Conclusion

Summing up the results of the tests we should acknowledge the viability of the mobile barebone concept. The AOpen OpenBook 1559-JL can be easily completed to a full-fledged notebook. In fact, you cannot tell an assembled OpenBook from a regular notebook. So, users can now shape up a notebook for their specific needs and applications.

The AOpen OpenBook 1559-JL, being a particular realization of the concept, can become a foundation for a full-size mobile computer with a large screen and a high-performance graphics subsystem. This computer can be used for more than just office applications. It is fast enough for running games as well as digital content processing applications. This wide applicability results in a limited battery life time, however.

As for disadvantages, the OpenBook isn’t the best solution in terms of mobility, having a weight of about 3kg and a relatively small time of autonomous operation. The number of USB 2.0 ports is insufficient, infrared and Bluetooth interfaces are missing. The quality of the built-in audio subsystem is rather low, and the Audio DJ technology is practically useless.

The AOpen OpenBook 1559-JL gave us some insights into the latest Intel Centrino (Sonoma) platform that combines new i915 family chipsets with new Dothan-core Pentium M processors with a 533MHz bus. We can see now that a number of technologies emerging in the desktop PC field will be coming to the mobile sector, too. Unfortunately, there are as yet no evident advantages over the previous version of Intel’s mobile platform. The results of our tests suggest that external graphics solutions with the PCI Express x16 interface are fast but consume too much power. DDR2 memory can’t show its advantages, neither. The faster system bus and the dual-channel memory controller ensure a certain performance growth, but it hardly matters for mobile computers. In fact, the only big plus of the Sonoma platform is that processors on the Dothan core have a higher frequency than their predecessors.

So, if you want some breakthroughs, you have to wait for the next platform, currently known under its codename Napa. It will include a dual-core 65nm mobile Yonah processor, a Calistoga chipset with a new-generation graphics core, and a new-generation wireless networking module Golan. As for today, you shouldn’t limit your choice with the Sonoma alone. Mobile platforms of the previous generation have not become any worse after the release of the Sonoma – they are still quite fast and can work quite long autonomously even by today’s standards.