Popular Laptop Brands

Popular Laptop Brands

Sony – VAIO

VAIO, an acronym for Video Audio Integrated Operation, is the brand slogan for numerous Sony computer products. The branding was created to characterise items that incorporated the use of consumer audio and video, along with conventional computing products.

VAIO computers feature a wide assortment of bundled software, allowing the user to immediately use it for multimedia purposes. A few characteristic multimedia products include:

SonicStage: A digital music manager integrated with Sony’s ‘Connect’ downloadable music service, which allows users to transfer music to Sony standalone music players.

VAIO ZONE: It is a graphical user interface (GUI) that allows users to listen to music and watch photo slide shows, DVDs or TV (with the support of a tuner card). However, this service is available in Europe and Asia only.

VAIO notebooks and desktops were the first to feature a special coating on their screen, called XBRITE™ or ULTRABLACK, which increases the brightness of the screen and makes the image more ‘lively’. This feature is especially visible while watching a movie on the computer screen.

Product Line

1. T series

Main features include:

* Intel® Centrino™ Mobile Technology
* Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
* An ultra-light 3.04 pounds
* Up to 9 hours of battery life
* 10.6″ widescreen display with XBRITE™ technology
* 512MB/1GB RAM
* 60GB Hard Drive
* Double layered DVD+R with DVD±RW

Prices for this series range from US $1,850 approx. to US $2,350 approx.

2. FS Series

The laptops in this series come with:

* Intel® Centrino™ Mobile Technology (with select models)
* Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
* 15.4″ Widescreen LCD with XBRITE® Technology
* Double layered DVD+R with DVD±RW
* Up to 1GB RAM
* Up to 100GB hard drive

The price range for this series lies between US $1,000 and US $2,200.

3. V2000Z Series

Main features include:

* AMD Turion™ 64 ML-37 (2.0GHz/1MB L2 Cache) mobile technology available
* Windows XP Home/Windows XP Professional
* 14″ WXGA widescreen display, including BrightView option
* Integrated wireless LAN options in 54g (standard 802.11b/g) and Bluetooth available
* ATI RADEON(R) XPRESS 200M configurations available include productivity ports
* 1.53″ thin and weighs 5.2lbs

4. R4000 series

Main features include:

* AMD Athlon™ Sempron and AMD Athlon™ 64 processors up to 4000+
* Windows XP Home/Windows XP Professional
* 15.4″ widescreen display with high resolution available with BrightView upgrade options
* Integrated wireless LAN available in 54g (standard 802.11b/g) along with Bluetooth
* 128MB ATI RADEON(R) XPRESS 200M available with Hypermemory™ (up to 128MB of dedicated memory)
* 1.8″ thin and weighs 7.85lbs

5. M2000Z series

Main features include:

* AMD Turion™ 64 ML-34 (1.8GHz/1MB L2 Cache) mobile technology available
* Windows XP Home/Windows XP Professional
* 15.0″ TFT XGA (1024×768) Display
* Integrated wireless LAN available in 54g (standard 802.11b/g) along with Bluetooth
* ATI RADEON(R) XPRESS 200M configurations available include productivity ports
* 1.4″ thin and weighs 6.5lbs.

The prices of the Compaq Presario models range from US $500 to US $800.

Apple – iBook Dual USB

The iBook, introduced by Apple Computer, Inc. in 1999, was targeted at the consumer and education market segments. It was a derivative of its professional laptop computer, the PowerBook G3 and adopted several key features that had made it an early market success.

Models

1. iBook G4 – 12 inch: 1.33GHz

Main features include:
* 1.33GHz PowerPC G4
* 512K L2 cache @1.33GHz
* 512MB memory (DDR333 SDRAM)
* 12.1-inch TFT Display
* 1024×768 resolution
* ATI Mobility Radeon 9550
* 32MB DDR video memory
* 40GB Ultra ATA hard drive
* Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
* Built-in AirPort Extreme
* Built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
* Scrolling Trackpad
* Sudden Motion Sensor
2. iBook G4 – 14 inch: 1.42GHz

Main features include:

* 1.42GHz PowerPC G4
* 512K L2 cache @1.42GHz
* 512MB memory (DDR333 SDRAM)
* 14.1-inch TFT Display
* 1024×768 resolution
* ATI Mobility Radeon 9550
* 32MB DDR video memory
* 60GB Ultra ATA hard drive
* SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)
* Built-in AirPort Extreme
* Built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
* Scrolling Trackpad
* Sudden Motion Sensor

Both models cost between US $1,000 and US $1,300.


Lenovo – ThinkPad

The ThinkPad is currently manufactured and marketed by Lenovo, which purchased the IBM PC division in early 2005. Generally used by the corporate sector, the ThinkPad name was inspired by the leather-bound pocket notebooks issued to all IBM employees with the corporate motto ‘Think’ imprinted on the cover.

Traditionally black in color, ThinkPads feature innovations such as:
* The TrackPoint pointing device
* Thinklight, an LED keyboard light put on the top of the LCD screen
* Solidly constructed ‘butterfly’ keyboard (on the 701 models)
* Active Protection System, a device that detects when the ThinkPad is falling and shuts the hard drive down to prevent damage
* Biometric fingerprint reader

ThinkPads enjoy a reputation for being solidly built and dependable.
Prices for Thinkpad R Series (available with 14.1″ and 15″ TFT displays) start from UK £430.

For Thinkpad X Series (about 2cm thin and weighs 1.2kg) and X Series Tablet (with a 180° Rotating Screen), prices start from UK £1,300.
Prices for Thinkpad Tseries (with standard battery life up to 5.5 hours) start from UK £1,030.

Dell – Inspiron

Unlike Dell Latitude, Dell Inspiron is specifically targeted at the consumer market. Current Inspiron models include the 1200, 2200, 4000, 700m, 600m, 6000, 9300 and XPS Gen2.

The Dell Inspiron XPS Gen2 is aimed at the gaming market. It offers a full PCI Express x16 graphics card and the NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 Ultra with 256MB of dedicated memory.s

The Dell Inspiron 6000 uses a 1.3 or a 1.6 GHz Intel Pentium M processor. It comes with a wide-screen and uses DDR2 memory, a relatively new feature for laptops.

The Dell Inspiron 9300 uses a 1.6, 1.73, 1.86, or 2.0 GHz Intel Pentium M processor and a 17″ wide-screen.