My Zepto Znote 6224W personal review

Eeja, this is my first review here so let's go!
English is not my native language so sorry for the grammar-faults

I've bought a Zepto Znote 6224W with underneath hardware:
14,1" @ 1440 x 900
nVidia GO 8600M GT 512MB
Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 2,20GHz 800MHz 4MB
2048MB DDR2 - 800MHz Dual Channel
100GB @ 7200 rpm HD
DVD+-RW
Integrated BT & Wi-Fi/
Windows Vista Home Premium x86

At the moment I have it a couple of weeks so it's time for a review!!



Featureset:
The hardware of this laptop are very congigurable!
You can configurate your own laptop with the specs that you want!
You can choose different memory, you can choose the HardDisk and the processor!

Maximum specs:
2.40 GHz Intel® Core™2 Duo T7700 800MHz
4096MB (2x2048) DDR2 800/PC6400 SODIMM
14,1" WXGA+ 1440x900
nVidia Geforce Go 8600M GT 512MB
160GB Hybrid 2,5" 5400rpm HD / 100 GB 7200rpm HD / 32GB SSD - HD
DVD-RW Dual Layer brander (Slot-in)
Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG 54Mbit or Zepto Wpro 300Mbit BGN
Built-in 2.0 BlueTooth-module
6 Cell Batterij / 12 Cell Batterij

You also can choose all kinds of accessoires:
Just like batteries, chargers, sleeves and (post)bags!

Most of the NotebookReviewers want to choose their own hardware in their laptops
and Zepto is one of the producers of Built to Order laptops!
Other brands that are also BTO are: BTO, Compal, Ahtec or Dell.

Other features of this Zepto Znote 6224W are:
Intel® 965PM / ICH8-M Chipset
4 x USB 2.0 , 1 x Firewire, 1 x VGA uit
Sound in- en out , 1 x TV-Uit, infraroodport
Built-in 3in1 cardreader
100/1000 Megabit netwerk, 56K modem



Personally I miss a built-in webcam! It’s not a very important point but I just wanna notice it. There are also complaints about the fact that this laptop only has a VGA-out and not a DVI-out or a HDMI-out. It doesn’t matter to me because I never use an external screen, but I can imagine that some people will miss a DVI (or even HDMI) port!

This laptop has 2 intergrated music-boxes. Most of the time these boxes are of bad quality, but the boxes in this laptop aren’t! The quality of the music is quite nice and is more than enough for listening to the radio, playing a cd or watching a DVD!




Prestations:
Prestations are very very nice! This laptop is based on the new Santa Rosa platform, what’s brand new, but it’s functioning perfect! You can find enough drivers for your hardware (on the Zepto-ftp or on internet) De 7200rpm HD is very quick with reading and writing data, de wireless internet-connection is very stable.
The processor is one of the fastest you can find in a laptop, and you can really notice that! Fast……!
And we can’t forget the monster-videocard: GO8600M GT 512MB dedicated memory.
All the games I’ve tested are working very smooth at the native resolution of 1440x900 pixels with (ultra)high details!



Some framerates of games are:
Command and Conquer III @ 1440x900: Just building: 22fps / fighting: 16fps
Command and Conquer III @ 1280x800: Just building: 30fps / fighting: 22 fps
(game is limited to 30fps!)

Tombraider - Anniversary @ 1440x900: Just walking: 60fps/ in a fight: 55fps
Tombraider - Anniversary @ 1280x768: Just walking: 70fps/ in a fight: 65fps

Need for Speed - Most Wanted @ 1440x900: 26-35 fps
Need for Speed - Most Wanted @ 1280x800: 32-40 fps

Overlord @ 1440x900: 16-18fps
Overlord @ 1280x800: 18-20fps

FEAR @ 1440x900: 43-50 fps



It’s the best videocard you can find in a 14,1” notebook and it is a DX10 card,
so we have to wait on the real DX10 games a la Crysis and so on!

More benches:
CPU-z animated gif:


Temperatures of CPU and HardDisk are about 50 degrees Celcius!

3D Mark '06 Scores:
nVidia driver: 101.08
Resolution: 1280x 800
'06 Score: 3329 points





nVidia driver: 158.45
Resolution: 1280x 854
'06 score: 3339 points






Screen-quality:
The resolution of the 14,1” screen is very high: 1440x900 (WXGA+) and I like it very much. My first laptop was also a 14,1” Zepto, but with 1280x800 pixels. I also like the non-glare screen in comparison with the glare screen I’ve had. It’s just a perfect resolution for a 14,1” laptop. 1680x1050 is way too small and imho this is just perfect!
You can set the screen-brightness with the FN + F4 (decrease) and F5 (increase) on 8 modes, varying from really dark to really bright.

The contrastratio is 500:1
The brightness is 300 cd/m²

That are really nice specs for a laptop-screen! The viewing-angles are also very high!




Build-quality:
Is just very nice. You can open the screen with one hand, which is really nice. The laptop feels really robuust, it opens and close nice, the on/off button and the 4 QL-buttons feel good and the keyboard is just typing very nice. No problems at all!


Ergonomy:
Just like I said, the keyboard is typing very nice. The buttons are nice, the touch of it is nice. I don’t have much words about it… If you want to ask me something, you allways can! The touchpad is also working fine, but normall I use a external mouse (the Logitech VX Revolution) so my touchpad is allways set-off (with FN + F6)



You can use the FN-buttons with the F2 till the F10 buttons!

The FN-button-functions are:

F2: Standby
F3: Screen-choice: Laptop/ extern/ Laptop + extern
F4: Decrease Screenbrightness
F5: Increase Screenbrightness
F6: Lock/ unlock off the touchpad
F7: Sound on/ off
F8: Decrease Soundvolume
F9: Increase Soundvolume
F10: Bluetooth on/ off


Warmth- and Soundproduction:
Are just nice also. The warmth-exhaust is on the leftside of the laptop, but you don’t notice it when you just typing a Word-document, are surfing on the internet or watching a movie. When you’re going to game the exhaust is going to ‘spit’ (didn’t know the good words for it) some warm air! Only warm not hot! Sometimes you hear the fan spinning, but this is only with very high loads and it’s not irritating me.
The charger of the laptop is getting hot as hell! You can grab it and put it in you hand but that’s it.
I read it with all kind of laptops so it’s not Zepto-related but it’s a point to notice.





Mobility and battery-time:
The mobility of the laptop is really sublime! Compact design, low weight and you can put it in any sleeve or backpack to get it with you. The charger isn’t very big also so you can easily take it with you in your backpack.







The battery-time is the biggest con of this laptop!! The standard-battery is a 6 cell version and during the typing of some Word documents or internetting you can use it a little bit more than 2 hours on a full charge. If you’re going to game with the battery you can only use it for 1 hour. I have to say that the nVidia GO8600M GT is a big power-consumer, my screen is at brightnesslevel 4 and that I’m using Windows Vista.



Price:
The price is nice, espacially because Zepto is the only laptop-manufactuar with a 14,1” laptop
with such a videocard and a WXGA+ screen! I paid 1600 euro for underneath config:

14,1" @ 1440 x 900
nVidia GO 8600M GT 512MB
Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 2,20GHz 800MHz 4MB
2048MB DDR2 - 800MHz Dual Channel
100GB @ 7200 rpm HD
DVD+-RW
Integrated BT & Wi-Fi/
Windows Vista Home Premium x86



Maybe it costs a little more in comparison with other concurrents but the quality of this laptop is compensating that easily! Zepto gives 2 years warranty and all the other manufactuars give only 1 year warranty (except Asus)

Conclusion:
A super 14,1” laptop with a very nice price, futureproof and with a compact design!

Pro’s:
-Many features
-Lots of accesoires available
-Better music-boxes than other laptops
-Laptop is based at the Santa Rosa platform
-Best videocard available in a 14,1” laptop
-Videocard is based at DirectX 10
-Very nice resolution: 1440x900 (WXGA+)
-Screen qua sharpness and viewing-angle
-Build-quality
-Keyboard and touchpad
- Warmth- and Soundproduction
-Mobility of the laptop is sublime
-The price for what you get
-Standard 2 year warranty (6 months at the battery)

Con’s:
-Hasn’t got a webcam
-Only has a VGA-out
-Charger is getting hot
-Batterytime during Word/ internet is +2 hours
-Batterytime during playing a game is 1 hour

Want more reallife pictures and benches? Check:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=137634


Want some pictures of other angles and so on!? Ask me!!!

Also check my YouTube video and write a comment

-Click on the picture above to play the YouTube video-​

Because of the bad quality I've uploaded it here in QVGA-quality: http://rapidshare.com/files/40869127/Zepto_Znote_6224W.mpg.html

I have also an XL-version of this movie!
Because it was too big for YouTube I've splitted
it with Winrar in 4 parts of 50MB and put it on Rapidshare:

Part 1: www.tinyurl.com/2wjqyq
Part 2: www.tinyurl.com/3dhbdh
Part 3: www.tinyurl.com/3d2owx
Part 4: www.tinyurl.com/2wr2pz

It lasts 2 minutes longer and has more ingame-shots and it's on VGA-quality!!

 

Pretty indepth review mate. Good job
You should post this in the main review sub forum with some pictures

 

Thank you! Hmm I'm new here so I didn't know about that forum... Found it and posted one!

 

Great to finally see a detailed review of these new models! GJ lad!

 

Informative review .
I have a question:
What do you think about the laptop's durability for portability (i.e. moving it around)? Are you happy to move the laptop from location-to-location (such as one desk to another) with the confidence that it'll be strong and hold up to the use?
I ask because I plan to be moving it around (between uni and two houses) at least five times daily.

 

I travel 60km a day(30 each way) with mine on buses and trains. Take it to friends if needed.(I have same barebones as you) It stands up to the job fine and they is no weakness when carrying around the house too. Hopefully someone else will answer as well to back this up.

CLB-NL . Did you say you have posted a review in a different section of notebookreview.com. If so where can I access that??

 

Your Welcome!

Thank you

Yes it's strong enough for moving it around! Normally it have my laptop downstairs at the diner-table but in the evenings I'm going upstairs to watch a movie in my bed! The weight is perfect, the size is perfect!

I also have a Zepto sleeve and a special laptop-backpack ( Dicota Jump and Run) and I've taken it more than enough times to my friends, the University or other places to be confident in the strenght of this laptop!

Just what ZeptoUK said

Yes! You can find it here!

 

So far I have liked my 6224w, but here are two complains:
- they forgot the 12cell battery from my order though I've paid for that.
- mousepad is now not functioning after few hours of use

 

The first one is not a Zepto complain, but a service complain!
Second problem: use a mouse instead of the touchpad

 

figured out mousepad problem, now it is functioning. so just service problems so far. soon going to test this machine with heavy softwares simultaneously (adobe CS3)

 

Photoshop CS3 is running easily

 

Is there a way to make zepto faster when using battery power? It seems quite slow with that, opening windows, apps, moving between apps etc takes time.

 

I never noticed that :-s

 

okay, i must test more. there is so much hasle when moving all stuff and programs (80gb)to new computer.

 

figured out the problem. two drivers were missing. folders Cardbus and CIR. I almost re-installed windows and all the programs cos zepto was running so slow. i could not do nothing with this. now it is back to normal.

there should be better or atleast some installation guide with it. zepto manual sucks.

btw: how can I make sure that I really have hybrid hard drive? where can I read that?

 

If you have Vista, try enabling ReadyDrive and see what happens?
You could also check the disk drive in device manager. I believe the model numbers for the hybrid drives are:
HM16HJI (160Gb)
HM12HJI (120Gb)

 

it says in device manager: Samsung HM120JI

not sure what is that.

 

That's odd. According to the samsung website ( http://www.samsung.com/global/busin...=spinpointmseries&model_cd=HM120JI&ppmi=1089#) that model is the plain 120Gb 5400rpm...

 

on the side of the box (where computer was), there is:
1, 140102, 120GB Hybrid 2,5" 5400rpm Samsung.

So have I paid too much for the old hardware?

 

Hmm, I'm not sure now. It might just be that the hybrid drive just shows up as a HM120JI for some reason. Do you have Vista? The most definitive solution would be to see if ReadyDrive works.
I'll see if there's any other way to check. What other information does the device manager have about the drive?

 

I have XP MCE.

not sure about these, are they relevant (maybe not?), but it says
Hardware-id:.....YF100-19...
Compatible id: GenDisk
Enumerator: IDE
Capabilities: CM_Devcap_uniqueid

 

Why did you bought a Hybrid HD when you're running XP!?
It can't do anything with it so...

 

is that so? but the question is, do i have or not have a hybrid drive?? (i can sure update vista when it is wise to do it, nowdays vista just mostly sucks before sp1)

can you check your disk name in device manager and tell which one did you buy? so we can see if the names match

 

The Vista upgrade advisor might detect if your drive is ReadyBoost-capable, but it's a long shot. I'm not sure how definitive checking the device manager is either. The Samsung hybrid 120Gb (the HM120 HJI) is essentially the non-hybrid 120Gb (the HM120JI), with the extra flash drive (and some updated hardware to support it), so it's plausible that it's recognised as a HM120JI.
Also, I think it's fairly unlikely that a wrong drive would have been chosen.
If you're concerned, talk to Zepto about it. Definitely do this before making any complaint .

 

okay, thanx for your help.

 

Yes only Vista can use the Hybrid-function

 

i'm about to buy the same laptop with the same configuration.
so i wonder if someone could do a little test. just choose DiRT form the drop-down list and see if this notebook runs this game on recommended settings or will it fail. Page is: http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest

 

It passed recommended

 

Easily

 

CLB-NL, are you using direct x 7 on your laptop?

 

thanks CLB-NL

 

What do you think yourself
I use DX9

Your Welcome!

 

What do i think? Im not sure, the screen shot says "Video Card Driver Version (Direct X), Your driver version number is 7.15.11.108. what is that?

 

If I install a game as FEAR I have to install DX9, otherwise it won't work ;-)
What it is!? I don't know

 

Something to be proud on: 2000 views in 1,5 month:

 

thanks for the review mate, but i think i speak for a couple of others here when I say...you are way up yourself mate, serioulsy your always boasting how many people watched your video on youtube and you make a post saying "why are people talking about the bios when they should be thanking me in my efforts for this post"

We do thank you man but dont be such a boaster lol

 

Allways boasting... hahaha!

I only post the same message yesterday in three different topics, that's it
And wtf do you mean with 'a post saying......' I really don't get it!??

But thanks in advance for appreciating my review!!