You are browsing within the review sections of our forums. Content within these sections reflect consumer opinions of laptops. Our admins take the best and most objective laptop reviews and index them here to create a distinct selection of quality reviews with averaged overall ratings. Many of these reviews have benchmarks attached to them which allows for users to compare their laptop's performance with others, and ultimately enables us to provide a sortable list which at a glance show the fastest laptops amongst a variety of applications (gaming, video editing, web browsing, etc...). Help us build a better laptop database by submitting your laptop review.

My new CX7 is the best computer I have owned and it has exceeded all expectations I had for it. I got more for my money from Hypersonic, with better quality parts, than I would have from any major company, and the same for cheaper from comparable brands.

Specs:

Aviator CX7 Duo

Integrated V.92 56K Fax/Data Modem - Qty: 1
MS Windows XP Professional CD & Manual SP2 Pre-Installed & Configured - Qty: 1
Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Controller - Qty: 1
17" WUXGA 1920x1200 VividView™ Display w/ Super Clear Glossy Surface - Qty: 1
1 Year Platinum Warranty with 24/7 Toll-Free Tech Support - Qty: 1
100GB 7200rpm Serial-ATA Hard Drive with NCQ & 8MB Cache - Qty: 1
Internal 802.11A/G 54Mbps Wireless Mini PCI for CX7 - Qty: 1
Aviator CX7 in Silver with Tinted Brushed Aluminum Cover - Qty: 1
Built-in High Definition 3D Sound System for CX7 - Qty: 1
(No Disaster Recovery DVD) - Qty: 1
Internal Bluetooth™ Module for CX7 - Qty: 1
1024MB Mushkin PC5300 DDR2-667 SODIMM - Low Latency (5-5-5-15) - Qty: 2
8X DVD ± R/W Drive Dual Layer w/ DVD Recording Software - Qty: 1
Intel® 945PM chipset + ICH7M Mobile Motherboard (CX7-Duo) - Qty: 1
Aviator CX7 Duo: High Performance 17" Centrino Duo Gaming Notebook - Qty: 1
2.00GHz Intel® Core Duo Processor T2500 / 2MB Cache/ 667MHz FSB - Qty: 1
Nvidia Quadro FX 2500M PCI-Express 512MB GDDR3 - Qty: 1

1 Hypersonic 17" Koskin Laptop Carrying Case w/ Embossed Logo

Note: They threw the case in for free, but I don't think it is worth $70. If you place the order over the phone, the will give you the case for $35-$40, can't remember exactly, but well worth that amount. Even so, it is not padded very heavily, so I am thinking of adding extra there if I can, it is already pretty tight...

Ordering: Ordering went fine. There was a mix-up about what date my card would be able to be charged, but that was not entirely their fault. Otherwise, it was delivered pretty much on time, I believe a few days off their original completion date, but that is fine. I understand how these things go.

Shipping: I am a documentary filmmaker and I was in Nashville at the time and they had no problem shipping it to my address there, which went very smoothly and I was very impressed.

Initial reaction: "Oh man, did I make the right choice!" The computer with its 17" widescreen is huge! Yet it does not weigh that much even with the battery which seems to last a VERY LONG TIME. I didn't time it, but it was over an hour and a half Internet surfing. I have the power hungry Quadro FX 2500M graphics card, so I don't know if that affects the time. I believe if you had the GeForce Go 7900 the battery would last even longer. I just needed that card to crunch graphics with the Avid Xpress Pro editing program. It's funny, my buddy has a 15" Mac which looks a lot smaller than my 17", but when I put his on top of mine, it was only slightly longer on the edges. It is still very portable and I am going to take it lots of places.

Appearance: This notebook looks very professional and very technical all at once. Just size wise, it tells people that "Hey, I don't mess around with my computer." The clock in front is a nice touch.

Display: Again. "Wow I made the right choice going with the WUXGA!" It is hard to look at my desktop with the lower res now. Absolutely no dead pixels, even with no assurance purchased. There is minimal light leakage, which I can only see during the blue Windows start up screen. It's pretty tight.

Sound: The speakers on the system leave something to be desired, but I have never heard great sound on a laptop, so no big surprise there. That's why I have expensive headphones. They really do make a difference over the cheap one, by the way... I never thought it would be that much better until I bought a $100 pair - can't imagine what the really expensive ones sound like.

Fans: Mine runs a little bit warm, I think the powerful graphics card probably has something to do with it. If I am plugged in, I usually manually turn the fans on high because I think it's better for the equipment to keep it cooler. Others might feel otherwise, but after a minute or two, I don't hear it. Otherwise, the fans are very quiet, sometime adjusting speed if it heats up a little.

Intel Core Duo Chips: Definitely the way to go. These things fly and I found I can run programs on my computer, like a virus scan, and then do other things with my computer barely breaking a sweat. It seems to have something to do with the great battery life I have.

Conclusion: I have never bought a cutting edge machine like this before and certainly never spent thousands on a system, so you can understand my being a little nervous. I have no negative feelings about the process and would recommend this company to anyone, as I would buy another system from them in a second without any hesitation or shopping around. I spent three months trying to decide what computer would be best for me, as well as many hours fantasizing over the years before I knew I was actually going to buy one, and this is the the one I was comfortable with. I love it and encourage everyone to buy one also.

Rock n' Roll.

Taylor Brush
Spotted Tail Productions

Congrats, Taylor-

Glad to read the glowing first impressions. I finally ordered my CX7 a couple of hours ago. How many days from ordering did yours take to arrive?

My machine:
T2500
2g Mushkin RAM
512mb 7900 GPU
100g 7200 rpm HD
WSXGA screen
DVD RW
bluetooth
XP Pro

I wanted the WUXGA screen, but have learned on my current notebook that UXGA makes it difficult to use with secondary monitors or projectors properly. I just got a 21-inch WSXGA monitor to extend my desktop & watch TV PIP, and I often use projectors.

With my current UXGA screen, I was always having to lower my notebook's resolution to display stuff on a projector the right size, then my desktop always had to be re-configured and stuff.

Keep us posted how your new setup goes.

Well I know with my card, I am able to configure different res for each monitor, so I am able to go UXGA on my laptop, then use SXGA on the other monitor. I use desktop extend, so if they are not the same resolution, they will be different shapes. I gave up on desktop extend very quickly for editing since my other monitor was not the same res. Hard to look at. But if you were going to use it to put the same things up, different res would be OK.

Other answers:

It took about two weeks for them to ship my computer - I don't recommend paying much attention to the status bars on the "My account" page, since they never seemed to be right for me. Looks like you ordered about the same computer as me, minus the video card. You should be really happy with it. It is quite a machine and I believe you should get better battery life than me since the Quadro 2500 is a real power hog. I'm willing to bet you get two hours or above. Enjoy it!

Taylor

BTW,

If you didn't see Ratmyr's post somewhere about it, you can send Hypersonic a link to your review and get a few trinkets from them:
http://www.hypersonic-pc.com/reviewclaim/

-a smart way for them to get satisfied customers to spread the word, then give you free stuff so you can advertise them some more. I never mind advertising for a company I am happy with.

Yep... I saw it and was quite impressed with them, once again. I put in my link, so hopefully I should be getting the prize package soon. Thanks for mentioning it!

T

Congrats on the system and nice review. Glad that you have been happy with it. I have the original model and absolutely love it. I do more gaming on it then my desktop (which was recently built).

Again... congrats!