Haven't gotten full on into it yet, still playing around with getting the drivers integrated into an unattended install... but here's my impressions so far.
Who ever said that the Z71V has "no flex" has obviously never been on a notebook that actually has no flex. It's not bad, by any means, but there's definitely some play... especially on the top cover, and around the arrow buttons on the keyboard. That being said, the keyboard is of excellent quality... good travel, good sound. The touchpad works well, although I will admit I won't be using it very much. Overall, it has a sturdy feel to it.
The screen is very crisp, and very sharp. It is, as another user said, a bit darker on the right side of the screen... and there is definitely some "sparkle" or "grain" visible in the whites and greens. All in all though, it's nice and bright, has good color, and is fairly easy on the eyes. The "sparkle" doesn't bother me when comparing it to my Inspiron 9200's screen, and to be honest, it's barely noticible.
The laptop isn't spectacular to look at as a whole, but has a classy look to it, and feels very solid in one's hand. The different color LED's give it some flash, but nothing that's going to make a Vaio or Samsung user think about jumping ship. One thing the color scheme has going for it is that it matches almost perfectly with the gunmetal colored Microsoft Notebook Wireless Optical Mouse. Both have chrome accents, which makes for a pleasingly color-coordinated desktop.
In the full review, I'll get into performance, features (or lack thereof), heat generation, and all it's miscellaneous little nuances.
Kai
Ok, here comes the meat and potatoes... from Denny's.
The speed of the machine is excellent, of course. Good gaming performance (I'm not much into synthetic benchmarks, they're fairly useless in my opinion). UT2004 runs without a hitch on the highest quality settings, which is what I was looking for it to do.
The fans are loud in my opinion... much louder than my old Inspiron 9200 under load. To be honest, it's fairly annoying... as is the flex of the keyboard. Tapping the enter button lightly with my pinky produces noise, and the entire right side of the keyboard visibly moves.
There is some heat, and it's all coming from the keyboard. Its not uncomfortable, but I wouldn't recommend blocking those noisy fans.
The audio is somewhat of a mixed bag... most of the stock windows sound effects sound as if they're playing in a concert hall or something. I think it's some kind of audio filter/setting, but as of yet I haven't been able to figure out how to change it. The speakers do have a very nice sound though, which is nice.
All in all, I'm pleased with my purchase...but there are some issues I mentioned that I will be discussing with ISTNC to see if these things are considered normal for this machine.
Just out of curiousity, are any of you getting that annoying keyboard rattle on the right hand side? How about a slight darkening of the screen, also on the right?
Kai
Who ever said that the Z71V has "no flex" has obviously never been on a notebook that actually has no flex. It's not bad, by any means, but there's definitely some play... especially on the top cover, and around the arrow buttons on the keyboard. That being said, the keyboard is of excellent quality... good travel, good sound. The touchpad works well, although I will admit I won't be using it very much. Overall, it has a sturdy feel to it.
The screen is very crisp, and very sharp. It is, as another user said, a bit darker on the right side of the screen... and there is definitely some "sparkle" or "grain" visible in the whites and greens. All in all though, it's nice and bright, has good color, and is fairly easy on the eyes. The "sparkle" doesn't bother me when comparing it to my Inspiron 9200's screen, and to be honest, it's barely noticible.
The laptop isn't spectacular to look at as a whole, but has a classy look to it, and feels very solid in one's hand. The different color LED's give it some flash, but nothing that's going to make a Vaio or Samsung user think about jumping ship. One thing the color scheme has going for it is that it matches almost perfectly with the gunmetal colored Microsoft Notebook Wireless Optical Mouse. Both have chrome accents, which makes for a pleasingly color-coordinated desktop.
In the full review, I'll get into performance, features (or lack thereof), heat generation, and all it's miscellaneous little nuances.
Kai
Ok, here comes the meat and potatoes... from Denny's.
The speed of the machine is excellent, of course. Good gaming performance (I'm not much into synthetic benchmarks, they're fairly useless in my opinion). UT2004 runs without a hitch on the highest quality settings, which is what I was looking for it to do.
The fans are loud in my opinion... much louder than my old Inspiron 9200 under load. To be honest, it's fairly annoying... as is the flex of the keyboard. Tapping the enter button lightly with my pinky produces noise, and the entire right side of the keyboard visibly moves.
There is some heat, and it's all coming from the keyboard. Its not uncomfortable, but I wouldn't recommend blocking those noisy fans.
The audio is somewhat of a mixed bag... most of the stock windows sound effects sound as if they're playing in a concert hall or something. I think it's some kind of audio filter/setting, but as of yet I haven't been able to figure out how to change it. The speakers do have a very nice sound though, which is nice.
All in all, I'm pleased with my purchase...but there are some issues I mentioned that I will be discussing with ISTNC to see if these things are considered normal for this machine.
Just out of curiousity, are any of you getting that annoying keyboard rattle on the right hand side? How about a slight darkening of the screen, also on the right?
Kai
