To some people, the words 'Santa Rosa' represent the city in northern California where Charles Schulz, creator of the beloved Peanuts comic strip, lived and worked for more than 30 years. But for the gadget-obsessed, Santa Rosa refers to the code name of Intel's fourth-generation Centrino platform - a combination of central process-ing unit, motherboard chipset and wireless-network interface for the design of a notebook personal computer. When combined with the enhanced security Intel introduced with its vPro technology, the Santa Rosa platform carries the Centrino Pro name; without those features it's branded Centrino Duo. Both were introduced last month and many well-known notebook PC models, with either Centrino brand, should be in stores this month or early next. Catering to different market segments, the first two laptops featured here offer a boost in performance for multitasking, an innovative power-saving setup and tri-mode 802.11a/b/g wireless networking for flexible connectivity. Compare those with the third featured notebook, an Intel-based Macintosh system that will need to be updated soon. All business Lenovo's flagship ThinkPad notebook line remains a popular choice for business users. The new ThinkPad T61 model, sold through various channels, offers a less expensive option to the T60, which Lenovo sells directly. Preloaded with Microsoft's Windows Vista Business edition operating system (in English or Chinese), the basic T61 configuration includes a two-gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 processor, a 14.1-inch widescreen display, a Nvidia Quadro NVS 140M graphics card with 128-megabyte memory, a 120-gigabyte hard drive, a recordable DVD optical drive, 1GB of main memory, Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity and a fingerprint reader. This model weighs a reasonable 1.03kg, has a three-year parts warranty and costs HK$16,988. Its price can climb to HK$20,988 with upgrades such as a larger hard drive or more processing power. Style points In terms of putting flair in notebook PCs, Sony's line of Vaio laptops is the standard bearer. Style-conscious PC users will not be disappointed with the features on the Vaio VGN-SZ48GN/C model, a Windows PC alternative to Apple's MacBook line, which has a 13-inch display. The Vaio has a 2GHz Intel Core Duo T7200 processor, a 13.3-inch widescreen display, a Nvidia GeForce Go 7400 graphics processing unit with 319MB memory, a 160GB hard drive, a rewritable DVD optical drive, 1GB of main memory, Bluetooth 2.0 and a fingerprint sensor. Like most Vaios, this model comes with a built-in Web camera, a suite of video-, music- and photo-editing software, and a slot that accepts various sizes of Sony's proprietary Memory Stick. It comes preloaded with the English edition of Windows Vista Business plus a traditional Chinese language pack. The smaller screen may have resulted in a light package, at just 1.69kg, but the laptop still costs HK$16,980. Return of the Mac There has been plenty of speculation about when the first Santa Rosa-updated Apple notebook will be released. The Mac faithful are hoping for an announcement at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, which starts tomorrow. Insiders say the MacBook Pro will be first to adopt the new Intel platform. The top-end MacBook Pro, with a 15.4-inch screen, has a 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor instead of the more muscular T7300 chip. Still, it has ATI Technologies' Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics processing unit with 256MB memory, a 120GB hard drive, a rewriteable DVD optical drive, 2GB of main memory, a built-in video camera, various multimedia software applications and Apple's 'Tiger' operating system, the Mac OS X version 10.4. It weighs 2.54kg with the battery and will set you back a cool HK$19,200.
