Necessary and sufficient performance for less than 100,000 yen! 14-inch notebook "MousePro NB210F" that can also use fingerprint authentication

delivery

Photo: Impress Watch

Mouse Computer announced the new model "MousePro NB210" series of business mobile notebooks. It uses an 11th generation Core processor and a 14-inch display, and is characterized by its low price while incorporating the necessary and sufficient specifications for business mobile. [See another image about this article] This time, we will take up the entry model "MousePro NB210F" that adopts Core i3-1115G4 for the CPU. It is on sale from February 24th, and the direct sales price starts from 98,780 yen. ■ The appearance is the same as the MousePro NB2 series, which is the conventional model. First, let's look at the appearance of the MousePro NB210F (hereinafter referred to as NB210F). The appearance of notebook PCs, which are mouse computers, does not change significantly even if the generation changes. The NB210F this time also has almost the same appearance as the entry business mobile "MousePro NB2" series that appeared in 2020. The design is standard for the MousePro series. With a flat top plate, a relatively straight body, and a matte black color, it feels like an orthodox design for a business mobile PC. The Mouse logo on the top plate is a little conspicuous, but overall it is calm and seems to be familiar to any business scene. The high-end model "Mouse Pro NB4" series is characterized by excellent robustness, but the NB210F does not mention that. However, even if you twist the body with a little strong force, the main body will not be distorted significantly, and you can fully understand that it has the robustness that is perfect for a mobile notebook PC. In this case, you don't have to worry about strength even if you carry it every day. The size is 324.9 x 219.5 x 19.7 mm (width x depth x height). The width of the left and right bezels of the display is considerably narrowed, and the width of the top and bottom bezels is not so wide, so the body size is reasonably compact as a 14-inch mobile notebook PC. Weight is about 1.35kg. The actual weight was 1,348.5g, which was almost the same as the nominal weight. It is about 100g heavier than the NB2 series, probably because it uses a 12th generation Core processor for the CPU. However, it may be one size larger than a 13-inch class mobile notebook PC, so it feels surprisingly light when you actually pick it up. Some 14-inch mobile notebook PCs weigh less than 1 kg, and the NB210F isn't particularly light, but you won't feel that much dissatisfaction with this weight. ■ Equipped with necessary and sufficient specifications while cutting 100,000 yen Core i3-1115G4 is adopted as the CPU, DDR4-3200 is 8GB as standard memory, and NVMe / PCIe SSD with a capacity of 256GB is installed as the internal storage. The standard memory is single channel operation, but the fact that it is an entry class but has 8GB as standard is very welcome. In addition, you can install up to 64GB of memory by customizing at the time of purchase, and you can install a larger capacity SSD such as 1TB of internal storage, so you should consult with your budget and select the capacity. The wireless function is equipped with Wi-Fi 5 as standard and supports Bluetooth 5.1. It can be customized to Wi-Fi 6. The upper part of the display is equipped with a Web camera with about 1 million pixels. The interface on the side has Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0, microSD card slot and audio jack on the left side, and USB 3.1 Type-C, USB 3.1, HDMI and power connector on the right side. There is a power button on the left side. The USB Type-C on the right side supports DisplayPort Alt Mode and USB Power Delivery, allowing you to connect an external display, supply power to the main unit, and charge the built-in battery. For this class, the interface is quite substantial, such as preparing Gigabit Ethernet and microSD card slot. In addition, as a biometric authentication function, a fingerprint authentication sensor is installed as standard on the upper left of the touchpad. It is even better to have a face recognition camera, but products in this class often do not have a biometric authentication function itself, and it is attractive that a fingerprint authentication sensor alone is installed as standard. Especially in terms of business models, we are very welcome. By the way, Windows 10 Pro is pre-installed as standard OS on NB210F. It seems that it uses the download right of Windows 11 Pro, and the recovery DVD-ROM of Windows 11 Pro is included as standard in the product package. And if you want to use Windows 11, you will recover from that DVD-ROM. This verification is done with recovery to Winows 11. Since the MousePro NB210F does not have an optical drive, an external optical drive is required to recover Windows 11. Also, there is no USB memory version recovery media provided. It's inconvenient considering that the number of users who don't have an optical drive is increasing in recent years, but you can customize it to have Windows 11 Pro installed. If you recover on Windows 11, the recovery area of ​​Windows 10 originally saved on the SSD will be deleted and you will not be able to return to Windows 10. ■ Equipped with a 14-inch display that supports full HD display The display uses a 14-inch liquid crystal display that supports full HD (1,920 x 1,080 dots) display. The type of panel is not disclosed, but it is said that it uses a wide viewing angle panel. Even if the viewpoint is actually moved a lot, there is little change in brightness and hue, and it can be seen that it has a wide viewing angle comparable to that of the IPS panel. The surface of the display is non-glossy, so the reflection of outside light is almost unnoticeable. Even if you use it in the office, you will be able to work comfortably without the ceiling lighting being reflected and the visibility being impaired. The impression is that the color development is a little less vivid than the glossy LCD. However, I do not feel that the color development is inferior to the non-glossy LCD installed in this class of mobile notebook PCs. When viewed side by side with the displays of other products, the color temperature seems to be slightly lower, but there is no dissatisfaction with the color development itself, and it can be said that it has standard color development performance in this price range. ■ Keyboard feels a little harder. The keyboard is equipped with an isolation type Japanese keyboard. The key pitch of the main keys is about 19 mm, ensuring a full pitch. There is room for improvement in that the pitch is narrowed with some keys near the Enter key and the cursor keys are arranged with almost no gap with the Page Up / Page Dn keys, but the arrangement is standard and touch type. There is no problem at all, and I am fully satisfied with the convenience. The keystroke is about 1.5mm, and when you press the key, you can feel a slightly stronger click feeling. I had the impression that the keystrokes were a little hard, and I personally prefer to be a little softer. The sound of keystrokes is relatively quiet, and unless you type to hit with a very strong force, it seems that there is no problem in using it in a quiet place. The pointing device is equipped with a touch pad with an integrated click button. The touchpad is just the right size to fit the palm rest, so it's convenient. Also, as introduced earlier, the touchpad has a built-in fingerprint sensor on the upper left, making it easy to log on to Windows. ■ Eco-friendly package that reduces petroleum-derived materials The NB210F uses an eco-friendly package as the package at the time of product shipment. Specifically, we have adopted a package that is assembled only with cardboard, omitting the plastic cushioning materials that have been used so far. Furthermore, the use of petroleum-derived materials such as vinyl is minimized, and recyclable paper materials are used as much as possible. In the future, it seems that mouse computers will actively promote efforts to minimize such environmental load, and it is likely that they will be widely adopted in other products in the future. ■ Performance is necessary and sufficient for business use, so I will briefly introduce the results of the benchmark test. The benchmark software used this time is UL Benchmarks's "PCMark 10 v2.1.2532", "3DMark Professional Edition v2.22.7334", and Maxon's "Cinebench R23.200". The results are summarized below. Looking at the results, it can be seen that the score according to the specifications is obtained. I feel that the score is a little low overall, but it is probably due to the fact that the memory is single channel operation. Especially for the graphics function, the performance difference due to the memory bandwidth becomes large, so the score of 3DMark etc. may not have increased so much. Therefore, if you want to maximize the performance of the CPU as much as possible, you should add it at the time of purchase so that the memory will operate in dual channel. However, even if this is subtracted, it can be said that the performance is necessary and sufficient when used as an entry-class business mobile notebook PC. Actually, I connected a full HD mobile display via USB Type-C and tried using other apps at the same time as a web conference using Zoom or Microsoft Teams, but I could use it without feeling any problems. Since Core i3-1115G4 supports 2 core 4 thread processing, if you use many apps at the same time or use a lot of heavy processing work, you may feel the weight of operation, but it is general. There should be no big complaints about business use. Then I checked the battery life. The NB210F is nominally capable of driving for about 10 hours. On the other hand, set the power saving setting of Windows to "balance", set the backlight brightness to 50%, set the keyboard backlight to off, and measure using "Modern Office" of PCMark 10 Battery test "PCMark 10 Battery Profile". When I tried it, I confirmed that it was driven for 8 hours and 19 minutes. Considering that the nominal time is 10 hours, it is a reasonable driving time. You should be able to use it for about 5 hours without any problems even in actual use. If you have to work for a long time in a place where you can't get power on the go, you can use a mobile battery that supports USB PD and can output 45W or more. ■ If you want better performance, we also recommend the high-end model equipped with Core i5 / i7. NB210F is a product located in the entry class in the MousePro series. However, when I actually tried it this time, it became clear that it was not just a cheap product, but a product that realized maximum convenience within the range of cost. There may be cheaper competitors, but considering the CPU and memory used, the capacity of the internal storage, the abundant interface, and the standard biometric authentication function, I feel that the degree of perfection is quite good. Above all, the price is less than 100,000 yen with this specification, so the cost performance is perfect. Therefore, I would like to recommend it to users who are looking for an entry-class mobile notebook PC that is inexpensive but can be used for business. In addition, the NB210 series will also be available with higher-end models equipped with the Core i5-1135G7 and Core i7-1165G7 CPUs. If the specifications other than the CPU are the same as the NB210F, the model with Core i5-1135G7 is 109,780 yen, and the model with Core i7-1165G7 is 120,780 yen, which are also sufficiently cheap. Therefore, if you want better performance, I would like to recommend a higher model.

PC Watch, Toshiyasu Hirasawa