Eurocom D900C Phantom-X

Billed because the world's initial notebook Laptop with 4 processing cores--double that of latest portables--the Eurocom D900C Phantom-X delivers scorching pace. In our assessments it absolutely was almost thirty % quicker than the regular currently examined desktop alternative. The design and style is good, along with the laptop runs remarkably silently and coolly for a portable having a desktop chip within. Around the downside, our critique configuration price $5158 (as of 10/9/07), its battery lifestyle was nearly nonexistent, and its display screen was just too dim.

Our assessment product came which has a two.66-GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6700 like a 1066-MHz frontside bus, 4GB of RAM, along with a 512MB nVidia GeForce Go7950 card. It earned a record-setting WorldBench six Beta 2 score of 97 (as of 10/25/2007), a mark 29 % higher compared to average score of 75 earned by 17 not long ago examined desktop replacements. It blew through workplace applications such as Phrase and Photoshop, and was particularly quickly at burning discs in comparison with other dual-core notebooks. By way of example, in disc burning it had been twice as rapidly being a top-performing 2-GHz Core 2 Duo-equipped laptop, a Dell Inspiron 1720. The Inspiron 1720 required fifteen minutes to finish the job, although the D900C Phantom-X needed only seven.5 minutes. In gaming, the Eurocom's velocity enhancements have been less remarkable but nonetheless good for a desktop alternative, because the D900C Phantom-X averaged frame prices of 137 and 114 for Doom 3 and Far Cry, respectively. The price of all this velocity, nevertheless: a meager battery existence of one hour, 17 minutes.

Except for some cheesy rubber port addresses that can rapidly get lost, the D900C Phantom-X is thoughtfully crafted. It weighs a hefty 11.3 pounds (minimum) and measures two.5 inches tall together with the lid closed. To put it differently, it really is massive, despite the fact that the polished metal situation tones make it appear slimmer. Rear vents retain the notebook operating cool. I heard no fan noise whatsoever from this remarkably quiet transportable.

Along with many processors, the device has space inside for 3 bodily tough drives should you swap out the battery--adding as much as 750GB, a fresh complete for any notebook (our test unit arrived with two 160GB standard hard drives, even so). One more option is always to include as much as 96GB of solid-state storage--three 32GB challenging drives that make use of the new flash memory storage method--for crash-proof portable computing.

The keyboard is first-rate. It's an unusually deep and very at ease palm relaxation that measures above five inches through the previous row of keys to your front from the notebook. Along with a user-programmable application-launch button on the top rated, two macro buttons on the left facet (G1 and G2) are simple to plan with regular gaming maneuvers. The notebook's audio is just not the most beneficial we've heard--that honor goes to your Toshiba Qosmio G45-AV680 with its top-of-the-line Harman/Kardon speakers--but it sounds pretty loud and robust.

Even so, our unit's 1920-by-1200-pixel 17-inch display was disappointing. It had been sharp enough but markedly dimmer and more difficult to read than other notebook screens, even using the brightness dialed each of the way up.

You might constantly hook up a first-rate exterior keep an eye on through the notebook's VGA, DVI, or S-Video ports, but for $5158, you might get two or three laptops with great built-in displays for that cost of 1 D900C Phantom-X. They would not possess the Phantom's velocity, however.