Laptops: Low-Cost to Luxury

We review notebooks from Gateway, Sony, and HP that pack features and span the range of budgets.

Carla Thornton

Do you need a lightweight laptop that won't bust your budget? Have you finally decided to treat your best employees (or yourself) to a top-of-the-line, wireless-ready model? One of four new portables that we tested--Gateway's Solo 1200, Hewlett-Packard's Pavilion N5470 and Omnibook 6100, and Sony's VAIO PCG-SR33--just might fit the bill.

First up: Sony's new VAIO PCG-SR33, a laptop with a good $1099 price tag (before a $100 mail-in rebate). In our tests, the shipping SR33 lasted twice as long on one battery charge as most subnotebooks we've looked at: just over 3 hours, using the standard six-cell power pack.

The SR33, which weighs 4.7 pounds with peripherals, features a Celeron-600 processor, 128MB of RAM, S3 Savage/IX8 graphics with 8MB of memory, a 10.4-inch active-matrix screen, a 10GB hard drive, a built-in 56-kbps modem, Windows Millennium Edition, a touchpad, and a Jog Dial pointing control.

This notebook also has a built-in Memory Stick slot for sharing digital photos and music, as well as an I.Link (IEEE 1394) port for high-speed digital downloads. The generous software bundle includes Sony MovieShaker, PictureGear, Microsoft Word 2002, and Quicken 2001.

It earned a respectable PC WorldBench 2000 score of 107. Its small screen was crisp and bright, but we found the 9-inch-wide keyboard too cramped to type on for long periods. The bundled 8X-16X CD-ROM drive uses the notebook's only PC Card slot, leaving one USB port for other peripherals, and it has no parallel port, ethernet port, or included floppy drive.

Gateway's new Solo 1200, $999 without rebate, is perfect for students and for budget-conscious consumers seeking a rugged, full-featured all-in-one. Our preproduction unit came with a Celeron-750 CPU; Gateway now sells it with a Celeron-800 chip.

The Solo 1200 runs Windows ME and has a 12.1-inch active-matrix screen, 128MB of RAM, S3 Twister graphics with 8MB of memory, a 10GB hard drive, built-in floppy and CD-ROM drives, modem and ethernet jacks, two USB ports, a parallel port, a monitor connection, and a touchpad. Microsoft Works Suite 2001 also comes bundled. The 1200 is chunky, with a case that measures 1.8 inches thick and weighs 7.4 pounds, including the AC adapter. And its battery life was a below-average 1 hour, 43 minutes in our tests. One beef: This laptop's keyboard seemed too springy.

Full Meal Deal

If you can afford a faster laptop that's packed with entertainment features, check out the HP Pavilion N5470, one of the first models available with AMD's new Mobile Athlon 4-1000 processor.

Our shipping unit came with Windows Me, 256MB of RAM, a 15-inch active-matrix screen, a 20GB hard drive, built-in floppy and DVD-ROM/CD-RW drives, Trident CyberBlade-XP graphics with 8MB of memory, a 56-kbps modem, a network connection, and a touchpad. Bundled software includes Microsoft Works 6--an older version of the basic productivity suite that doesn't include Word--and Microsoft Money 2001.

The N5470 is reasonably quick, although its PC WorldBench 2000 score of 149 is slightly below the average of two similarly configured Pentium III-1000/700 systems that have half the memory. It's a tad heavy at 8.5 pounds, including the AC adapter, but it turned in a good battery life of 3 hours, 11 minutes.

This laptop is $2199 ($100 less if you catch a current rebate). Rich, full sound and well-designed audio controls on the front panel, which can be used to play CDs when the notebook is turned off, make the N5470 the perfect portable for music lovers.

Finally, well-heeled professionals will appreciate HP's new $3699 Omnibook 6100. This handsome, slender one-bay notebook uses Intel's new 1.13-GHz mobile Pentium III Processor-M, the fastest notebook chip on the planet. Aided by the PIII-M's 133-MHz bus and its 512KB secondary cache, the 6100 racked up a PC WorldBench 2000 score of 215 running Windows 2000; it was a full 15 percent faster than the average of five PIII-1000 systems that were similarly configured (except that they had 256KB L2 caches). In our tests, the batteries in our preproduction unit lasted an impressive 4 hours.

The 6100 includes 256MB of RAM, a 15-inch active-matrix screen, ATI Radeon Mobility graphics with 16MB of graphics memory, a 30GB hard drive, an 8X DVD-ROM drive, a network connection, a built-in 56-kbps modem and both touchpad and eraserhead pointing devices. It also carries a built-in 802.11b wireless networking adapter and an on/off button for its integrated antennas.

Penny pinchers or college students should head straight for Gateway's Solo 1200 or Sony's VAIO PCG-SR33; power users may want to check out the HP Pavilion N5470 or its upscale sibling, the 1.13-GHz Omnibook 6100.

Buying Information

Gateway: Solo 1200 (Preproduction unit, not rated) A great laptop for students and others on a tight budget, but it's heavy and the battery life is poor. Street: $999

Buying Information

Sony: VAIO PCG-SR33 3.5 stars (10/01/2001) A well-priced dream come true for digital editors and photographers who rely on the 1394 port or Memory Sticks. List: $1099 ($999 after rebate)

Buying Information

Hewlett-Packard: Pavilion N5470 3 stars (10/01/2001) Enjoy this laptop's near-Pentium III-1000 performance, DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive, and generous entertainment features, all at a good price. List: $2199

Buying Information

Hewlett-Packard: Omnibook 6100 (Preproduction unit, not rated) The perfect portable for the pinstripe set, this elegant notebook offers performance and panache to spare. Street: $3699