Portable One MX Notebook Review

by Perry Longinotti

Portable One is an interesting company. They are Fujitsu's largest integration facility in North America and sell several lines of high-end notebooks. Their exposure to the best machines on the market combined with feedback from their customers inspired them to begin selling their own line of compact, ultra slim and ruggedized laptops. This review will be looking at the Portable One MX a highly portable workhorse that is very flexible due to a modular expansion bay system.

It is quite likely that despite that assortment of laptops that Portable One offers, some of their customers needed machines with a specific combination of features not available from its main suppliers. I can sympathize with this, as my own quest for the perfect laptop is entering its second year.

According to Portable One's Ivan Gospitch, customers have been requesting compact notebooks with an SXGA display and modular hard drive bay. But few manufacturers make such a machine so Portable One developed one themselves. This allowed Portable One to get the exact platform they wanted plus the ability select their own screens and other types of modifications.

Portable One counts many government agencies among its clients so they must abide by FCC requirements to have at least 51% of their laptops made in 'approved' countries. Portable One advertises that their laptops are assembled in the USA, but they can actually state that they are made in the USA as they meet the necessary requirements for that label.

The MX is based on an Asus reference laptop. These units can be bought as do it yourself kits for the adventurous and often serve as the basis for laptops from smaller companies that lack the necessary resources to create their own design/manufacturing facilities or the volumes required to get a design built for them by ODM manufacturers like Compal or Quanta.

In choosing an Asus chassis Portable One has partnered with a proven company that is known in the PC industry for its quality products.

For Portable One Presentation is important, that's true even for the packaging!

The Portable One succeeds in making a good first impression. Construction is quite solid. The MX seems to be made of quality metals, carbon fiber and plastics. You can certainly tell this unit apart from a creaky average consumer laptop. The MX exudes quality - based on my experience Dell and Toshiba should buy some of these units and give them to their engineers. I would rate the build quality as being equal to Apple and IBM - in other words it is among the best. Unlike some laptops that I have owned, the MX feels like it can easily last a few years of heavy use. For people that cannot actually touch and feel an MX before buying, I can tell you that this is a well-constructed laptop. It feels as good as it looks.

Portable One includes easy to follow instructions for setting up and upgrading your notebook

Cosmetically, the MX is a winner. The black and silver finish gives the unit a classy appeal. You won't be embarrassed to be seen using this - it is at once conservative and elegant. The neon blue power button may be a bit bright and distracting located as it is immediately above the keyboard. I could see this being a problem on night flights or watching DVDs in low light. An option to turn of the blue-glow would be a good idea. Overall the MX has a clean industrial look that I quite like, and it lacks the gimmicks that plague many laptops (i.e. quick-launch buttons for every application you can think of).

Portable One MX (click to view larger image)

The MX's size is almost perfect - 12.16in (wide) x 10in (depth) x 1.14in (height). It is big enough to include a 14" 1400*1050 (SXGA+) LCD and small enough to be easy to keep with you. With a travel weight of about six pounds (under 5 lbs. without power adapter) it is light enough for the frequent business traveler. Many laptop makers do not understand that this is the real sweet-spot for work machines. I travel a lot and see airports full of people with expressions of agony on their faces as they struggle to carry giant shoulder bags stuffed with 8lb behemoths. A few pounds really does make a difference on a long trip -- just ask your chiropractor. The 1.7 GHz Pentium M CPU and fast drive in the MX means that it is faster than most DTR laptops, and it's screen is vastly superior to the average big and heavy laptop. Suffer no longer people!

The MX can be built to order and that gives you some choice as to how you want your computer configured. You can specify the speed of the processor, ram, hard drive and optical drive preferences. I looked at the pricing for upgrades and Portable One gets this deal hunter's stamp of approval -- prices for upgrades are reasonable.

The MX review unit that Portable One sent us uses the new Intel 735 processor -- that's a 1.7 GHz Pentium-M Dothan' processor. The Dothan CPU is manufactured using a smaller process. This should translate into better heat and power characteristics, and because of the smaller size there is room to double the amount of level 2 cache versus the older Banias' Pentium-M. Also included was a full one-gigabyte of PC3200 ram and a 60-gigabyte hard drive spinning at 7200 RPM. The review unit is pretty close to the basic configuration that they advertise on their site for $1899 (the extra Ram will add $115 to this price). The MX uses the Pentium M, 855GME core logic chipset, and Intel BG2200 802.11b/g wireless card and therefore qualifies as a Centrino notebook. The only drawback I can think of is the lack of Linux drivers for the wireless card. Portable One has nothing to hide - they have picked an excellent spec.

Portable One includes a generous selection of software with the MX Series Laptop

Windows XP Professional is the operating system of choice. This is supplemented with an unusual compliment of utilities -- Portable One have really given this some thought. VCOM's SystemSuite is included. This provides virus protection, spam filter, online privacy control, and some nice utilities. You get automatic virus definition updates just like Norton or McAfee products but without the annoying registration nonsense and memory consumption. The MX also has Mozilla installed and that is nice to see.

Linux fans will be pleased to know that Knoppix LiveCD 3.6 ran fine, except for the lack of Linux support for the Intel wireless card -- Intel is really dragging their feet on this as Orinocco drivers have been around for ages. I installed the Mandrake 10 Community distro and had some video card detection problems with the Intel Extreme Graphics -- it is probably just a Mandrake issue as Knoppix worked fine. Power management under Linux is pretty good now, and the battery life indicator was quite accurate.

Portable One also includes Inspice Trace & Recovery. This is another really cool feature -- something that you would usually have to source on your own after buying a system. This service offers a reward to anyone who returns your laptop in the event that it is lost or stolen. It also gives you the ability to track a laptop in real-time through a service that runs in the background. A little bit of added protection is good, and I get the impression that Portable One would not add a feature like this unless they know that it works.

Performance is exceptional. The Intel 735 is comparable to a 2.6-3.0 GHz Pentium 4. Needless to say, it is very fast. Because of the above-average specifications system performance is excellent. Unless you build your own desktop systems with the best components, it is quite likely that the MX will be faster than your desktop. The only bottleneck is the video system -- and this bottleneck only rears its head when trying to play games. Gaming is not what this machine is aimed but you will be fine if you stick to graphically simple titles like the Sims or Age of Mythology.

Portable One MX top view (click to view larger image)

With its fast CPU, hard drive, excellent high resolution screen and Firewire port the MX would make an absolutely killer portable video editing machine -- just add your Avid or Adobe software of choice and perhaps an extra hard drive in the modular expansion bay. With 100GB laptop drives just hitting the market, the prospect of a 5lb 200GB portable editing station is very tantalizing. It is quite easy to imagine the MX excelling at any task that demand powerful hardware.

Port placement is pretty good. Headphone, microphone and power jack placement is on the right side. Infrared, PCMCIA, Firewire and lock are located on the left. The front of the MX is clean. On the back, the VGA, Parallel, 2*USB 2.0 and the Port Replicator port are covered by a thin spring-loaded aluminum panel. The Ethernet, Modem and 2 additional USB 2.0 ports are conveniently located to the side of the panel for easy access.

On the bottom, the MX makes access to the good bits very easy if you ever need to change anything. This is a really nice feature in my opinion.

Let's talk about the display a bit. Once you have worked on an SXGA+ screen you will find it hard to go back. This particular LCD was very bright and saturated. It does not suffer from the washed out contrast and milky tones common to some display. It is reminiscent of the screen used on the ToshibaPort g R100 I reviewed a while back. In other words it is one of the better screens that I have seen. Frankly, working on a laptop with a standard XGA resolution after using the MX feels like playing with a kid's toy. The only potential knock is how this will affect battery life.

In this particular example, battery life is not sacrificed for the sake of having a killer screen. Battery life with the included battery pack is great. An eight-cell battery is standard a nice touch in an era of six cell batteries. A two-hour DVD is no problem at all. In fact I was able to get through a two-hour DVD, all the extras (consisting of a few documentaries and interviews) and then surf for about half an hour. I gave out before the MX did. In typical use -- email, word processing, and wireless surfing the MX was close to the claimed five hours. Swap the DVD module for the extended battery and you will enjoy almost ten hours of battery life. Travelers with business in Asia are going to love this notebook.

The keyboard is not flexy but keys do have a dampened feel to them. Each laptop manufacturer seems to have a unique policy on key placement. I am not sure that I have ever owned two laptops where keys like 'function,' 'delete' and 'home' were in the same location. So chances are good that if you are coming from anything other than an Asus laptop you will have some adjusting to do. I had a hard time getting used to the Function' key which was located exactly where I expected to find the "Control Key.' Keyboard preference is subjective - I would rate quality of the MX keyboard as being equal to or slightly below the quality of an IBM T-Series ThinkPad - which is pretty much the gold standard.

The touchpad is a little more nervous than other Synaptics pads I have used, but I have never used a Synaptics pad that worked well with the default Control Panel settings. Thankfully Synaptics provides lots of settings for you to adjust so that you can get the feel just right. After fiddling with the sensitivity settings I was able to get the Touchpad to behave exactly the way I like. It would be nice to have dual pointer controls on a laptop in this class -- something that IBM and Dell provide.

It is hard not to like the MX. It offers boutique parts - hand picked by folks who obviously know their market - selected for the best performance. There are no compromises here. No unpleasant surprises revealed when you look closely at the specs. How does it compare to similar sized machines that target the business traveler? It is significantly more rigid and solid feeling than the M series Tecras from Toshiba. The current crop of Latitudes lacks anything that would match the MX in size, power and construction. The new IBM ThinkPad T42 would be the only laptop that I can think of that rivals MX. Factor in cost and the MX leaves the others in its dust. Quite frankly, the MX is several hundred dollars cheaper than similar machines from tier-one vendors if you try to match the spec. In some cases the rival laptops are more expensive even with an inferior spec.

At some point in the future, you are going to want to try and stretch your investment by making some upgrades. Because of the nature of the MX you will be able to swap the CPU, RAM and HD with ease. Ram upgrades are common, and decent laptops will usually give you access to hard drives, but CPU upgradeability using easily obtainable parts is rare. So the MX gets unusually high marks for future proofing.

Are there any areas for improvement? I still have not found a perfect laptop, so the answer is yes. In this case, I feel the MX could benefit from a graphics controller with discrete memory. A RADEON 9700 would make even the latest games playable on this laptop. A dedicated graphics controller that conforms to either of ATI or Nvidia's newly announced standards for mobile upgradeable graphics cards would make this a perfect laptop.

Overall, the MX has been the best machine I have worked on. The default configuration represents a great value when you consider the sum of the raw parts. It is composed of some great boutique parts -- and they can even make it faster for you if you demand the absolute best. Portable One adds some nice extras like the uncommon software suite and theft recovery feature. It is extremely flexible thanks to the modular bay. Long-term it is well built and offers plenty of upgrade potential in the future. If you are in the market for a professional machine that is up to any task a busy traveler can throw at it, then you owe it to yourself top take a close look at the MX.

If you manage your company's IT property or if you, like me, go through a lot of laptops in your search for the perfect tool -- bookmark the Portable One website.

Pricing and Availability

Visit www.PortableOne.com to find the latest pricing and configurations available for the MX Series thin and light notebook.

 

I am thinking of getting an Sony S series but this notebook review makes it sound like I am making a wrong decision. The P1MX seems like it's better in specs than the Sony in most aspects. What would the advantage be for both machines? I would like something light, under 5lbs, used mainly for office apps and graphics design like Photoshop and Corel. Maybe for some video editting. I customized a VAIO S170 but the total cost came out too $$ for my taste compared to loading up a P1MX with a DVDR drive. The only thing that gets me is I haven't seen the P1MX in person and I know I should believe you about it's high quality outside. I am worried about the monitor because I really like the brightness and contast of the VAIO S series notebook that is very important. Does the P1MX come close in LCD display quality or does the Sony S blow it away? Also is there a way to get built in bluetooth for the P1MX? Thanks!

--Trevor--

 

This notebook sounds practically perfect for my needs, except I would really like to see a Radeon 9700 video card in there. Other than that, it sounds great!

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by yenemy

 

Since I bought my Portable One MX largely on the strength of this review, I would like to add my comments after having used the MX for about two weeks now.

First of all, the value is hard to beat. For all my searching, I couldn't find a better value. It had a seemingly perfect combination of weight, size, battery life, and power. The modular swap bay and its upgradeability make it a rare notebook.

But I disagree with Perry Longinetti on a couple of points. Mostly on the build quality of the MX. Mr. Longinetti wrote that the build quality was equal to IBMs or Apple, and my MX is nowhere near the quality of an IBM or Apple. On my MX, the palm rest area flexes a noticeable amount when typing. The keyboard is almost egregiously cheap looking and feeling. It is a clear plastic, and my keyboard had a section near the arrow keys where it bowed upwards--seemingly from a bad fit in assembling. This area flexed A LOT, and makes a clacking noise when you type because of it. Though it is not a serious flaw, it certainly isn't like a Powerbook or T42 that I have used. In fact, my other laptop, an ultraportable Toshiba Portege, shames the MX in terms of build-quality--the keyboard seems top-notch on the Toshiba. Also, when the MX is closed shut, there is considerable flex on the monitor when you pull up on the corners of the screen. It almost feels like you could peel the monitor off when the laptop is closed shut. Not a good feeling, and not like my Toshiba's clamped shut solid feeling, with no play on any of the corners. Also, one of the hinges where the monitor connects to the keyboard seemed to have not been assembled properly, either. It is slightly askew, not really noticeable unless you look for it, but nonetheless makes me a little wary about the ability of this keyboard to take some jostling in a backpack. It hasn't caused any problems, but it's one of those small things that now I can't help but notice every time I use it. It all makes me appreciate the flawless build of my Portege and the Powerbooks I see.

One point where I agree with Mr. Longinetti concerns the Synaptics touch pad--it is more erratic than any other touch pad I have used. It does not inspire confident and precise movement of the cursor, something that is important for a graphic designer like myself. It is, or course, usable and fine once you get used to it, but it is a little more stressful than other touchpads I have used. Friends who are used to HP and Compaq touchpads find the MX's touchpad to be very unpredictable. It just is a little annoyance that I'm not sure whether or not will build up or decrease the more I use.

As for the customer service--so far it has been a mixed bag. They are located in San Jose, near me, so that is assuring. On the phone, they are extremeley courteous and helpful. It is nice to be talking to people who unequivocally know the products, and who are not in India somewhere. However, they are only open for calls during business hours (plus a few more on Saturday). This can be an annoyance, as I am usually too busy during the business hours to be able to call them. As it stands, a driver issue with the Bluetooth card that came with my MX has gone unfixed because I haven't found the time to call them when they are open. An email has gone unanswered for a week now. It would be nice if they were available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but then of course the quality of the service would undoubtedly suffer.

In fact, I now covet a Powerbook. Unfortunately, they are too expensive in the configuration I want and with the software I need. And I need software that is only available for PCs.

Those are my impressions after using the notebook for a couple of weeks. I hope this is helpful.

Quang Truong
graphic designer
San Francisco

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by qtruong

 

I want to update my last post a little bit: Since the last posting, I sent another email to the P1 guys and they got back to me nearly instantaneously. I must have sent an email that didn't go through last time. The aforementioned Bluetooth issue has been resolved. The guys at P1 are absolutely amazing, there should be no doubt about that. I have spoken to Ivan and Tim, and they both make a point of being extremely dedicated and follow through on everything.

As for the build quality--I still feel a little mixed about it. I haven't talked to the P1 guys about it, because it feels like the build quality issues I mentioned were the kind that come from assembly line normal errors--nothing that seriously detracts from the functioning of the notebook. But it is still not something that looks as seamless as a Powerbook.

The keyboard still looks and feels as cheap as can be. The speakers, which I often use to play my extensive music collection while working, have started buzzing and distorting. The speakers seem cheap and certainly don't sound impressive. But that might be the price to pay for such a slim, portable form. Headphones or peripheral speakers takes care of that problem. But it's too bad about the built-in speakers.

I still would recommend P1 simply because there seems to be no better configuration out there for my needs. But I think there is a lot of room for improvement and I wonder what a HP nc6000 or a T42 would be like to own.

 

I completely disagree with the build quality statement above, I work at Cisco and the IBM T40's & T42's are standard issue and my new MX far surpasses the overall build quality and feel of the T42's, in every facet in my opinion. I have always used ultraportable machines, such as, Sony's, Fujitsu S Series and Toshiba Protege's and this is by far the most solid out of all of them. I really am impressed by this machine after 3 months of use and the only thing I would like to have added to it is a manual on & off button for the wireless LAN.

 

...and the T42's are very 'plasticy' feeling compared to the MX, we have had a few people bring T42's in to compare and were astonished on how much better the build quality is on the MX's. We had one guy whom we caught trying to swipe an MX and he was so mad that our guys found him that he punched the bacl of the LCD with all of his might and luckily because of the strong alloy metal encasing his punch only dented the encasing and completely safe guarded the LCD from any harm[^]

 

As for build quality on a Powerbook vs an MX, yes the Apple Powerbook G4 has a fantastic streamlined design, it was designed to convey that, but it is not easily upgradeable whatsoever and if any of you ever went to upgrade one, once you open one up you are no longer that impressed since everything is bolted directly on to the bottom portion of the encasing. The MX was designed to be a durable and nimble, no more than a 5lb, workhorse that has modular batteries, hard drives and optical drives for demanding road warriors, it was not designed to look as it was sculpted from one piece of metal like the powerbook was, but is also has a streamlined design and looks very elegant and a lot of people who come to our place to see them side by side say they like the MX in appearance than some of the powerbook's, but everyone has their own taste. As for the keyboard hands down the powerbook keyboard is much better, the best keyboard I too have ever seen on a laptop, we are still trying to find who makes them for Apple and once we do we will have them make one for ours too and if any of you know please reply!

 

Hey, I just wanted to comment on the quick and courteous response I recieved from their company to each and every question I have had regarding the MX and Portable One. Ivan wrote me back immediately and let me know that a "WX" notebook is in the near future and to look for it this June/July. It is supposedly geared more towards home/consumer use in relation to the "MX". I am really excited to see the specs and quality of the WX. I hope it has a wide-screen and some good dedicated video memory (all in an affordable package of course[ ]. If anyone else is looking for a similar setup drop them a line so they know "we" are out there! Thanks

 

Does anyone know if P1 has changed the keyboard on the MX since Ivan's January post on the subject?

Also any opinions on the keyboard, touchpad experience w/the MX are welcome.

Thanks guys.

 

hey...is it me or does it seem the same for everyone else...i went on protableOne's website...and i checked out the MX model on there...the picture shown on the website is a Asus W3a chasis...but the review that was given above showed pictures that is more like a Asus Z33a chasis...can someone clearify on that plz??

 

The portableone website now has a new model of the MX, that was released after this review was written. The new MX is built off a W3V.