The Replacements If it's high time to get rid of your worn-out desktops, then try these wireless portables on for size.
By Marc Spiwak
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
With so much of your work force on the road, maybe it's timeto replace some of your aging desktops with portables. The latestgeneration of high-end notebooks means workers won't sacrificeanything by going mobile.
The CRN Test Center examined five high-end desktop replacementsfrom Acer, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Sharp and Toshiba. All boastbright, 15-inch color displays, fast processors and wirelessaccess. Except for Acer's TravelMate, whose base configurationis just 5.7 pounds, expect travel weights of 8 to 10 pounds,depending on adapters and accessories.
The TravelMate and Toshiba's Satellite Pro are built aroundIntel's new Centrino chip suite and Pentium M processor. Itdelivers built-in wireless access, low power consumption andunexpected processor performance, thanks to Pentium M's huge1MB cache. Acer's TravelMate 803LCi, with a 1.6GHz Pentium M,is a great choice for graphics-intensive duties. It has an ATIMobility Radeon 9000 graphics processor and 64MB fast-video RAM. Italso includes connections for a variety of multimedia devices, at atotal cost of $2,499 (all prices street).
A slightly heavier and cheaper Centrino notebook is the $2,084Toshiba Satellite Pro M10. Using a 1.4GHz Pentium M processor with512MB of memory, expandable to 2GB, the Satellite Pro M10 featuresa stylish dark metallic-blue lid. Can't choose between touchpads or pointing sticks? The Satellite Pro M10 includes both.
Sharp's Actius GP22W is the least expensive notebook in thisreview because it uses a desktop version of Intel's 2.2GHzPentium 4 processor, backed by a mere 512MB SDRAM, expandable to768MB. It weighs a considerable 8.3 pounds. But with its bounty ofports and slots and 10/100Mbps NIC, Actius is still a great valueat $1,699.
Do you really need to carry a floppy all the time? Instead,Fujitsu's LifeBook E7110 offers an external USB floppy driveand internal DVD/CD-RW combo drive. The E7110 also features amagnesium alloy lid. Built around a 2GHz Pentium 4M processor with256MB of memory, the LifeBook is still fairly light at only 6.5pounds and costs $1,849.
The final system, HP's Evo N800w, is quick and light andincludes the best of everything. But it also has a heavier pricetag, starting at $2999. With its 2.2GHz Pentium 4 processor andfour hours of battery life, the Evo surpasses all but the Centrinonotebooks. But then, this class of portable wasn't built totravel much farther than down the freeway to your home office.
Marc Spiwak is a technical editor with the CRN Test Center,the technology testing facility of CRN, a high-technewspaper for IT consultants and solution providers.
