Slinky Little Crusoe Notebook Reviewed

does it really matter? writes "Apparently the love-in is finally on for the guys at TransmetaZone.com since they finally have a review of a Crusoe notebook to show for themselves. The silver NEC UltraLite gets a good going over, and proves to be an interesting match against a PIII-M." I'm glad to see that the promise of transmeta is finally beginning to start being fulfilled.

Comments

Transmeta...

[szcx]

I'm glad to see that the promise of transmeta is finally beginning to start being fulfilled.

They better start fulfilling promises, because Linus' blessing alone isn't enough pull out of this nosedive.

How well doe sit stack up against an iBook?

[Knobby]

This is the real question.. The iBook is just as thin, weighs the same, includes a DVD/CD-RW drive, Mac OS 9.2/Mac OS X, a 12" (1024x768) screen, 4+ hour battery life, and costs less ($1800 for the top of the line iBook as opposed to $2k for the model discussed in the article)..

It's great that it stacks up well against a PIII based notebook, but that's not were the real challenge lies for this thing..

Re:How well doe sit stack up against an iBook?

[garcia]

as I have said before... It is wonderful that it saves all this power as compared to the usual laptops but it is slower, more expensive, and less attractive to those people looking for clock (who doesn't?)

I guess there is a need for less power consumption but w/15" screens, DVDs playing away on long flights, and god knows what else, is it really neceesary?

I am going to guess that people aren't going to be as receptive to this as maybe they thought.

The only thing that counts is the size of your clock. ;)

Redundent redendencies

[Argy]

I'm glad to see that the promise of transmeta is finally beginning to start being fulfilled.

Yep, I'm glad to see they commenced the outset of initiating the maiden launch of that debut myself! :-)

Impartiality

[warmcat]

Oh, yes, that's a 'real impartial review'... it reads more like some oil-haired watchdripping toothshiner trying to sell you a car.

Re:Impartiality

[Brento]

Oh, yes, that's a 'real impartial review'... it reads more like some oil-haired watchdripping toothshiner trying to sell you a car.

You're totally right. They completely gloss over the fact that this thing uses dongles for the VGA port and for the ethernet port. In a laptop that's aimed at the frequent traveler, carrying around not just one but two dongles is completely unacceptable. There's plenty of space on that thing for the full-sized ports, and that alone would score huge negative points in any review done by experienced laptop users.

Nice, but...

[bill.sheehan]

They've done a nice job in positioning this baby as the perfect computer for a 90 pound weakling who's also a marathon typist and a frequent flyer. If they advertise in enough in-flight magazines, they may even sell a few. They start from a premise that the most important features are weight and battery life. But in order to get that weight and battery life, they stripped out a whole bunch of things I'd want. Heck, my Toshiba T-1000 is lightweight and can make it across the country without a recharge.

I want to like it, I really do. I might seriously consider one if it had 256 or 512 MB of RAM, a larger screen (1280x1024 would be nice), USB 2.0 ports and an external DVD/CD-RW drive. I don't mind schlepping a little more weight in return for being able to watch my own in-flight movie.

And while I'm dreaming, I want a pony...

Just starting?

[Jagasian]

"I'm glad to see that the promise of transmeta is finally beginning to start being fulfilled."

Are you kidding me? Have you ever checked out and actually used one of the latest Sony Picturebooks? The last two USA versions of the Picturebook used the Crusoe, and both are mean little computer machines. Supposedly Linus uses a picturebook. I mean, who wouldn't love a fully functional Linux Workstation that is no larger than a VHS cassette tape? So there is no "finall begining to start" crap. The Crusoe has been fulfilling for over a year now, its promise of a high efficieny x86 CPU. AND YES, THE PICTUREBOOK RUNS LINUX JUST FINE!

battery life and capacities

[Roadmaster]

Altough the Tm5600-based system outlasted the PIII-based one by about 28% in battery life tests, it's interesting to notice that the PIII has a 5400 mAH battery, while the TM5600's batteries add up to 4300 mAH. That is, the Transmeta processor lasted 28% more on about 20% less battery capacity. Some quick numbers indicate that the Transmeta processor would be able to run for over 6 hours on a 5400 mAH battery, which is a full 50% longer than the 4 hours the PIII system lasted, given that the batteries had the same capacity.

Want one for $1500 less?

[reverius]

I recently bought a Sony Vaio PCG-SR33. As far as I can tell, it's exactly the same machine, but with a couple differences:

1) It starts at $999
2) It comes with an external CD-ROM, but no floppy
3) It has a 600mhz Low-voltage Celeron instead of a Crusoe - but gets the same battery life (about 5.5 hours)

Why anyone would spend $2500 for that NEC subnotebook, I can't fathom.

Oh yeah, my Sony also weighs 0.3 lbs less with the same dimensions.

Can't they make it smaller?

[OblongPlatypus]

I don't get it... does this really qualify as an "ultraportable subnotebook"? It's quite a bit larger and heavier than my Thinkpad 240, which is getting to be almost 18 months old now.

I guess what I'm really saying is I'm extremely happy with the size and weight of the Thinkpad 240, and I'm really puzzled as to why it's still just about the most lightweight laptop in the market. Don't people want computers they can comfortably carry around, instead of the six-pound Floppy/CD/DVD/15" monsters I see these days?

Anyway, the only gripe I have with my 240 is the battery life, which isn't much more than 80-90 minutes. Maybe it'd be better off running on a Crusoe chip? Or maybe that's what they sacrificed to get it so small... the size of the battery.

Look at me, I'm an over-priced, ugly iBook!

[binarybits]

Usually, you pay a premium of $200-$300 for equivalent functionality in a Mac compared with the PC alternative. In this case, though, it seems like the opposite is true. The only advantages I see to this machine are PC card slot and lower weight. (iBook is 4.9 pounds, this is 3.3, IIRC)

The two have more or less equivalent battery life (Apple claims 5 hours, these guys claim 5.5) If you get one of the higher-end iBooks, memory, hard drive, etc are the same. And CPU speed is pretty much identical-- I'd guess a G3/500 will edge out a Crusoe/600, but even if not it's not going to be much behind. Crusoes are optimised for power consumption, not performance.

On the downside, there's no internal media (which probably accounts for the weight difference) and apperantly you can't even get DVD-ROM or CD-RW without going to a third party. And the iBook includes FireWire ports and an interal 802.11 slot, which this does not.

Most striking is the price. To get an equivalently loaded iBook (with DVD and 128 MB RAM) is $1500. This is "approximately" $2000. Why would you pay $500 extra for a laptop with fewer features, lousy performance, and the inelegance of x86?

So, really, the only reason to prefer this to an iBook is if you need something that runs Windoze. If you have the option of running a real OS (either Mac OS or *nix) get an iBook and save some money.

Everyone has different requirements

[Goonie]

I'm not going to burn CD's, want to watch an inflight movie (and if I did I might consider ripping it to my hard drive), plug in digital video cameras, or anything like that with my laptop. I want the smallest, lightest, most convenient package that runs Linux and has a full size keyboard so I can touch type when sending mail (so I want good networking abilities).

For me, something like the Vaio picturebook (also with a Crusoe processor) would be ideal. That doesn't make me right or you wrong, but it means there's room in the market for both. Vive la difference!