Intel Classmate PC review (9-inch)

The Classmate's 900MHz Intel Celeron M CPU isn't built for speed, and like the first Classmate or the Eee PC, it wouldn't run most of our benchmark tests. Still, the Windows XP operating system, Office, basic Web browsers, and media players worked reasonably well, with some stuttering and slowdown when multitasking. We're eagerly awaiting Intel's new generation of Atom CPUs, which are specifically designed for devices such as this, and will hopefully provide a closer experience to full-size laptops.

In our video playback battery drain test, the Classmate ran for 4 hours 13 minutes--clearly not enough for a full day at school, and we don't recall any classroom we've ever been in having enough outlets for everyone to plug in. In anecdotal use, we got closer to 5 hours, and with careful power management, that should be enough for academic use, and is better than most mainstream consumer laptops.

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Intel Classmate PC 9-inch
Windows XP Professional SP2; 900MHz Intel Celeron Ultra Low Voltage M353; 512MB DDR2 SDRAM 400MHz; 128MB Mobile Intel 915GMS Express; 30GB Seagate 3,600rpm

HTC Shift
Windows Vista Business Edition; 800MHz Intel A110; 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM 400MHz; 256MB Mobile Intel 945GM/GU Express; 40GB Toshiba 4,200rpm

Fujitsu LifeBook P1620
Windows XP Professional SP2; 1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Ultra Low Voltage U7600; 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz; 128MB Mobile Intel 945GMS Express; 80GB Toshiba 4200rpm

Intel Classmate PC 7-inch
Windows XP Professional SP2; 900MHz Intel Celeron Ultra Low Voltage M353; 256MB DDR2 SDRAM 400MHz; 128MB Mobile Intel 915GMS Express; 2GB Samsung SSD