Blue Ribbon demonstrates boot time of 'overpriced' laptops versus laptop with same market price

MANILA - During the fifth hearing on the alleged 'overpriced' and 'outdated' laptops, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee showed a video simulation of the boot time of the laptops procured by the Department of Education (DepEd) through the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) in comparison with the boot time of a laptop with the same market price as the 'overpriced' laptops.

In earlier hearings, the Senate panel had established that the cost per unit of the laptops procured through the PS-DBM were at Php58,300 each, with an Intel Celeron processor said to be one of the cheapest in the market. Since the budget approved for the contract was set only at Php35,046.50 per unit, the excess of Php23,253.50 per unit necessarily meant the reduction of teacher beneficiaries.

On Thursday, October 20, the Senator Francis Tolentino, Chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, showed to the panel the Commission on Audit (COA)'s parallel simulation test comparing the laptop procured through the PS-DBM at Php58,300 each versus an HP laptop whose price is within the same range. While the PS-DBM laptop has an Intel Celeron processor, the laptop comparison runs on icore 5.

Job Aguirre, Jr., State Auditor V and Supervision Auditor of the DepEd Audit Group explained that the purpose of the simulation is to confirm the speed of the laptop.

The laptop comparison was able to start in 18.97 seconds, while the PS-DBM laptop was able to start only after 48.65 seconds.

On the opening of Microsoft Word, the laptop comparison opened the application in 1.15 seconds, while the PS-DBM laptop's boot was at 10.36 seconds.

Similarly, the COA tested the boot time of Microsoft Excel, with the laptop comparison at 2.15 seconds and the PS-DBM laptop at 15.5 seconds.

For the boot time of Zoom, an application very important for students and teachers this pandemic, the laptop comparison opened the application in 2.96 seconds, while the PS-DBM laptop in 22.18 seconds.

Following the simulation, Senator Tolentino noted the inferior performance of the PS-DBM laptops compared to another laptop with, more or less, the same market price.