Get your cheap as chips Centrino today

THANKS TO Thanks to Dylan Farrow for pointing me to the cheapest 17-inch monitor from Aria for a measly £199 including VAT here.

The Intel Centrino Platform has changed the way people work on the move. Not necessarily because it has the best performance around, but surely because of the sheer marketing force of Intel. Even if it is clocked at a lower speed compared to the Pentium IV, the Pentium-M seems to be a supercharged steroid-enabled Pentium III with the Dothan core offering much welcomed improvements like a 90nm process, 2MB L2 cache, faster integer division and enhanced register access manager.

A comparison of the older Banias core and the general perfomrance of Pentium-M CPU can be found at the Boy Wonder's site. He's just got wed, you know.

But the Centrino platform encompasses more than the CPU. Also in the dowry is the i855GM chipset and an Intel Wireless PRO mini PCI card wireless ethernet. This trio has helped launching the Hotspot trend as well as promoting internet on the move. Also the Centrino seems to mark the welcomed end of the floppy disk drive as all notebooks featured here offer it in option.

UK
Medion might not be well known in the UK except to INQ readers, but it is one of the largest European PC Manufacturers. Komplett has cut its price on some Medion Laptops and is selling a Centrino Medion Laptop for £899. Most noticeable is the 128MB Radeon 9700 mobility GPU that powers its graphic section. It is enough to play Doom III indecently on the move.

Amongst improvements on previous ATI models is the 0.13µ (micron) process, ATI Overdrive, Smoothvision and Smartshade as well as a little known function known as VPU recover. The rest of the laptop specs is more than respectable. A widescreen-format 15.4-inch LCD TFT capable of displaying 1200x800 pixels. It supports Dual View and also carries a S-Video TVout. The processor used is a Intel Pentium M 1.5GHz with 1MB cache.

Memory is on the low side with 256MB PC2700 memory while a 40GB hard disk spinning at a low 4200rpm is used as secondary storage. Other interesting features include a DVD+R/W Writer, Wireless LAN and wired Lan, AC97 5.1 Channel Sound, Integrated Stereo Speakers, a Modem, four USB 2.0 ports as well as Windows XP Home.

Real Life autonomy should be noticeably higher than most competitors thanks to a 6AH, 9 cell Li-Ion Battery. Warranty is on par with the industry's average with two year support. Such a system should outpace a system like the £749.99 P4 2.8 EI Systems on sale at PC world which while it may be cheaper, has an outdated integrated video module which shares memory with the system. µ

Singapore
IBM has one of the cheapest Centrino Laptops in Singapore at S$1999. The IBM Thinkpad R50e is a surprisingly cheap quality laptop offering exceptional value for money. For the price, you get an Intel Pentium M 715 1.5GHz with 256MB memory, 30GB hard disk drive, a DVD-ROM drive, a 14.1-inch screen, Intel Extreme graphics 2 courtesy of the i855GM, Windows XP home, integrated wired and dual-band wireless Ethernet - 802.11 b/g, a modem and two USB 2.0 ports . The CPU features a larger 2MB L2 cache, is based on the newer Dothan Core consuming a meager 21w power, lesser than the older Banias core.

At six pounds avoirdupois, the R50e is slithly lighter than other models you find in the market. D-Nexus also throw in a six month warranty and a standard notebook carrying case. In terms of features, the notebook certainly impresses for the price. it has decent capabilities and will satisfy most users. µ

USA
Usual suspect Computergeeks is selling what seems to be one of the cheapest Centrinos on the planet and certainly the best value for money around. The Averatec 5110X laptop might feature the older Banias Pentium M running at only 1.3Ghz, but it compensates its slower speed with 512MB DDR memory, a 40GB hard disk and a DVD writer. At $994, it is cheap.. very cheap.

On top of that you get a 15-inch TFT screen, integrated 10/100Mbit network LAN and Wireless LAN as well as a modem. Weighing in at 6.3 pounds with standard battery, Windows XP home, Firewire, 32MB memory integrated graphics and three USB 2.0 ports, it's not light. The battery though is on the low side with a smallish 4.4Ah. If you plan to buy this laptop, various drivers are available here. The Averatec 5110 is only one inch thick, it comes with 90 day factory warranty and its silver colour may seem plasticky but it will certainly prove to be a worthy notebook. µ

La Belle
The Nec Versa M500 is a surprisingly cheap Centrino Laptop at €1,019. It has a four-in-one multi card reader but no floppy disk drive. Also absent from the technical specs is a writer. Only a CDROM drive is available. The rest of the list is pretty standard. A 15-inch TFT XGA-capable screen is coupled with 32MB Intel integrated graphics chipset, the Intel Integrated Extreme Graphics . The Intel Pentium M 1.4Ghz comes with 1MB = older Banias core. The 6.6Ah battery is a welcomed boost to autonomy as is the slightly lower weight of 2.6Kg. 256MB and a 20GB hard disk round up the list of specs. Finally, two speakers, four USB 2.0 ports, TVO while connectivity is good with integrated wireless 802.11b, wired LAN as well as a modem are included. Worthy noting also is the fact that Windows XP Professional has been included. "Overall, though, it's what you get for the price that makes this a great product for the budget conscious buyer" said PC Magazine in a review last January. µ