All right, all you hep-cats, I have had this Sentia M3200 for a couple of weeks now and I finally have a little time to write up a review. I will post this thing a chunk at a time, and edit in new info and photos as I take it through some paces… so check back every couple of days for my updates (if you care to).
I got this machine to evaluate as a BUSINESS notebook (i.e. no gaming). I am looking to outfit a number of employees, so (having never owned an AW notebook) I though it wise to get one to smack around a bit before spending the big spondukies. Here are the basic specs:
I won’t dwell too much on the ordering/phase process. I bought through the AW Corporate Sales gang, and they were very helpful. They just missed the “ships in 5 days” mark, but I got over it.
Physical Construction
I am very pleased with the construction and physical quality of this machine. We presently use ThinkPads which are truly built like tanks (and believe me, we abuse them) and the Sentia doesn’t give quite the same feel… but it is still solid (and with a decent case they should hold up just fine).
The size is perfect for a business user. Since I have boney girl arms, I like my notebook to be small. You would be surprised how heavy 5 or 6 pounds feels after a full day of running through airports (kinda like OJ Simpson – without the multiple murders) and arguing with cab drivers in some Third World armpit. (“Dude, how many times do I have to tell you? I don’t want to go to the ‘Golden Time Massage Parlor.’ I don’t care how ‘clean’ the girls are. Take me to my hotel!”)
Some of the photos make the M3200 look a little chunky, but the proportions are very nice, the keyboard is very usable and the screen size is plenty big.
I really wanted black, but the grey is actually very cool. (The photos never really do the grey justice.) It is sufficiently subdued for the business environment – but with enough cool factor to get you noticed. (It might have something to do with the glowing alien head.)
The only issue that I have with the physical design is that it increased my time through Airport Security by a few minutes. EVERY TSA employee that saw the thing stopped to check it out. I was selected for “random” testing for explosive residue twice in one trip so that they could open it up and ask me questions about it. Hey, but the chicks dig it.
General Performance
As I stated, this machine is for business use, so I will focus on how it holds up with typical productivity and desktop publishing tasks – along with some video apps. (Yes, I will blow stuff up with it, but I will save that for last.)
My general impression of the Sentia’s performance is, “SWEET!”
This thing is WAY FAST. Not just for a thin/light notebook, but for notebooks in general. I highly recommend the 1 Gig of RAM AND a 7200 RPM HD. The 2 GHz CPU certainly doesn’t hurt, but with the faster HD, many of my apps load almost instantly (no exaggeration) – and the extra RAM allows me to tear through memory-intensive tasks (Photoshop and video rendering for example) with impressive speed.
As for the WiFi performance – I know that many have had issues in the past, but my experience thus far has been rock-solid. I was recently in a hotel in a “technologically challenged” nation and I was able to connect to a dozen networks from businesses in the neighborhood. This doesn’t say much for their IT security, but I was able to get a decent internet connection. (I spent a lot of time in the lobby working – and checking out the chicks – while my compatriot was up in the hotel room in the throws of some tropical fever.)
The hidden USB port should be required on all notebooks. The dimensions could be a little larger to accommodate more devices (my wireless mouse dongle will not fit – but my Bluetooth device fits fine.) but if you shop around, you should be able to find what you’re looking for in a form factor that will fit. Internal Bluetooth would be great, but this does the trick.
I was a little disappointed that my Sentia was shipped with the old BIOS. The newer version that corrected the issue with the eyes not relighting after going to standby had been available for a while before I placed the order. Flashing the new BIOS was simple, but should not have been necessary.
Office Production
I loaded this machine with pretty much every Microsoft Office 2003 application in existence, and it ate them up. As I said before, the apps opened almost instantly (Word and Powerpoint take about 2 seconds – the rest of them start much faster.)
As for running multiple apps: just for grins, I simultaneously opened Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access, Visio, Project and OneNote – and barely noticed any reduction in performance in some apps. Other apps showed no signs of slowing down. My ThinkPad would have been gasping for air.
Desktop Publishing
We use Adobe’s Creative Suite 2 quite a bit, so I loaded it up to have a go.
Photoshop worked like a dream. I opened some large images and did all kinds of things to them without breaking a sweat. The big gauge that everyone seems to use is performance with a Gaussian Blur. Well, now I can finally tell all my MAC geeks in the creative department to stop bitchin’ about having to use PCs – because this thing was kickin’ Mr. Gaussian Blur’s ass. (Just a note: the track-pad is pretty much useless for Photoshop, so you will need an external mouse.)
I could run about three Adobe apps simultaneously before I really started to notice performance lags. Running InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator together was very workable. Any two at a time, and you don’t even notice the difference.
Adobe GoLive started up pretty fast, but opening large web site projects takes some time – but I see that in our desktops as well.
Video Apps
I loaded in Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects for some giggles. I wasn’t really expecting fantastic performance, but “Holy Nonlinear Editing, Batman,” this thing rocks again!
True, a larger screen would be better for such tasks, but with judicious arrangement of your workspace, you can be very efficient. (You know the old adage of size versus knowing what to do with it…)
This is where the 7200RPM HD really helps. I was able to capture and edit DV with no problems. Additionally, rendering video in After Effects was super fast. I rendered a short video that included lots of blurs, color corrections, text effects and lens flares in a fraction of the time it took to do it on the old desktop that we use for rendering. (To be more precise, it took about 12% of the time required by the old machine. True, it is a VERY old machine – I guess that it’s time to take it out behind the barn and shoot it.)
I was feeling a little crazy, so I rendered the same video again IN HIGH DEF (720p/24fps with Windows Media compression). Again, it rendered quickly… but here is the kicker: THE VIDEO PLAYED PERFECTLY ON THE SENTIA. Microsoft recommends at least a P4/3GHz CPU for 720p play-back – but this machine played it perfectly. SWEET! (I was actually able to run uncompressed 720p at 15fps.)
(I still have more to say, but I will edit later and add photos.)
I got this machine to evaluate as a BUSINESS notebook (i.e. no gaming). I am looking to outfit a number of employees, so (having never owned an AW notebook) I though it wise to get one to smack around a bit before spending the big spondukies. Here are the basic specs:
- Sentia M3200 (12”)
- 2 GHz Pentium M
- 1 Gig RAM
- 80 Gig HD (7200 RPM)
- DVD R/W
I won’t dwell too much on the ordering/phase process. I bought through the AW Corporate Sales gang, and they were very helpful. They just missed the “ships in 5 days” mark, but I got over it.
Physical Construction
I am very pleased with the construction and physical quality of this machine. We presently use ThinkPads which are truly built like tanks (and believe me, we abuse them) and the Sentia doesn’t give quite the same feel… but it is still solid (and with a decent case they should hold up just fine).
The size is perfect for a business user. Since I have boney girl arms, I like my notebook to be small. You would be surprised how heavy 5 or 6 pounds feels after a full day of running through airports (kinda like OJ Simpson – without the multiple murders) and arguing with cab drivers in some Third World armpit. (“Dude, how many times do I have to tell you? I don’t want to go to the ‘Golden Time Massage Parlor.’ I don’t care how ‘clean’ the girls are. Take me to my hotel!”)
Some of the photos make the M3200 look a little chunky, but the proportions are very nice, the keyboard is very usable and the screen size is plenty big.
I really wanted black, but the grey is actually very cool. (The photos never really do the grey justice.) It is sufficiently subdued for the business environment – but with enough cool factor to get you noticed. (It might have something to do with the glowing alien head.)
The only issue that I have with the physical design is that it increased my time through Airport Security by a few minutes. EVERY TSA employee that saw the thing stopped to check it out. I was selected for “random” testing for explosive residue twice in one trip so that they could open it up and ask me questions about it. Hey, but the chicks dig it.
General Performance
As I stated, this machine is for business use, so I will focus on how it holds up with typical productivity and desktop publishing tasks – along with some video apps. (Yes, I will blow stuff up with it, but I will save that for last.)
My general impression of the Sentia’s performance is, “SWEET!”
This thing is WAY FAST. Not just for a thin/light notebook, but for notebooks in general. I highly recommend the 1 Gig of RAM AND a 7200 RPM HD. The 2 GHz CPU certainly doesn’t hurt, but with the faster HD, many of my apps load almost instantly (no exaggeration) – and the extra RAM allows me to tear through memory-intensive tasks (Photoshop and video rendering for example) with impressive speed.
As for the WiFi performance – I know that many have had issues in the past, but my experience thus far has been rock-solid. I was recently in a hotel in a “technologically challenged” nation and I was able to connect to a dozen networks from businesses in the neighborhood. This doesn’t say much for their IT security, but I was able to get a decent internet connection. (I spent a lot of time in the lobby working – and checking out the chicks – while my compatriot was up in the hotel room in the throws of some tropical fever.)
The hidden USB port should be required on all notebooks. The dimensions could be a little larger to accommodate more devices (my wireless mouse dongle will not fit – but my Bluetooth device fits fine.) but if you shop around, you should be able to find what you’re looking for in a form factor that will fit. Internal Bluetooth would be great, but this does the trick.
I was a little disappointed that my Sentia was shipped with the old BIOS. The newer version that corrected the issue with the eyes not relighting after going to standby had been available for a while before I placed the order. Flashing the new BIOS was simple, but should not have been necessary.
Office Production
I loaded this machine with pretty much every Microsoft Office 2003 application in existence, and it ate them up. As I said before, the apps opened almost instantly (Word and Powerpoint take about 2 seconds – the rest of them start much faster.)
As for running multiple apps: just for grins, I simultaneously opened Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access, Visio, Project and OneNote – and barely noticed any reduction in performance in some apps. Other apps showed no signs of slowing down. My ThinkPad would have been gasping for air.
Desktop Publishing
We use Adobe’s Creative Suite 2 quite a bit, so I loaded it up to have a go.
Photoshop worked like a dream. I opened some large images and did all kinds of things to them without breaking a sweat. The big gauge that everyone seems to use is performance with a Gaussian Blur. Well, now I can finally tell all my MAC geeks in the creative department to stop bitchin’ about having to use PCs – because this thing was kickin’ Mr. Gaussian Blur’s ass. (Just a note: the track-pad is pretty much useless for Photoshop, so you will need an external mouse.)
I could run about three Adobe apps simultaneously before I really started to notice performance lags. Running InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator together was very workable. Any two at a time, and you don’t even notice the difference.
Adobe GoLive started up pretty fast, but opening large web site projects takes some time – but I see that in our desktops as well.
Video Apps
I loaded in Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects for some giggles. I wasn’t really expecting fantastic performance, but “Holy Nonlinear Editing, Batman,” this thing rocks again!
True, a larger screen would be better for such tasks, but with judicious arrangement of your workspace, you can be very efficient. (You know the old adage of size versus knowing what to do with it…)
This is where the 7200RPM HD really helps. I was able to capture and edit DV with no problems. Additionally, rendering video in After Effects was super fast. I rendered a short video that included lots of blurs, color corrections, text effects and lens flares in a fraction of the time it took to do it on the old desktop that we use for rendering. (To be more precise, it took about 12% of the time required by the old machine. True, it is a VERY old machine – I guess that it’s time to take it out behind the barn and shoot it.)
I was feeling a little crazy, so I rendered the same video again IN HIGH DEF (720p/24fps with Windows Media compression). Again, it rendered quickly… but here is the kicker: THE VIDEO PLAYED PERFECTLY ON THE SENTIA. Microsoft recommends at least a P4/3GHz CPU for 720p play-back – but this machine played it perfectly. SWEET! (I was actually able to run uncompressed 720p at 15fps.)
(I still have more to say, but I will edit later and add photos.)
OMG! HIGH!
