VXI BlueParrott B100 Specifications download pdf (Page 43)

here are two kinds of notebook

geeks: the anal-retentive guy who

keeps the plastic screen protec-

tor on his notebook at all times, and The

Abuser. You know the type: The Abuser

throws his unprotected notebook com-

puter into a messenger bag and rides 10

miles over a dirt trail to work. Within a

month, the lid looks like it tangled with a

Brillo pad and the hinges are creaking.

It’s The Abuser that the rugged Getac

M220 will appeal to. Built to Mil-Spec stan-

dards, the M220 is rated to take drops, spills,

and sand like no normal notebook would

without splintering to pieces. Everything on

the M220 is designed for survivability, from

the magnesium-alloy shell that’s about as

thick as an Abrams tank’s armor, down to the

rubber seals over all the ports.

That’s right, there are rubber seals over

all the ports, sockets, and other crannies

where water or some other unwelcome ele-

ment could sneak into your rig. The M220

isn’t completely

waterproof, but it

will take a good

dousing of liquid

if you happen to

be computing too

close to the surf on

a beach, or in the

vicinity of a water-

balloon ﬁght.

Getac stuffed

the M220’s invin-

cible shell with

a low-voltage,

1.4GHz Pentium M

738, 1GB of DDR

RAM, a 40GB hard

drive, and an optical drive, all hooked up

to the Intel 855 chipset. These aren’t top-

shelf parts, but Getac’s explanation for not

using more powerful components is sound,

relating to the notebook’s water and debris

resistance: In order to keep the chassis

sealed, Getac designed the M220 to be

fanless—something you can’t do with the

hotter Pentium M models. We can forgive

the 40GB HD as it can be upgraded to a

100GB model, but we simply can’t forgive

the pathetic optical drive. Our unit came

with a CD-ROM drive! We didn’t even know

they made read-only CD drives anymore.

To judge the performance of the M220,

we compared it with the Compaq NW8240

we reviewed in July. The M220’s CPU runs

about 30 percent slower than the Compaq,

so the 33-to-37 percent slower scores in

Premiere Pro, Photoshop CS, and Divx

encoding were expected. In 3DMark03 we

got an abysmally low score of 91, thanks to

the integrated 855 graphics chip. Our stan-

dard DVD playback test wasn’t applicable,

as the M220 lacks a DVD drive.

But do you really buy a notebook like this

to play Half-Life 2 out in the ﬁeld? No, you

buy a notebook like this so you can take it

on an Africa safari to edit your digital images,

without worrying about breaking the machine.

To test just how rugged the M220

is, we ﬂipped it off a desktop onto a car-

peted ﬂoor half a dozen times, sprayed

it with liters of water, covered it with dirt,

and froze it alongside our Hot Pockets.

And in the ultimate Pepsi Syndrome melt-

down we dumped a large cherry Slurpee

on the M220 and washed it off with hot

water. Did the notebook survive? Yup, and

without a scratch.

Still, we were put off by a couple usabil-

ity issues: The mouse buttons are particu-

larly stiff and made our thumbs sore in one

afternoon. The handle, while useful, is poorly

placed—when the notebook is used on your

lap, the handle either ﬂips up and blocks

access to the keys, or folds down, where it

jabs you in the crotch. It’s not a comfortable

way to use a computer. Nevertheless, the

M220 is one hell of a tough customer for

people who are more interested in portable

survivability than playing games or burning

optical discs.

—GORDON MAH UNG

$3,995, www.getac.com

GETAC M220

PREDATOR

You’ll break from rough use

before the M220 does.

ALIENS

Difficult mouse buttons,

and the handle is poorly designed for lap use.

reviews

TESTED. REVIEWED. VERDICTIZED

78 MAXIMUMPC HOLIDAY 2005

Getac M220

Built like a tank, the M220 gives you decent

performance in a notebook you can’t break

Whether checking

your email or call-

ing in an air strike,

the Getac M220 is

plenty tough.

We dropped it, flipped it, froze it, and doused the M220 with an entire 7-11 Slurpee,

without killing it.

1004 sec (-33.76%)

607 sec (-37.23%)

2854 sec (-33.50%)

BENCHMARKS

ZERO POINT SCORES

Premiere Pro 665 sec

Photoshop CS

381

sec

Divx Encode

1898

sec

3D Mark 03

6170

0 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Zero-point scores are derived from a 2.13GHz Pentium M Compaq NW8240, with an Intel 915GM/ICH6M chipset, 2GB DDR2/533 RAM, two 60GB 5,400rpm drives, and an ATI

Mobility Radeon X800 256MB videocard.

91 (-98.53%)

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VXI BlueParrott B100 Specifications Page 43

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