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Looking at what you get for your money Toshiba Qosmio G10 There is no doubt that laptops (or notebooks if you wish) have grown in popularity in recent times. We thought it time to have a closer look at what you get for your money these days. W e’re actually looking at two “fairly” similar computers in this review. When we say fairly similar, they’re both advanced laptops offering incredible features. The biggest difference is one is a “big brand name” at or near the top of the price pile; the other was sourced from a supermarket at a (much!) lower price tag. Once, not so long ago, laptop computers were significantly more expensive than desktop models and suffered badly in performance comparisons as well. They’re still more expensive – but now the margins are nothing like as wide – and the gap in performance has reduced to the point where for most users it doesn’t matter too much, if at all. Throw in the convenience factor of laptops and it’s small wonder they have become the computer of choice for a wide range of users – everyone from business people on the go to 8  Silicon Chip students replacing notebooks with . . . notebooks! At SILICON CHIP, when we review equipment such as computers, we’re not so much looking at degrees of performance; we’re more interested in the overall picture, what readers would be interested in, what you get for your money and how well the equipment works in the real world. We generally leave A-B-C comparison tests, particularly when it comes to PCs, to those who are best set up to conduct them. You can find such tests in any of the myriad of computer magazines available in Australia (both local and imported) – or you can also scan the ’net and find report after report. A word of caution on the latter: you need to read these reports carefully because you usually don’t know if the reviewer has a vested interest to report a certain way. The way some reviews read it would appear that there might siliconchip.com.au t Laptops: in 2005! Medion MD 95400 By Ross Tester be some consideration. Of course, there are also straightup-and-down reports on the ’net; just be picky and choosy what you read! Let’s explain where the impetus for this review came from. It was actually at one of the exhibitions we regularly visit (we try to keep abreast of technology!) that one of the sales people showed us their brand new computer with more bells and whistles than you could jump over. “Ho-hum”, I thought. “Another new computer”. I generally don’t get too excited over new models. Maybe they’re a bit faster, maybe they’re a bit cheaper. Maybe they’re more snazzy looking. Maybe they’re . . . But my ears pricked up when the salesman started talking about its major claim to fame: it used the “new” Microsoft Media Centre operating system. He demonstrated some of the capabilities of this new system (at the time it was so new he didn’t really undersiliconchip.com.au stand all it could do; it was mostly the usual salesman “gee whiz” factor). But what I did see intrigued me. Microsoft Media Centre is an integrated system which effectively turns your PC into a multimedia home entertainment centre. It can easily become the heart of a home theatre system or it can be used for personal entertainment. At the time, I’d read a little about Microsoft Media Centre and (wrongly, as it turned out) assumed that it was a product in its own right, available “off the shelf” like Microsoft’s other operating system offerings. So I called Microsoft’s PR agency and asked them for a review copy of the software. The very nice lady at the PR company explained that they couldn’t do what I wanted because Microsoft Media Centre only comes “pre installed” on selected (suitable) computers. “And by the way, its not actually called Microsoft Media Centre” (though that’s what it’s become know as) – “its corJune 2005  9 (Centrino) with 400MHz front-side bus and 2MB L2 EIST), 1024MB DDR Ram (2048MB maximum), a 160GB hard disk, a SuperMulti double layer DVDR-RW, an NVidia Geforce FX Go5700 video “card” and Harmon-Kardon integrated speakers (which, by the way, sound surprisingly good given their obvious size limitations). It comes with 802.11b/g wireless installed, along with Bluetooth, a V.92 modem and a 10/100 LAN (network) card. Sorry about keep referring these things to cards – force of habit – they’re almost always integrated on the mainboard these days – but you get the drift! One nice feature of the Wi-Fi is a switch on the side to easily disable it. Many machines require menu selection or a series of keystrokes to do this – and it’s so easy to forget. If you’re on a plane or in some other area where 2.4GHz wireless is a big no-no, just switch it off. Toshiba also call the Qosmio G10 “compact and portable”. Umm, sort of like a wheelbarrow full of bricks is compact and portable. With that huge screen it’s certainly not too compact. Yes, it is portable but at a weight of more than 4kg you wouldn’t want to lug it too far. The most striking feature of the Toshiba Qosmio G10 is that big, beautiful, clear With a machine like this, we believe screen. It’s a pleasure to work with. We weren’t quite so impressed with having it’s more intended to be used as a deskto plug in the remote control receiver (on right). Shouldn’t that be integrated? top replacement, cable of being moved rect name is Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre edition.” around as required but not really the type of machine Hey, I’m not surprised it’s usually abbreviated! you’d want to bring home from the office each night nor take on holidays. Toshiba Qosmio G10 In fact, due to its size and the A/V features it offers, we’d By good luck or good management, another division of think of it more as the “works” of a home entertainment the same PR company looks after Toshiba, so she offered system. It was more than large enough to sit and watch in to send me one of the new Toshiba Qosmio (koz-mee-oh) its own right – but if you want to, it’s a quick plug-in to G10 laptops fitted, of course, with Microsoft Windows XP your larger TV set, home theatre system, etc. Media Centre edition,when it became available. This is one A 17-inch screen is roughly equivalent in size to a 43cm of Toshiba’s top-of-the-line laptops with a 17-inch screen. TV set which, as readers would know, is larger than many It took some time for one of these new machines to be- people have as their “second” set. And one thing we haven’t come available (they are in big demand amongst reviewers) mentioned yet is the fact that the Qosmio has full VHF and but in due course, arrive it did. UHF TV capability built in – so it can be your second TV To say it was an impressive machine is an understate- set (or even your first in a flat or small living room!). ment! The first thing that strikes you is that huge screen – a superb 17-inch WXGA (1440 x 900) CSV (a widescreen in TV-speak), capable of displaying 16:9 (widescreen) movies perfectly. And when you turn it on you notice just how good that screen is: big, bright and beautiful. (Toshiba claim to have special proprietary graphics chips built in to drive the screen. And it features two backlight tubes instead of the usual one). But computers need to be more than look good and have big screens, so we put the Toshiba to a variety of everyday tasks over the next couple of weeks until that inevitable phone call “We’re sending a courier to pick it up tomorrow . . .” OK, let’s lift the bonnet and have a look at what you get for your money. And it’s significant money, as we will discuss shortly. XP Media Centre edition helps you organise your movies, Toshiba describe it as “the ultimate digital entertainment photos, music etc and then either access them directly or hub”. In a nutshell, it is fitted with a 2.0GHz Pentium M via the remote control, or program them for later viewing. 10  Silicon Chip siliconchip.com.au One criticism you often see about Microsoft Media Centre is its inability handle digital TV. A pity, really: you get so much digital control in this machine but you can’t take advantage of digital television features! With a DVD player/writer/rewriter built in, you aren’t limited to the rubbish the TV channels are throwing at us lately. The TV tuner even has a remote control so couch potatoes need not worry . . . The DVD, incidentally, is a beauty: CD-R and –RW plus DVD-R, +R, -RW and +RW – and even dual layer DVD+R. One negative on the DVD is, like most brand-name DVDs, it is regioned. Personally, I find it offensive that manufacturers dare to tell me that I can only watch a pre-recorded DVD that they say I can watch – that is, one sold for region 4 (Australia/ NZ etc). Yes, you can change the region a limited number of times but once that number is up, you are stuck in that region. If you happen to be Not quite as large a screen on the Medion MD 95400 and you have to plug the TV receiver watching a region 1 (US) DVD in (that’s it on the side). But it does handle digital as well as analog! We found the glidepad at the time, all your Austral- took a bit of getting used to, too. But this computer offers exceptional value for money. ian DVDs are effectively coasters! (For most stand-alone – like a used mouse for $US1.99! No, we’re not kidding! DVD players there are firmware “hacks” available on the Now, while on the subject of price, let’s look at the Toshiba ’net to defeat this ridiculous zoning. So far I haven’t disQosmio G10. List price is $5999 – that’s right, one dollar covered one for the Qosmio but I dare say it will happen change from six thousand hard-to-get ones. You get a very eventually). large, powerful machine with a magnificent screen, with As far as A/V features are concerned, it’s hard to separate just about everything you could want built in or in the box. the “hardware” from the “software”. You get connectivity But we still choke a bit (no, a lot!) on six thousand dollars. for just about every application, in and out. And Microsoft OK, so what’s the alternative? Media Centre allows you to control (remotely if you wish – a remote control is included) every aspect – whether you Medion MD95400 are watching TV, recording hours of TV to hard disk for Readers would know there is a plethora of value notelater watching (no, you wouldn’t do that would you, that’s books available but one in particular caught our eye. illegal) or editing home movies. Around the same time as the Toshiba laptop arrived, we In fact Microsoft Media Centre means a PC retains 100% noticed an advert in our local paper from the German-based of its computer functions for when you need those but it “Aldi” supermarket chain. also turns it into a device which can organise and manage Featured product was a “Medion” laptop computer, selling your music, videos, photographs, etc – and all the devices for $2399. And the list of both features and inclusions was which gather these for you, such as video and still cameras, certainly impressive. Aldi appears to be the only distribution music sources, etc. It’s the ultimate in work and play! outlet for Medion (at least as far as we have noticed). It also effectively turns your PC into a Personal Video A glance at the (limited) information in the advert suggested Recorder (PVR) so, with a large enough hard disk, you don’t that the Medion was one very powerful machine and appeared need to buy another video recorder (digital or otherwise). to compare quite well with the Toshiba we were reviewing We said before that Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre . . . at well under half the price! edition is only available pre-installed on selected PCs – and It’s sold as a “widescreen multimedia entertainment notethe Microsoft Website confirms that. But I have discovered book” – not a Microsoft Media Centre notebook because, a US website where they are selling Windows XP Media naturally, it doesn’t have Microsoft Media Centre – “only” Centre Edition 2005 – “assuming” you are a system builder! Windows XP Home Edition (SP2). Price is usually $US134 but at time of writing (late April) it A lot more information was available on the Aldi website was on special at $US119.99, plus $US38.99 for the remote so we logged on and downloaded the PDF. Boy, was that control if you want one. (See http://shop.store.yahoo.com/ a surprise – apart from the Medion “only” having a 15.4direction/xpedia.html). inch, WXGA (1280 x 800) screen – not too shabby itself – it Oh, they do require you to purchase (at the same time) appeared to offer even more than the Toshiba. some piece of hardware to qualify as a “system builder” So we called Aldi (and that’s no mean feat, believe us!) siliconchip.com.au June 2005  11 and when we finally talked to (PowerDVD 6, Power Cinema, Unlike the Toshiba Qosmio, where the a human, suggested they might TV tuner is built-in, the Medion requires Power Director 3.0SE, Power like to submit one of their mathis plug-in TV and radio tuner module Producer 3, Medi<at>Show and Muchines for a comparison with (included in package). It plugs into the PC sicmatch Jukebox. the Toshiba. We weren’t overly pleased to (PCMCIA) slot on the side of the computer A week or so later Medion and the USB cable plugs into an adjacent see AOL 7.0 pre-installed, having USB port. The whip antenna can be had sad experience with AOL efAustralia contacted us and told replaced by a TV antenna connection. fectively hijacking machines in the us they’d be delighted to send While it’s not quite as convenient as the past and then not letting itself be us a laptop for review. When it Toshiba, the Medion has the advantage uninstalled. That was some time arrived, we still had the Toshiba of being able to handle both analog and – so comparisons were obvious. ago; perhaps AOL has listened to digital TV signals. The Toshiba cannot Yes, the screen is smaller (1.6 handle digital TV (actually, it’s the screams of anguish around inches mightn’t sound like much Microsoft Media Centre that the world. but side-by-side it certainly looks While the Medion HomeCincannot handle digital). that way). On the plus side, that ema might not be quite as tightly makes it a significantly smaller integrated as Microsoft Media machine overall. Centre, there didn’t appear to be It is also lighter – at 3.3kg, too much that you could do with it’s nearly 25% lighter than the one that the other couldn’t. We Toshiba. would have liked more time to One other major difference is play with Medion HomeCentre that the TV “receiver” for the to more adequately determine its Medion is not built-in, as it is full capabilities. But deadlines for the Toshiba. It’s an add-on loom large! device which slides into the PC In use slot on the side of the computer with a separate lead plugging We were very impressed with into the adjacent USB port. On both machines. Both did everythe plus side, this TV tuner does handle digital TV as well thing with aplomb and there were very few negatives. as analog. It’s also an FM radio tuner (watching radio on a We’ve already mentioned DVD zoning (the Medion had computer? Hmmm!). the same “problem” as the Toshiba – the manufacturers Its processor isn’t quite as fast as the Toshiba, with a probably call it a feature!). 1.7GHz Intel Pentium M735 mobile processor. It has 512MB We found the glidepad on the Medion took some getting of DDR RAM. The DVD is similar (8x multi-format with used to – it has a pseudo “wheel” built into the glidepad dual layer support) and there are four USB2.0 ports. which we kept drifting on to and finding we were transLike the Toshiba, it offers in-built wireless (802.11b and ported somewhere else! The glidepad on the Toshiba had g) and Bluetooth but it also offers Firewire (IEEE394).It too different problems for us – it is “intuitive”, reading certain has a 10/100 network controller and a 56K/V.90 modem. actions (such as tapping your finger) and translating them As well as its two integrated speakers they claim it has an into some other function. It’s a lot different to simply movinbuilt subwoofer (I’m not quite sure where!) and 6-channel ing your finger over the pad. You can turn this function audio out (analog and 2x digital) with ATI Mobility Radeon off but as this was a review machine, we thought it best 9700SE sound, itself with 128MB DDR RAM. to leave it set. One feature we found particularly useful is the 8-in-1 In both cases, enough experience would iron those card reader which can handle Compact Flash I and II, IBM minor difficulties out. It’s just that we are used to either a Microdrive, XD Picture Card, SD Card, MultiMedia Card, no-frills glidepad or a button “mouse”. Remember too that Memory Stick and Memory Stick Pro. the Medion does come with a USB mouse for those who, We’ve already mentioned the PC slot (PCMCIA if you’re an like us, might be digit-ally challenged! (Of course you could old timer); other interfaces include a VGA out (also doubles always fit a USB mouse to the Toshiba – these meeces are as DVI out with the adaptor included), TV out, Firewire, pretty cheap these days). LAN, modem, microphone, line-in, speaker rear, audio out Both machines offered the serious computer user virtual (or S/P-DIF optical), digital coax out and infrared out desktop performance but with the advantage of being fully Other hardware included is an infrared remote control, portable. Throw in their multimedia capabilities and they a stereo headset microphone and a USB scroll mouse. really do offer the best of both worlds. It’s when you start looking at what else you get with the “Fantastic” is a hackneyed word these days. But we Medion MD 95400 that the value becomes obvious. Actu- believe that while the Toshiba is a fantastic machine; the ally, it jumps up and screams at you! Medion is not far behind and offers fantastic value for Along with Windows XP Home Edition SP2, you also get money. Microsoft WorksSuite 2005 and MS Flight Simulator 2004; That rather significant price tag of the Toshiba really Nero Burning ROM 6, Nero RECODE 2-SE (DVD copying concerned us. $6000 can buy you almost half a small car software), Videon video and photo presentation software); these days! The Medion, on the other hand, offered seneTrust AntiVirus and Symantec System Recovery. sational value for money at $2399 – so much so that after In addition, there is Medion HomeCinema which itself the review machine went back, we went down to our local contains six programs for video and audio applications Aldi store and bought one! SC 12  Silicon Chip siliconchip.com.au