Pentium 4 in Notebooks: Popularity Grows!

by Anna Filatova
07/16/2002 | 11:01 PM

Despite the reduction of Intel Pentium 4-M CPU prices in May, the popularity of their desktop fellows (without the "M") in notebooks keeps growing very rapidly.

The pioneers here appeared Taiwanese notebook makers, MiTAC, Elitegroup, ASUS and some others. Then their initiative got very actively supported by the largest system builders, such as Toshiba (Satellite 1800) and Compaq/HP (Presario 1500). Now another three manufacturers are planning to join the team: IBM (they will use notebooks of the Taiwanese Quanta Company produced according to an outsourcing contract), Sony (contract with ASUS) and even Dell, Intel’s No.1 partner (they haven’t yet made up their mind though).<%BANNER[article]%>

Why have the desktop Pentium 4 processors become so popular instead of the Pentium 4-M ones? To be more exact, why are the manufacturers so unwilling to use Pentium 4-M in their notebooks? In fact, the answer to this question is very simple, as soon as you take a look at what’s happening in the today’s market:

• Pentium 4 1.7GHz-2.53GHz cost $143-$637;
• Pentium 4-M 1.4GHz-2GHz cost $168-$637;
• Pentium 4-M doesn’t have any serious advantages over Pentium 4. SpeedStep technology is regarded by most customers as a low rather than a high (the frequency drop during operation, sometimes even without any notification doesn’t seem very attractive). By the way, the desktop CPUs can also do something of the kind, which eliminates the difference between Pentium 4 and Pentium 4-M actually :) But Pentium 4 is cheaper anyway!
• The number of customers who can be called "partially mobile" has become much bigger. It means that they move their notebook between 2-3 paces where they usually work with normal power supply. In other words, they hardly need their battery, while the performance is usually expected to be not worse than by a normal PC.
• The general trend of the computer market, which inevitably leads to the overall price reduction. The use of Pentium 4 instead of Pentium 4-M corresponds greatly to this concept (better performance, lower price).