Power and performance from Pioneer, but at an unsurprising price.
A few years ago, laptops were the undisputed distant runner's up to desktops in terms of raw computer power, but the advent of Intel's Core i7 processor and acompanying chipset has upset that particular status quo. New Core i7 lappies have been around for a while now, but we finally got curious to see just how far mobile computing - and gaming - has come thanks to Intel's stellar work.
The machine to pop our mobile i7 cherry is Pioneer's Dreambook W87, and it's a sleakly understated and well-priced machine, but not one without some build flaws.
The W87 is a full on, full-sized machine, firmly on the desktop-replacement side of the mobility divide. That said, it's not too hefty, as the easier to cool i7 and Nvidia's latest mobile chips don't require quite so much in the way of heat management hardware. It's a pleasingly satin black machine, eschewing the so-popular piano-gloss finish that seems purpose built to trap grime and finger prints.
The front edge of the machine is free of controls or IO options, except for an IR sensor and a set of battery and power status lights. The right edge has audio ports, USB and eSATA, a DVI connector, and PCMCIA slot. The placing of the audio is not ideal, as cabling on that side of the machine can interfere with mousing if you attach such a device.
The left edge has another USB port, a multi-card reader, IE 1394 port and a DVD/CD burner. There are more ports at the rear, hidden by a flimsy plastic door: two more USB, one HDMI and an ethernet port, as well as the power adaptor plug. It's not ideal; just moving about seems to threaten snapping the door clean off, and we question why such a vital port as ethernet needs to be hidden like this, especially when the card reader slot has a neat rubber protector - that's the best way to secure ports. And speaking of the power cable, it really needed to be finessed into place, otherwise the W87 was convinced it was not in fact plugged in - definitely something to watch for. No one likes sudden shutdowns 'cause your machine's out of juice despite being plugged in!
The plain black finish extends into the machine's internal build, too, with the wrist rest, keyboard surround, and the keys all in satin or matte black. The only real gloss is on the LCD monitor, where it belongs. Above the keyboard are more status indicators, all stylishly placed under a perspex strip, alongside the power button. Sure, we're as attracted to a flashy gaming machine as the next guy, but this understated elegance is more our idea of mobile computing, even if you are gaming on the run.
The keyboard is solidly built, with good key travel and seperation, and it features a numerc keypad, but the slightly too small keys do lead to a lot of mis-types when touch-typing, and mis-keys when gaming. On either side of the keyboard are two speakers, but you may as well cover these with gaff or band flyers - really, that's far more useful than actually listening to thir tinny, empty flailings at reproducing sound.
The HD screen is certainly bright, though, and reproduces both the desktop and in-game colour very well. Text is crisp, and no detail is lost at all. Top marks here.
And yet, we're happy to admit we're size queens when it comes to performance, and we'll forgive a machine a lot if it can make a bold showing in our benchmarks. And, man, is this thing pretty damn bold.
It delivered an impressive score of P6615 in Vantage, and 12,169 in 3DMark 06. A modren desktop is going to sneer at that, but when you think that only recently you'd only get scores like this from a desktop it's pretty impressive. More impressive still is the real world test of Crysis' lush jingle surrounds. At the W87's native resolution of 1920x1080, and with all settings to high, the game ran at an average of 23.09 frames per second. That's a very playable result, and only a little bit of tweaking would get even more solid performance. Games like anything based on the Source engine, or the competitive favourite Call of Duty 4, won't represent anything like a challenge.
It comes at a heat cost, though. Some heat is vented up through the system's keys; this could be considered a feature if you're prone to sweaty palms, but given we were reviewing this system on one of Sydney's recent heatwave days, it was less then comfortable.
Of course, like all performance notebooks, your wallet is going to hate you. The W87, as configured, costs $4799 - enough to get you two, if not three reasonably specced desktop machines, or even just one stupidly expensive system from Alienware. But in the end, despite some build and engineering issues, the raw power of the W87 has a charm all its own. There's certainly never been a better time to consider a notebook as your main machine, if you've got the cash to spare.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012