AJP 2200T

Pity the poor notebook buyer. Things are tricky enough already with the current range of Mobile Pentium III and Celeron processors, and that's without getting into AMD's Athlon 4 and Duron notebook CPUs. Then along comes Intel's new 0.13micron Tualatin core, and we suddenly have the mobile Pentium III-M processor to contend with.

Things get even more confusing with the new AJP 2200T. It's a notebook based on a 1.2GHz Tualatin Pentium III, but this particular chip isn't a Pentium III-M. Intel's mobile Tualatin CPU has 512kB Level 2 cache, so the fact that this Tualatin only has 256kB tells us that it's the desktop chip.

This isn't necessarily the end of the world. When a manufacturer uses a desktop chip in a mobile setting there are drawbacks, namely heat and high power consumption, but in this case these aren't too serious. Leave it on long enough and the 2200T will start warming up the room a little, but it's not the worst lap-burner we've come across.

It's also true that the CPU hasn't got the advanced SpeedStep technology of the Pentium III-M chip, or its other power-saving goodies.

But the shrink to 0.13micron already means the 1.2GHz Tualatin consumes less power than previous Pentium III processors. By virtue of its size and weight (3.2kg) the AJP 2200T is one for the desktop user, not the frequent-flying set, so the disappointing battery life of 100 minutes achieved in our tests isn't really much of an issue.

The 2200T boasts a 14.1in TFT screen, capable of a bright, sharp 1,024 x 768 display, and a Toshiba CD-RW/DVD combo drive. Doubling up as a six-speed DVD-ROM, and a four-speed write and rewrite CD-RW drive, it means you can watch movies, share and back up data, and make your own audio CDs with a device that occupies the notebook's single available bay.

With an old-school floppy drive and a 30GB Hitachi hard disk also installed, your storage needs should be well covered.

Connectivity is another highlight, with the usual PS/2, parallel, VGA, S-Video, and twin USB ports complemented by a 56K modem, 10/100 Ethernet adaptor and a mini-FireWire port. With the large hard disk, speedy CPU and a whacking 512MB of SDRAM, digital video editing is a possibility.

Only one Type II PC Card slot might seem slightly miserly, but then, it's hard to think of much you could add that the 2200T hasn't already got.

This is also one of the first machines we've seen to include Windows XP as standard. Love it or hate it, Microsoft will eventually get us all using the new OS, and the new NT-derived kernel should give tangible benefits in terms of speed and stability. Microsoft Works 6 is also provided.

Sadly, not everything about this notebook is so attractive. The keyboard is poor, with the sort of bouncy, light-touch action that leaves you wishing for the solid, quality feel of the classic IBM Thinkpad keyboard.

Audio output is another letdown. It's lucky that the microphone socket doubles as an S/PDIF digital output - the internal speakers are terribly weak and scrawny.

The same can't be said about this machine's performance. The SYSmark 2001 score of 112 equals that of the Dell Inspiron 8100 (reviewed in PCW, October 2001), with its 1.13GHz Pentium III-M. The use of different OSs (Windows XP here to the Dell's Windows 2000) makes a direct comparison impossible, but it's obvious that the extra 70MHz of clock speed makes up for the missing 256kB of Level 2 cache. But the AJP doesn't measure up in the 3D stakes.

While allocating 32MB of the shared memory persuaded it to run 3DMark 2001, the pitiful score of 483 made us rather wish that it hadn't. If that's important to you, you really shouldn't look at the AJP 2200T - it'll hurt you to see a fast CPU backed up with such poor 3D technology.

Otherwise, this is a reasonable notebook which packs an awful lot in for a fairly low price. The AJP will never win awards for style or innovation, but if you want desktop features in a notebook package, it fits the bill.

Contact
AJP: 020 8208 9744 www.ajp.co.uk