Sager 5320 (NP5320) release (Clevo M560A) - Page 3

2 other questions..

first off.. do you have a picture of the remote and posably any accessorys that come with the tuner? or even a list would help if no picture is available for that one

second.. does the tv tuner support windows MCE 2005?.. if thats the case i can go without a o/s on a purchase since u dont do mce2k5

Need some help guys

Hey everyone, I am trying to decide between Toshiba Satellite Centrino 1.86GHz [M40-SF3], and Sager 5320 this new machine. What are the major differences between them? pros and cons?? also would there be a reason for me to wait till next month to purchase anyone of them?? like would the prices for these newer Laptops drop down by next month?? because I am thinking to go for this:
2.26 Intel Pentium M
2048 MB DDR2 SDRAM
256 MB GDDR3 ATi MOB™ RADEON® X700
16x PCI-Express Graphics

Anyone?????

...thankx all

I don't think a laptop that just came out would drop its price in less than a month.. IMO if you want the faster laptop that would be the Sager though. Although it is more expensive...

Whats the point of the CATV cable jack in the back? on the Sager official website they say that the cable is "enable with tv tuner only" As far as i kno, there isn't a TV tuner model out there....does that mean that theres gona be a TV tuner version out soon?

Syan: There is an option to have an internal TV tuner, check PCtorque.com, and all other retailers.


Luke: Any news on Sager releasing a model for the 17" of this rig, the M570A ?

Battery life

Battery life, Battery life, Battery life....

We need to know about the batter life on this bad boy.

Did I mention we need to know the battery life?

And hopefully the screen is different than the 488x.

Its kinda preditcable.... IMO laptops fit in 2 categories

DTR

Portable


For the most part, DTR is when its a desktop processor, and battery life = < 1 hour. However, as this is a centrino, a mobile processor, i can nearly guarantee right now, that when official numbers do come out, they are within 2->3.5 hours, and with the modular battery, probably pushing past 5 hours with normal usage.

Had my M560A for about 3 weeks now and it's a sweet notebook. Screen quality is mint, viewing angle is great (I haven't had a laptop before so I can't really compare it to much, but it's heaps better than the M400A (Sager 4880) I was considering).

It's pretty much what I was expecting when I wrote this post about it. As my sig states, the WSXGA+ screen, SATA kit, bluetooth module and TV tuner are coming soon from the supplier.

I've been over in Australia for the Cisco Networkers 2005 conference last week and took my new baby along and it was great. It's not too heavy, very stylish and battery life seems very good. Unfortunately I can't give times yet as I haven't kept much notice of the time when I've been using it.

Haven't had time to install any games yet, but I benchmarked it with 3dmark05 and scored 2793 with the catalyst 5.8 drivers (from ATI not Clevo's site) and ATI control center 3D settings set to "Optimal Performance", no overclocking.

So yeah.. not too sure if this should have gone in the review section but I'm sure someone will let me know if this is in the wrong place

Any questions I'd be happy to answer, I'll try to find out how much time the battery lasts for.


EDIT: Just did 2:56 of websurfing / installing windows updates before it got to 3% and I plugged in the PS. USB optical mouse plugged in and wireless on.

How much do you think the new drivers helped your score? Maybe only 100 extra points or what?

Not too sure about that. I didn't run any old video drivers, did a clean install of XP and used all drivers from Clevo except for the X700

Questions

Froginz, thanks for the info. A few questions come to mind:

- Is your current WXGA screen glare-type (prefer not)?
- Same question when your WSXGA+ arrives, also viewing angle
- Presume the 3dmark05 score of 2793 was at WXGA native res 1280 x 800
- Be interested in 3dmark05 on the WSXGA+ at native res 1680 x 1050
- Could you pop the cover for the X700 vid card, is it MXM
(ie potentially upgradeable, as and when)?
- Be interested to know your experience of MSN Messenger vid calls,
with the built-in webcam and mic
- Paint quality good? No signs of wear on the corners etc,
as I read some Sagers can be prone to this. Or perhaps NP5320
is unpainted - just coloured plastics etc
- Audio quality on playing eg CD, via those 2 x 2 speakers?
- Audio DJ function, on the frontpanel, which I presume can operate
without booting into Windows? Does the Audio DJ function also have
a user interface on the main screen? What's it like? Audio DJ
frontpanel also works when Windows running?

Hi, I'll answer what I can at the moment..
Non glare-type, still great quality imo
I used the free version of 3dmark05 which only supports 1024x768 so that's what the test was run at.
If I can buy/find a full version of 3dmark then I might be able to test that when I get the new screen.
The Clevo site says the M560A's X700 has a modular design but I heard somewhere that Clevo's modular gfx cards are usually not standards based (MXM) I think? That's all without research so I'm not sure at all. Would I be able to tell if it is MXM form if I did open the case?
My sister and girlfriend have done some video chats with people on MSN and the people on the other end have said it's cool so I guess it works fine.
Quality seems very good. Not sure if it's painted or coloured plastic but no signs of wear on the corners.
Seems quite good quality. Great for watching movies. Good quality audio, I think you can notice the "SRS (O) WOW" feature that this laptop has, makes it sound surround sound ish.
Haven't tried the offline feature yet. When windows is running it shows the time, the status of wireless, bluetooth, camera, CAPS, Numlock, battery charging/full/low etc. Looks very cool.

Will answer the missing question(s) when I get the new screen.
Hope this helps

Froginz- How is heat output and fan noise? Do the fans run constantly?

Heat output is pretty low. Warm air does come out of the vents, more heat depending how long it's been on and how much it's being stressed. The right side of the keyboard and right palm rest seems to be the only place it gets warm, but not hot. The touchpad remains pretty much cool.

The fan i think doesn't run constantly, or maybe that's just when you first switch the laptop on. It's running at the moment very quietly and I've just got Internet Explorer open. I do however have the power supply on so the ATI X700 is set to Optimal Performance instead of the Balanced or Optimal Battery Life settings that it would use when on battery.

Anyway, when the fan starts up it first goes on sort of loud for about half a second then quickly steps down a few times until it runs very quietly, un-noticable if there is a bit of background noise. Slightly louder if you're stressing the CPU/Video card.

youre making me very optimistic about the 17" 7800gtx "big brother" of this lappy. i was worried about sound, heat and battery, so im glad that wont be a problem. How heavy does it feel though? one of the reasons why i want to get the 17" is because it is only .8lb's heavier than this one. I just didnt feel right about having a 7.5lb 15" notebook.

as for the video card, the 7800 in the 5720 is not mxm, so im thinking that that might also be the case with this one.

is the new lcd going to be glossy?

are the buttons on the audiodj plastic or metal? i couldnt tell from the pictures.

how is the touchpad?

It doesn't feel too heavy. I mean, it's heavier than the hp compaq 6120s and 5000s that the teachers have here at work but they're 15" non wide and a totally different class of notebook.

I don't think any screens for this laptop (M560A) are going to be glossy. But that's fine, the viewing angle and quality of the screen i think is great.

The buttons on the AudioDJ are plastic, but there is nothing wrong with them.

The touchpad is average I would say. The sensitivity and response is OK for moving the curser, but the scroller on the right (painted arrows on the touchpad) is a bit tricky because the touchpad doesn't seem to work at the edges

To scroll you have to touch the left edge of the painted lines on the touchpad. Touching the edge of the touchpad does nothing. A bit strange but I guess just something to get used to, although I feel a bit cheated out of usable touchpad space. Is this normal for Clevos?

EDIT: The unusable touchpad space is at all edges, not just the right, and it's only right at the edge of the touchpad, if i move my finger slightly in from the edge it works fine. I normally use a cute little Toshiba (Targus) portable optical wheel mouse anyway so it's not much of an issue.

im pretty sure the 17" ones are glossy, so thats OK.

The media buttons are hardly a big deal, i was just curious cause they looked really nice in the pictures.

that touchpad thing is really weird. Are you sure its not a software problem? I saw the logitech v400 today though, http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/pr...ONTENTID=10915, so i dont think the touchpad will be much of an issue Also, from the pictures, it looks like the 5720 will have a different touchpad anyway.

anyway, thanks for answering my questions.

Is it a Synaptics touchpad? I know on Synaptics touchpads you can adjust the sensitive zone and the touch sensitive areas, maybe there are similar drivers on your machine?

It's an Elantech touchpad. Can't see any settings like adjusting the sensitive zone. I'm pretty sure the driver is up to date, version 5.0.4.1 from May 2005. Oh well, maybe when someone else gets an M560A we'll find out if it's just my one or it's a common thing.

this may be a stupid question, but how would you rate the portability of the 5320. Obviously with it being 7.5 lbs its a heavy laptop, but i'm just curious because it is a fairly thin laptop at 1 inch(front) - 1.5 inch( back)
I'm looking at getting this laptop, but I see myself carrying it a decent amount from place to place.

Also, (gonna get two birds with one stone here) are the SATA HD options of 80 or 100 gb faster then the 60 gb 7200 rpm HD.
thanks