Digital Trends

Lenovo 3000 V100

June 7th, 2006 | by Alan Dang

System Configuration

Our system was configured with the following equipment:

• Intel Core Duo T2500 CPU (2GHz)

• 1 GB memory (DDR2 667MHz)

• 100 GB Serial ATA HDD 5400 rpm (Hitachi TravelStar 5K100)

• DVD MultiBurner (HLDS GMA-4082N; writes CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD+R DL)

• 12.1" 1280x800 widescreen display (CMO 1210)

• Integrated Intel GMA950 Graphics

• 802.11 a/b/g wireless adapter (Intel 3945)

• Bluetooth (Broadcom BCM2405)

• 1.3 megapixel webcam (ALI m560x BisonCam)

• Motorola SM56 Data FAX Modem

• 10/100 Fast Ethernet (Realtek RTL8139/810x)

• Realtek High Definition Audio (ALC883)

• Fingerprint Reader (Authentec AES1610)

• 5-in-1 memory card reader

• 6-cell lithium-ion battery

Software Bundle: Windows XP Professional, Lenovo Care, Diskeeper Lite,  Corel wordPerfect 12, Corel Photo Album 6 Starter, InterVideo WinDVD, WinDVD Creator,  InstantOn, Roxio DigitalMedia LE, PC Doctor, IBM Java, BisonCam, Google Picasa, Google Desktop, Google Toolbar

Installed demos: Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition (90 days), Corel Presentations (60 days), Corel Quattro Pro (60 days), Corel Paint Shop  Pro X (30 days), Corel Draw 12 (30 days)

*Lenovo uses multiple suppliers for the HDD (HGST, Toshiba), DVD-RAM (HLDS, Panasonic), LCD display (Samsung, AUO, CMO), and keyboard (NMB, Chicony). 

Performance

The Intel Core Solo and Core Duo platform have become the wonder-products from Intel. Since all of the Core Duo notebooks use the same Intel i945GM chipset,  there isn't too much variation in system performance from manufacturer to manufacturer. It's mostly a question of how fast your CPU is, how much memory you  have, and how fast the HDD is. The GPU is where you'll still see a big difference (particularly with games). Notebooks with dedicated graphics chipsets  from companies such as NVIDIA and ATI offer additional performance. On the other hand, the integrated Intel GMA950 found in notebooks such as the V100 offers better battery life.

Speaking of battery life, our Lenovo V100 came with the extended 6-cell lithium ion battery pack. I started my battery test by playing a DVD movie, with the  screen set to maximum brightness. The battery died after 2 hours 10 minutes, just enough to complete an average Hollywood film. The only problem was that  when the notebook had about 15 minutes of juice left, the WinDVD software interrupted me and stopped the movie so that I could recharge the battery; of  course, the last 15 minutes of a Hollywood movie is usually the best part...

The second time around, I left the screen at 60% brightness and just surfed the web and did some writing. A USB hard drive was attached. Wi-Fi and  Bluetooth were on.  Battery life was 2 hours 30 minutes. Not much better.

The third time around, I switched the computer into maximum battery savings mode. I then brought the brightness down to the minimum setting, and disabled  the Bluetooth radio. I then turned off the fingerprint password manager.  Although the fingerprint password manager is usually dormant, it does have the  occasional spike of activity. These small spikes meant that 9% of the time, my CPU time was spent dealing with the fingerprint application. I left the  Wi-Fi radio on, had Yahoo! Launchast playing music in the background, and just used the notebook to write and to surf the web.  I figure this is a typical  situation you'd use at a coffee shop. The battery lasted 3 hours 10 minutes.  Better, but not great. Unfortunately, this type of battery life seems to be par for the course with today's Core Duo notebooks.

Lenovo advertises their 6-cell extended battery as lasting up to 4.4 hours, but clearly this is with the wi-Fi antenna disabled and no user activity  whatsoever. With the standard 3-cell battery, your battery life should be about half of these results.

Thermal Management

We've all heard stories of laptops that can overheat and burn their users. Lawyers have even gotten every notebook manufacturer to emphasize that notebooks  should not be used on a lap.  Fortunately, the V100 does a superb job of staying cool. Under maximum system load, the notebook remained perfectly stable; even when the laptop was on a plush carpet surface (which diminishes airflow). CPU temperatures peaked at about 74C with baseline running at 42C.  Under  normal usage, I had no problems using the notebook on my lap or on a plush surface such as my bed.  The cooling fan can easily be heard, but it blends into  the background.  Unlike the annoying high-pitched whine of most notebook cooling fans, this had a deeper tone that faded into the background.

Audio/Video Quality

The V100's screen had rich and vibrant colors. The anti-reflective coating on the V100 does a great job and we found the high-gloss screen useable, even  outdoors. The viewing angles were somewhat disappointing with light fall off noticeable at the edges. That said, there are only a handful of suppliers of 12.1" 1280x800 LCD screens and as a result, the V100 screen is pretty much the same as other 12.1" 1280x800 screens.

The Realtek High-Definition Audio provided clean and crisp audio. The built-in speakers of the Lenovo V100 were respectable although not up to the level of  quality that larger multimedia notebooks can offer. One annoying issue was that using the volume keys on the laptop opened up the Windows Sound Mixer instead of showing the changes using an on-screen display (or simply not showing anything at all).