The good: Exceptional battery life; strong chassis able to withstand up to 300kg/f of pressure; strong security features; holds an integrated optical drive despite its light weight; bright LED-backlit screen.

The bad: Weak warranty terms; no spill-resistant keyboard; pretty expensive for an average feature set.

The bottom line: The NEC Versa S9100 is too costly for an ultraportable with middling features. Its key redeeming features, however, lie in the exceptionally strong chassis as well as impressive battery life.

Read full review of the NEC Versa S9100 »

By Darius Chang, CNET Asia
May 22, 2008

One of the first things which popped out of the Versa S9100 press release was the fact that the top cover is able to withstand 300kg per square feet of pressure. Considering that its closest competitor, the Panasonic ToughBook CF-W7, is rated at 100kg, we found NEC's claims mighty impressive.

One might wonder why the Japanese test their semi-rugged business laptops for pressure when no one in their right minds would want to use a several-thousand-dollar investment as a seat cushion. One reason is that the public train system in Japan is so packed during rush hour that station attendants actually push and squeeze commuters through the door much like sardines in a can. So you can imagine the kind of pressure a laptop in a haversack may experience. The Versa S9100 is built to survive such an environment, but you pay a hefty premium for its tough design as well as long battery life.

Design

At 1.3kg, the glossy black body of the Versa S9100 is as light as the ToughBook CF-W7, though significantly slimmer with a footprint of 292 x 214 x 29.8mm despite its rather blocky appearance. Going with the trend, the top cover is coated with a glossy finish which is a fingerprint magnet. We wish designers would stop putting high-maintenance designs on ultraportables which gets manhandled on a regular basis.





As previously mentioned, the Versa S9100 is rated to withstand pressures of up to 300kg per square feet. As such, the build quality is excellent and solid, besides the fact the the machine was designed, tested and manufactured entirely in Japan. The latchless LCD is held in place by the tension of the hinge which feels tight and keeps the screen angled just right. The keyboard is smaller than the excellent version found on the ThinkPad X61, though typing on it is comfortable enough for long emails and documents. We like the black trackpad which fits in with the rest of the laptop, though the silver buttons look a little cheap and smudge easily.

Special mention must be made of an unusually large latch found on the front of the chassis. With its size, we expected this latch to perform a vital or significant function, but all it did was to eject the PCMCIA card. This design element is a little out of place considering that most use a smaller and less obtrusive spring-loaded button.

Features

Despite its high price, the Versa S9100 has an average feature set for a corporate portable. Data security is handled by the fingerprint and TPM security chip combo, while the harddisk is protected with an accelerometer. This detects unusual acceleration and parks the reader head to prevent scratching the magnetic media. Bucking the trend is the omission of an integrated Webcam which some professionals would have appreciated for video-conferencing.



Despite its light weight, a DVD writer hides under the hood and handles any flavor of DVD and CDs save for the DVD-RAM format. The 12.1-inch widescreen display is lit by LED lights, which give brighter output while reducing power consumption. The graphics engine is powered by an integrated Intel X3100 chipset, which is more than adequate for most business needs outside of intensive image or video editing. External displays are handled via the VGA-out port. Unusual in this day and age of multiformat card readers, the memory slot in this Versa can read only SD/MMC cards.



The Wi-Fi radio is able to handle any standard currently in the market (802.11a/b/g/n) for Internet access, while Bluetooth handles short-range communications. There is no modem present, though the more common Gigabit Ethernet port is available. There are two USB 2.0 and a Type II PC Card slot for external peripherals.

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