Best Price/Performance in a Laptop
Written: Oct 11 '00 (Updated Oct 24 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent value in a laptop, no performance tradeoffs
Cons: Not the thinnest and lightest; Windows 2000 video drivers need downloading; some audio noise.
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| eliasen's Full Review: Sager NP3360 |
My primary requirements for a laptop was that it have adequate hard drive space and good RAM capacity. Having adequate amounts of RAM influences performance even more than processor speed; it doesn't matter if you have a fast CPU if you have to swap out to a hard disc. If you're using Windows, don't even consider a system with less than 128 MB of RAM, or your expensive processor is no more than a very expensive space heater. I needed 256 MB of RAM which was readily available on the Sager; you can expand this system up to 512 MB.
I wasn't planning on getting a top-of-the line system; when you added the total for upgrading the RAM and the hard drive on most laptop configurations, the price was too high. I was planning on getting a system with a lower CPU speed but adequate memory and hard drive space.
After much research, I found a reference to Sager's web site (http://www.sagernotebook.com/) and evaluated their offerings. I was quite impressed with their pricing; after using their configurator, I found that the system I had put together was both more powerful and less expensive (by over $800) from equivalently-configured systems that I evaluated.
I finally ordered an Sager 3363 800 MHz Pentium III system with a 20 GB Hard Drive, 256 MB of RAM, and an 8x DVD-ROM. The other deciding features were fast IR port, built-in floppy drive, 2 USB ports, built-in S-Video port, built-in modem, and carrying case. The only feature that was obviously missing was an Ethernet port; luckily, Sager was running a web promotion that included a PCMCIA Ethernet card that worked at 10 or 100 MBits/sec.
The monitor is a quite healthy 14.1" TFT Active Matrix display with a resolution of 1024x768, and is very clear. The only shortcoming of the screen is that the backlight takes a minute or so to warm up to its full brightness after being off. I would like a little bit more brightness to the screen, especially when viewing DVD movies. It's not bad, but the difference in brightness between watching DVDs on the laptop's screen and connecting to a TV is noticeable.
The screen will also support resolutions of 640x480 and 800x600. Interestingly, at these lower resolutions, the graphics hardware can expand the image to fill the full screen (with a slight blurring, but no distortion) or use a smaller section of the screen at normal resolution. This is easily switched using a function-key combination on the keyboard.
The system has an S-Video port that you can connect directly to a TV or VCR with an S-Video port. You can project the normal laptop's display for presentations, or watch DVDs on your big-screen TV. Just realize that the resolution of any TV stinks compared to even the laptop's lowest resolution.
The DVD playback was quite smooth and without noticeable hesitation or stuttering even at full resolution. This is a software-only playback solution, and this model does not support a hardware MPEG compression option. The playback is not quite as razor-sharp as my desktop system with hardware decompression, and minor compression artifacts are visible on a TV from close up, if you're looking for them. The battery life may make it difficult to get through a whole feature-length movie if you're watching on a plane.
The built-in speakers are somewhat weak, even at their loudest setting; there's no way you could project the output from the speakers for a presentation. Hooking it up to my THX system is great when playing music from MP3s, but when playing DVDs there's noticeable "chirping" sounds that bleed into the headphones from the drive's electronics during low-volume passages (which coincides with the flashing of the drive light.)
The system has an ATI 3D Rage LT Pro AGP 2x graphics chip with 8 MB of RAM. 3D video game performance is excellent. The main problem is that the graphics driver for Windows 2000 does not fully support the capabilities of the graphics card. Most notably, you can't switch output to the S-Video port without rebooting the system and going into the CMOS settings. ATI's web site admitted many delays in the development of the Windows 2000 driver. The updated driver should allow you to switch this through an integrated control panel. The Windows 98 driver does not have these problems, and supposedly lets you use multiple displays.
October 24 update: ATI's web site has now posted a Windows 2000 driver so the above issues may be moot! You will have to download and install the new drivers yourself to get the full benefits. The new driver allows you to switch between the TV and the built-in display on the fly, and even view both (plus an external monitor!) at the same time. I tested the TV display at a variety of resolutions (even with video game emulators which use wacky resolutions) and with DVDs, and all resolutions worked well. You can sometimes improve the image by fiddling with the Fn-F3 key combination to change the scaling of images on your screen. Note that you can't watch a DVD on the LCD and the TV at the same time; the contents of video window will be blank on the one that's not selected as the "primary" display, but all other functions seem to work simultaneously on both. The new driver even allows "virtual" desktops of up to 1600x1200. (Moving the mouse will scroll the visible region of the desktop.)
The supplied user manual is somewhat out of date; it does not reflect that the platform supports 800 MHz processor, or that it supports memory above 256 MB.
The keyboard tends to flex slightly, but has a good feel. The key layout will have you hunting for the home, end, insert, and delete keys, and the backspace key is way too small.
Overall, the performance of the system is excellent, and equivalent to my more expensive Gateway desktop in almost all respects. Even with extremely performance-intensive programs, such as a voice dictation program, the system performs excellently.
I ordered this system from Sager's Web site, and they shipped my customized system the same day they received my order. I had sent them a few technical questions before ordering the system, and my questions were answered quickly but tersely. They contacted me about a minor billing issue both by e-mail and phone, (I was shipping to a different address than my credit card,) and resolved the issue rapidly and courteously with no delay in my order.
For a laptop, this is a magnificent bargain, and you don't have to skimp anywhere on performance. Just price the same specifications for a Sager and another brand and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2470
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 701-800
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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Epinions.com ID:
eliasen
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Member: Alan Eliasen
Location: Boulder, Colorado
Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 1 member
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