Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: sony, toshiba, 12-inch | Themes: Business Notebooks, Laptops and Notebooks, Business
- 1. 12" Power Notebooks
- 2. HP Compaq 2510p: Design, Weight, Quality
- 3. HP Compaq 2510p: Hardware, Software, Usability
- 4. HP Compaq 2510p: Features, Heat, Noise
- 5. Samsung P200-Pro: Design, Weight, Quality
- 6. Samsung P200-Pro: Hardware, Software, Usability
- 7. Samsung P200-Pro: Features, Heat, Noise
- 8. Sony VAIO VGN-G21XP: Design, Weight, Quality
- 9. Sony VAIO VGN-G21XP: Hardware, Software, Usability
- 10. Sony VAIO VGN-G21XP: Features, Heat, Noise
- 11. Toshiba Portégé R500: Design, Weight, Quality
- 12. Toshiba Portégé R500: Hardware, Software, Usability
- 13. Toshiba Portégé R500: Features, Noise, Heat
- 14. Benchmark Testing
- 15. Application Testing, Battery Testing, Noise Level
- 16. Conclusion: Underdog, Sprinter, Endurance Racer and Flyweight
- 17. Spec Sheet
- 18. More on this topic
5. Samsung P200-Pro: Design, Weight, Quality
Design
Samsung’s 12" candidate can easily be recognized as a business and work notebook: the cover lid and underbody are black, while the inside area is matte gray. Seven status lights are placed at the front edge of the housing, and the “On” button shines blue when the system is turned on — other than that, the P200-Pro is kept very simple.
Apparently the space inside the housing was not large enough to hold the 4800 mAh battery, so it extends beyond the back edge of the unit. This does not look great; in fact, it almost looks like an interim solution. The battery also impacts the center of gravity of the unit as a whole, making it sit towards the far back of the notebook. But the way in which the battery sticks out actually helps in stabilizing the notebook, keeping it from flipping over backwards.
The ExpressCard slot dummy sticks out a bit as well, although it might have been designed that way on purpose, since there is no eject button — the eject mechanism works by pressure instead. Regardless, it doesn’t look great from a design standpoint.
Weight
The P200-Pro is by far the heaviest notebook in this test: including the battery, it weighs 1910 g (4.2 pounds). If you carry the power supply around with you as well, your arm will probably stretch longer and longer under the total weight of 2.5 kg (5.5 pounds). However, it should be noted that you get the fastest processor with this Samsung system.
Quality
The P200-Pro doesn’t show any weakness in this area: it feels more firm than the other models, and more solid and stable simply due to its weight. Like the HP, the area around the optical drive is reinforced, so nothing bends. Only under heavy pressure to the hand rest or the underbody can you hear a creaking noise, but you would have to use a lot of force for that.
The display lid slides backward when shaken or moved really quickly. Although it is thicker and thus provides more resistance than the competitors’ models, it can be tilted almost as easily. This causes a creaking and squeaking noise and forms pressure marks on the screens, but in daily work this situation would hardly ever occur.
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Why only these four?
The Acer Travelmate 6293 (or older 6292 model) competes well with these models. The review would have been much more useful if you had included the Acer.
What about x300, x61, d430 etc.... the review is grate, just pour choice of Notebook's if you ask me.
Nice article, especialy useful in times when mini-notebooks, or netbooks come to be more and more popular. I am owner of HP 2510p almost 6 months and I love this notebook. It was extremly cheap for me - just 450USD from ebay. Small, well featured, ultra-light /1.6kg/ and 6-7h on 6-cell battery. Btw I think that overlaping battery is quite useful - just try it - as IT admin I use it every day - one can hold this notebook easily in one hand while doing many common service work, and type with other hand. I got my HP with Windows XP Pro, so its much faster than with Vista. I installed tripple boot on it, XP Pro, Ubuntu and Mac OSX 10.5.4 - just used external USB WiFi for Mac OSX, all other HW is working in all OSs.
I never understand while to bother with popular trends like Asus Eee - no DVD, limited HDD options, extremly LOW battery time /I expected much better performances with Atom and SSDs/, small size-display like from Gullivers fairy-tale. Thers only one good point - price. And its fun that if you want all these features on new EEE-like notebooks, you have to pay 500-700USD. So why not to pay more and have all fetures together like in HP 2510p or Toshiba R500. Or try ebay like me, and its even cheaper than new EEEs with Atom.
But maybe I am wrong and EEE targets different audience.
I cant believe you have done a review user "power" and "12.1" in the same sentence and failed to include uber powerful Asus U6V. My god this thing would blow your choices out of the water for under $1700 anywhere in north america!
HP recently introduced the 2530p with substantially faster ULV processors (up to the SL9400, 1.86GHz, 6MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB) and with 2 DIMM slots for up to 8GB of 800MHz DDR SDRAM. It weighs a little more with a starting weight of 3.16lbs, but with some additonal durability features built-in, it meets the Mil-Std-810F standards for vibration, dust, humidity, altitude and high temperature. The spec's can be found at this URL:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products [...] 01_na.HTML
The 2510p will be going away shortly so the 2530p is the one to look at if one is considering HP.
HP also introduced the 2230s with a 12.1" screeen, and although it weighs a little more than the 2530p, it boasts a regular mobile processor such as an Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor P8400 (2.26 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2 cache). This is a new form factor for HP as this model did not replace any existing models, but rather it is a new addition to HP's notebook lineup.
Marcus
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