By
Ryan Ho and Joel Durham Jr.
25/06/2002
URL:
http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/notebooks/0,39050495,20002230,00.htm
Let's make this clear
right now: laptops are not ideal gaming PCs. We'll never recommend that
you ditch your Athlon 1.33GHz full-tower PC with 1,024MB of RAM, GeForce3
64MB DDR and liquid-nitrogen cooling system for a laptop.
Unfortunately, it's
really hard to toss that system into a handy carrying case and take it
on the road with you. To some gamers, air travel, road trips and hotel
stays are annoying but necessary facts of life. It hurts to abandon your
gaming PC for an extended period of time (especially halfway through the
Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force campaign or just after you've begun to
feel comfortable with the Apache in Enemy Engaged). But sometimes duty
calls.
Thankfully, multimedia-friendly
notebooks are available at different price levels: if you're lucky, you
can take your favorite games along with you. You shouldn't expect the
same performance you get on your tricked-out desktop system, but if you
know what to look for you won't be stuck with Hearts and Minesweeper on
that five-hour flight to Hong Kong.
We've whipped up
this handy guide to help you pick out and tweak a laptop to enjoy a few
rounds of your favorite titles, and we've even tossed in hands-on evaluation
of the game-worthiness of three multimedia laptops.
Ryan Ho and Joel Durham Jr. had fun toying with these notebooks and regrets having to return them so soon. Got any feedback? Send it.
How
to Shop for a Gaming Laptop
OK, so even though
the best laptops have their share of multimedia capabilities, they won't
match a well-designed desktop system in terms of gaming muscle. We've
established that. Here, then, is what to look for if you're a gamer in
the market for a laptop, hoping to play a few games while you're sitting
in a boring history class or a dull PowerPoint presentation.
The
Guts
As with desktop gaming, a faster processor will result in smoother frame
rates. The processor's voltage requirements, however, will directly affect
the notebook's battery life--and its price. Technologies do exist to prolong
battery life, one of the most popular being Intel's SpeedStep technology.
Featured on mobile Pentium III processors, SpeedStep alters the processor's
clock speed to match the operating system's current processing requirements:
if a 650MHz chip, for example, isn't being heavily used, it will step down
to 500MHz, ready to step back up when extra oomph is needed.
Be sure to get a
minimum of 64MB of RAM; 96MB or 128MB are better choices if you can afford
them.
Go for a big hard
drive. Games are huge, and with games that offer this option, you'll want
to be able to do a full install so the CD-ROM isn't required to play.
Nearly all laptops have floppy drives. Though floppy drives may sound
outdated, they're a handy way to swap small files (that is, saved games)
between your laptop and your desktop. A CD-ROM drive is mandatory, and
a DVD-ROM is nice for watching movies while away from home. Most multimedia
laptops are equipped with DVD-ROM drives and DVD players.
Make sure your laptop
is equipped with a powerful 3D accelerator such as the ATI Rage Mobility
128, Rage Mobility M4 or Nvidia Geforce2 Go. Down the line, expect to
see a mobile version of ATI's Radeon.
Ports
and PCMCIA Slots
Notebooks typically have the same types of external ports that desktop
PCs do: serial, parallel, and USB. They often have a VGA-out port, so
you can connect an external monitor if you're not on the go. You'll usually
find a single PS/2 port, to which you can connect either a mouse or a
keyboard. Other ports you may come across are game ports, FireWire ports
and IR transmitter/receivers. Notebooks will also have PCMCIA ports for
things such as modems, Ethernet cards, and all sorts of other upgrades.
Most laptops have
two PCMCIA ports; make sure the laptop you buy does, and that they're
PCMCIA Type II ports (to ensure compatibility to current PCMCIA products).
Serial ports aren't terribly important anymore, and most recent printers
have USB connections, so parallel ports aren't a priority either. USB
ports are handy, though. So the more a laptop has, the better. Some have
only one, but others offer two or more.
Input
Devices
You're pretty much stuck with a tiny keyboard and a touch pad. Few current
laptops have trackballs or other pointing devices, but most touch pads
are actually pretty handy once you get used to them. Before you buy, make
sure the keyboard is to your liking---some have a snappier feel while
others may be mushy feeling. Also, play with different touch pads as some
may be more sensitive than others.
The
Display
Laptop display technology
is constantly evolving. For gaming, you'll want to get the clearest display
possible, and nothing beats the clarity of a TFT (thin film transistors)
display, which is a type of active matrix display (though the terms are
commonly used interchangeably). Even within this category, there are different
screen sizes, from 12.1 inch to 15 inch, and natural resolutions from
800x600 to 1600x1200. The higher the natural resolution, the more you
can see on your screen at the same time--although they'll look smaller
unless you have a huge screen--which is especially good for strategy games.
Other
Concerns
There are other factors you'll want to take into consideration. Most laptops
have a built-in 56K modem--make sure the one you buy does. If you plan
on lugging your laptop around quite a bit, try to shoot for one that weighs
3kg or less, which is a challenge when you're also looking for a multimedia
machine. Of course, make sure it's equipped with an audio processor and
built-in speakers, but don't expect a live or Memorex experience: the
lightweight speakers common in laptops are adequate at best, although
one of our contenders will offer you a surprise in this department.
A Few Good Laptops
We locked ourselves in a padded room with three multimedia laptops,
a handful of games, a pitcher of kamikazes and, of course, a toilet. The
purpose: to see how well the different games played on laptop computers.
The Contenders
The contenders
were: IBM's ThinkPad A21, Dell's Inspiron 8000 G850U, and Toshiba's Satellite
2800-A621. These laptops represent the most powerful and feature-packed
class of notebooks. They sport top-end processors, 3D graphics accelerators
and TFT displays, and all the standard features such as DVD-ROM drives,
huge hard disk drives, internal speakers and so on.
How We Tested
Other than our usual Sysmark 2000 and battery life benchmarks, we ran
the systems through the 3D Mark 2001 and Quake III Arena benchmarks. The
latter two test the 3D capabilities of the notebooks.
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1. |
Dell
Inspiron 8000 G850U
What
we liked:
Although it has
a lower resolution than the ThinkPad A21p, the 15-inch screen with
a natural resolution of 1400 x 1050 is still top class. Where this
notebook stands out, however, is price. At just S$4,496, the Dell
Inspiron 8000 G850U outperforms the more expensive ThinkPad A21p,
thanks to the Rage Mobility M4 graphics accelerator. As far as "frame
rate per dollar" is concerned, this notebook is hard to beat, and
since Dell's notebooks are configurable, it can even get cheaper if
you can make do with less features.
What
we disliked:
Using this notebook
feels like driving a tank. The controls lack the finesse found in
the other two notebooks, and you're more likely to have aching wrists
and fingers after an extended session of gaming on this notebook,
not to mention some missed shots and wrong orders to your troops.
It's also the heaviest of the lot, at 3.6kg, and its battery won't
last long when you're gaming.
Full
Review |
Benchmarks
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2. |
IBM
ThinkPad A21p
What
we liked:
The size and
the resolution of this screen won our hearts. The natural resolution
is 1600 x 1200 pixels, and if you play lots of strategy games, no
notebook will let you manage your forces better than this. Its battery
life is excellent, allowing constant gaming for more than half the
flight to Hong Kong. It's got a huge HDD (32GB) that'll let you
install entire games into it rather than having to run the game
off the DVD-ROM drive.
The keyboard
is snappy and responsive, and IBM still makes the best TrackPoint
pointing device and buttons. Due to its user friendliness, this
notebook is probably ideal for all but the hardcore 3D games.
What
we disliked:
Of the lot, this
notebook has the slowest 3D performance. It has to be said though,
that it's still head and shoulders above other notebooks. Other
than that, at S$6,184, it's rather pricey, and probably not worth
the money if you just want gaming.
Full
Review |
Benchmarks
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3. |
Toshiba
Satellite 2800-A621
What
we liked:
With its smashing
3D performance, thanks to the GeForce2 Go graphics accelerator, and
built-in sub-woofer, this notebook is probably the best gaming notebook
your money can buy.
What
we disliked:
Although the 15-inch
screen is just as big as what IBM and Dell had to offer, the Satellite
2800-A261 has a natural resolution of 1024 x 768. Its battery life
is disappointing, especially when SpeedStep is disabled. It's also
the most expensive notebook of the lot, at S$6,499.
Full
Review |
Benchmarks
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Hints
for Laptop Gamers
We've said, possibly
too many times, that you won't get the performance out of a laptop that
you will from a good, fixed-location gaming machine. That doesn't mean
there aren't a bunch of little tweaks you can do to maximize your laptop
gaming experience.
Lose
the Fluff
All notebooks come with
scads of bundled software, and most of it is preinstalled. Unfortunately,
most of it also involves little programs that run in the background, hogging
precious resources. Before you start a game, do the three-finger salute
(hit CRTL-ALT-DEL) and, with the exception of Systray and Explorer, highlight
each in the Close Program dialog's list box and click End Task.
Also, make sure Active
Desktop is disabled by right-clicking the desktop, selecting the Active
Desktop option in the Context menu, and un-checking View As Web Page if
it's checked.
Aim
Low
Even if you're used to playing all your games at maximum resolution with
all detail levels at full, don't try that on a laptop. Swallow your pride
and run games at 640 x 480, and dumb down some of the details. The result
will be a better frame rate, a smoother game-playing experience, and a
happier gamer.
Choose
Laptop-Friendly Games
Based on our experience with this article, notebooks are certainly now
capable of playing mainstream 3D games such as Quake III Arena, but don't
get your hopes too high on newer releases, especially those with very
high-quality 3D graphics.
Other than these
games, notebooks should be able to handle most, if not all, Real Time
Strategy (RTS) and Role Playing Games (RPG) without a hitch.
Get
a Mouse
Mice are the most versatile gaming controllers, useful in FPS titles,
RTS games, action games, and even some Sims. Laptop touch pads or other
pointing devices are poor substitutes for real mice. There may not be
room for a mouse on a coach-class tray table, but when you get to the
hotel or the classroom you'll be thrilled to pop a mouse into the PS/2
or USB port. Go with a compact, optical mouse so you won't need to carry
along a mouse pad.
Get
a Spare Battery
Gaming requires a lot of use of power-hungry components such as the hard
drive, the CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive, the processor, the display, and so on.
Constant gaming will kill a battery much faster than word processing or
spreadsheet drudgery. Use the included AC adapter whenever you can, and
if you predict that you'll be away from an outlet for a long time, get
a spare battery and keep it charged. You'll be glad to have the extra
juice when you get the low battery warning just as you're approaching
an end-level boss.
Check
Your Attitude
Have patience with your laptop. It wasn't made for frame rates; it was
made for PowerPoint presentations and composing middle-management memos.
Don't be discouraged when it doesn't respond as quickly as you like, or
if you notice a bit of blur on the flat display screen that will never
appear on your Sony Trinitron at home.
As long as you keep
your expectations realistic, you can entertain yourself without the help
of horrible in-flight light romances or your hotel's regional magazine.
You can take your games on the road with you with a decent multimedia
laptop; just don't expect perfection.
