iBUYPOWER Battalion 101 CZ-10 Premium 15.6-inch Thin and Light Laptop PC

Nov 12 2009 - The Battalion 101 CZ-10 Premium from iBUYPOWER is designed to be a modest mobile gaming platform for the gamer on the go that doesn't want to spend too much. In order to achieve this goal, the laptop makes a few sacrifices in terms of battery life and peripheral ports but it does provide a very solid level of performance for its $1250 price tag. The price tag is a bit of an issue since similar laptops can be found for slightly less but iBUYPOWER offers a wide range of customizations to adjust the price of the unit.

Nov 12 2009 - Gaming performance is generally restricted to two components within a computer, the processor and the graphics. iBUYPOWER's Battalion 101 CZ-10 Premium offers a very solid level of performance thanks to the use of an Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 processor. This is one of the higher grade Core 2 Duo processors that should provide some strong performance whether it is gaming, video editing or just general use. Sure, gamers might be more intrigued with the quad core Core i7 but they cost a great deal more right now.

Complimenting the processor on the Battalion 101 CZ-10 Premium is 4GB of PC3-10600 DDR3 memory. This is faster memory than the traditional PC3-8500 DDR3 used in laptops and gives it a slight edge in memory intensive applications.

Powering the graphics on the Battalion 101 CZ-10 Premium is an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650. This isn't the highest level of graphics available but a good choice for running modern games at the display's 1366x768 resolution with moderate detail levels. Playing at higher detail levels is restricted by the 512MB of video memory rather than the graphics processor itself. An external display can be hooked up with the HDMI video output but resolutions can't be bumped up much higher than 1680x1050 before performance issues crop up.

Since the system is geared towards performance, battery life tends to suffer from the high powered components included within it. Users can expect to get around two hours of use from power intensive tasks such as DVD playback. Less power intensive usage will increase the battery time up to two and a half to three hours. This is definitely below what the average 15-inch laptop is able to achieve these days.

Those looking to attach a wide range of peripherals beyond gaming accessories may be disappointed to learn that the port selection on the Battalion 101 CZ-10 is fairly limited. While it does come equipped with four USB 2.0 ports, it does not come with either a FireWire or eSATA ports common to many 15-inch laptops. This prevents the system from being used with high speed external storage and digital camcorders unless an ExpressCard peripheral is used to add these ports.

The keyboard layout may also disappoint some gamers. While the laptop is wide enough to fit a full sized keyboard with a numeric keypad, it uses a more traditional laptop keyboard design. In addition to this, the left side control button is shifted in to make room for the function key. This breaks the layout that is typically used for navigating through many of today's games.

Another issue that buyer's might want to be aware of is the cost. At $1250, the Battalion 101 CZ-10 Premium comes in roughly $100 more expensive than similarly equipped models from the competition. It is possible to adjust the price down with the wide range of processor and hard drive options available, but this will also reduce its performance and storage space.