I have been looking at Wide Screen Notebooks as a desktop replacement. Here is a comparison.

Model Compaq X1000 HP ZD 7000 HP ZT 3000 Dell 8600 Acer Aspire 2000 Acer Aspire 2020 Toshiba Satellite P 25 Toshiba Satellite M30 Sony A170
CPU PM 1.5 P4 2.8 Ghz PM 1.5 PM 1.5 PM 1.5 PM 1.8 P4 2.8 Ghz PM 1.5 P M 1.7
Memory 512 MB 512 MB 512 MB 512 MB 512 MB 512 MB 512 MB 512 MB 512 MB
Harddisk 60 GB 60 GB 60 GB 60 GB 30 GB 80 GB 60 GB 80 GB 80 GB
Drives DVD / CDRW DVD / CDRW DVD / CDRW DVD / CDRW DVD / CDRW DVD / CDRW DVD / CDRW DVD / CDRW DVD / CDRW
Display 15.4” 17” 15.4” 15.4” 15.4” 15.4” 17” 15.4” 17”
O S XP Home XP Home XP Home XP Home XP Home XP Home XP Home XP Pro XP Pro
Options Down grade to Celeron M 1.3 1680 x 1050 Bight View TFT Down grade to Celeron M 1.3 1680 x 1050 display
Pros Value for money Bigger display, TV tuner Option Only Pentium M with 17″ display.
Cons Hot and low battery life No options for higher res display No options for higher res display Hot and low battery life. Heavy. Price is more than others

Notes:

  • PM implies Pentium M Processor (based on the Centrino Core)
  • P4 Implies Pentium 4 Processor. These processors run hotter than the Pentium and battery life is low.
  • Celeron M Processor is from the Pentium M family and is cheaper. Has 512 MB Cache Vs. Pentium M 1 MB and the new Pentium M (Dothan which has 2 MB Cache and some of the power saving feature are disabled.
  • Most of they have an option to upgrade to DVD-RW.
  • At the time of writing this, IBM didn’t have a wide screen notebook.


    • My personal comments:

    17″ Makes a better option than the 15.4.

    Pentium M is preferred over Pentium 4 as it runs cooler and has better battery life.

    Celeron M processor gives adequate amount of processing power for average desktop user and would save a few hundred dollars too!

    512 MB RAM should be the bare minimum.

    1680×1050 or higher resolution display is something that people should consider specially if you are going to use the notebook to watch DVDs. These higher resolution displays also have better viewing angle and higher brightness.

    HP ZD7000 with the 1680×1050 seems like a best deal. The price isn’t too expensive and support too is decent. The only problem with this model is that its based on a Pentium 4 processor and the system tends to get hot as well as the battery life is low. This model is also very popular.

    The Sony A170 has a better display than the Sony and run on the Pentium M processor so should run cooler than the HP ZD7000 but the is expensive and haven’t read much reviews about it.

    The HP ZT3000 and Compaq X1000 are very similar to each other and good buy if you are looking for a 15.4″. In some markets one would be cheaper than the other.

    The Toshiba/Acer have average reviews from most web sites have rated the HP and Dell higher. Both of these also don’t have an option for higher resolution screens which may be a consideration.

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