Compaq Armada M700

The Compaq Armada M7OO is the most portable notebook in this review, weighing in at only 3kg when fully equipped for travel with battery and cords attached. It is also the thinnest, packing its features into a relatively narrow 2.8cm frame.
Portability and mobility are the main advantages this unit has over the competition. In other areas, it is much the same as the E500, with a 12G hard drive, ATI Rage Mobility-P graphics controller and the same array of parallel, serial, audio, video and USB expansion ports. As for the E500, the port replicator for this unit is avail able for an additional $320.10. It also has 64M of memory. This puts it
behind the Toshiba Tecra and the Sony VAIO, which have twice the memory.
The M700 will run for three hours and 17 minutes before you have to charge up again. The SpeedStep speed reduction option is not very effective in this model. The difference in battery life is negligible, translating into only 18 minutes of extra travelling time.
When the processor is operating at its full 750MHz capacity, the Armada M700 performs well. In the Ziff-Davis FPU WinMark 99 test, it shared top honours with the Inspiron 5000 and the Tecra 8100. The hard disk drive also performed well in the High-End Disk WinMark 99, where it came second to theTecra 8100.
The business side of things proved to be the Armada M700’s weakness. The Business Disk WinMark and Business Winstone tests highlighted the shortcomings of the unit. It ranked last in both categories
and was easily outclassed by the Tecra 8100, the clear winner. However, when you just want to play, the Armada M700 is a good choice. The multimedia capabilities were excellent, with the system performing well in the Video2000 tests for video streaming and DVD playback. It came second overall to the Inspiron 5000.
Like the Toshiba Tecra, the Armada M700 offers an impressive three-year warranty that includes parts and labour.