S$2999
Product Summary
7.5
out of 10View score
The bad: Zippo for business security features; poor keyboard tactile feedback; cable connection to optical drive is poorly implemented.
The bottom line: If a business-looking ultraportable with consumer features is what you are looking for, this NEC does the trick.
Read full review of the NEC Versa S1100 »
Average User Rating
from 1 users
10
out of 10CNET Asia Review
Though the S1100 is positioned as a commercial notebook, the security features such as data encryption seen on ThinkPads and hard disk protection are almost non-existent. However, if a business-looking ultraportable with consumer features is what you are looking for, this NEC might fit your needs. The good performance and battery duration will definitely make your life that much easier.
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The first impression of the NEC S1100 is generally positive. Though the ultraportable uses a plasticky-looking material for its 272 x 237.5 x 31.5mm frame, the laptop feels robust and we loved the very light 1.41kg weight which includes the 6-cell battery. However, the 390g external optical drive didn't impress us too much with its size and equally bulky connecting cable sporting a power and USB connection at either end. With regard to the 12.1-inch XGA display, it is a standard non-reflective type which uses two latches to hold the screen down.
While the keys are well laid out, their shallow depth was a pain on our fingers. The touchpad comes with an interesting set of mouse buttons and a scroller, flanked by a very comfortable palm rest indented with tiny holes. The dedicated volume control and Wi-Fi switch are non-existent so you'll have to activate them with the help of the Function button. As for the port layout, NEC put the slots mostly on the left or right edges which worked for us.
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Features
Update: We initially mentioned that our test unit runs on the ULV 733 processor (1.1GHz) with 256MB RAM and an 80GB drive. This is incorrect. The model we reviewed has the specs of the retail unit.
The S1100 unit we reviewed runs on the new Centrino platform (formerly codenamed Sonoma) with the ultra-low voltage (ULV) 753 processor (1.2GHz), 512MB DDR2 SDRAM and a 60GB hard disk. As mentioned, the unit runs on an external optical drive supporting DVD/CD-RW which can be cumbersome should you need to use the drive everyday. The video memory of up to 128MB, managed by Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900, is shared with the system memory which could tax the on-board 512MB RAM quite a bit. You may thus want to consider adding more RAM into the single DIMM slot that's available.
There's quite a good range of ports such as three USB 2.0, FireWire and even a CompactFlash (CF) card slot which add to the standard VGA-out, Ethernet, modem and audio jacks. While CF is welcomed, the most common format--Secure Digital (SD)-- is missing and so is the S-video option, but for such a tiny frame, the expansion choices are good enough for us. The NEC allows a connection to 802.11b/g wireless networks but opts out of Bluetooth and infrared which limits your devices which you can link up with.
Though this is a commercial notebook, you get none of the fancy features usually associated with them on the S1100. While the ThinkPads have an Active Protection System to shut down the hard drive from excessive jerks and the HPs have the ProtectTools suite to protect data, NEC has not implemented anything to suggest any semblence to a business notebook.
Performance And Battery Life
We used MobileMark 2002 to gauge performance and battery life of the notebook which churned out a set of pretty good results. The S1100 (ULV 1.2GHz) obtained a 179 score effectively beating all the other ultraportables in the ULV 1.1GHz category.
| BAPCo MobileMark2002 performance rating (NEC Versa S1100 runs on 512MB RAM; the rest use 256MB RAM) |
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We were more than satisfied with the 305 minutes (slightly over 5 hours) of battery life achieved by the NEC, which also met its claim of at least 5 hours. This sits very well when compared with the other ultraportables.
| BAPCo MobileMark2002 battery life (in minutes) |
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Service And Support
The S1100 comes with a standard one-year international warranty which includes parts and labor and, once again, we wanna gripe--why not three years' coverage? The necessary drivers for the S1100 can be found under the Service and Support Web page. There are no customer forums or Web chats, but you still get useful resources in the form of the warranty information and online registration along with service hotlines and tech support information.
Besides Windows XP Professional Edition, the NEC comes installed with a useful range of software such as Norton AntiVirus 2004, Microsoft Word 2002, CyberLink PowerDVD 5 and Sonic RecordNow! 7. Though this is positioned as a commercial laptop, we were rather surprised by the inclusion of PowerCinema, an interface not unlike Win XP Media Center Edition which provides convenient access to play DVDs, music, photos and videos.
Rate It Now
User Reviews
It is Amaizing
Jan 26, 2006Rating: 10 out of 10 (Perfect)
Pros: It can used for All purposes !!!!
Cons: All features are amaizing and unforgetfull
Opinion:
Its is very port able for business purpoe very good for It Profesionals Wonderfull for multimedia and gaiming purpose ! i Realy liked the Combo box option in it very ideal for multimedia !!!
Having high memory Graphics make is easy for gaiming. NEC display are always very good and wonderful!
I Realy Liked It Gash i won it !!!!
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