Is Intel's New Mobile GMA 950 Graphics Processor Any Good?
Barry Gerber
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Features, Continued
Using our standard table for classifying laptop and notebook computers, the HP DV1000T is closer to being a standard laptop than a notebook computer. It is 13.15" x 9.24" and weighs 5.47 pounds (2480 g). The only outsized dimension is its width. But its weight and especially its depth qualify it for standard laptop classification.
Type of Mobile Computer Weight (Pounds/Grams) with standard battery Size (Width & Depth Inches/Centimeters)
| Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) |
Less than 2.5 / 1134 |
Fits in standard size pocket |
| Ultra Lightweight Laptop |
2.5 / 1134 or less |
Does not fit in standard size pocket |
| Lightweight Laptop |
2.6 / 1179 to 4 /1814 |
NA |
| Standard Laptop |
4.1 / 1860 to 6.5 / 2948 or less |
13 / 33 x 11 / 28 |
| Notebook |
Over 6.5 / 2948 |
Over 13 / 33 x 11 / 28 |
The DV1000T and the N6410 were designed for different purposes. Compare the software that comes with each as noted in the features table. The DV1000T is an excellent home office or business computer. It's great for Microsoft Office applications, browsing the Web and watching DVDs. The GMA 950 graphics processor has just enough speed to do 2D Excel and PowerPoint graphics and simple 3D graphics well. It should handle Windows Vista ably. On the other hand, the N6410 is a multimedia machine designed for all the things the DV1000T can handle, but also for serious video capture and editing. It's not a gaming computer, though I wouldn't hesitate to play less demanding games on it.
Both the HP DV1000T and the Fujitsu N6410 come with Intel Core Duo T2300 mobile CPUs. The DV1000T has 1 GB of 533 MHz DDR2 memory. The N6410 has 1 GB of 667 MHz DDR2 memory. However, in our tests the Fujitsu gains no advantage with its 667 MHZ memory. We are working with Fujitsu's engineers on this matter and will update this section when we have a definitive answer. I'll explain some of the issues later. As for hard disk drives, the N6410 enjoys an advantage with its faster Hitachi drives when compared to the DV1000T's slower Fujitsu drive.
I've already mentioned the differences in graphics processors in the two mobile computers. And, of course, while the N6410's 17" (43.18 cm) wide screen display is great for viewing more windows and watching DVDs, it's guaranteed to eat up battery power faster than the HP's 14" (35.56 cm) wide screen.
Both computers have 10.8 V, 4000 mAh 43.2 Wh batteries. That's where the comparison stops. As you'll see, the DV1000T, with its various lower power requirements, runs rings around the N6410 when it comes to battery. I have some questions about the true capacity of the DV1000T's battery. I'll talk more about these later.
The similarities and differences between these two computers shows up in the various tests I'll talk about later in the article.
The DV1000T is a fairly cool character in most cases. Even during heavy benchmarking activity the temperature on the case where the keyboard is located never went above 87° F (30.6° C). Temperatures on the bottom of the case near the cooling fan occasionally hit 106° F (41.11° C) and 110° F (43.33° C) near the rear exhaust slots. Other areas on the bottom of the case near components such as memory and the disk drive ran around 86° F (30.0° C). The rest of the bottom of the case remained in the upper 80s (27s) during all testing.
I found the HP DV1000T to be among the quietest mobile computers I've ever tested. The laptop's hard disk drive is virtually silent. The fan was also very quite. As you might expect only the DVD/CD drive made any noise in use and that was mostly when loading and unloading a disk, unless I tried to play an physically unbalanced DVD or CD, which always makes for more noise.
Conclusions
HP's Pavilion DV1000T is a very good business computer. It's well built and well designed from the perspective of ergonomics. The DV1000T display's contrast could be more uniform, but it works well in all but the brightest indoor lighting environments and outdoors in deeper shade. The laptop's Core Duo T2300 1.66 GHz processor provides adequate performance for office tasks and light multimedia tasks.
Battery life is a DV1000T strong point. Four and more hour life is not unusual for most applications. Even when playing DVDs the laptop runs for almost 4 hours, long enough to view two DVDs.
As of this writing, the DV1000T configured as the one I tested was selling for around $1,380. That's not a bad deal at all. I am very comfortable recommending that you seriously consider purchasing this laptop from HP.