Performance

The D630 is based on the current-generation Centrino Duo platform and comes with a C2D T7300 processor, 2 GB RAM, X3100 graphics chipset and a surprisingly Spartan 80 GB HDD. In this day and age these specs are rather middle-of-the-road, and this was naturally reflected in our tests.

Our first stop was PCMark 05. The average score after three rounds of testing was 4124. Though this is a strong score, it could have been higher if the graphical chipset had been one of Vida’s chipsets. However there are two schools of thought here. The X3100 while being very bare in terms of 3D performance is DX9 ready and therefore properly supports Windows Vista's Aero natively. It is also able to handle video quite well, and does not suffer from the jerkiness or bad video quality that often afflicted previous Intel graphics.

Our next test was the battery life of the machine. We tested the laptop in three settings: mixed mode (medium brightness, light processor usage and strictly document work), high performance mode (Excel number-crunching, highest brightness and intensive CPU use), battery saver mode (low brightness, very little CPU use and low usage such as web surfing). The results with a 9 cell battery were as follows.

Test no 1: Battery lasted 4 hours and 45 minutes
Test no 2: Battery lasted 3 hours and 45 minutes
Test no 3: Battery lasted 5 hours and 25 minutes.

As you can see there was quite a bit of difference in the prevalent battery life and it strictly depended on the level of use. The good thing is that the despite being pushed hard, the laptop achieved battery life figures comparable to ultraportables. These are excellent figures and a good tradeoff for the average screen it sports.

Conclusion

The D630 is a solid product. It offers good performance, decent build quality and really good battery life at a somewhat expensive Rs 86,000 upwards. Despite that it’s an ideal machine for anyone who’s in the market for a laptop, as it offers a good balance of features, good performance, light weight, and great battery life.

Jayesh Mansukhani