A Portable Powerhouse
Written: Jan 05 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Powerful enough to handle demanding jobs.
Cons: Battery Life
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| visage's Full Review: Sager NP3360 |
And in the left corner, weighing in at 6.6 pounds is a Sager NP3360!
14.1” LCD
Pentium III 800MHz (On an Intel 440BX core)
256 MB RAM
12 GB hard drive
ATI Rage LT Pro 8 MB AGP
6x DVD-ROM
56k Modem/Ethernet PCMCIA
Sound with 2 tiny speakers
Windows 2000 Professional
My portable powerhouse of choice. I bought it back in July of 2000.
First I would like to give kudos to Sager for opting to equip their laptops with touchpads instead of those little AccuPoint sticks. Although I think both are in accurate, I feel more comfortable controlling the potentially wild arrow with a touchpad.
The LCD is very nice! Six months later and no dead pixels! I chose the 14.1” screen because the 15” adds on to the weight and cost. I figured 14.1” is more than adequate. It would be nice to work with a larger screen, but I feel beyond comfortable with it. At times when I need a larger screen to work with I just hook up to a larger computer monitor. The backlighting does take a few moments to warm up to maximum brightness, but when its up and running, it is wonderful.
The speed on this thing is incredible. At 800 MHz with 256 Megs, allowing 512 Megs at max, any kind of delay is almost non-existent. On the downside, the CPU is power hungry and will make users hunt for power outlets. I hardly work at places that do not have an outlet ready, so knowing this did not bother me. I can get a good two to two and a half hours on a single charge of the Lithium-Ion. So that’s why Sager offers multiple batteries on the web order form.
The 12 gigs of space are not going to bother me either. I have not even come close to filling up the drive. My MP3s are either on my desktop or burned to CDs. Other big files that may be edited are also stored on my desktop. Basically what is on my laptop is what I need to edit. The only software titles installed are for graphic design, leaving me with plenty of playroom. At the time a 20-gig drive was optional, it is now standard.
The modem works great. The Ethernet card works great and runs at a constant 100Mbps. Who can be mad at that?
It’s ability to play DVDs is incredible. I have not run into any hesitation or aliasing. Watching DVDs on a laptop still bothers me, regardless of screen size whether it is a 14 or 15 inch. You can say my standards are high when I say that I HAVE to watch a DVD on at least 36 inches. Good thing that the NP3360 has an S-Video out. Connect it to a big TV and the problem is virtually solved. The MPEG-2 decoding is done via software and the video quality is not the best in the world. Get a stand-alone DVD player if you want anything close to a theatrical presentation.
And I don’t think that the two tiny speakers will drive enough sound to create a good movie experience. The headphone output can be used as an audio out, but again it lacks in audio quality. This is another place where a stand-alone unit will be best. Don’t get me wrong, the DVD-ROM can come in handy. There are times when I don’t need to have the full experience of a large screen and enough decibels to rock the house. Using the NP3360 to re-create the video quality and effects of a home theater is going to be impossible.
The NP3360 is extremely speedy and is more than adequate to complete even some of the most demanding jobs. Bring this one to a friend's house and duke it out at a game of Unreal Tournament, virtually flicker free at 1024x768!
Recommended:
Yes
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 701-800
Screen Size: 14"
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 9-12
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visage
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Reviews written: 26
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Fascinated by what is not known.
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