Mobile Roundup: A Trio of Midrange Laptops
by Jarred Walton on September 17, 2008 3:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
AVADirect IFL90 - Features and Specifications
| AVADirect Compal IFL90 Specifications | |
| Processor | Core 2 Duo T9300 (2.50GHz 6MB 800FSB) |
| Chipset | Intel PM965 + ICH8-ME |
| Memory | 2x1024MB DDR2-667 |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT 512MB |
| Display | 15.4" WSXGA+ (1680x1050) Glossy Chi Mei Optoelectronics N154Z1-L02 |
| Hard Drive | 200GB 7200RPM 8MB Seagate Momentus 7200.2 ST9200420AS |
| Optical Drive | 8x DVDR SuperMulti (Optiarc AD-7530A) |
| Networking | Integrated Gigabit Ethernet Intel 4965AGN WiFi Bluetooth v2.0 V.92 56K Modem |
| Audio | 2-Channel HD Audio (2.0 Speakers) |
| Battery | 9-Cell 80Whr |
| Front Side | WiFi On/Off Switch |
| Left Side | VGA Ethernet 56K Modem TV-Out (S-VIDEO/Composite/Component) 2 x USB 2.0 Mini FireWire ExpressCard/54 4-in-1 Flash Reader (MS, MS Pro, MMC, SD) Headphone and Mic jacks |
| Right Side | 2 x USB 2.0 Optical Drive (DVDRW) Power Connector |
| Back Side | Kensington Lock Cooling Exhaust |
| Operating System | Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit |
| Dimensions | 14.4" x 10.6-11.4" x 1.57"-1.77" (WxDxH) |
| Weight | 6.16 lbs (6-cell battery) ~6.5 lbs as tested (9-cell battery) |
| Extras | Fingerprint scanner 2.0MP webcam |
| Warranty | 1-year standard |
| Price | Superceded by Compal HL90 for ~$1400. (Includes P8600, GeForce 9600 GT, 2x2GB RAM, 320GB HDD) |
The Compal IFL90 is a typical midrange notebook, with one specific feature that caused us to request this model for review. That feature is the LCD, which can be either a 1280x800 model or an upgraded 1680x1050 display. Tons of 15.4" notebooks ship with 1280x800 LCDs, but there aren't nearly as many with 1680x1050 displays so we were interested to see how this one compares to other laptops. We'll cut through the suspense by saying that if you want a higher resolution notebook display, the 1080P option on the Acer 6920G ends up being a better overall solution right now. Still, the 1680x1050 display is a lot better than most of the 1280x800 LCDs we've tested - and not just in terms of having a higher resolution.
Compal offers two different battery sizes for the IFL90/HL90. We received the higher capacity 9-cell battery, which should provide 35% to 50% more battery life than the 6-cell option. (There are two different 6-cell batteries, which is why it's not necessarily a 50% improvement.) Increased battery life is certainly nice to have, but the high-capacity battery has a similar problem to the battery on the Gateway P-series notebooks: it extends an extra inch beyond the back of the laptop. Since we are not dealing with a mammoth 17" chassis, we didn't find this to be as much of a problem as on the Gateway notebook, but it does make for a somewhat less desirable form factor.
As mentioned already, the IFL90 that we are testing is no longer stocked by AVADirect, since it was replaced by the HL90. Looking at options on the HL90, you have a choice of two LCD resolutions, 16 CPUs, 33 different RAM configurations, 52 different hard drives/SSDs, two optical drives (DVDR or Blu-ray recorder), 16 different operating systems (including no operating system), and various other items like networking, Bluetooth, and accessories. This can definitely be overwhelming for uninformed users, but for technophiles this is about as good as shopping for parts at Newegg. One option we wish they would offer is a BD-ROM/DVDR in place of the Blu-ray recorder, as we don't see ourselves recording Blu-ray movies and you should be able to save about $250 while maintaining Blu-ray playback capability (not that Blu-ray support is likely to be any better than on the other laptops we've tested).
The system we received for review initially retailed for around $1500; now an upgraded HL90 system with a P8600, 4GB of memory, and Vista Home Premium 64-bit will run about $1400. According to our testing and information from Compal, we also expect the HL90 with a Core 2 Duo P-series processor should provide 25 to 30% more battery life. Ain't progress grand?
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
26 Comments
View All Comments
Hrel - Thursday, September 18, 2008 - link
Midrange graphics are great! Why would you expect to run any game on a laptop at high or max detail settings? Why do you care about detail settings? It doesn't effect how fun the game is. On a laptop, as long as you can run modern games at min-med settings and get decent frames that's all I would ever want. If you want to max everything out use your desktop. However, I would like to see the ability to turn off the discrete card and use integrated graphics become standard. And, in general, laptops need much better LCD's and better battery life, HP has a 24hour notebook, meaning the battery lasts 24 hours, LED backlight, why aren't LED backlights standard place?????JarredWalton - Thursday, September 18, 2008 - link
The HP "24 hour" notebook includes an extra battery attachment that sits under the notebook and weighs several pounds if I'm not mistaken. If you buy any of these laptops and six to eight extra batteries, you could get 24 hours as well. :-) Yeah, that's sort of extreme, but so is a huge battery sitting under a small laptop.As for midrange graphics and gaming, let me reiterate: running at 1280x800 I couldn't break 20 FPS in Mass Effect or Crysis even at minimum detail, and GRID at medium-low detail was playable but looked like a four year old graphics engine. There are plenty of other games that start looking quite poor before you break 30 FPS. Graphics aren't everything, true, but they do make a difference. That's not to say you can't play any games on these midrange GPUs, but I would hate to give people the mistaken impression that midrange mobile GPUs run most games "fine" when that's simply not true.
Midrange mobile graphics *aren't* great, and in fact even the fastest mobile GPUs are slower than desktop "midrange" graphics: the 9600 GT costs under $100 and outperforms the 9800M GTS, and the ~$110 8800 GT 512MB is faster than any mobile GPU. (Same for the HD 4670 and even HD 3850.) If you want to play modern games on a notebook, get the Gateway P-7811 or some other more powerful (and larger) notebook. Otherwise, the vast majority of people will be better off with a midrange desktop for gaming and a true midrange solution.
strikeback03 - Friday, September 19, 2008 - link
For this very reason I'm wondering why you bothered running the full gaming tests on all of these. Wouldn't maybe a full test on one game plus minimum settings/resolution for the others be enough to offer a best case ceiling and say "See, don't look to play modern games on these"? Would save you significant time I'd imagine.JarredWalton - Friday, September 19, 2008 - link
It would save time, but it wouldn't provide a ready comparison to other mobile GPUs, which is one thing I wanted to do. (That's also why I tested the Gateway M-152XL at settings other than 1280x800, just to show how the GPU would run with a different LCD.) If you just want 3DMark scores, you can find that at some other places, but no one plays 3DMark for fun.Another problem: if you choose just one game, which one should you go with? Assassin's Creed DX9 is roughly half the speed of the faster 9800M GTS, and while that's a big difference you can easily turn down a few settings and get acceptable performance at 1280x800. On the other hand CoH is about 1/3 to 1/4 the performance of the same GPU. The best characterization of performance requires more testing, so some people would want scores for TF2, HL2, and a bunch of older games as well, but I had to draw the line somewhere.
At least now I can point to a (relatively large) battery of gaming tests and say, "This is why you shouldn't plan on using low or midrange laptop GPUs for gaming. It's not just one or two games that will struggle, but a large number of newer titles won't run well regardless of settings, and others will only run well when you set the detail levels to 'ugly'." :)
JarredWalton - Thursday, September 18, 2008 - link
Edit: that last line is supposed to say "a true mobile solution".arjunp2085 - Thursday, September 18, 2008 - link
Why is that i have never seen a Single AMD based laptops on the list....780G is one great solution for graphics on laptops.. Y is there no article about PUMA????
Is it some BIAS??
JarredWalton - Thursday, September 18, 2008 - link
I could forward the list of email messages requesting AMD laptops to you if you'd like. I specifically asked a couple of companies for one of the HD 3200 laptops, because I think it's a very compelling platform. Why haven't I received one yet? No idea... but I'll check back with the contacts and hopefully get one soon.Voldenuit - Thursday, September 18, 2008 - link
For $1100, you can buy a Thinkpad T400.I don't see how anyone would prefer an Acer, Gateway, or AVADirect at these pricepoints.
JarredWalton - Thursday, September 18, 2008 - link
It all depends on what you're after, but Lenovo is certainly a viable option. The T400 is good, but you'll probably want to spend more than $1100. I'd get 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, LED backlighting, 6-cell battery, Vista Home Premium, DVDR, 802.11N WiFi, and Bluetooth. That puts the price at around $1450, which includes $450 savings (limited time offer) and only a 1-year warranty. Bump it up to 3-years and you're at $1550, which is actually still very good. Without the $500 savings it would be difficult to recommend that much, however.Voldenuit - Thursday, September 18, 2008 - link
You can easily configure a great T400 w/ 2 GB RAM, DVD-burner, discrete Radeon 3470, wireless-N (only $15 extra), LED screen (only $60 extra) and 6-cell battery (only $15 extra) for under $1200.