Lenovo thinkpad X41

What would you like to do with your laptop? Watch television? Use it like a writing pad? Play Doom III? And, while you are at it, how about driving your great big SUV right over it just to see what happens? Remember also, that everything must come in a package that doesn’t strain your wrist.

The Indian laptop market is buzzing with action. Machines are becoming faster and lighter, with wider and sharper screens. Also, they come with built-in Wi-Fi and wireless LAN connectivity and Bluetooth and add-ons like biometric fingerprint readers for security.

To understand just how much the laptop market has changed, take a look at Panasonic’s Toughbook series. These mean machines of the laptop world are ones that the US Army takes to war (the Marines in Iraq keep them handy in the battlefield and irreverently call them the “Humvee of laptops”). The magnesium alloy-casing notebooks are shock-, spill-, vibration- and dust-resistant. The cheapest Toughbooks, the CF W2 and CF Y2 come for Rs 1.7 lakh and Rs 2 lakh respectively. By April, Panasonic is introducing the 990-gram semi-rugged R2.

Panasonic toughbook

Do you need a Toughbook? Probably not, even if you are a corporate warrior who is always in the thick of the action in the boardroom.

If you prize elegance and don’t really need heavy-duty computing power, you could turn your techno-lust-filled eyes to the other end of the spectrum. For instance, for in-the-air corporate movers and shakers who commute between Calcutta and Delhi or Mumbai, there are ultra-portables like the recently launched Sony Vaio VGN-TX17GP. This beauty weighs in at just 1.24kg and it comes with what is touted as the sleekest LCD in the world. It’s not exactly a power-packed machine but then it’s not meant to be. It does not support heavy gaming either.

It is not hard to understand why the laptop or notebook market has booted up so sharply over the last year or so. According to market research firm IDC India, laptop sales in the July-September 2005 quarter alone increased by a huge 176 per cent year-on-year.

HP Compaq Presario

The fact is that prices have fallen steeply ? even though they’ve stabilised in recent months. That’s partly because duties have been slashed and also because price cuts have been the order of the day around the world.

So, prices are now at levels where more buyers are willing to come in. “One of the things that has created a difference is that notebooks have moved to a price level that has increased the consideration set,” says Sanjeev Menon, general manager, products, Lenovo (India).

So first-time users are evaluating the options between a desktop and notebook, many of them opting for the latter. Growth has also come because corporates are buying notebooks for their key executives, says Menon.

But it is not just the entry-level segment with its mouth-watering offers of sub-Rs 30,000 notebooks that is seeing the action. Amazingly, it’s the Rs 70,000 to Rs 80,000 range that has witnessed the highest growth of 33 per cent in 2004-05. And although laptops priced over Rs 1 lakh accounted for only 23 per cent of the market in 2004-05 (down from 44 per cent in 2003-04 as the base widened), in absolute numbers, their sales went up to 50,718 units from 45,175 units in this period according to IDC.

“Advanced technology enhancements like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and digital entertainment that are being offered with notebooks today have also contributed to the growth of the segment,” says P Radhuraman, country manager, business notebooks, Hewlett-Packard India Sales (HP).

Also, remember that high-end laptops can be categorised into the consumer and business segments, based on the user demands of mobility, security and entertainment.

Sony Vaio

Now, if mobility means using the laptop while standing, there is the Tablet PC segment. All Tablet PCs have screens that can pivot 180 degrees (to allow you to make presentations to a small team) and even snap shut face-up so that you can literally use the laptop like a writing pad with the help of a digital stylus. Various companies like HP, Acer and Lenovo (erstwhile IBM) offer Tablet PCs in India.

The Tablet PC segment is still small but it is generating a lot of interest, especially after some high-decibel campaigns by Lenovo, which launched its ThinkPad X series a few months ago. “The Tablet PC is a big draw for customers,” says Ashwin Kukreja of Galaxy IT Concepts, a ThinkWorld dealer in Mumbai.

The ThinkPad X41 (18665GA), which costs around Rs 1.2 lakh (plus 4 per cent value-added tax), has a 12.1-inch screen, weighs 1.84 kg and offers up to 6.3 hours of battery life with an 8-cell battery (three to four hours is the norm on most laptops). It has a 40GB hard disk, in-built graphics card and wireless LAN but no in-built DVD drive.

Like most ThinkPads, the X41 too has Lenovo’s active protection system, which is an airbag-like integrated motion sensor that protects the hard disk from getting corrupted when you accidentally drop your laptop. Besides, it has an integrated fingerprint reader so you only have to swipe your finger and not key in your password.

The Rs 1.49 lakh (starting price) HP Compaq tc4200 Tablet PC (PY786PA) comes with a faster processor at 1.86 GHz, an 80 GB HDD and an integrated DVD writer as compared to the ThinkPad X41. The other specs are almost similar.

Dell Inspiron 9300

Most people would be happy with these fast-paced machines. But not a person who has high-end needs. Take Hiten Prasad, a second-year software engineering student. For Prasad, “Speed is everything.” So he’d rather have a laptop that has a processor speed of at least 2.0 GHz, that supports heavy graphics for gaming and that has wireless Internet connectivity.

Meanwhile, HP is targeting the mobile professional who wants an easy-to-carry laptop without compromising on performance with its reasonably priced Compaq Presario B1800 notebooks. The B1803TU, which costs Rs 75,000 and weighs 1.65kg, has a 12.1-inch widescreen, a 2.0 GHz processor and a super multi-layer DVD drive that can play various formats of DVDs, wireless LAN and Bluetooth.

There are other high-powered notebooks for high-powered executives as well. Lenovo’s Menon points out that corporates want stable platforms that will be around for two-to-three years. That’s where machines like the ThinkPad T Series come in. The ThinkPad T43 (2668NQ1) with its Titanium composite body is powered with a high-speed processor and large memory and hard disk space. Apart from all the wireless communication devices, it also has an embedded security system and fingerprint scanner. This one will lighten your wallet by around Rs 1.25 lakh.

The Acer Ferrari, on the other hand, costs around Rs 95,000 with its 1.6 GHz processor from AMD and 15.4-inch widescreen. Besides, the Acer GridVista application allows the user to split the screen and view two programmes (like Word and Excel) side by side, while the heavy-duty graphic card with dedicated 128MB VRAM supports high-end games. “These features are unique to the Acer Ferrari,” says Suresh Chhatlani of Suresh Computers, a dealer in Mumbai.

Vijay Sheth, proprietor, Third Wave Exim, the national distributor of Panasonic’s Toughbooks, points out that corporates are also putting core applications like enterprise resource planning on their laptops, which they are using in extreme environments. This is especially true for industries like mining, oil exploration and power. And that’s the audience that Panasonic is targeting with its rugged, military-certified field mobiles like the ToughBook CF18 (Rs 2.3 lakh) and CF29 (Rs 2.75 lakh), which come with options like built-in global positioning systems. The fully loaded CF73 can even go up to Rs 4 lakh.

If you work as hard at night as you do during the day, there are notebooks that pack in the required entertainment as well. Like LG’s LW70 from its Express series. High processing speed, wireless LAN and widescreen apart, the around Rs 98,000-laptop has a remote control for home entertainment.

Or take Dell’s newly launched Inspiron 630m, a 14-inch widescreen notebook aimed for the mobile entertainment segment with its Dell MediaDirect technology that allows quick access to digital photos, music and videos without starting the operating system. It is priced from Rs 55,900 onwards. Lenovo too has just launched its widescreen ThinkPad Z series to bridge the computing needs of work and home.

Dell’s Inspiron 9300 meanwhile meets the desktop replacement requirement of power and value over mobility. Like all Dells, this one too can be customised. So you can have a processor of upto 2.13 GHz and RAM upto 2 GB as well as heavy-duty graphic cards of upto 256 MB. Plus there’s the DVD writer, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi et al.

And if you are looking for digital media convergence like the Window Media Centre (which is a desktop), there’s the Toshiba Qosmio. The Rs 1.6 lakh Qosmio G20-P640 combines the features of a TV ? it comes with an in-built TV tuner and an external set-top box and remote control audio, DVD and PC. So you can play games, watch movies, make a slide show from your digital camera images or simply surf channels. What’s more it has 160 GB storage space.

Clearly, there’s lots on offer and the market looks poised for take-off. Says Third Wave’s Sheth, “Even if I sell only 5,000 [high-end ToughBook] laptops, I would still reach only 1.1 per cent of Tag Heuer owners. People who want quality products are willing to pay for it.” As the laptop makers are certainly discovering.

Lead photograph by Subhendu Chaki
Location courtesy: Computer Exchange, 24, Park Street, Park Centre, Calcutta ?16
Model: Neeraj Surana