4. WinBook X610 Features Analyzed

For the money, what you get in the WinBook X610 isn't too bad at all. The 1.6 GHz Pentium M 725 is a typical member of that processor family, but one at the low end of its price and performance scale as you'd expect in a budget oriented notebook. By itself, the processor goes for about $190 and up on the street. The 80 GB 4,200 RPM Toshiba Travelstar disk drive is a little slower than a 5,400 drive would be, but certainly offers plenty of storage in a small, lightweight package. The built-in Matshita optical drive is a nice touch, though you will want to make sure you've got enough clearance on the left-hand side of the unit to open the drawer to insert or remove a disc.

Battery life on this unit also leaves something to be desired. The stock battery that ships with the X610 is rated at only 26.6 Wh, which translates into something below 2 hours of battery life under normal usage. This is not terribly long by anybody's standards, and a strong argument for a second battery which costs $169 on WinBook's website. WinBook promises a longer life battery. Less expensive third party knockoffs of the standard and extended batteries should be available some time in the not too distant future.

Graphics performance on the WinBook 610 is far slower and lower than we're used to seeing on modern notebooks. It's certainly adequate for typical office productivity tasks, or surfing the Web, but the i915GM graphics chipset is not up for any kind of gaming, and even its 2D capabilities lag far behind those of other laptops that include more powerful graphics circuitry from companies like ATI or nVidia. At any rate, the WinBook X610 confirms the stereotypical i915GM rates of 1 frame per second for 3D motion graphics, and lackluster abilities to handle 2D graphics as well.