I've been needing a new laptop for a while now. The left mouse button on the trackpad is getting a bit deaf, and my batteries for it just died a couple weeks ago. I've been waiting for the Arrandale launch for some time, as I wanted both more power and less power usage in my new laptop. The specs for it are pretty simple:
Unfortunately for me, Intel released some ASUS laptops to benchmarkers a while back. Intel lifted the benchmark embargo earlier this week and the results were disappointing. More processing power, absolutely. Less juice sucked, not so much. Or more specifically, the processor performed the same amount of work for about the same power requirement, but performed that work faster. Since the work-per-battery-charge ratio is not changing, this new processor is not going to give us really performant laptops that can run for 6 hours. At least not without improved battery tech, that is.
So, very sadly, I just may have to put off this purchase until this summer. That's when the power-enhanced versions of these chips will drop. At that point, laptop makers will start making laptops I want in sufficient quantities to allow competition.
- No smaller than 15" screen. My eyes are beginning to get old.
- Vertical screen resolution no smaller than 800px.
- 2GB RAM minimum
- The option of an add-in graphics card or integrated (I won't be gaming with this thing)
- A wireless card with good Linux support
- 4 hours of independently benchmarked battery life
- 7200 RPM disk options
- Core i5-mobile
Unfortunately for me, Intel released some ASUS laptops to benchmarkers a while back. Intel lifted the benchmark embargo earlier this week and the results were disappointing. More processing power, absolutely. Less juice sucked, not so much. Or more specifically, the processor performed the same amount of work for about the same power requirement, but performed that work faster. Since the work-per-battery-charge ratio is not changing, this new processor is not going to give us really performant laptops that can run for 6 hours. At least not without improved battery tech, that is.
So, very sadly, I just may have to put off this purchase until this summer. That's when the power-enhanced versions of these chips will drop. At that point, laptop makers will start making laptops I want in sufficient quantities to allow competition.
put a prism orinoco in a dell and youre done