I always feel that laptops should be the same as desktop computers, pursuing high configuration and high performance. In fact, this is a complete misunderstanding: for most people, a notebook is just a tool that provides people with services, bringing convenience to users in daily work, study, and occasional entertainment. The current mainstream configurations are more than enough to meet such requirements, and there is no need to pursue high-end machines with top-level configurations.
Or some users have a great desire for a notebook, thinking that it will really be as advertised, capable of mobile audio-visual entertainment at any time, and provide good gaming performance. Then I have to break your dream, because it is basically unrealistic. Because mobility and performance themselves are very contradictory, it is like what we usually call a "double-edged sword." Mobile laptops are usually those with 12-inch screens or smaller. These products are indeed excellent in terms of mobility, but the low internal configuration undoubtedly affects their performance. I would like to ask, among the thin and light models on the market, how many have independent graphics cards? If you want excellent performance, a powerful "core" is indispensable. You may have seen in some news that the weight of notebooks with terrible performance is also very "terrible", not to mention the battery. Battery life is up. Therefore, users should not blindly pursue the ultra-thinness of laptops. If you really need the portability of laptops, please slightly lower your performance requirements. This will make the choice much easier and you will have more choices. .
The author’s point of view is that when buying a notebook, you should still choose according to your needs and choose the appropriate model based on your actual usage. For users like me who go to work during the day and go online at night to read news, the popular Centrino Celeron on the market can meet their needs. As for graphics cards, as long as they do not run large-scale 3D games, the current 855GM chip A set of integrated graphics is enough. As for portability, I also carry my beloved notebook between work and home every day, carrying an extra weight of 2.3kg. However, as long as it is not impossible for the entire journey, my not-so-tall body can still bear it :)
Beware of Li Gui and distinguish between true and false
The "ghost" mentioned here refers to "Li Gui". Since there is a relatively large price difference between parallel imports and licensed products, when purchasing some foreign brand notebooks, some dealers will use parallel imports as licensed products and then make a profit on the price difference. This is particularly cautious for users who are not very experienced. During the peak promotion season at the end of the year, many merchants use parallel imports as licensed products to carry out ultra-low price promotions. Consumers are often attracted by the prices and are easily fooled. Take IBM's T series notebooks as an example. A licensed product sells for about 17,500 yuan, while a parallel import with the same configuration costs only about 13,000 yuan, or even lower. It is this huge price difference that induces dealers to sell "Li notebooks". ghost".
Although there is not much difference in quality between parallel imports and licensed products, there are differences in warranty and after-sales service. This is particularly important for laptops. Think about a computer bought for tens of thousands of yuan. , it was accidentally damaged once, and the repair cost is as high as several thousand yuan. Do you want me to repair it, or not? For example, both IBM and HP introduced new warranty policies in 2004, clearly stating that they would not provide warranty for parallel-imported notebooks. This caused the machines that were once globally guaranteed to lose their protection. Consumers must be careful.
In fact, there is still a way to distinguish between "Li Gui" and "Li Kui". First, identify the specific model on the fuselage and packaging box. Each brand has rules for naming the model. If the buyer does not understand it, he should ask a friend for clarification. Take an IBM notebook as an example: "2WU", " Specific models such as "1WA" and "8YH" not only describe the configuration, but also indicate the country or region in which it should be sold. U - represents the United States; A - represents Australia; H represents Hong Kong. If it is a licensed IBM notebook sold in China, the last letter of its specific model should be "C" - China. It is relatively difficult to forge this label, so as long as you look at the model number, you can basically know it.
Another trick is to directly call the manufacturer's after-sales service hotline: International brand notebooks now have 800 toll-free numbers in China. Through this phone number, you can find out the after-sales service status of a notebook, and let the parallel-imported notebooks die immediately.
Recognize the gifts clearly and choose wisely
Generally, after deciding to purchase a certain model of notebook, you will start to discuss the actual price with the dealer. At this time, some JS often uses the trick of sending gifts. Products as large as laptop bags, optical mice, or as small as cameras or USB flash drives are sometimes not delivered individually but as complete sets, making you feel as if you are taking a huge advantage. At this time, you should calm down and not be fooled by dealers' "gifts" offensive.
There is an old saying that "the wool comes from the sheep". No one does business at a loss, so these gifts are not in vain. If you encounter this situation, it means at least the following three situations may exist: First, there is still room for "bargaining" (bargaining) on ??the price of this notebook, or there may be greater sweetness by the dealer. Secondly, during the New Year promotion, many consumers will be given a second battery or valuable gifts when they buy a notebook. The value of these gifts is hundreds or thousands of yuan. The dealers deliberately deceive them in order to give other gifts. Gifts increase the price of notebooks; thirdly, some thin and light notebooks use external optical drives, and the price of the optical drive will also be included in the quotation, and the price of this external optical drive is more than a thousand yuan. If it is used by JS If you use the gift method to "substitute the pillars", then the gain outweighs the loss.
Another point is that JS has negotiated a price with you. Seeing that you didn’t pay attention to the gifts, JS secretly kept these good things. For example: ASUS notebooks will be worth 800 during promotions. A variety of carry-on cases are given away; Great Wall Notebook has also carried out activities to give away bicycles and batteries, etc. Therefore, when buying a laptop during the Spring Festival, be sure to ask about the gifts. Generally, during festival promotions, manufacturers will have some gifts, ranging from U disks and MP3s to batteries and original bags, which are all very practical. If you don't care, some unscrupulous JS will probably take it for yourself. The author has seen some JSs keep the gifts when selling notebooks of a certain domestic brand, and then resell them and make a small profit.
Avoid advocating for foreigners and choose rationally
Some consumers have a lot of "superstitious" attitudes towards foreign brands and believe that as long as they are foreign products, they are good. This is really Not a small misunderstanding. The author admits that foreign brands have their own uniqueness in technology research and development and appearance design, but a major advantage of domestic brands is their high cost performance.
In fact, today's market competition is becoming more and more fierce. In addition to price competition, there is also fierce competition among manufacturers in terms of technology, styling and after-sales. Through competition, some of the larger domestic laptop brands are now relatively mature, and they all have models that can compete with foreign brands in terms of product quality and product appearance. From the prices reflected in the market, we can find that whether it is business, entertainment or thin and light notebooks, there is a considerable price difference between foreign products and domestic products.
And foreign brands have a strong tendency to grab money in the after-sales field. In contrast, the after-sales service of domestic products has been much improved. For example, Lenovo, Founder, TCL, Great Wall, etc. all provide 800 toll-free numbers. Some companies that fail to provide 800 numbers basically provide free online consultation. Online warranty, email consultation or toll-charge after-sales service. Therefore, the gap between domestic notebooks and foreign notebooks is narrowing, and is even on par with international brands, giving us more confidence to trust our own brands.
Summary
Having said so much, I just hope that readers will be well aware of it when choosing a laptop. After all, the domestic consumption level has not yet reached the level where you can buy a laptop as you like. , so careful selection is essential. Finally, the author is here to wish everyone a happy new year, and hopes that through this article, readers who want to buy a laptop before and after will be able to buy a product that they are satisfied with.
One of the taboos: Pretending to understand and being self-righteous
I have a friend who went to buy a laptop alone last year. He saw a model that was suitable for him. He wanted to buy it but felt that it was 24 times faster. The CD-ROM seemed a bit outdated compared to desktop computers, so I asked the salesperson how much it would cost to switch to a 50-speed one (notebooks currently do not have a 50-speed optical drive). Let me ask: Can people who buy like this avoid being ripped off? Before buying a computer, you must do some knowledge reserve. These days, as the profit of a single product is getting lower and lower, people who sell things have become skilled. Once a rookie is discovered, he will be killed without mercy. For example, the salesperson knows that this person who doesn't even know basic knowledge about laptops must not know to consider those "portable microcomputers" that look like laptops but use desktop CPUs and motherboard chipsets. It seemed that the configuration was a little higher and the price was a lot cheaper. After hearing the recommendation from the salesperson, I bought it immediately and felt that I had made a lot of money. After using it for a while, I realized that my laptop looked different from others. It didn’t have a 1394 port or even a PCMCIA expansion slot. It was simply a weirdo. But there is no regret medicine in the world, it doesn’t work well when used, and it’s worthless when sold. What should I do?
What I want to say here is that if a user who is not very knowledgeable needs to buy a notebook by himself, he can find a knowledgeable friend to accompany him and help him make reference. Of course, it’s best to do some knowledge reserve yourself! Otherwise, I would still be grateful if I was ripped off. Of course, we are not asking you to become a notebook expert just to buy a notebook! It is always good to have a general understanding, unless you are very rich and can buy a very high-end laptop, and you don't care about the thousands of dollars or you can go to a big-name specialty store to buy it.
Taboo No. 2: Being unrealistic and following the trend
For laptop computers, the trends are only those that have just been promoted and advertised a lot, but this is not necessarily the case. Very good. Many friends now buy the ultra-low-end Centrino, which may explain this problem to a certain extent. Some time ago, some of the popular domestic brands were selling Centrino laptops with low prices below 10,000 yuan. Through comparison, we can also find that many of them have configurations that can only meet the basic operation of Centrino and Windows XP. It cannot be said to experience the superiority of Centrino. At worst, the battery life is better, but the performance may be much worse than the P4 model at the same price.
The key is to look at your needs. If you particularly like new experience technology, you need support from your pocket. Don’t buy the cheapest new product. The performance of the ultra-cheap Centrino may not be as good as some of the P3 notebooks in the same price range. In this era where there are only wrong buys and no wrong sells, we must grasp the principle of "enough is enough". There are so many good things, but the trend will never catch up.
First of all, make it clear what you are buying a laptop for, and what requirements you have for machine performance, mobile performance, and battery life, and then slightly expand on the basic requirements. Basically, you compare The right machine.
Taboo No. 3: Random haggling
Many people buy too much in the free market and are accustomed to the shopping theory of “cutting off the price and getting another 20% off” when buying laptops. Of course it's good to make a desperate counteroffer, and it's okay to pay back a little bit. After all, it's not that easy to make money. If you give less, you will have more to spend. However, you have to know that buying a laptop is not buying groceries. Before 2000, you could make thousands of dollars selling a mid-to-high-end laptop. But that’s no longer the case these days. Only high-end brands like IBM and Sony can make huge profits. Generally speaking, the profits of first-tier foreign brands such as Toshiba, NEC, and Sharp are quite considerable. The profits of most domestic notebooks are not very high (of course, they are much higher than those of desktop computers sold in computer stores).
When I say this, maybe you don’t know very well what kind of notebook you can pay back below the quoted price, because there is no unified standard for this thing. The only thing you can do is "shop around and avoid losing money", walk more, ask more, and look more. Of course, this must be compared with the same model and the same configuration in the same brand. If your time is precious, just find a reputable dealer. Haggling randomly will only let others know that you are not good at it, and it will also waste time. In the end, the merchant will not be able to do business and you will not be able to buy anything.
Taboo No. 4: Superstitious evaluation
Nowadays, each large and small media has its own evaluation department, which specializes in third-party evaluation of some products, and then publishes the evaluation results through various channels. To the public. Many friends now look for relevant reviews everywhere when buying digital products. This is good, as it allows you to fully understand the detailed information of the machine, but in addition, you still need to think carefully about the choice, and you cannot blindly follow the evaluation.
The evaluation results are just a suggestion provided by the media for users to choose from a wide range of products when purchasing. You can't let reviews completely dominate your thinking, so we consumers should never see a review saying that this notebook is good, and choose this one immediately. Everyone has different needs for machines, and we can only synthesize them based on our own needs. Suggestions from all aspects, so that you can truly choose the most satisfactory product.
Taboo No. 5: Superstitious Advertising
We will not elaborate on this point in detail. There is only one ultimate goal, which is to let you dig into your pocket and seize "Our products are good." ", "Our products are affordable to buy" to encourage consumers to buy. To borrow a common saying, "Don't believe it, don't believe it all." Between belief and disbelief, you need to verify it yourself. You should also pay attention to whether the selling point of the advertisement is what you need.
Taboo No. 6: Blindly following big-name manufacturers
Even big manufacturers have low-end products. Most of these products do not have the configuration and quality advertised by big manufacturers, but these low-end products The prices of products are often equivalent to the prices of mainstream products in the market, so don’t be obsessed with big brands, but choose products that suit you based on reality.
Taboo No. 7: Buying products from informal channels
The parallel imports of laptop computers in the current market are no longer smuggled products in the traditional sense. There are also fake and shoddy products. Refurbished products, etc. There are also products produced by some manufacturers that are targeted at China but have not entered the market through formal channels. This may cause some consumers to think that parallel imports are not much different from regular products. But in fact, the harm caused by parallel imports is very great.
First of all, the operating environment of parallel imports is incompatible with domestic users in many places. Some parallel import laptops do not have a Chinese operating system, or use pirated Chinese operating systems, and before leaving the factory When doing various compatibility and stability tests, they are not tested for the Chinese environment. There are also keyboards that are not in line with Chinese people’s habits. For example, the layout of the Japanese keyboard is completely different from ours. It is difficult to use it. After using it, I am not used to using it in a Chinese environment.
Secondly, parallel imports cannot enjoy genuine system recovery and special software usage and upgrade services.
Thirdly, most parallel imports enjoy normal after-sales service, not to mention international guarantee. Most parallel import dealers are not fixed, and it is impossible to provide spare parts for replacement. To enjoy after-sales service through formal channels, it may cost more and you will not get fair treatment.
Finally, we need to consider whether parallel imports are really cheap and can save the cost of laptops. You need to consider additional expenses such as purchasing genuine software, after-sales service, etc. Therefore, when buying a laptop, don’t look around and see that some of the parallel-imported laptops seem a bit cheaper. Just follow the crowd and buy laptops from informal channels. Nowadays, there are many assembled and refurbished ones, and Japan has professional ones. IBM notebook refurbishment factory, refurbished products are distributed to various countries through informal channels.
Taboo No. 8: Check and test specifications carefully without opening the box
Some friends feel quite satisfied after seeing and trying the prototype, and leave without even opening the box. . Here we introduce several basic steps to check the specifications and configuration for your reference:
1. Check the serial number on the label
Carefully check the serial number on the outer packaging box of the laptop Does the serial number match the serial number on the machine? The serial number on the fuselage is usually on the base of the laptop fuselage. While checking the serial number, you should also check whether it has been altered or re-posted. In addition, when turning on the computer, you must first enter the motherboard BIOS of the laptop and check whether the serial number in the BIOS is consistent with the serial number of the fuselage. If all three numbers are consistent, there is basically no problem with the source of the laptop. If there is any discrepancy, it is undoubtedly parallel imports or assembled goods.
For notebook computers that enter the domestic market through formal channels, their official agents will usually have a special label on the bottom indicating the product model. For example, IBM's ThinkPad laptop has a product model and serial number on the bottom of the machine. The last digit of the product model ends with C, which means China. You can enjoy three years of global joint warranty, so you don’t have to worry even if you take it abroad. If not, it is a parallel import. Therefore, after selecting a notebook, you must first look for the label and match the number. Otherwise, if you use licensed money to buy a parallel import, you will not only lose a lot of money, but you will also not be able to enjoy many services. Once there is a problem with your favorite machine, it will be tragic. It is best to go online or call to check, which is safer.
2. Outer packaging
First, check whether the outer packaging is complete and correct. Generally, after a laptop is unpacked, there are also power adapters, related accessories, product manuals, joint warranty certificates (the number is the same as the notebook number), warranty record cards, etc. In addition, pay attention to whether the operating system recovery disk and installation disk are the same as those of the laptop. The operating system on the machine matches. Look, these levels make it difficult to counterfeit, so be sure to keep your eyes open when buying, and remember to look more carefully!
3. Check the appearance
Check the appearance of the laptop to see if there are any scratches, scratches, cracks, etc., and whether the liquid crystal display (LCD) has scratches, dead pixels, Corrugation, whether the screws have paint peeling off, etc. When purchasing, you should try to find a machine without dead pixels, because dead pixels on the LCD may gradually spread. Appearance is also very important. If you buy something new and it has scratches, it will definitely look unpleasant.
4. Check the battery
What needs to be noted here is that the new laptop battery should be charged no more than 3 times, and the battery capacity should not be higher than 3%. Moreover, dealers generally do not insert the battery during testing, but connect it directly to the power socket. The battery is too high or the machine has been charged and discharged too many times, which proves that it is at least a machine that has been used by others. Sony and IBM's battery management software can also tell how many times the battery has been charged. In addition, there are some special detection software, which we will talk about later. This must be checked on the spot to prevent future troubles.
Taboo No. 9: Not checking accessories and gifts
When purchasing, you must also carefully check whether the product accessories included in the box, the operating system and drivers included in the box are correct. Same as the instructions for the accessory package in the manual. Also check whether there are any gifts that should be available, such as some brands giving away backpacks, USB flash drives, mice, memory, etc.
If there are no problems with the product confirmation, try again to see if there are any abnormalities in the operation of the operating system; whether the sound effects and images of multimedia playback are normal; whether MODEM/LAN Internet access is normal; whether the cooling fan is working normally; whether the laptop mouse is positioned properly Normal; whether the transformer (ADAPTER) is charging normally; whether the fan noise is acceptable, etc. In addition, if the laptop is equipped with a DVD drive, the DVD drive's disk reading must also be checked. If it is a CD-RW, its ability to burn discs should be tested.
Nowadays, various manufacturers and agents have a lot of promotional activities, and they usually give away some practical things, such as wireless network cards, bags, etc. Don't forget to ask the dealer for it. It's free of charge, and the cost has already been calculated on you.
Taboo No. 10: No written commitment to after-sales service
Laptop computers are different from desktop computers in that they are very delicate, so after-sales service is very important. Regardless of the brand, you must consider what repairs are promised when it comes to your laptop. When purchasing, don’t be fooled by PL’s MM’s rhetoric. Pay attention to asking these things clearly: how long is the after-sales service period, what is the specific content of the after-sales service, and how long is the maintenance and replacement cycle generally.
Generally speaking, notebook products mainly come with one year of free replacement parts and three years of limited after-sales service. The maintenance and replacement cycle of most products is about 15 days. When purchasing a notebook, it is recommended to choose some imported brands and domestic products with good after-sales service, such as IBM, Lenovo, Founder, Acer, Asus, and Toshiba, which have excellent after-sales services.
Moreover, IBM has launched the Blue Express service in this regard, with a three-year nationwide warranty. On the other hand, domestic manufacturers still have a long way to go in terms of repair quality and the establishment of repair stations, especially those who want to buy and have just entered this field. Friends of the brand must inquire about the after-sales service before paying, and you will not regret paying the bill.
After all, a consumer expenditure of 10,000 yuan is not a small amount, and no matter how good the quality is, it cannot guarantee that there will be no problems for several years. Therefore, before spending money, do not forget to ask for a written warranty commitment from the merchant, that is, Get a formal warranty certificate issued by the merchant. Check whether the conditions of the quality guarantee are reasonable, confirm whether the merchant can return, exchange, repair, etc. when there is a problem with the product, and also confirm the warranty period, repair location, time required for repair, etc. Haha, you also need to do a final check Whether the guarantee letter is stamped by the merchant. Don't worry, many things will happen unexpectedly.
In addition, some friends don’t care about anything when buying a laptop. They just go to several sellers and compare prices while ignoring other things. This is also very bad. It is also very important to make a budget before buying a laptop so that you can manage your money well. Okay, this article ends here. Friends who want to buy a laptop should do it now!
1 Look at the brand, IBM is the sturdiest, and DELL is the best cost-effective; it is best not to buy domestic products, as quality is an issue;
2 Look at the weight (the weight of the notebook is a very important indicator) ) preferably below 1.8KG
3 Look at the battery, preferably an 8-cell battery that can work for more than 4-5 hours
4 Look at the CPU, preferably a Pentium Centrino, save power
5 Look at the hard disk, it is best to have a speed of 5400 rpm or above;
6 The best memory is 512, because the 256 in the notebook is very slow
7 It is best to touch the mouse
8 It is best to have a camera on the top
9 Check carefully if there are any dead pixels on the screen.
10 How long is the free replacement period, preferably more than one year
11 The after-sales address must be clear
12 It is best that the machine has a serial port and supports Bluetooth , Gigabit network port, wireless network card
13 One-click recovery must be learned from the manufacturer; it is convenient for you to reinstall yourself
In fact, the architecture of laptop computers is almost the same as that of desktop computers , but in terms of design, the former also needs to consider volume, weight, power consumption, etc., and performance is placed in a secondary position. Although the architecture is the same, the hardware used in laptop computers is very different from that of desktop computers.
Since you already have the conditions to use a laptop, in addition to paying attention to appearance when purchasing, you should not ignore the hardware performance! Therefore, the author will first introduce to you the main hardware configuration of the laptop.
(1) Processor
Unlike desktop computers, Intel has an overwhelming advantage in the notebook computer market. Its only competitor is Transmeta. (Transmeta) and AMD, but neither is strong enough to challenge its lead.
1. Intel
Intel launched the Mobile series of processors for the notebook computer market, including Mobile Pllll, Mobile P4 and the latest Pentium M (P-M for short). The first two models also have corresponding low-end models Mobile Celeron. Except for the unique design of the P-M processor, the rest of the architecture is similar to desktop models of the same level.
However, Pllll laptops have gradually disappeared from the market. The mainstream products are Intel's ultra-power-saving and high-performance P-M processors specially designed for the laptop market, coupled with specially designed motherboard chips. group and built-in wireless network components, making it a popular "Centrino" mobile solution.
It is worth mentioning that some manufacturers (usually manufacturers that solicit low prices) use desktop versions of processors in notebook computers in order to reduce costs. Although this can achieve higher performance, the fatal weakness is that it does not support power management functions. In other words, it can only run at the marked speed and cannot automatically reduce the operating frequency to save power, thus greatly reducing the battery life.
2. Transmeta
In the notebook computer market, Intel's biggest competitor is not AMD, but another smaller company, Transmeta. This is a company that mainly produces notebook computer processors. Unlike Intel's approach of improving desktop models into mobile models, Transmeta has taken low power consumption and low heat as its ultimate goal from the beginning of the design, so it has been very good at both power management and heating. It has inherent advantages in terms of performance, which is difficult to compare with Intel mobile processors before P-M. Therefore, Transmeta's Joshua (Crusoe) series processors have become the preferred processor for many Japanese notebook computers, among which many of Sony's (SONY) Sub-Notebook products use Crusoe processors.
However, to put it bluntly, although the Crusoe processor has obvious advantages in terms of power consumption, it does not use the x86 architecture, so when it runs the PC operating system, it must use the simulation architecture method , thus greatly reducing performance. In other words, the performance of Crusoe processors with the same frequency is much different than that of Intel processors. These differences are not a big problem in general applications, but they will be subject to many limitations when using 3D image processing, multimedia playback, image editing, file compression and decompression, etc., and they are even more inadequate under the Windows XP operating system that consumes more resources. . So when Intel launched the P-M series of processors designed specifically for notebook computers, Transmeta's competitiveness was far less than before. However, Transmeta has just launched a new mobile processor called "Efficeon" in 2004. It is said that the performance has been improved, but because there are very few products on the market (only 14 second- and third-tier manufacturers support it), it has yet to be tested by the market.
3. AMD
Several AMD desktop computer processors have also launched notebook computer versions, including the Mobile Duron series, Mobile Athilon XP series and the latest 64bit Mobile Athlon 64.
Compared with Intel's mobile processors, the PowerNow power management technology supported by the AMD Mobile series can control the frequency and operating voltage of the processor at the same time. It is more advanced than Intel's Mobile series and can automatically It is necessary to set up to 21 different states to balance performance and power consumption.
However, although the performance and price of AMD mobile processors are quite good, and the power management functions surpass Intel's similar products, its share in the notebook computer market has never seen a significant improvement, and even lags behind. In Transmeta’s Crusoe series. Currently, notebook computers from famous brands and second- and third-tier manufacturers in the United States, Japan, and Taiwan are using AMD mobile processors, but the proportion is still very low.
2) Graphics card
The graphics card is another piece of hardware inside a laptop that is very different from a desktop computer. It is also the hardware that is farthest from desktop computers in terms of performance. Laptops have always been mostly used for business purposes and also take into account some simple audio-visual entertainment. Therefore, they only require general 2D display capabilities and poor 3D gaming capabilities. So far, more than 90% of laptops still use graphics chips with built-in Northbridge chips. In the past two or three years, as the user level of laptop computers has become more and more extensive, the concept of Desktop Replacement has become increasingly important, and the use of laptop computers to play games has become more common.
Since general motherboard chipset manufacturers have always had limited technology in graphics cores, the two major desktop computer graphics chip manufacturers, ATi and nVIDIA, have developed laptop-specific graphics chips with quite powerful 3D capabilities. , such as the Ati MOBILITY RADEPN 9600 and nVIDIA GeForce FX Go 5600, bring laptop 3D display support to the DX9 level.
In addition, in order to meet the mobile office needs of 3D graphics workstation users, ATi and nVIDIA have also launched professional graphics-level MOBILITY FireGL T2 and Quadro FX Go graphics chips respectively. So far, AutoCAD and 3DStudio can be used on laptops. 3D drawing with Max is no longer exclusive to desktop computers!
Of course, taking into account power consumption and heat dissipation issues, mobile graphics cores, regardless of the complexity of the chip, core and memory operating frequencies, etc., still cannot keep pace with desktop computer graphics chips of the same level, but this gap has shrunk significantly.
It is worth mentioning that NVIDIA has also officially launched the MXM (Mobile PCI Express Module) interface standard specially designed for mobile graphics chips, allowing users to upgrade their notebook graphics cards like they upgrade desktop computer graphics cards.
MXM is based on the PCI-Express interface. The data transfer speed is the same as the PCI-E x16 standard, with a maximum of 4GB/s for upstream and downstream. MXM adopts a modular design similar to SO-DIMM (laptop memory) and is available in three different PCB circuit board sizes, namely MXM-I, MXM-II, and MXM-III. NVIDIA has stated that it will open the MXM standard to other manufacturers. Notebook computer companies can freely use the MXM standard to produce different graphics cards, including those of rivals ATi and S3 graphics chips. OEM laptop manufacturers that have expressed support for the MXM standard include Quanta, Aopen, FIC and Tatung, and the products are expected to appear within this year. The prospects are worthy of our attention.
(3) Screen
Currently, the mainstream LCD screen used in desktop computers has a resolution of 1280×1024 for the 17-inch model, and a maximum resolution of 1600×1200 for the 19-inch model. Among laptops, the resolution of many 15-inch LCD screens has reached 1400×1050, and individual 16:10 widescreen laptops even reach 1680×1050.
However, in terms of picture quality, independent LCD monitors for desktop computers are higher than LCD screens for laptop computers. The main reason is that the laptop screen is required to be thin, so both the number and brightness of the backlight light pipes and the processing of backlight scattering are inferior to those of independent LCD monitors. Generally speaking, the brightness of the laptop screen is not uniform enough, especially when the angle changes slightly, it is easy to have the problem of uneven light and dark. In addition, indicators such as viewing angle, maximum brightness and color reproducibility are also at a certain distance from LCD monitors.
(4) Hard drive
Currently, 2.5-inch hard drives have become the main choice for notebook computers?/ca>