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Attention!!

This model is no longer in production. There is instead a 15 inch integrated graphics Sager 2090 as well as a 12 inch Sager 7250 that can be purchased in different colors.

Intro

In my relatively short time on this planet I’ve owned quiet a few laptops, in a variety of different shapes and sizes, each with their own unique appeal. I have a lot of respect for different vendors and how they market their own designs to consumers. Some vendors have pros in certain features and flaws in other. Here is a short list of laptop models I have owned in the past in order of appearance.

2000 Gateway 2000 450 15’’
2002 Alienware Area 51-m 5620P 15’’
2003 Alienware Area 51-m Sentia 244 14’’
2003 Sony S-Series 13.3’’
2003 T23 Thinkpad 14.1’’
2004 Dell 9700 17’’
2005 Alienware Sentia 223 12.1’’
2006 Alienware Area 51-m 5750 17’’
2006 IBM T60 Lenovo 14.1’’

The Sager 5460 is a light midsized notebook perfect for mobility with an ideal screen that is not too large and not too small. Sure the 12 inch Sentia and 13 inch Sony were great punches of power with their incredibly small size, but its amazing what an extra inch of screen space will do for your comfort level.



Reason to Purchase:

I had recently purchased 17 inch Alienware Area 51-m 5750 as a gaming laptop for taking to LANS. This laptop has been nothing but incredible for a mobile gaming system, but the size and battery life is not exactly ideal for taking to class or to the library. I also currently have an Alienware Sentia 232 which should be the ideal mobile notebook. However, the 12 inch screen made it difficult to read since it was so small and the incredibly glossy screen made using the notebook in the daylight a bear. I needed a solution between the two designs.

Specs:

• 5460 Series Notebook - Upgrade #1 Custom Smooth Creations Pain Job!
• Standard Dead Pixel Policy
• Intel Core2 2.33(T7600 w/ 4MB cache)
• 2048MB* DDR2 667MHz
• 60GB (7200rpm) SATA
• 8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL MULTI DRIVE W/ SOFTWARE
• SMART Li-ION BATTERY PACK (6 CELLS)
• Free Notebook Carry Case
• AC Adapter w/ Power Cord
• Internal Intel 3945ABG 802.11a/b/g Wireless LAN
• Internal Bluetooth Card
• Sager 3 Year Warranty, Lifetime Tech Support

Design

Sagers are not known for their flashy colors, LEDs or custom graphics, but instead offer you powerful machines with generic styles and metallic lids. The build quality is definitely something to admire with a sturdy base, impressive LCD screen with strong adjustable hinges. The 5460 is not a cheap package.

Screen:

The viewing angle of the 5460 is quite impressive. Much like the Asus G2P, the horizontal viewing angle is roughly 145 degrees both ways, and the vertical viewing angles are roughly 120 degrees. The contrast level is very high, the whites are white and the blacks are black. This is one superb LCD screen with a lot of similarities with Sony’s patented X-brite technology. There are 8 levels of brightness that can be controlled by holding the FN key and hitting the F8 and F9 keys. The lowest brightness setting is still useful in daylight despite some glare off the glossy screen, and the brightest setting is useful in daylight or in dark lit areas. Unfortunately the model I received contained a small blotch of dead pixels (I think) in the bottom right quadrant of the screen. I say “I think” because the blotch is a lot larger than most normal dead pixels unless it is a group of dead pixels. This is of course very annoying when it looks like a dead bug is squished on your screen.



Keyboard

The keyboard on the 5460 is one of the most comfortable non-full-sized keyboards I’ve ever used. The typical black color and white lettering lets you find keys fairly quickly as well as the blue function (FN) keys allowing you adjust the sound or brightness or to select NUM/Scroll Lock keys.



Touchpad

One of the worst touchpads I’ve ever used belonged to the Alienware Sentia 223. It had no texture, too much acceleration that was not affected when messing with the mouse speeds in the control panel and overall a bear to use. I was pleasantly surprised with the touchpad on the 5460. It has a textured feel and the acceleration does not get out of control but Sager did not separate the touchpad from the scroll pad, so you might accidentally start scrolling in your Word document by accident. For example, on the Alienware 5750, there is a raised horizontal line that lets the user know when your fingers are venturing too far to the right before you touch the scroll pad. This should be a stock feature on every laptop ever made. Take note Sager.




Features


Multimedia Keys

There are three hotkeys located next to the power button. The first is default assigned to Windows Media Player. The second has a picture of a envelop and will automatically assign that to Microsoft Outlook AND AIM or DeadAIM which I find impressive. The third key will automatically bring up your default web browser.



LEDS and Mic

There are three LEDs next to the Multimedia keys are to notify when your Caps Lock, Num Lock and Scroll Lock are enabled. And there is also 5 more LEDs towards the front right of the laptop for typical, AC power indicator, battery indicator, charging indicator HD activity indicator and wireless network found indicator. Above the LEDs there is also a convenient built in mic.



Webcam

Like all Sagers there is a webcam built into the frame of the LCD screen.



Webcam Images





Speakers

Sadly, the speakers are inadequate even for typical web use. With the amount of media websites these days it should be a standard feature in every laptop to incorporate good sounding speakers even to watch low quality videos like from youtube or straferight.

Input and Output Ports

Front: One of the coolest features on the 5460 is the fact that there is no latch. The lid closes and is held together by tiny magnets built into the frame. This puzzles me how magnets could be used with the possibility of hard drive corruption, but Sager figured out a way around it. It really adds a sleek feel to close a laptop without the “click”.

Right Side: The right side of the laptop has your standard DVD tray, RJ-11 Modem port, USB 2.0 port and two audio ports for a microphone and headphones.



Left Side: The left side of the laptop contains RJ-45 LAN (10/100/1000Mbps), two more multipurpose audio jacks, two more USB 2.0 ports and an IEEE-1394a Fire Wire port. The left side also has an Express Card 34 / 54 Slot and the exhaust from the air intake.



Rear: The back of the laptop has two video output ports. S-Video TV-Out Jack and an VGA CRT Port.



Bottom: The bottom of the laptop contains nothing out of ordinary. There is access to remove the battery and other internal components located on the bottom. The intake fan is also located on the bottom.



Size and Weight

At 4.85 LBs, the Sager 5460 will not be a burden of extra weight to carry nor will it take up much space. The dimensions of the laptop are the following:
13.1" (w) x 9.5" (d) x 0.9" ~ 1.3" (h)

Heat and Noise

I’ve noticed a trend with small notebooks. The smaller a notebook, the louder the fans are. This may be due to the fact that larger notebooks like the Alienware 5750, have the ability to squeeze in larger headsinks for CPU and GPUs. Smaller notebooks do not have the space, so they must make up for the loss of heatsinks with more fans. The more fans, the louder your laptop will be. The 5460 is quite noisy with typical use, where you are typing in Word or surfing the net, there will always be a fan going. However, unlike the Alienware Sentia 223, the Sager 5460 does NOT get hot. Using the 223, just typing in Word would cause the keyboard and touchpad to get extremely hot to the touch, almost to the point where you would need to stop and let the laptop cool down. Air is sucked up through the bottom of the laptop and exhausted through small openings on the left side of the base. The noise may get to you after a while, but I’d rather a soft hum than cooking marshmallows over my keyboard.



Battery Life

I tested the 5460 on two sets of brightness settings and spent the time surfing the web with Firefox 2 with 1-5 tabs open as well as writing in Microsoft Word.

8/8 – 50 minutes
1/8 – 130-140 minutes

Games

Considering the Sager 5460 is not even a gaming laptop, it may be very satisfying to know that the 5460 plays World of Warcraft flawlessly on integrated graphics. Even at high settings, at times gets more frames per second versus a 3000+ AMD desktop with a X800XT.

Desktop ------------------------ 5460



But many of you are wondering if the 5460 can support any Valve games. And the answer is unfortunately no. Counterstrike: Source does not even make it to the main screen but instead hangs with a black background and white mouse.


Software

The great thing about any Sager purchased from PCTorque is the option of having your laptop shipped with or without a Windows Operating System. This allows users to customize their laptops with any OS they’re little heart desires.



Accessories

The Sager 5460 ships with an incredibly small power block that generates barely any heat. There is also a small laptop bag that is perfect to lug your notebook around when you are on the go.



Pros:

• Screen – Incredible sharpness, comparable to Sony’s patented X-brite technology
• Performance – At 2.33 Ghz and 2GB of RAM any task is a breeze
• Size – Light and fits into any backpack or messenger bag.
• Battery Life – typical 2+ hour life with low brightness but on highest available settings battery is inadequate (less than 1 hour)
• Keyboard – comfortable
• Touchpad – responsive but not too touchy, scroll pad a little too wild
• Wireless – easily configurable; adaptable
• Free Stuff – Ships with free laptop pack

Cons:

• Noisy – Under stress the laptop really cranks on the fans even if on battery power; there is also a strange hum when the laptop first boots
• Optical Drive – At times the drive makes grinding noises
• Speakers – tiny tweeters do not pack much bass for regular media use

Conclusion:

My list of laptops at the top of this review have proven I’ve had experience will a variety of different manufactures and I can say from my experience that the Sager 5460 is my favorite travel notebook. A powerful Intel Core 2 Duo CPU packs tremendous power for a laptop this small and although noise may disrupt some users, it makes up for it with low heat and a crystal sharp screen. The notebook is absolutely perfect for users who need a notebook to bring to class, in the car, on a plane or anywhere else you need the mobility and flexibility of powerful computing.

If you have any questions about anything written here you can e-mail me: Dukefrukem[at]notebookforums.net

Nice review Duke and congrats on the new toy!

thanks Metal!

With the new review system out on NBF, i think I may go back and do every laptop review I've written like this.

Yaaay! Nice laptop, Duke.

I'm glad you got a lot of good pictures in there. My pics don't do this laptop justice. Are you going to get this one painted too?

I guess you'll have to wait and see now won't you? Be on the lookout for another poll.

REALLY good review, Duke. Look for more laptops headed your way in the future.

Awesome review. PCTorque is always happy to provide merchandise to good reviewers, and as laura stated above, we will definitely hear more from you in the future. Thanks.

Thanks Charles and Laura!

You guys both know where my dedication is.

great review duke!!! cant wait to see that smooth job of paint!!

thank Isaac!! and you know I'm gonna do a write up on it.

nice review again f00k f@ce, looking forward to the next Smooth Job

I think your review needs more pictures...

Nice review.

I wonder what Smooth could do with an Alienware lid...

not much with the eyes and other things on the lid. thats why they removed mine and put on a custom one for my 5750.

Duke...


I have a quick question if you have some time. I just recieved my 5460 from sager. It seems that the arrow keys are a bit loose. Did you laptop also have loose arrow keys? I mean they seem a bit flimsy. Thanks for this review it was very helpful.

Manny

My arrow keys feel the same as all the other keys.