More Impression of 1420 vs 1405 vs D620 vs HP/IBM, and Intel 4965agn vs Dell 1505 Wireless N...

This is a follow up on my other thread - "First Impression of 1420 vs 1405 vs D620/D630 vs HP/IBM"
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=144582&highlight=1420+d620+640m

LCD
After a few days of testing, the AUO panel seems to suffer more light leaks now. I also noticed some broken light leaks from top, but color also seems to get better. Is it just my imagination or LCD has a "break-in" period???


Battery Life
I compared the battery life with WIFI for the 640m/1405 with 4965agn and 1420 with Dell 1505. 1420 still maintains a small lead but battery life is now only a few percents better.

Touchpad
Not only they switched to cheaper Alps touchpad on the 1420, the touchpad is also shorter than standard Synaptic found on HP and other Dell.

Speaker
1420 speakers are no doubt a lot better than the 640m/1405. Even though the D620 has mono speaker, the sound is surprisingly good, I will rate the D620 about the same as the 640m/1405. HP/Compaq speaker is still a bit better than the 1420 and IBM Thinkpad imo.

Keyboard
I removed the keyboard to replace the WIFI card and I didn't see any rubber ring underneath the keyboard plate. So don't spill your coffee on your 1420 as water can find their way to the mainboard on the edges or from the speaker grill.

HDD
The 80GB Toshiba 5400rpm performance is surprisingly good. It loads Vista noticably faster than the 640m (with Samsung 5400rpm 80GB) and probably slightly faster than the D620 (with 7200rpm Hitachi), the 640m and D620 is on NAPA platform though, but shouldn't make a big difference. Windows Experience Index also gives the Toshiba (5.1) a high score than the Hitachi (4.8).

And at last, probably the most interesting result...

WIFI
The Intel 4965agn card is very impressive. I tested both the Intel 4965agn and Dell 1505 (Broadcom Draft N) against a USR maxg (Broadcom MIMO-like chipset). On day 1, I took both notebook for a ride, the Intel lost ping response first but it regained connection rather quick. On day 2, I took them for another drive with continuous ping and browser test. Again Intel lost ping response first but regained quickly, then I passed a few more houses, the Broadcom ping started broken, similar to Intel. Then Broadcom lost entirely but Intel was still running, and I can still browsed the net! More importantly even at close distance to the router, the Intel always load pages faster than the Broadcom.

Another interesting observation of the Intel 4965agn is its ability to re-connect after wake up from hibernation. The wireless connection is quickly restored shortly after the notebook is resumed from sleep or hibernation. The Broadcom took significant more time to reconnect. However the Broadcom seems to connect slightly quicker than the Intel during a fresh startup.

The 4965agn has three antennas, the 640m only uses two of them. I only see two antenna keyholdes on the Dell 1505 (Broadcom).



I forgot to test the noise of the DVD burner.

 

Two more things.

Color
The JetBlack is easy to get scratched and prone to fingerprints and smudges. Although I never see what the micro-satin material on the premium color option, but I recommend new buyers to consider the premium color opiton.

Chasis material
The bottom of chasisis definitely made out of metal alloy. The strike zone design is also improved from the 640m and may help to protect the HDD.

 

Finished testing the DVD burner and I found no noise issue with this Sony/NEC collabration. The burner feel sturdier and heavier than the Samsung/Toshiba on 640m.

I also did more tests with the 4965agn and Dell 1505 WLAN card. It seems the 4965agn brings noticable battery life improvement to the 6 cell battery. Since I swapped the 1505 with the 4965agn. The 1420 now runs 20%+ longer than the 640m/1405 on the media player test with WIFI on. The test had the media player playback a MPG file and a continous ping at the background.


About spill-resisted keyboard design, I checked my HP busniness notebook, there is a transparent semi-flex plastic underneath the keyboard. This should help to prevent water drip from the edge of the keyboard tray. The 1420 does not have this. I wonder if the Vostro has some type of rubber stopper on the edge since Dell claims the Vostro to have a spill-resisted keyboard.

 

Very useful stuff on the Intel Draft N wireless card. Thanks 008.

 

thanks a lot