop

Since recently, the 15.6-inch Asus K53U series laptop is available with the AMD E-450 dual-core Accelerated Processing Unit, successor of the E-350. In this review, we will present our view of the laptop regarding its design, build quality, cooling, and computing and battery life performance.

The E-450-based model available States-side is the Asus K53U-DH21, which packs 4GB of RAM, a 500GB HDD, and DVD burner, besides the APU with the integrated Radeon HD 6320 graphics and 1080p HD video decoder. “U” in the model name represents AMD’s APU, whereas the K53E packs Intel’s Pentium and Core processors.

Asus K53U (DH21) Specifications

• 15.6-inch 1366×768 glossy display with LED backlight
• AMD E-450 Fusion dual-core APU at 1.65GHz
• AMD Radeon HD 6320 integrated graphics
• 4 GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM
• 500GB 5,400rpm SATA2 hard drive
• DVD burner
• 6-cell 5200 mAh battery
• Altec Lansing stereo speakers
• 0.3MP web camera
• HDMI, VGA, 3xUSB 2.0 ports, 4-in-1 media card reader
• 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet LAN
• Depth: 10 inches; height: 1.4 inches; width: 14.9 inches
• Weight: 5.7 pounds
• OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Color: Mocha Brown

Design and Build Quality

The Asus K53U is entirely made of plastics. The palmrests, lid, and area surrounding the keyboard are in a dark Mocha Brown color, while the front display frame, keyboard, and laptop’s sides are black. The trackpad buttons stand out with a silver-colored coating. The palmrests and lid have a zigzag texture, while the plastic around the keyboard has a finish which resembles brushed metal. That brushed metal look is prettier than zigzag, but the former feels slippery, so we assume that’s why Asustek has chosen zigzag for the palmrests and lid.

It’s a little bit hard to open the laptop due to stiff hinges, but when you do it, the display panel stays still in the position you choose. The lid can be opened to an angle of up to around 155 degrees.

On the whole casing there is only a small amount of flex which occurs only when you press the chassis hard. However, the display panel is elastic a lot.

HDMI, VGA, Ethernet port, and two USB connectors are located on the left side of the laptop. On the right, there’s another USB port and mic and headphone jacks. The media card reader is on the front side.

Asus K53U palmrest finish

Asus K53U closed

Asus K53U profile

K53U Keyboard and Touchpad

In this field Asustek did a great job, considering the K53U is just a budget notebook. The flex is present only on the numeric keypad which sits on the top of the DVD slot. Other parts are virtually flex-free. The square buttons are large enough and have a fair amount of space between them, so typing errors were very rare in our case. Tactile feedback is good, although we would prefer slightly more travel when a key is pressed. The keyboard is quiet.

The multi-touch touchpad is a mix of good and bad. The smooth trackpad area allows fast finger movements and thus fast pointer navigation. It’s accurate and rejects palm touches, but sometimes only a tiny accidental contact of a finger with the touchpad surface produces pointer jumps across the screen.

Beneath the touch area there are two separate touchpad buttons, made of silver plastics. The buttons are on the stiff side, but not too stiff. The bad thing is that they are extremely loud, which can be annoying.

Asus K53U keyboard

Asus K53U touchpad

Display on K53U

The display is a mediocre one, like on the most of mainstream laptops with 1366×768 resolution. It can’t produce deep black colors and vertical viewing angles are not great, but horizontal angles are good. The display is bright enough so you can run it on brightness settings of 65% or %80, saving the battery life and still having a decent picture.

Asus K53U display at maximal brightness

Speakers, Camera and Microphone

The Altec-Lansing-branded stereo speakers are located right above the keyboard and provide usual volume and sound quality for a laptop. The webcam is a basic one with a 0.3MP sensor, which will enable you to do video chats, but nothing more than that in terms of quality. It doesn’t perform well in low light conditions, with a lot of grain on the picture. We have no complaints regarding the microphone.

Asus K53U Performance and Benchmarks

The main upgrade in the AMD E-450, when compared to E-350 APU, is Turbo mode capability of its integrated graphics processor. The GPU’s clock speed ranges between 508 and 600MHz, depending on usage, versus 492MHz in the E-350. (Correction: We have previously said that Turbo mode is also enabled on the CPU cores, but the truth is that it works only for graphics).

Our real-world use (browsing, email, photo editing) impression is that the E-450 gives a CPU performance which is on a half way between one of an Intel Atom dual-core processor and an entry-level Intel ultra-low voltage CPU.

PassMark’s processor comparison chart says the same.

Asus K53U AMD E-450 PassMark benchmark results

Web surfing with switching between multiple browser tabs, email, text editing in Microsoft Word, and spreadsheet editing in Excel run fast and you won’t notice any major difference between the Asus K53U and other higher end laptops, but when it comes to photo or video editing, its obvious the system is on the slower side.

As for gaming, the AMD Radeon HD 6320 and the CPU cores performed admirably when playing older titles like Quake 4 and Half Life 2 on high settings and maximal laptop’s display resolution. More demanding first-person-shooter games such as Crysis and Far Cry 2 are playable only on low settings and lower resolution of 1280×720 pixels. Change of settings to medium or an increase of resolution will make them unplayable.

Playback of a 1080p HD video from the HDD in Windows Media Player consumed between 6 and 14 percent of CPU power.

For more info on CPU and graphics performance, please read the separate review of the E-450 and Radeon HD 6320.

Battery life

For battery life test, we simulated Internet use of the laptop. The power settings were set to a modified Balanced Mode, with screen brightness at 65 percent. Wi-Fi was on and the browser was opening a single html page every minute, did a search query on Google every five minutes, and played a 5-minute YouTube video at 360p every 15 minutes. Skype was on and Thunderbird email client was checking for new emails every 10 minutes. In the background, we played mp3 music from the hard drive in Windows Media Player at 50% volume.

Under these conditions, the battery life lasted a decent 4 hours and 12 minutes.

Heat and Noise

And last but certainly not least – the cooling system. Asustek calls it IceCool Technology and its also used in their other laptops. IceCool includes a dual-sided motherboard with hot components on the underside to prevent heat near user’s hands. This is maybe the coolest laptop we have ever used thanks both to IceCool and AMD’s E-450 with a TDP of only 18W. During the everyday computing tasks, the palmrests are completely cool or better said cold. The area between the space key and the palmrest is only a couple of Celsius degrees warmer. Even the air blown out through the vent holes on the left is not hot, but warm. Interestingly, because of the location of “hot components” on the underside we have expected some heat there, but the laptop’s bottom is also cold, with barely noticeable heat on the left area where the vents are and on the RAM cover.

The notebook is not loud. Its fans blow all the time, but the sound is low and not annoying.

Asus K53U Review Conclusion

The Asus K53U is yet another affordable mainstream 15.6-inch laptop made of plastics and isn’t much different from other notebooks in its category, but it has its qualities such as a solid chassis, great keyboard and surprisingly cool operation. Its processing performance is on the lower end when compared to the majority of today’s notebooks, but on the other side, the battery life of more than four hours is quite satisfactory for a 15.6-incher.

Priced at around $450, the Asus K53U-DH21 is a strong choice for budget-conscious consumers who want to do everyday computer tasks on a cool and quiet full size laptop with a nice keyboard.

There are many improvements in the new version, including changes in Ubuntu’s Unity interface and various bug fixes. The 11.10 includes new themes and login screen, new features such as Deja Dup backup application, ability to sync installed apps across multiple computers via OneConf feature, and newer kernel version. The default browser is Firefox 7. When it comes to email, Mozilla Thunderbird replaces Evolution client.

Unlike those who nicely presented “Oneiric Ocelot’s” usability and features, in this review we will try to demonstrate performance differences between the latest Ubuntu Linux and Windows for netbook users. As you maybe know, Ubuntu’s creator Canonical and computer maker Asustek have recently announced netbooks with pre-loaded Linux distro, so we assume these benchmarks will be handy for those who plan to buy a Ubuntu netbook, as well as those who will install it themselves.

We tested Ubuntu 11.10 “Oneiric Ocelot” versus Windows 7 Starter Service Pack 1 on a Samsung NF210 Atom N550 dual-core netbook with 2GB of RAM and a 250GB 5,400rpm hard drive.

Browser Speed – Ubuntu Linux 11.10 vs Windows 7 Starter

Since netbooks are primarily used for Internet surfing, we think that the most important test is regarding performance of web browsers – Firefox and Chrome / Chromium.

We used Futuremark’s Peacekeeper benchmark.

These Ubuntu-vs-Windows differences are really impossible to notice in real world browser use, but its of help to see that Chrome and Chromium render webpages faster and are more responsive than Firefox. That difference was noticable under both Ubuntu and Windows and we do recommend you to use Chrome browsers.

Youtube Video Playback

You can’t watch 1080p Youtube videos on an Intel Atom N550 (as same as on the N570 or other older Atoms), because it will look like a slide show, but 720p is not an issue at all on both Ubuntu and Windows. However, we have noticed that during a 2-minute 720p Transformers trailer there were 35 dropped frames under Ubuntu and only 5 dropped frames under Windows. The number of dropped frames is not significant and you will barely notice them – there are 23-25 frames displayed per second.

Hard Drive Performance

For this test, we have copied an 860GB avi file from one place to another, but on the same partition. We did the same with a 1.7GB folder containing about 1,000 smaller files.

Ubuntu is slightly better in this test with 27 seconds and 1min:45secs, respectively, versus Windows’ 30secs and 1:57. The performance is showed in seconds and the lower results are better.

Ubuntu 11.10 vs Windows 7 Starter – GeekBench Benchmark

For general CPU and memory performance benchmarks, the most suitable app is GeekBench, since it can be run on both Linux and Windows, while other benchmark suites can’t.

Ubuntu is faster than Windows, but wierdly, the difference is huge. That’s mostly because of Ubuntu’s big advantage in floating point and memory performance, so if you run some software which heavily depends on these two you might notice the difference. However, that gap isn’t visible in everyday tasks, such as web surfing, email, or in office apps.

Battery Life Benchmark

We have tested the battery life with a DVD-quality movie playback from the hard drive. The screen brightness was set at maximum, sound was on 60%, and Wi-Fi was on. On Ubuntu and its Movie Player the run time was 4 hours and 50 minutes and then the system went to hibernate mode, while on Windows with Media Player the movie played 4 hours and 45 before hibernation. The difference in battery life is minor, but please note that Windows and Ubuntu maybe go in hibernation (due to low battery) at a different battery level. In Windows it’s 10% by default and can be changed within Power Settings, but in Ubuntu this is not accessible (from the graphical user interface, at least). In general, the battery life is almost identical.

The values in the table above are displayed in minutes.

Boot Up and Resume from Sleep Times

In this area, Windows has a small advantage. Ubuntu booted up in 42 seconds, measured from the boot menu to the fully loaded desktop, while Windows did it in 40 seconds. Resume from sleep in Ubuntu lasted about 4 seconds, whereas Windows wakes up in 3 secs.

Again, the performance is displayed in seconds, with the lower numbers meaning better results.

Conclusion

If you like Ubuntu’s look and feel on a netbook and want to switch to it from Windows, you shouldn’t be worried about computing and battery life performance. You will be able to run your everyday tasks at the same speed as in Windows, and even faster in some cases. Switching between app windows in Ubuntu is fast and programs such as a web browser, email client, and office apps start fast and are responsive. However, on Atom-based systems you can’t expect lighting fast speeds and intensive multitasking under Canonical’s nor Microsoft’s OS.

The Samsung Series 4 400B2B (model NP-400B2B-A01-US) has just become available in the United States, so we put together this small review of the ultraportable business laptop, trying to help you find out if it’s a good buy.

Samsung Series 4 400B2B Design

We spotted the 12.5-inch Samsung 400B2B at the IFA Show, standing alongside its bigger sibling – the 14″ 400B4B. These laptops sport serious looking exteriors, pretty much similar to the Lenovo ThinkPads. The cases are made of reinforced matte plastics, making them able to withstand a pressure of “up to 1,000 pounds”. We haven’t put that weight on the laptops to test it, but both certainly feel very sturdy on palm rests and lids. Metal hinges further enhance their ruggedness, and with shock resistant hard drives and spill resistant keyboards, business folks will feel confident using and carrying the Series 4 around.

The ultraportable version weighs 3.84 pounds and is 1.11-inch thin.

Keyboard and Trackpad

The keyboard has classic-style non-chiclet keys. While typing, the keys feel soft and are quiet, with a decent travel. We have no complaints on keyboard’s build quality and haven’t noticed any flex. When it comes to the layout, keep in mind that the model showed on the images has a UK keyboard, while the US version has a larger left Shift and a square Enter button, instead of the inverted-L shaped.

Also keep in mind that its spill resistance is limited to maximal 50cc of liquid spilled per 10 seconds, so it will withstand only minor spills.

And here’s another one design similarity with ThinkPads. There’s a pointer stick in the middle of the keyboard, accompanying left and right click buttons above the trackpad and two more click buttons for the trackpad itself. In this field, everything does the job excellent, from click buttons’ optimal stiffness, to the responsive and accurate trackpad.

Display

The LED display has a resolution of 1366×768 pixels, which is suitable for a 12.5″ panel. We like its anti-glare coating, but brightness is mediocre. On the other side, viewing angles are very good.

Samsung 400B2B Windows Benchmark

Regarding internals, the model we saw had a mid-range 2nd Gen Intel Core i3 – 2310M 2.1GHz dual-core processor with integrated Intel HD graphics, 3GB of RAM, and a 500GB HDD, but the NP-400B2B-A01US model available States-side is more powerful, with a Core i5-2520M and 4GB RAM, while the HDD is 320GB. Samsung earlier said the Series 4 12.5-incher will also ship with a Core i7 processor and dedicated Nvidia NVS 4200M graphics. There’s no optical drive.

The Core i3-based model delivers a Windows Experience Index score of 5.5, with a 6.4 sub-score in the CPU department, 5.5 for RAM, desktop and 3D graphics performance of 5.6 and 6.2 respectively, and 5.9 for data transfer rate. Even with this basic configuration, the laptop will effortlessly enable you to do your everyday business and office (multi)tasks.

Series 4 400B2B Battery Life

Samsung says the battery life is up to 7 hours with the standard 6-cell pack. When plugged out from the power source, Windows showed 7 hours and 8 minutes of battery life remaining, with a custom power plan chosen, including brightness set to viewable 60%.

Other Features and Connectivity

The Samsung Series 4 400B2B is definitely an enterprise-class ultraportable, since it features a built in fingerprint-reader, the TPM security module, and Professional version of Windows 7. There are a 1.3MP webcam, dual microphones, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet, and Bluetooth. We like the choice of ports, including a USB 3.0 port, USB 2.0/eSATA, and USB 2.0, as well as VGA and HDMI connectors, ExpressCard slot, and a 4-in-1 media card slot.

Samsung Series 4 400B2B Review Conclusion

A price / features comparison to similar notebooks from other makers will help us draw a conclusion about value of the Samsung Series 4 400GB2B. The 400B2B-A01(US) with the aforementioned specs (Core i5-2520M, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, fingerprint reader, Bluetooth) and with a 3-year warranty, retails for about $925 and up. The same sized, specced, and warranted Lenovo ThinkPad X220 currently costs $1,081 at Lenovo.com, but that’s not a big difference when compared to the 12.5″ HP EliteBook 2560p which is sold for $1,485 with the same innards and a 3-Y warranty.

If you want a high-quality and speedy business laptop but also one a lot cheaper than its direct competitors, go for the Series 4 400B2B. We do recommend it, but we would like to see some ruggedness standard certifications, instead of only Samsung’s ruggedness claims. In addition to that, we would prefer its availability in other configurations, including a screen option with better brightness. For now, there’s only one fixed config for the US customers – the NF-400B2B-A01(US), but that one is a good shopping choice.

Acer Corp. today launched their first ultrabook laptop – the Acer Aspire S3, also known as the Aspire 3951 or S3-951.

The sleek aluminum MacBook Air-like notebook with a 13.3″ display measures only 0.51 inches in profile and weighs slightly less than 3 pounds. It packs an Intel Core i7-2637M 1.7GHz dual core ultra-low voltage chip with integrated Intel HD graphics and will be also available with Core i5 (model Aspire S3-951-6646 is available now for pre-orders) and i3 ULV chips. The Aspire S3 3951 has 4GB of RAM, a 240GB solid state drive or a 320GB/500GB hybrid hard disk/SSD, and a battery that delivers “up to 7 hours” of battery life.

On the Acer’s booth at the IFA show, we got hands on an unplugged unit, which had 3 hours of remaining battery life in Balanced mode, while the battery was 75% full.

Also, Acer claims the S3 wakes up from sleep mode in just 1.5 seconds, but the boot up time we experienced was like still very fast 3 seconds.

Regarding system performance the i7-powered S3 scores 4.6 points in Windows 7 Experience Index (CPU – 6.6, memory – 5.9, Windows Aero graphics – 4.6, 3D graphics- 5.9, disk transfers with 500GB hybrid HDD – 7.6).

The display is an average 1,366-by-768 LED backlight 13.3-incher with glossy coating and it does reflect lights much, but on the other side its bright and viewing angles are good.

Overall, the build quality is excellent, from the brushed aluminum notebook lid, to the magnesium alloy palm rest area, the flex-free chiclet keyboard, and one-piece touchpad with good responsiveness and touch quality. Other non-conventional laptop design features are a vent-free bottom (vents blow on the back) for cool operation in laps, a power button which can be pressed while the lid is closed, and rear location of a pair of USB ports and HDMI output. On its left side is located only a headphone jack, while on the left there’s a memory card reader. Stereo speakers are positioned on the bottom of the case. We can’t tell how music from the laptop sounds, since there was too much noise in the expo hall.

The Acer Aspire S3 3951 has Dolby Audio, a 1.3MP web camera, and Bluetooth 4.0+HSR.

The notebook will be priced at between 799 and 1199 Euros when it hit some of the markets during October, while worldwide availability is scheduled for Q4.

New: The S3 will start shipping from mid-October in the U.S. and Canada. The first available model will have a Core i5 processor, a 20GB solid state drive + 320GB solid state drive, 4GB of RAM, and a suggested retail price of $899. It can be pre-purchased now at Amazon. Take a look at the S3-951-6646.

Besides the dual core N550, the netbook-class Atom N series lineup includes the single core N450, N455, N470 and N475, as well as older N270 and N280. The N550, as same as the N455 and N475, are designed for use with DDR3 memory, instead of old DDR2. The processor runs at 1.5GHz, whereas the single core chips have clock speeds of 1.60, 1.66, or 1.83GHz. However, it doesn’t mean that the N550 is slower in computing tasks.

Contrary, the reviewed CPU beats other Atoms in benchmark tests done by various websites.

According to Engadget’s review of the HP Mini 5103 with the Intel Atom N550, the included chip is better in PCMark05 benchmarks than N450-based netbooks, achieving 1,866 points versus around 1,200. However, the CPU is slower than the AMD Athlon II Neo K125 for ultrathin laptops, which has a score of 2,286.

Joanna Stern from Engadget said “the 5103 definitely felt snappy for a netbook”.

“We’re not talking Core i3 power here, of course. Our typical netbook routine – writing this review in Microsoft Word, running Firefox with a handful of tabs open and listening to the new Weepies CD in iTunes – felt faster than usual,” she said.

In a CNet’s review, the Atom N550-powered Asus Eee PC 1015PEM has finished a Jalbum photo conversion test in 113 seconds, which is faster than 167 seconds of the Aspire One AOD260 with the Atom N475. The N550 is also better in a multimedia multitasking test, finished in 2232 seconds versus 3024. However, in iTunes encoding the 1015PEM is slower with a result of 848 seconds versus 749.

CNet’s Scott Stein says that most everyday tasks with the 1015PEM will feel “exactly the same as they do on any other netbook”.

“The difference comes in multitasking: if you like to download and Web browse and stream audio and do other things all at once, the 1015PEM will feel less chuggy,” he claims.

The Atom N550 is also faster than the N450 in Liliputing’s video transcode, audio transcode, and folder zip tests. But, again, it’s slower than the AMD Athlon II Neo K125 and Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 ULV.

Here’s what Brad Linder from Liliputing says about the performance of the reviewed HP Mini 5103:

“HP mini 5103 definitely felt quite zippy and responsive. Subjectively, it feels like one of the fastest 10 inch netbooks I’ve used. But it’s not as powerful as a machine with an Intel CULV or AMD Nile processor. Not by a long shot”.

Also, Notebook Italia has reviewed the Asus Eee PC 1015PN netbook, which includes the N550. In the built-in benchmark tool of the 7-Zip file archiver, the processor is faster than the nettop-use Atom D510 and Atom 330 and is almost twice as fast as the Atom N450 and Core 2 Solo SU3300.

Regarding power consumption, the Atom N550 has a maximal thermal design power of 8.5watts, while the other Atom chips consume up to 6.5W, depending on model. Its greater power consumption because of the extra core means that it drains netbook batteries faster, but battery life of the reviewed N500 netbooks wasn’t significantly reduced.

It’s important to say that the N4xx models have an integrated graphics core on the CPU die, but the GPU isn’t capable to provide fluent 720p HD video playback or 3D gaming.

The iPad is advertised as “a magical and revolutionary product”. This 1.5-pound half inch thin tablet features a 9.7″ 1024-by-768-pixel multi-touch screen, a 1GHz Apple A4 custom-designed processor, 16, 32, or 64GB of flash drive storage, WiFi, Bluetooth, and a claimed battery life of “up to 10 hours”. Models with 3G mobile broadband connectivity are expected to hit the market later this month.

Apple’s iPad runs iPhone OS and comes with 12 iPad-specific applications, such as Safari browser, Mail, iBooks ebook reader, Photos, Maps, and separately sold iPad-optimized iWork office suite. Other apps are available through the iTunes app store. The iPad is capable of running unmodified iPhone apps.

According to the reviews, “Pros” of the iPad are:

- sleek, elegant, and very portable design;
- excelent screen with vibrant and saturated colors and wide viewing angles (Engadget);
- a simple multi-touch interface;
- speedy;
- a great battery life – a full day of constant internet-connected use on one charge; more than 12 hours, with heavy video and gaming, and screen cranked up to full brightness (Boing Boing);
- virtual keyboard more comfortable and accurate to use than the cramped keyboards and touchpads on many netbooks (WSJ);
- large number of downloadable applications;
- runs nearly all of the 150,000 iPhone apps;
- improved iPod, Safari browser, photo and e-mail apps (PC Magazine);
- regarding ebook reading, iPad’s larger color screen is superior to the Kindle’s (WSJ);
- can indeed replace a laptop for most data communication (WSJ).

Its “Cons” are:

- no multitasking;
- lack of Adobe Flash support;
- no camera, no video recording;
- when the iPad is turned 90 degrees, the keyboard is “just barely usable” because it’s bigger (NY Times);
- external keyboard needed for long-form typing chores (MacWorld);
- absence of a USB port or other connectors (USA Today);
- no iChat chat client (Slashdot);
- the browser lacks tabs (WSJ);
-offered no way to save the email atachments to the iPad (The Root)
- email program lacks the ability to create local folders or rules for auto-sorting messages, and it doesn’t allow group addressing (WSJ);
- no user switching (Slashdot);
- music and video apps could be better (MacWorld)
- iPad is not optimized for widescreen videos;
- single speaker isn’t stereo (USA Today);
- sealed battery (USA Today);
- doesn’t ship with earbuds and case (PC Magazine).

The iPad prices range from $499 to $829.

The conclusion is that the new platform with the Intel Atom N450 main processor, the GMA 3150 graphics, and the memory controller on a single die delivers a better power efficiency and has minor performance benchmark differences when compared to the previous Atom netbooks with the N270/N280 CPUs and the GMA 950 graphics.

According to Anand Tech, the Pine Trial M-powered Asus Eee PC1005PE has an overall PCMark05 score of 1420 points. It’s 180 points lower than with the Asus 1005HA combining the Atom N270 and GMA 950.

On the other side, their DivX video encoding benchmark shows the 1005PE encodes 3.65 frames per second, which is better than 2.24 FPS on the 1005HA.

wPrime, that measures CPU performance, shows the 1.66GHz N450 finishes the benchmark calculations in 116 seconds, 7 seconds faster than the Samsung N110 netbook with the 1.6GHz Atom N270.

Regarding 3D graphics and video, the new Atom and GPU have a low 3Dmark06 score of around 160 points. That’s, however, better than around 110 points with the older Intel Atom chips and graphics. The reviewers mostly agree that video playback of 720p content runs smoothly. But, 1080p resolution clips and movies, without Broadcom’s help in this netbook, cause frequent dropped frames and loss of audio/video sync.

Tech Report says Web surfing on the N450-powered netbook “is relatively snappy most of the time, but Flash-heavy sites will quickly bog down the Eee PC, especially when multiple tabs are involved”. Also, “users should probably stay away from multitasking”, according to Tech Report.

The reviews show that the Pine Trail M brings biggest improvement in terms of battery life. For instance, the 1005PE with the 6-cell battery managed 12 hours of run time in NotebookReview’s test, with the screen brightness set to 70%, WiFi on, and Windows 7 set to the Balanced profile. It’s a “25% boost compared to the 1005HA”.

The next-gen Intel netbooks, such as the 1005PE, new Dell Mini 10, HP Mini 210, MSI Wind U130/U135, or Fujitsu MH380, are expected to hit the market in January.

You can read the full reviews on Laptop Magazine, NotebookReview, CNet, Engadget, Computer Shopper, Hot Hardware, Anand Tech, and Tech Report.

This laptop, advertised as “the world’s thinnest notebook“, features a 13.3-inch LED backlight display, a modified Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a spacious trackpad with multi-touch gesture support, 2GB of memory, an 80GB 1.8-inch hard drive or an optional 64GB solid state drive, 802.11n wireless connection, Bluetooth 2.1 technology, the Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics, a micro-DVI port, and only one USB port. Ethernet LAN port and modem are provided via external USB adapters. The MacBook Air has no built-in optical drive. The system weighs three pounds and starts at $1,799.

According to the reviews, “Pros” of the MacBook Air are:
- an incredibly thin design (0.16-inches at its thinnest point),
- sturdy case,
- beautiful look,
- lovely wide LED backlit screen,
- comfortable-to-type-on full-size keyboard with a built-in ambient light sensor,
- spacious track-pad with support for multi-touch gestures, and
- a decent battery life.

Its “Cons” are:
- a weak performance, the notebook is claimed to be “the slowest Apple machine” ,
- limited hard drive storage space,
- expensive solid state drive option, no performance boost with the SSD,
- only one USB port, USB 3G modems won’t fit in the MacBook Air,
- no Expansion slot (ExpressCard or PC Card), no media card reader, no firewire
no built-in Etnernet LAN port,
- no user-replaceable battery,
- “belches out heat like nobody’s business”, and
- price may be an issue with students and other consumers.

Sources: Engadget | NotebookReview | USA Today | Mac World | CNet | Laptop Magazine