CNET Asia Review

This Twinhead is a notebook not to be underestimated. I must admit I did, but beneath the screen lies a notebook which delivers performance which even its more expensive peers such as the Fujitsu LifeBook E8010H cannot match. This desktop replacement impresses with impact protection from drops/vibrations and a spill-proof keyboard which we tested. Connectivity is not totally up to the mark, but overall itÂ’s good value for money.

Design
Twinhead's desktop replacement measures 330 x 297 x 40mm and weighs 3.2kg. The adapter itself weighs 650g. The unit boasts a 15-inch screen supporting a sharp 1400 x 1050 resolution which gives abundant screen space. Despite its bulky proportions, it is a delight to hold and even to brush your hand against the robust magnesium-aluminum casing. The semi-ruggedized notebook includes IMPAX protection technology which is touted to withstand vibrations and impacts that would cause normal laptops to stop functioning. We tested it with a few knocks and a drop test from a height of 5 cm which failed to stop a DVD screening of Taxi. There is no lock for the battery removal switch so if you are are at a construction site, it's possible that the unit could turn off accidentally.

Instead of a pointing stick, a touchpad with a two-directional scroller is used. However, the highlight has to be the keyboard which is actually spill-proof! Water was poured onto the keys and the notebook continued running normally. However, it was strange to find that there is no rubberized material to prevent water from seeping through the covers of the RAM or hard disk drive located on the underside of the laptop.

Several LEDs indicating disk activity and caps/num lock along with the power and wireless LAN buttons are located above the keys. As for the volume control, this sits on the front of the notebook.

Features
The efio! 15B incorporates a top-end Dothan chip, the Pentium M Processor 745 1.8GHz. This Centrino comes with a massive 1GB RAM and a 60GB hard drive. Gamers who desire an integrated graphics card should be happy with the ATI M11 Mobility Radeon 9700 which has 128MB of dedicated memory providing the punch to power Diablo II or Warcraft III.

The standard ports come with this notebook. The front is adorned with FireWire, a SPDIF jack for digital 5.1 surround sound, earphone and microphone jacks along with the volume control. The right edge showcases two USB ports, an S-video out and an inbuilt dual DVD burner supporting DVD±RW and CD-RW. The optical drive features a handy lock to prevent any DVDs from ejecting prematurely. The left side comes with a cable lock slot, a VGA-out, Ethernet, modem, a USB port and a Type II PC Card slot.

A major gripe is the lack of a flash card reader that can read the popular formats such as Secure Digital (SD) or CompactFlash (CF) media. Networking-wise, there's no Bluetooth or infrared either, so marks deducted here. However, 802.11b/g wireless LAN and 10/100 Ethernet are supported.

Performance And Battery Life
The performance rating for this Twinhead using MobileMark 2002 was the highest we have seen thus far. If you thought the performance rating of the Fujitsu LifeBook E8010H (210) or the Asus M6000N (214) was good, the score we attained from the efio! 15B was a whopping 253.

Using 3DMark03, the score was less impressive at 2,441, less than the 2,762 rating of the Acer TravelMate 4001LMi. For a 128MB card, it does not provide as high a score as a 64MB card, which is surprising. A reinstallation of 3DMark03 and a second round of benchmarking produced the same results.

Battery life for the 9-cell battery was disappointing as well. The notebook clocked 209 minutes (3.5 hours). When gauged next to other Centrino notebooks these days, this is an average result.

Service And Support
Packed with Windows XP Professional Edition, the Twinhead includes a limited selection of software such as CyberLink PowerDVD, Nero OEM Suite I, the Efio Product Recovery CD and a Utilities CD. For S$4,099 (US$2,916.81), an anti-virus or maybe a firewall software would be good.

DVD playback can be managed with PowerDVD which plays DVDs. DVD editing is handled by the Nero software which can burn DVD/CDs, make labels and covers among a few useful applications.

The efio! 15B comes with a three-year limited warranty where the first year covers parts and services and the second and third covers labor only. The online support is non-existent as Twinhead does not have a Singapore site. However, downloads for drivers and manuals as well as FAQ are included on the Taiwanese site.

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Twinhead efio! 15B (Pentium M Processor 745 1.8GHz, 1GB RAM)

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