Laptops UK
 
 
Slim but powerful laptops from Dell and Toshiba
Mon, 16 Jul 2007
The Toshiba Portege R500 laptop and the Dell XPS M1330 are powerful but slim laptops that are available.

The Toshiba Portege R500 laptop is only three-quarters of an inch thick at its thinnest point. The 12.1 inches widescreen display machine weighs only 2.4 pounds. The wonderful thing is that the screen is lit by several LEDs instead of by traditional lamps making it brighter which also helps to save power.

Dell’s XPS M1330 is bit bigger than the Toshiba laptop. It is still relatively smaller than other similar laptops even though it has a 13.3 inch widescreen display. The M1330 has some extra features such as a choice of three lid colours and a slot-loading DVD drive that doesn’t require a pop-out tray. It is considered to be classed between a small display but light laptop and the large heavier ones.

Toshiba claims that the R500 is the world’s thinnest laptop with a built-in DVD or CD drive. Whereas, Dell claims that M1330 with its optical LED is the thinnest at 13.3 inch.

Toshiba passed all the tests that include handling and running a number of applications simultaneously. These included Microsoft Office, the Firefox Web browser, iTunes and more.

In the battery test, the base of the Toshiba with Windows XP performed well. Power-saving features were turned off during testing, the screens brightness was maximized, Wi-Fi was turned on, and music was played non-stop. Impressively battery lasted for approx three hours and 44 minutes.

However the R500 lacked a solid feeling. The touch-pad buttons felt flimsy and stiff. It felt as if you have to treat the computer gently. There were also problems reconnecting to Wi-Fi after being in stand-by mode.

The Dell XPS M1330 is a great looking laptop with an LED screen and a full complement of options. It coped well when running Microsoft Office, Firefox, iTunes and other software simultaneously, Wi-Fi also performance well.

The Dell XPS M1330 uses Windows Vista and took quite a long time to boot up, over four minutes.

In a similar battery test, Dell lasted just for two hours, 27 minutes.

Both machines are powered by Intel’s Core 2 Duo processor. The general conclusion is that the Dell XPS M1330 is a good, mobile computer that needs better battery life. Whereas the Toshiba is a dream machine for travellers but it lacks a reliable DVD drive.