Testing Centrino

Promising long battery life and built-in wireless networking, Intel Centrino-based notebooks are relentlessly invading corporate briefcases and notebook pools. The Centrino mobile platform combines Intel’s Pentium M processor, 855 memory controller chipset, and Pro/Wireless 2100 Wi-Fi network connection. Most major notebook vendors already provide Centrino offerings, and those that don’t are looking to follow suit within the next 12 months.

But so what? What we’ve heard from Intel so far is just more of the same — longer battery life via a processing architecture specifically designed for portability. Those words have been coming out of the chipmaker’s Santa Clara, Calif., headquarters in one form or another for the past five years. The only thing new is the embedded Wi-Fi connectivity within the CPU chipset design.

To test Centrino’s Wi-Fi capabilities, we invited four major notebook vendors to send us their Centrino offerings. We would plug the notebooks into our existing 802.11a and 802.11b wireless networking infrastructure at the University of Hawaii, and we could do some battery-life testing at the same time.

Our invitees were Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Toshiba. Gateway was unable to get one of their Centrino units ready in time for testing. IBM sent us its sleek new ThinkPad T40p, and Toshiba sent its somewhat larger Satellite Pro M15-S405. HP doesn’t yet have a Centrino-based Evo available, but graciously consented to send us a near-Centrino Evo N620c, which we used as a testing baseline to determine Centrino advantages.

As do official Centrino notebooks, the HP Evo N620c sports Intel’s Pentium M processor and 855 chipset, but it lacks Intel’s Pro/Wireless 2100 adapter, which is required for the Centrino label. Instead, the Evo incorporates an 802.11b network adapter made by Proxim.

A word about our entries is in order. All shipped with 512MB of RAM, a 40GB hard disk, and a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive. The IBM and HP models contained 1.6GHz Pentium M CPUs; the Toshiba machine had a 1.4GHz Pentium M.

At the top of the heap, from an enterprise standpoint, is the IBM ThinkPad T40p. IBM should know that we’re not giving this one back. The machine is based on Intel’s Pentium M and the 855PM chipset. You can choose between a number of integrated wireless adapters; ours came with Intel’s Pro/Wireless to preserve Centrino integrity. The unit provides excellent power management and wireless integration utilities, coupled with all the goodies normally associated with ThinkPad, including solid construction, a crisply responsive keyboard, and an extra-bright TFT display. The display is backed by a super-sexy ATI Technologies Radeon video system with 64MB of dedicated RAM.

The Toshiba unit was no slouch, either. The company sent its Satellite Pro M15-S405 because its new, ultraportable, Centrino-based Portege wasn’t available at testing time. Our Satellite Pro was large and somewhat heavy with a 15-inch screen and a weight of more than 7 pounds. But in return we got a brilliant TFT display with 32MB of DDR-SDRAM coupled to an nVidia GeForce4 420 Go controller. The Satellite Pro boasts full Pentium M and Centrino compatibility with the 855 chipset and an integrated Intel Pro/Wireless Wi-Fi adapter. Our M15 came configured as a business machine running Windows XP Pro rather than the poorer XP Home edition, along with a host of useful third-party software applications aimed at small and midsize business users.

Lacking Intel’s Pro/Wireless adapter, HP’s Evo N620c is an almost-Centrino machine that nevertheless strives to match Centrino’s battery life and similarly provides integrated wireless connectivity. Based on a Pentium M processor and incorporating the 855 chipset, the HP Evo provides wireless connectivity in the form of a Proxim 802.11b adapter. The Evo was the smallest notebook of the bunch, although it tied the IBM in weight. It’s sturdily built with a host of HP customization utilities and a number of enterprise productivity software options.

Our testing revolved around two issues: Getting each machine to integrate with our current wireless network and running each unit through two sets of battery tests. For the IBM and Toshiba units, wireless connectivity was a snap — we were onto our Symbol AP (access point) in seconds. The HP Evo had no trouble seeing the other three wireless networks in its vicinity, but refused to recognize our test network based on Symbol APs. HP is looking into the problem.

Battery test No. 1 was a flat-out blasting test. We installed the Seti@Home client on each machine and configured the software for always-on analysis while reconfiguring the notebooks to stay awake for the entire test. We then added a home-cooked script that had each PC dump an “I’m alive” statement into a test file along with a date and time so we’d know who died when.

Test No. 2 had each PC fully recharged, configured for optimized power management, and placed into the hands of a busy lab user for an entire day of constant use within our test lab. Users carefully recorded the time started along with the time the battery finally gasped its last. Tasks included e-mail, word processing, network analysis, and even running DVD movies.

Predictably, every machine fared better in test No. 2 than in test No. 1. HP’s Evo N620c showed the greatest variance, however, lasting slightly less than three hours in our blast test, but staying alive for almost four hours and 45 minutes during our mixed-use test. Toshiba’s Satellite Pro lasted almost as long as the IBM in our blast test at three hours and 50 minutes, and it hung on for four hours and 45 minutes during mixed use. IBM’s ThinkPad was the battery king at four hours and 20 minutes in the blast test and an astounding six hours and 25 minutes during mixed use. The IBM score was reconfirmed on this author’s flight home from Honolulu to Newark, N.J., during which he not only completed some work but almost got through one and a half DVD movies.

In short, Centrino-based machines clearly have an advantage over older cousins. Intel’s Pro/Wireless chipset saw all access points in our network and connected to them with no trouble. The Proxim 802.11b adapter was less fortunate, seeing most access points in the network but failing to connect to our Symbol AP.

And although embedded wireless is certainly a nice feature, we didn’t find it nearly as impressive as the general improvement in notebook battery life, which we estimate at slightly higher than 20 percent compared with older models. These units average $300 to $500 more than their non-Centrino counterparts, but we feel the improvement in battery life is more than worth the cost.