Introduction

WinBook has been a major player in portable computing for many years now. They are a division of Micro Electronics that has been building personal computer systems for over 19 years. But when the latest Intel Pentium M processors were first released, WinBook didn't initially produce any portables with it putting them at a disadvantage in the marketplace. This has changed with the release of the new WinBook W series squarely targeted at the business professional who needs a full featured machine yet still remains portable.

Specifications

The notebook provided for review was the W160 version. There is a less expensive W140 that has scaled back storage features as well as a higher priced W160 that features an additional 512MB of memory. Below are the specifications for the unit that was tested:

WinBook W Notebook

Overall the design of the system is very nice. The magnesium alloy case gives it an elegant look and sturdy construction. The dimensions allow the system to be very portable for those who travel or don't want to carry a whole lot but still need a fully functional system. Ports are laid out well with the majority of them on the back. This keeps access to the sides of the computer free even when peripherals are attached.

Winbook W Side Panels (Front, Back, Right and Left)

Audio controls and connections exist on the front of the computer system. This is very useful for those watching DVDs with headphones, but it could be more complicated for those looking to put external speakers on the system. The multimedia controls are nicely recessed on the front panel, but lack any physical markings that could help in locating the proper button without having to look at them.

The keyboard is standard sized and comfortable to use. A few comments on the keyboard though. First, the white color of the keyboard gives it a distinctive look, but could also be a maintenance problem. The color will easily show dirt and debris, so make sure your hands are clean. Also, while there is a keyboard function for adjusting the brightness of the LCD there are no contrast controls.

Benchmarking

Benchmarking of the WinBook W160 spanned a wide range of applications. For general performance, FutureMark's PCMark2004 and SiSoft Sandra Max 2004 were used with the standard settings. Since the WinBook W160 also features an NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 graphics accelerator, a number of 3D tests were run. FutureMark's 3DMark2001SE and 3DMark03 were run as well as the HardOCP Unreal Tournament 2003 Benchmarking Utility version 2.1. Optical drive performance was tested using the Nero CDSpeed version 2.11 for both CD and DVD media. Battery testing was done to see how long the system would function until the system would run from a full charge to suspend mode.

PCMark 2004

FutureMark's PCMark2004 is a general system benchmark that looks at CPU, memory and disk performance and generates an aggregated score for the system performance. The test was run three times to generate a median score that best reflected the performance of the WinBook W160. The overall aggregated score result was 3,265 PCMarks. The only other notebook that I had tested with this benchmark so far ran a Pentium 4M 1.8GHz CPU and scored 2,386 PCMarks. This places the WinBook W160 significantly faster than the higher clocked Pentium 4M processor.

Sandra MAX 2004

SiSoft's Sandra MAX 2004 is a widely acclaimed benchmarking application because it allows testing of each of the component systems individually and has a reference chart of scores for a wide range of components on the market. This makes performance comparison very simple for both reviewers and for consumers. Below is the table of results for the WinBook W160:

Both the CPU and Memory scores were within 1% of the reference scores for the Pentium M 1.6GHz and the PC2100 memory listed in the Sandra Reference Charts. More surprising is the hard disk performance. The drive consistently scored at 22MB/s in multiple tests which was much higher than the Sandra reference ATA/100 2.5" hard drive that is listed with a 17MB/s score.

CD-DVD Speed V2.11

Optical drive performance has become a key differentiation between various notebook computers. Many of the core components for notebook computers are so similar, that the average performance difference for CPU and memory are all within 5% margins of one another. As people start using notebook computers as their primary computer systems, the speed of the optical drives at recording data becomes more important. Nero's CD-DVD Speed V2.11 lets us see how the performance at reading and writing to optical disks are on a system.

Testing of the WinBook W160 drive was done both with TDK 48x CD-R media and Verbatim 2x DVD-R media. The following are the results:

Based on the results, the CD-R performance is up to the system specifications. It should be noted that DVD burners have lower CD specifications than dedicated CD burners or CD combo drives. The DVD performance is a bit more of a disappointment, especially when reading data. The recording speed for DVD is on specification, but many people may be put off by how slow it is to record a full length DVD. Many competing systems are now offering 2x and even 4x drives. Reading speeds for the DVD were well below average with very long seek times. This is definitely an area for improvement with the WinBook W160.

3DMark2001 Special Edition

Since the WinBook W160 comes with a dedicated 3D graphics accelerator, it is important to find out how effective it is. Futuremark's 3DMark2001 Special Edition is an excellent test for the performance of a graphics processor with the DirectX 8.1 graphics engine. The results from the standard benchmark run resulted in a 3DMark score of 7,219. While this is nowhere near the performance of many of the desktop accelerators, it is a decent performance from a mobile part and much higher than integrated parts such as the Intel Extreme 2. With these scores, older DirectX 8.1 games should be able to be playable at resolutions up to 1024x768.

3DMark03

FutureMark's 3DMark03 is a very controversial benchmark in the industry. With the amount of problems from the developers and from the hardware companies, it isn't a truly reliable benchmark, but it is one of the few available for testing DirectX 9 applications. DirectX 9 games are still few but it should give an estimation of the GeForce FX go5200 capabilities.

The WinBook W160 scored a very low 892 3DMarks. Frame rates during the testing were low enough to produce a slide show effect on many of the game tests. From this, it is very apparent that the go5200 is not very effective at running DirectX 9. Users should not expect to be able to play DirectX 9 games effectively, but this will be true for most notebook computers.

Unreal Tournament 2003

In order to test how functional the GeForce FX go5200 is in real games, the HardOCP Unreal Tournament 2003 Benchmark version 2.1 was used to get frame rates from the game demo. All frame rates are reported from the average recorded frame rate for the maps using the High Detail settings in the benchmark utility at the listed resolutions.

Based on the results obtained from the benchmark, the WinBook W160 was able to sustain playable frame rates even up to the 1024x768 resolution. From this information, the W160 notebook should be able to handle current DirectX 8.1 based games without too many problems up to 800x600 and possibly into the 1024x768 resolutions.

Battery Life

Having sufficient power when you are away from an outlet is a crucial factor for any portable computer. After all, how portable is a system if you always have to plug it in for power? To test the battery life, a standard DVD movie is played on the system to generate a consistent stream of CPU usage. All power settings are set to the standard portable configuration in Windows XP. From here, the amount of time it takes from the system power up to the time it goes into suspended mode is recorded.

From the test, the WinBook W160 fared very well for its 6000mA battery pack. The system lasted three full hours until the 10% alarm was generated. It should be noted that the system consistently ran the audible low battery alarm for an additional 5 minutes when the operating system put the system into suspend mode. While this may not be as long as some other Pentium M based systems, it is still very respectable.

Conclusions

Overall the WinBook W160 is a fresh design that has a lot to offer. It has a lot of performance when it comes to the CPU and hard disk while still providing a respectable battery life. The silver magnesium case gives it a lot of style and remains portable even with its wide screen display. The WinBook W160 could easily be a system used by an individual as their primary machine as long as they aren't looking to play too many 3D games.

There are a few drawbacks to the W160 though. Most notable of these is the lack of any productivity software. Most competing systems offer some form of basic word processing and spreadsheet applications with the system. Also, while the system does have a DVD burner, its lackluster recording speed will turn off many would be video enthusiasts due to its lengthy burn times.

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