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Posted by
Boby Crundwell
on April 25, 2001
The high-end of the
mobile market is currently getting a lot of attention, with
faster Speedstep Pentium III processors coming out everytime
and now even more with the introduction of the GeForce2 GO.
However, for most of
us, those products will be well out of our reach. We need to
look at the low-end. Despite the introduction of a special
power-saving K6-2, the performance of this chip in gaming
applications is still dire when compared to Intel’s
offerings. So today we look at two Mobile-Celeron laptops
that are selling in great quantities, the Celeron 500 based
FIC A430 and the Toshiba Satellite Pro 4270/ 4310.
The Toshiba Satellite
Pro 4270 and the Umax ActionBook 653T. The ActionBook is
fitted with a 14.1” TFT, and the Satellite Pro has extra
64 Megs of RAM.
FIC? Never heard
of them
You have probably
never heard of FIC as a notebook manufacturer, actually they
don’t sell laptops directly. They are an OEM (original
equipment manufacturer) making the laptops for various other
manufacturers, including Umax, Tiny, Time and Rock. In fact
the unit I am looking at is the Umax ActionBook 653T.
Toshiba in the other
hand, manufacture all their laptops, which means they will
not be sold under another manufacturers´ name. Note however
that their 4200 series models were re-launched this year as
the 4300 series. They are basically the same, but with new
“trendy” casing, a bigger hard drive and a slightly
faster processor.
First Impressions
The FIC is certainly
the better looking of the two, with its stylish brown
plastic casing and clear-cut sides. The unit feels quite
sturdy for it’s size, and nothing really looks out of
place on it. A quick survey of the back reveals a small
array of ports, including serial, parallel, PS/2 DSUB and
S-Video. Two USB ports are to be found on the left side of
base, whilst the two “Type II PC Card” expansion slots
and the V.90 modem are on the right hand side. At the front
we have audio input and output and the IRDA port.
A
first look of the Toshiba gives the impression that it is a
lot bigger than it actually is. The unit does not catch the
eye like the FIC does, but is nonetheless smart in its own
way. It is marginally heavier than the FIC, and has a few
subtle curves to it; I think these are what make it seem so
big. The back of the Toshiba seems more featured, although
in reality it adds little more than is on the FIC. There are
serial, parallel, PS/2, DSUB, Composite-video, USB and IRDA
ports. As with the FIC, the V.90 modem port can be found on
the right side.
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