My Zepto Mythos personal review

-Copyrighted© by CLB-

Thanks to zeptoshop.nl which provided a Zepto Mythos which I can test and review!​

First impressions
Unpacking the laptop was a litte party on it's own...
The Zepto Mythos was packaged in a box were the Zepto Mythos is printed on.

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Not very interesting, but it has class and it is much better than the 'normal' laptopboxes with a cardboard color. When unpacking the box you will find two compartiments, one with the laptop and one with a smaller cardboard box. In this box you will find the adapter, the driver-cd and an English manual.

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Not many accesoires that are provided so my focus was directly on the Zepto Mythos, and that's lovely! The laptop is 100% white qua color, just like the Apple Macbooks. The 6214W and the 6224W were also white, but they had a black bottom. The laptop has got a rubber finish which feels quite nice. It is comparable with the headphonecord of the new iPods. The whole laptop is covered with this rubber finish: the cover, the inside, the keyboard and even the optical drive. I've never seen it before on a laptop and it's classy and feels robust. It has got a matte finish, so it doesn't look cheap. (as example like the cover of the Acer Aspire 5920) The laptop has got nice shapes, a normal weight and is only 2,7cm heigh. You can read more about this subject in 'mobility' What also catched my eye when unpacking the Zepto Mythos was the fingerprintreader, the mousebuttons (it is just one big button instead of two small ones) and the lack of any hardwarebuttons or little hooks for the screen which you can find on the Zepto Znote 6224W / 6324W and the 6624WD.


Featureset
Zepto is meanwhile known as a Built To Order manufacturer. You can choose the hardware that you want in your own Zepto laptop. Think about different screens (qua resolution), different processors, different harddisks (qua storage / qua RPM) and qua memory (qua size and qua how many dimms you want) You can also have different possibilities qua batteries, adapters, turbomoduls and wireless-lan cards.
The cheapest Zepto Mythos will cost you €939,- and the most expensive will cost you €2295,- (without OS)

The hardware in the reviewmodel that I've tested was:

- Intel® Core 2 Duo P9500 2,53 Ghz FSB=1066 MHz
- 4096 MB (2 x 2048 MB) DDR2-800MHz RAM
- 320 GB SATA - 7200 RPM – Sata Hitachi HDD
- 15,4" WSXGA+ 1680x1050 pixels / Ultracrisp / glare-screen / Bright pixel garanty
- Nvidia Geforce 9600M GT 512MB DDR3
- Intel ProWireless 5300AGN 450MB

and it will cost you about €1.500,- (without OS)

The laptop has got many built-in features which you can find in the datasheet
Think about a: Built-in webcam, built-in BlueTooth module, HDMI-out and so on...


Ports and connections:

Upper-side:

Zepto-logo: which will turn blue when the laptop is turned on​

Top-view:

Webcam / Screen / Powerbutton / Keyboard / Touchpad /
Fingerprintreader / Microphone / Speakers / Touchpadbutton / Ledbar

Webcam and microphone:

2.0 MegaPixel camera

Screen:

15,4" WSXGA+ 1680x1050 pixels / UltraCrisp / glare-screen / Bright pixel garanty

Powerbutton:


Keyboard:

UK-Ireland-layout keyboard

Touchpad:

Touchpad + buttons (which just function like two small buttons)

Fingerprintreader:


Speakers:


Ledbar:

Wireless & BlueTooth / Battery / HardDisk / Capslock / Numlock / Scrolllock


Bottom:


Battery with lock mechanism


Panel with the hardware underneath


And with the panel removed

CPU / Wireleslan-card / Videocard / TV-card / HardDisk/ Memory


Left side:

Exhaust / HDMI output / 2x USB 2.0 / Headphone & SPDIF / Microphone / Volumebutton / Cardreader / Express Card


Right side:

Optical drive / Wireless switch / USB 2.0 / Network (ehternet) port / TV antenna in / DC Adapter input​

Windows-installation
I especacially requested for a laptop without a pre-installed OS, so I can check the Windows installation and any possible problems with that installation. I've installed a freshly 32 bit version of Windows Vista Home Premium and the installation only took 30 to 40 minutes without any problems. All the drivers you will need are on the driver-cd and they are numbered, so you don't have to figure out which driverinstallation order you have to follow.


Prestations
And then it was time for some benchmarking!
Offcourse with a 100% updated Windows Vista installation (oa. Service Pack 1)

Processor and memory:


The Windows prestation index with an average of 5,7:


CPU-Z gives this information:
Watch Out! Animated gif!



GPU-Z gives this information:
Watch Out! Animated gif!



SuperPI times are very nice:


And finally it was 3D Mark '06 time:

(tested with driver 179.13 @ 1280x800) ​

Temperature of the videocard was 42°C at the begin of the test.
The highest temperature I've seen when benchmarking with 3D Mark '06 was 68°C and at the end of the test the videocard was only 64°C!


Games that I've benched were:
- Assasins Creed
- Call of Duty 4
- Command and Conquer III
- Crysis
- Far Cry 2
- Gears of War
- Unreal Tournament III

Call of Duty 4:











average framerate


Command and Conquer III:
--- AntiAlising 0X --------------- AntiAlising 4x ---


















average framerate


Crysis:

--- DX9 Medium Settings --------------- DX9 High Settings ---










--- DX10 Medium Settings --------------- DX10 High Settings ---











Far Cry 2:

Average framerate / second​

Gears of War:











average framerate


Unreal Tournament III:











average framerate​

Nice al those screenshots and average framerate benchmarks (the FPS ingame is the number which you can find in the upper right corner of each screenshot) but what do I think of gaming on the Zepto Mythos? Fantastico and a big plus! Al the games that I've tested played very easily without any hickups or framedrops. The 'older' games like Command and Conquer III or Unreal Tournament III played very well, but the 'newer' games like Gears of War or Call of Duty 4 also played very well. With the GO8600M GT 512MB DDR2 in my own Zepto Znote 6224W I could play Crysis with DX9 on medium settings not so fluently as I hoped. With this Zepto Mythos it wasn't even a problem in DX10 mode. I've also tested Assasins Creed and that also didn't gave any problems (tried DX9 and DX10 mode). Unfortunately FRAPS (the little softwareprogram for benchmarking the FPS) didn't work that well with Assasins Creed, so that's why I haven't got any screenshots or FPS-benchmarks. But the GO9600M GT 512MB DDR3 which you will find in the Zepto Mythos is a beast! And it has a quite nice accidental circumstance: the temperature. You can read more about this subject in 'Temperatures and soundproduction'


Screenquality
The quality of the screen of the Zepto Mythos is in 1 word: fantastic. Nice expressive colors, which you can see in any angle. The colors will darken a little bit if you aren't in front of the screen, but is that bad.. is that Zepto Mythos related.. I don't think so because I can't name one other laptop with the same colors on the screen if you aren't sitting in front of it but viewing from a different angle...

Check for yourself:

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My own Zepto Znote 6224W has got a matte screen so I can't compare it, because the screen of the Zepto Mythos is a glare one. The resolution (WSXGA+ 1680x1050) on a 15,4" screen is perfect, but that is very subjective. My Zepto Znote 6224W has got a 14,1" screen with a WXGA+ 1440x900 resolution. I would choose the WSXGA+ screen for sure if I would buy a Zepto Mythos. The resolution is great and you can still play games at native resolution. The screenbrightness is adjustable (with the FN and the F4 and F5 button) in 8 steps, varieing from very dark to very very bright (it just hurt my eyes when al the lights are out and I'm sitting in the dark) The screen has got the latest UltraCrisp technology and that's why the screen is very high detailed and gives a natural look with a wealth of colors.


Buildquality and robustness
Is just fine. You could open the cover with one hand while the laptop is standing on a flat surface. The hinges are a little bit stiff, but that's just quite nice and doesn't look and feel cheap. The laptop feels robust and you could easily take it with you under your arm (because of the weight of only 2,8 kg with a 6 cells battery) And I've named it in the beginning of this review...

Little hooks for the screen are missing on the Zepto Mythos​

Very nice qua styling in my humble opinion. If you hold the laptop upside down the screen will open for 1 a 1,5 centimeter and that's a little pity.
I thought Zepto would use a magnetlock, but they didn't. It doesn't affect the action of the cover, screen or laptop but I just wanted to let you know. The power-button is a stylish and simple button with a blue led in it, which just functions okay. The keyboard feels very nice and works properly with a nice feedback. I personally miss some hardwarebuttons... which were on the last Zepto's. You could link a program, internetsite or application to it and it was very handy because you could easily open Windows Media Player or something like that.

Extra hardwarebuttons are missing on the Zepto Mythos​

Quite handy is the panel on the bottom of the laptop. You could easily open it (just remove 4 little screws) and you can easily add or adjust some hardware (this was just a reviewmodel so I don't know if there are any warranty seals on the screws on the consumereditons of the Zepto Mythosses)


Ergonomy
The keyboard feels very nice and works properly with a nice feedback just like I said before. The Control and the FN button are (finally) switched. On the last Zepto's the FN button was at the left down corner of the keyboard with the Control next to it, and now it's changed.

​

The touchpad doesn't worked fine in the beginning, but that was without adjusting any settings (Synaptics Drivers) I had to scroll three times when I wanted to move my mouse from a corner to another corner on the screen. After adjusting some settings it worked properly and much better. This was also with my own Zepto Znote 6224W, so I think it's Synaptic-related. And on a machine like this you won't use the touchpad very often I think (gaming with a mousepad... hmm don't think so) The mousebuttons under the touchpad worked fine: click, click and you are in a menu. The button looks like just one big button, and that's true, but it still functions like the rightmouseclick and leftmouseclick.
The fingerprintreader works also fine and is a nice gadget. You can use the FN-buttons with the F1 till the F12 buttons!

F1: Put your computer in sleep or hibernation mode
F2: BlueTooth Enable/ Disable
F3: Allows to set the display options between computer display and external display device (external monitor or tv)
F4: LCD brightness Decrease
F5: LCD brightness Increase
F6: Webcam on/ off
F7: Touchpad on / off
F8: Changes Power schema
F9: Audiomute on/ off
F10: Volume Down
F11: Volume Up
F12: Zepto night led mode*

* The Night LED mode enables you to turn off the visual indicators on the notebook such as power, battery, wireless etc. for optimal night time lighting when viewing DVD’s, Blu-ray or picture material. Only the hard drive indicator will remain on to show you if the notebook is working.


Nice feature that Night LED mode, but why is the HDD LED still blinking Zepto? Okay, you can see that the laptop is still working...
Uhm... If you are watching a movie you can see the laptop is still working because the screen is on!? And if the screen doesn't work, you could easily try FN+F12 and that's it.. Nice feature but in my humble opinion not 100% perfect

You can also use the FN button with this buttons:
Windows-knop: Disables/ enables Windows buttons
↑: Play / pause
↓: Stop
→: Previous track
←: Next track

I only tested this with Windows Media Player, because I play all my content with that program and it worked great! You could quickly and easily play your content with it so that's nice. And as I said before: It's a pity that there isn't a hardwarebutton which you could use to link a program (like WMP) onto.

The mediabuttons on the Zepto Mythos​

On the leftside of the laptop there is also a button which you can use to adjust the volume and which you can use for audio mute. A little bit unnecessary, because you can easily use the FN button icm F9, F10 and F11... The volume isn't easy to regulate with this button. You will easily make 15 steps (0-100) when touching it while the FN+F10 or FN+F11 only make 2 steps. The only advantage of this button is the easyness for a audio mute. Just click on the button and the audio mute is on, press it once again and it's off.

The extra audiobutton on the leftside​

The cardreader is also on the leftside of the laptop and works fine, the only disadvantage of the cardreader is that it doesn't swallow the whole memorycard, so it sticks out of the laptop about 5 a 6mm... A little bit weird and unhandy in my opinion because you can't leave it in while transporting. I'm reviewing other laptops also and they have it to... while my Zepto Znote 6224W swallows the whole memorycard... Is this new in laptopland?

The memorycard sticks out of the laptop​

Temperatures and soundproduction
The exhaust is on the left side of the laptop:

​

But you don't notice this while working in word or when you are internetting. If you are going to play a game you will notice a warm airflow leaving the exhaust. I say warm, because it isn't hot. The highest GPU-temperature that I've seen when testing this Zepto Mythos was only 70°C. This was during a two hours sessions of Gears of War. My own Zepto Znote 6224W easily gets 100°C when playing a game! This could have a couple of factors: different chassis, different hardware, better airflow and so on, but playing a game with a maximum temperature of 70°C is very nice. Sometimes you will hear the fan, but that is only when playing games or during benchmarking (like 3D Mark '06) The adapter of my Zepto Znote 6224W gets really really hot, but the adapter of the Mythos isn't getting that hot. And I haven't found any differences between the two adapters.. The lenght of the powercord is different in advantage of the 6224W one's. The lenght of that cord is 1,60 meter, while the Mythos cord is only 1,20 meter. In my humble opinion too short. The connectors are also different. They are in an angle of 90°, this is probably for reducing any cablecracks.

Above: cable and adapter from the Zepto Mythos
Under: cable and adapter from the Zepto Znote 6224W​

And I want to discuss the built in speakers here... They look very nice, so next to the keyboard and the sound is very clear, but the volume and the bass.. They aren't from the quality of the speakers in my Zepto Znote 6224W. Offcourse it are little laptopspeakers, but they are from average quality while the 6224W's ones are little bit better. When using a headphone the sound sounds rich and just great.


Mobility
The dimensions of the laptop are: 35,5 x 26,2 x 2,7cm.
Just nice, but not so very special in comparison with other laptops I think.
The laptop weighs 2,46kg and the 6 cells battery weighs 380 gram which makes a totalweight of 2,84kg. The 9 cells battery weighs 500 gram and that will make a totalweight of 2,96kg. Just an average weight of a 15,4" laptop...


Batterytime
The Zepto Mythos is standard delivered with a 6 cells battery of 4,4Ah.
With the 6 cells battery I can work 1:55 hour with power schema 'Energysaving'*

​

With the 6 cells battery I can work 1:45 hour with power schema 'High Settings'*

​

The 9 cells battery isn't a 6,6Ah battery as I expected but a 7,2Ah one. Advantage of a 9 cell battery instead of a 6 cells battery is offcourse: batterytime! Disadvantages are the weight: the 9 cells battery weighs 220 gram more than the 6 cell battery and dimensions of the laptop are bigger.

With the 9 cells battery I can work 3:40 hour with power schema 'Energysaving'*

​

With the 6 cells battery I can work 2:51 hour with power schema 'High Settings'*

​

I like the battery-times, especially with this highdetailed UltraCrisp screen
and the GO9600M GT 512MB DDR3 videocard which consumes more power than Intecrap videocards.

* checked with the battery-icon
A really batterytest wasn't possible in this reviewtime.
When I played a game or was benchmarking the laptop was connected to the adapter.


Price
Just like I said in the beginning of this review, Zepto is a Built To Order manufacturer with varying prices which depends on the hardware that you want in your Zepto laptop. The cheapest Zepto Mythos will cost you €939,- and the most expensive will cost you €2295,- (without OS) The main-device is still the same (cover, keyboard, webcam, fingerprintreader, touchpad and so on) and the money you will spend on a Zepto is forgotten when you are seeing, testing and working it in reallife. A high-end model (like tested in this review) will cost you about the €1.500,-
Maybe a bit more expensive than concurrents, but the quality that you will get compensate that easily. The standard 2 year warranty is also very nice, because the most laptop manufacturars don't do that (only Asus that I know...) (Zepto provides a 6 month garanty on the battery)


Pro’s & Cons
And than a short enumeration of the pro's and cons of the Zepto Mythos:

• Pro's:
• The laptop has got a rubber finish which feels quite nice
• The laptop has got nice shapes
• Built To Order concept, so choose the hardware that you want
• Very complete: 2.0MP webcam, BlueTooth, HDMI-out, fingerprintreader
• The choice is yours about the OS (XP / Vista / NL / Eng)
• Nice benchmarkprestations
• 9600M GT 512MB DDR3 videocard
• Nice gamingprestations
• Temperatures aren't higher than the 70°C
• Airflow and the fan
• The highdetailed UltraCrisp screen
• FN and Control are finally switched
• FN + F-buttons with some nice (extra) functions

• Con's:
• Screenclosing (no hooks or magnetlock)
• The miss of hardwarebuttons
• Zepto night LED mode not 100% perfect
• Extra audiobutton is unhandy and unnecessary
• Memorycard sticks out of the laptop
• The lenght of the powercord is only 1,20 meter
• Quality of the speakers is average

Conclusion
A very nice laptop, based on the latest hardware and techniques and a laptop which is for every user, because of the Built To Order concept. Lovely design which haven't been on the market before. Better prestations than the last generation of Zepto's and a laptop which is great at almost every point, with some little con's, but compared with the quality and the big pro's a very nice product!

Disclaimer: This review is based on my own benchmarks and my own opinions during this 1,5 week 'test'. Questions, own opinions? Post them in this topic!!
And English is not my native language... so if you see any (grammar) faults, be nice please...


More information about Zepto
More information about Zepto? You can find that in and at:
NoteBookReview.com - Zepto
www.zepto.com
[Ervaringen] Zepto Nox / Mythos - Deel 1
www.zeptoshop.nl

-Copyrighted© by CLB-​

 

Nice write up

 

Nice review CLB, congratulations

But just a question: it's a white notebook, will it attract dirt quickly?

 

Thank you Any questions? Further comments?

Thank you sir

Quickly... Hmm I wouldn't recommend you to use the laptop without washing your hands before using it or reading a newspaper and then switch to the laptop to work on it. White is white and will be white... White cellphones are getting dirty, just like white cars of white jeans... The answer on this question: Look out when using the Zepto Mythos and it should be fine...

 

Thanks for this. It is very informative. Zepto have clearly given a lot of attention to the details.

I am impressed by the viewing angles of the display. What make / model is the display (look for the hardware ID of the plug and play monitor)?

John

PS: Are there any clues about who actually makes the notebook?

 

Good review their mate, thanks for that.

I agree on most things, apart from the screen. You should have showed pictures of the screen in the dark, to show the backlight bleeding and lack of uniformity of the actual panel, that would be another con.

Some of the cons you listed are of course pure subjective opinion, for example I like that this laptop doesn't have any magnets or lock mechanisms when you close the lid.

 

Good review, really good work.
But i think there are too many screenshots ingame.

Pretty nice viewing angles on the screen too and wow you got a paper manual

 

Nice review - one question - how does the screen compare to the 6625 ? same, better or worse.

Cheers,

 

Thank you

Yeah I just think the same... Nice rubber finish/ Zepto logo / fingerprintreader / nice FN commands...

If I check the Hardware-ID from the PnP monitor I see this: MONITOR\SEC3446...

Is that wat you wanted to know?

I haven't got a clue... I'm gonna ask Zepto for it

Your Welcome

I haven't noticed it right away but I'm gonna check it out
and I can make those pictures that you want and add them to the review, no problem offcourse.

That's why the disclaimer

Thank you

It has got a GO9600M GT 512MB with DDR3 memory... what do want

Nananananaaa

Merci beacoup

Ooo that's a difficult question that I can't answer...
Because I haven't got the 6625WD anymore (had it for testing the new Penryn processor some months ago)

 

Yes. That's a Samsung panel.

It would be useful to find out.

John

 

Your Welcome

 

Hey CLB-NL,

Are you eventually going to add this review to the official review list?

I think you should, its very extensive.

Just add, if you can, some pics of the Nox in the dark with a black screen to show the bleeding.

Cheers

 

Yes I want to add it, but I don't know how exactly...
(English is not my native language so I don't understand the whole forum)

You mean it trough this link: http://www.notebookreview.com/reviews/
and than 'Submit a review from the web' ? I've done that yesterday...
First of all I can't choose the Zepto Mythos and secondly this is weird:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=138893 and
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=138975 is the same review, but the first is posted in the Zepto thread and the second one is posted in the NoteBook news and reviews thread... But I am not allowed to post there anymore...? I don't know why and I don't know how... Cheers

@ John Ratsey: Confirmation about the Zepto A15 and A14: They are both designed by Zepto themselves

 

@ grh3y: Finally I found some time for making the pictures off the screen (tried to darken my room).. but I really haven't seen any backlight bleeding so far... So I'm gonna give it a try tonight when it is really dark!
(I am also reviewing a 17" laptop, so that's why I replied so lately on your request)

And I've added a little disadvantage of the Zepto Mythos:
The memorycard sticks out of the laptop with 5 a 6 mm.. weird imho...

 

Well, i'm waiting 4 1/2 weeks for my zepto nox now.. Hopefully they will deliver it soon. The delivering time is really bad. Going to give it a call tomorrow.

 

Cool mate.

Also I just received my replacement and the screen is slightly better, the icons are not as grainy. Also my new replacement has more of the soft finish rubber coating around the fingerprint reader, which pretty much has rendered it useless. :O

 

And that's also a MONITOR\SEC3446 panel or not? (just like in my reviewmodel)

 

Yep. Strange same screen though better in terms of blurry/grainy icons on a higher DPI setting.

 

Nice nice and no backlight bleeding anymore or very little...?

 

Still there, uniformity is still bad, but less of it nonetheless.

 

Far Cry 2:

Average framerate / second​

 

Why aren't there more people with reviews of the Mythos / Nox =s

 

Well you've done a nice job on it sofar, and the models are almost identical. Only the color and some configuration point sets them apart.

 

Thanks thanks...
But why should someboy doesn't make a own review... imho that's a pity =(

I want to read what other people think about their Mythos / Nox...
About the temperatures / gaming / feeling / noise and so on.. =)

 

Btw, hows the performance of the webcam on amcap since my own zepto nox a15 stutters quite alot and the fps range is around 3.9-5.

You have any problems with your webcam? I heard from ppl that the webcam has problems when its running on vista since the performance is much better on windows XP.

 

So I haven't got one myself (and can't test it anymore)

 

I just purchased a Mythos with P8400, 4 GB Ram, 250GT 7200 rpm, 9600M GT, and a WSXGA-screen. Price was 1,2k€.

I'll see if it will be enough to step into my primary computer's slot.

I'll post some initial experiences, at least.

 

May i know hows the webcam picture quality on amcap? Is the video output grainy since my own NOX A15 webcam video out put is rather grainy.

Is it possible if you could post the video capture filter options coz mine is extremely grainy and not clear at all.

 

It's GDDR3, not DDR3. Graphic cards don't use DDR3 memory.

And the GeForce 8M and 9M series don't use the GeForce Go name. It's not GO9600M, it's GF9600M.

And your review isn't the appropriate place to use GIF images. We need time to look at the image but your GIF intervals are so short.

 

Whatever...

 

FYI, those of you experiencing slow webcam framrates will need to go to the AMCAP "Video Capture Filter" settings and uncheck the auto exposure settings, restart AMCAP. Its best not to use the AMCAP software. The webcam is the same as the one used in the Fujitsu A6110. Its the Vimicro Sirius USB 2.0 Camera.

 

ZeptoSG, can you (or anyone else for that matter) post a link to an appropriate driver please? I checked the Vimicro site, figured it must be model VC0334 or VC0344, for which no drivers seem to be available.

 

Well you've done a nice job on it sofar, and the models are almost identical. Only the color and some configuration point sets them apart.

Regards

Olympus

____
dossier surendettement

 

i just bought a G14b in singapore ( i presume from ZeptoSG as he is from mucro asia?)and i cant agree that is a beautifull piece of hardware.

i just need to know one thing:

-does all of you that own a zepto machine (identical to to the g14b body) has theyr power button slighly wobbly ,like the edges of the button,by pressing them,they go up and down,so not a fit strong button.
it seems mine is defective as is not easy to press.

please let me know.

btw,if ur passing in south asia and feeling lik buying a zepto,do it with mucro asia, they will help you to get a tax refund and the price is worth it.

Juno

 

The startbuttons are kinda crap... Once i pressed mine and the left side of it went completely stuck.. Lived with that for some months until i sent it in and they fixed it.