 
By John Morris The latest desktop-replacement system from Toshiba takes this trend to new heights. Announced last week, the Satellite 1955 just arrived at CNET Labs, and when we first laid eyes on it, we couldn't believe the size of the thing. By our reckoning, it weighs 9.6 pounds and measures 12.3 inches deep by 13.5 inches wide by 2.3 inches thick. To put that in perspective, the Toshiba Portégé 2000 weighs 2.6 pounds and is only slightly more than half an inch thick. The desktop chips take over Toshiba is hardly alone. The Satellite 1955 is merely the logical extension of a move toward bigger notebooks that use desktop processors rather than mobile chips. Smaller companies such as WinBook have been doing it for years--and continue to with products such as the WinBook J4--but now the big names are getting into the game. Toshiba already offered a similar configuration in its Satellite 1905. HP is shipping two models: the Compaq Presario 1500 and Pavilion ze5100. And Dell and Gateway are reportedly mulling over similar products. Although these behemoths get beat up for their size and weight, they are, in truth, hardly designed for frequent fliers. Their appeal is twofold. First, they offer more features and better performance at a lower price, targeting students and home and small-business users who want a lot of bang for the buck. And second, these bigger, badder notebooks will really appeal to home users with wireless networks who want a second or third PC. They offer more than enough performance, take up less room, and come with wireless capabilities--and they're easy to move from room to room if you want to do that.
"Second- or third-time buyers are more discriminating. One notebook doesn't fit everyone anymore, and as buyers are becoming more mature and starting to understand technology, they are looking more at their usage patterns and what they really want in a notebook," says Carl Pinto, Satellite marketing director. "People are ready for second or third devices in the home. Performance deltas [between desktops and notebooks] are beginning to close. Most of the usage is deskbound, but occasionally, they want to surf the Web while watching TV." Do the processor-to-price math But perhaps there's also a more practical reason behind this trend. When Intel rolled out the mobile P4-M with loads of fanfare at Grand Central Terminal this spring, interest in the mobile PIII quickly waned, leaving a gap in both performance and price between the mobile Celeron and the new P4 parts. That may explain why, after first introducing the P4-M at 1.7GHz and up, Intel backtracked and released slower versions while slashing prices of mobile P4-M chips across the board. Shortly afterward, the company boosted the mobile Celeron to 1.5GHz. On paper, these moves effectively closed the gap. (At $198, the 1.4GHz P4-M costs only about $30 more than the fastest mobile Celeron.) It's what allowed Dell to roll out a $1,299 notebook, the Inspiron 2650, with a mobile P4-M chip back in April. But notebook makers went ahead with plans for mainstream and desktop-replacement laptops with desktop P4s anyway. In a way, Intel is falling on its own sword here. Over the years, the company has told consumers that clock speed equals performance, and, despite AMD's best efforts, clock speed still sells, even though it isn't necessarily a reliable indicator of real-world performance. By using cheaper desktop chips, you can build notebooks with faster clock speeds that cost significantly less.
The prices may be tempting, but a few pounds here and there really add up. I don't recommend these systems for anyone who travels; thin-and-lights are still the sweet spot between performance and portability for most. But I think these hybrid systems will prove attractive to home buyers who want a second or third PC without the typical notebook sacrifices. Just pray that no one plops down next to you with one of these on your next flight.
• Most popular notebooks at Shopper.com
• Look for the latest notebook price drops • Explore CNET Editors' Choice products • Check out CNET's all-in-one Memory Configurator
John Morris is an executive editor for hardware and software coverage at CNET. Have a question for him? Let us know!
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