Twinhead Durabook R15D (Pentium M Processor 730 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM)

We were offered a glimpse of Twinhead's full Durabook lineup at Computex, Taipei of which the first released in Singapore emerges in the form of the R15D. This laptop will immediately spark comparisons with its predecessor, the efio 15B. While the latter was priced at S$4,099 when it was first released, the Durabook is far more affordable, lying in the range of S$1,999 to S$2,499. While the impact protection, spill-proof keyboard features and rugged build are still intact, the R15D uses a slower processor and drops the dedicated ATI graphics chip. This offers a better deal to those who need the laptop for outdoor use but who won’t make use of the graphics engine so much.

The Durabook R15D is meant for outdoor use.

The Durabook label fits this notebook judging from the features that made the efio 15B a success. It has the ability to withstand vibrations due to an anti-shock mechanism which protects the hard drive from data loss, and so it proved with a 5cm drop test which failed to interrupt DVD playback of The Matrix. We poured water on the keyboard to test the spillproof feature and the notebook came out unscathed. The keyboard continued to work normally while the water came out through specific holes meant for drainage purposes, at the Durabook's base. However, that is not to say the notebook is waterproof as the speakers and inbuilt microphone, adorned around the keys, will be affected by water.

The port selection on efio 15B is similar with the exception of the added serial port.

Features
With the lower price comes a trade-off, of course. The R15D sports a Pentium M processor 730 (1.6GHz), which is much slower than the 745 (1.8GHz) chip in the efio 15B. The 1GB RAM and 60GB drive remain, though we now have integrated graphics as opposed to the ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 on the R15D's predecessor. Gamers may not be too happy, but the cost savings will benefit the actual target users such as army personnel or construction workers who won't care two hoots for a more powerful graphics engine.

The range of ports is no different from the efio 15B save for an additional serial port. So what remains are the three USB 2.0, FireWire, S/PDIF jack, S-video out, VGA-out, multiformat DVD burner, Ethernet, modem ports and a Type II PC Card slot. The wireless standard has been upgraded to support 802.11a networks in addition to the original b/g. On the negative side, once again there's no flash card reader for convenient data transfer and strangely there's no double-layer DVD+R support, so you can't burn 8.5GB of data yet. There's no ExpressCard slot or Bluetooth, either.

Performance And Battery Life
Based on MobileMark 2002, the performance hit a decent score of 179, which fell short of other 1.6GHz models such as the Acer Aspire 5002WLMi (199) and marked quite a drop from the 253 result attained from the efio 15B.

On the bright side, battery life was pretty impressive. The optional 9-cell battery delivered 275 minutes (about 4.6 hours) which would definitely provide more than enough juice to last quite some time when you're outdoors tapping away on the keyboard. While the result was good, do note that Twinhead gauges the standard 6-cell Lithium-ion to be good for 3 hours.

Service And Support
The Durabook comes with a three-year limited warranty--the first covers parts and labor while the second and third extend to only labor. As the Singapore Web site still isn't up, users can choose to rely on the global site, though the information doesn't seem too updated. When searching for downloads like drivers and manuals, you have to look under efio 15B instead of Durabook. Even when you choose efio 15B, no record appears to exist for the manual or utilites, though you can still get the necessary drivers.

Along with Windows XP Professional Edition, the Twinhead includes a variety of software such as CyberLink PowerDVD, Trend Micro Internet Security, Nero OEM Suite, the product recovery disc and a Utilities CD.