Nox A15 too heavy to carry around daily?

Would you consider the Nox to be portable? Or not?
My 7 lb. laptop definitely isn't, and the Nox is 6 lb....

(I'm considering it becasue it has a really nice graphics card. But maybe I should just go with something lighter?)

What do you think?

 

Having ordered one myself I'd love to say it is... but heh, I couldn't be bother to carry around my slightly lighter 14" HP so I doubt that'll happen with the Nox either.

What I like about 14-15" is that if I need or really feel like it, I can easily put it in a bag and bring it with me anywhere without much fuss. Traveled across the world with my HP. But imo it's still too heavy/big to just be something you carry around everyday because you can.

Something easily movable that I can play games on is much more of value to me than always having access to some small-screened toy with undersized keyboard, lol

 

15,4" and below is nothing, 17" is a no go :/

 

I say that 15.4" and greater is too big to be hauling around on a daily basis no matter the weight. They are nice for doing anything and everything, but really you probably won't like having to pack a 15.4" in your bag and hauling it around every day, especially if you need to bring the power brick. >.<

Just my $0.02...

 

I mainly want a laptop I can take to classes (notes / programming).
I have to decide between 6 lb. + a NICE graphics card
or 13" , 3.5 - 4.3 lb. + poopy graphics card :/

 

I use my 15.4 in classes: will it doesn't fit on the small folding seat-table thingy, It's perfectly fine on a regular table ^^ or on my laps.

 

I would consider 15.4" to be inconveniently big for carrying around a lot. It's volume as well as weight and there are other things you will be wanting to carry around.

14.1" is plenty big enough IMO. Smaller displays also give slightly longer battery time. I believe there is a replacement for the 6x24W series in the pipeline. However, until the full truth about the nVidia GPU problem emerges, I wouldn't advocate buying a powerful nVidia GPU in a chassis which does no have a generous cooling system good enough to limit the thermal range.

John

 

Well I've used a 15.4" for my classes the last two years, and I fully intend to use the Nox for it as well - it's even lighter than my last notebook.

Carrying such a notebook really comes down to the bag you have it in. If it's a proper bag which rests on both shoulders, you really shouldn't have any issues with it.

I personally prefer the higher screen estate compared to smaller screens - and yeah, the graphics card is definately an advantage. I'm playing Mass Effect on this baby right now

Cheers,
Ben.

 

baby = nox?

 

Review, review!

 

Yeah I'm using the Nox right now

Review? Well I guess I can go through the basics. Haven't done any extensive testing on it though.

Let's see... where to start. The machine itself feels smooth and solid - a definitive plus there. The keyboard feels responsive and seems about normal in size. The power/recharging/caps-lock indicators can mostly be turned off, except for one of them.

I've installed Vista Business 64bit with SP1 on it, and had one problem with the drivers on the CD/FTP: the video driver. It would install and Vista recognized it when doing it's performance index "benchmark", but no other programs or games could see it. So I had to go and grab some beta drivers from X-treme G which seems to work as intended.
Whether it's my (slightly modified with vlite) install which has caused problems or the zepto drivers plain don't work, I don't know.

Up to this point I've only had one issue with the computer, which if it can't be fixed is a deal-breaker. The internal speakers make a 'eep' once in while for about half a second. What I'm doing doesn't seem to matter too much, since it happened the first time while browsing for those beta drivers.

I was playing Mass Effect through the whole of yesterday and the 'eep' appeared approximately 4 times. I've contacted Zepto about it and am waiting for their response.

Temperatures. I've not undervolted the machine nor overclocked anything. At the time of this writing HWMonitor says my CPU is at 43C and my GPU at 55C. I've had HWMonitor on while gaming (once again, Mass Effect) and the max temperature reported has been 74C on thr GPU.
I've seen the CPU go as low as 29C!
The warmest place on the outside of the laptop appears to be in the middle just below the screen. But overall the laptop is pleasant to the touch.
While we're on the topic, the fan doesn't seem to be entirely controlled by the temperature readings. When I am installing a program it usually turns on, which seems to indicate it turns on when the harddisk is working at top speed. Not entirely sure though.

Overall I'm very happy about this laptop as long as the internal speaker 'eep' is fixed. Fan controls in the BIOS would be a plus.

Anything in particular you want to know?

Cheers,
Ben

 

Well, I downloaded 3dmark05 and 06 for basic testing and here are the scores:


This is for 3dmark05


And this is 3dmark06.

I'm not that familiar with the programs, so I did not change any of the settings.

EDIT: And here's the Vista performance score

 

Cool Ben, nice to finally hear some first hand info. Out of curiosity, where do you live and when did you order it?

Also, there are fans for the air intake on the bottom-side? Two of them?

 

No problem

I live in Denmark and ordered it on the 1st of july. It arrived last saturday.

About the fans, I wouldn't really know. It does have it's air intake on the bottom-side, but which of the vents actually have a fan behind them I don't know. Is this visible somehow?

Cheers, Ben.

 

hey BigBee, I have questions if you dont mind. I've been thinking about buying this laptop since it came out but have been holding back. Ill be using it for school (everyday to class), games, internet, multi-tasking; basicly I'll be using it a lot.

The thing ive been REALLY been wondering about this laptop is the looks. Does it look as thin,sleek and good as the pictures and the descriptions make it out to be? For me, looks is very important, especially since I already know the performance/parts in it are more than eough.

Its between the NOX or the new macbooks when they come out. If the NOX has the looks, Ill be getting it. But if the new macbooks come out with a good GPU and not a built-in, Ill be going for apple (looks amazing!).

Thanks in advance dude.

 

Well - It's black which most would probably find to be slightly anonymous, but I really like it's looks - even more so I like how it feels to touch though

I will say though that the glowing zepto logo looks really nice - it's not too bright, but just bright enough to make it glow.

Hope that helps.

Cheers, Ben.

 

but does it look bulky any in way? big? fat? old-looking? not modern? lol

sorry Im really picky about the looks just because everyone I know own macbooks which looks incredible. I was hoping the NOX is sleek looking an thin and modern like the macbook.

 

Could you please run 3dmark06 with 1024x768?

I have seen some results of 3dmark06 with 5500-5700Marks for Laptops with a 9600M GT, but i dont know the resolution, So i hope its only the resolution...

 

Sure thing!

 

Any chance you could take some pictures? Would be cool to see something else than the marketing ones.

 

yeah was gonna ask you if you can post some pictures. Im DYING to see the looks of this thing

 

snipeshow you might consider the white part of the nox, mythos.

Same specs, size eg but just in white. I would go for the white one over the black one me thinks

 

Well I think it looks great - but it isn't as thin as the current macbooks. Though it doesn't look large for a 15-incher.

Oh and by the way - I seem to have solved the internal speaker problem. I took the battery out - decharged the computer (pressing the power buttons for 5-10 secs with no recharger in it) and put the battery back in. Since it hasn't made any noise. I'll chime in if it comes back.

The speakers are a huge improvement from the ones found in earlier Zepto models. You can actually watch something like Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog without hearing slight screeches whenever the singers hit the high notes.
I'm not that much of a sound-geek but they seem to be proper. They're at least better than the speakers in my old Dell Inspiron 2200.

Now for the pictures:





I just realized I haven't shot any pictures while it's closed. Hrm. Will do that later, since I have some work to do.

 

I see a small left shift key. I prefer a big one (as on my 6024W) since it use it much more than the right shift key.

And I always wonder why the designers put the indicator lights where they will be under a palm, rather than in the middle.

John

 

Heh - hadn't even given the shift key any thought. It hasn't given me any problems up till now.

As for the indicator lights... I actually prefer to have them there, since I rarely want to see them. For the rare occasion where I want to see if caps-lock is on or some such, I just lift my hand slightly. But each to their own taste I suppose.

Now I really have to go and work.

 

Thanks BigBee!
Very sexy, and no stickers! Makes me want to slit my wrists everytime I see a new acer or something.

 

ou looks nice! More pictures BigBee! mooore!!

Thanks dude

 

Can I suggest that we continue the discussion of the appearance and performance in the Nox thread? And shall I move over the posts with results and photos?

John

 

Hi Bigbee,
Which Zepto models did you have before this one?

 

Sure let's move it over in that thread - probably more appropriate in there

I haven't had any other models but my girlfriend has a znote 6224W (I think that's the model number. It's a 14-incher).

 

BigBee sorry to be annoying but if its possible, can you post up more pictures (when its closed, from the front, side, back, etc). If you dont have time say it so I dont have to refresh this page every other secon

 

Hi there

Im dying to spend some cash on one of these. But one thing people dont seem to mention much in all the Nox threads is the fan noise. How is it under idle and under full load when gaming?

 

Well it's very quiet when the fan is idle. No real noise whatsoever. When it's running at full load, ie playing Mass Effect, I don't notice it because of the in-game sounds.

When it turns on outside of a game though, it's clearly audible. I wouldn't say that it's bad, and have no way to measure it, but it's not entirely quiet either. The reason you do notice it outside of games is because it goes into a cycle of 10 seconds on, 30 seconds off. This only really happens to me outside of gaming when I'm installing something or using the harddrive extensively.

HWMonitor shows a THRM reading which, as far as I can tell, is what the fan is controlled by. If the temperature on THRM goes above 55C the fan turns on till it's down to 49C. Haven't messed much with the BIOS to see if something can be done to control it there, or whether programs could be installed. I haven't really had any issues with it myself.

Pictures of it closed. I'll see what I can do, but it won't be today. Sorry.

Cheers,
Ben

 

Thanks for your fast reply

Reason i wonder is that this is gonna be my first laptop and i kind of need it to be a break from all the fan noise of my desktop machine. Running with 2 case fans, cpu fan and gf8800gtx. "WeeeEEeeeeEEee"

But when playing games one wont really notice anyway like you say. Alltho i do hear that airplane here in my house all the time for some reason

What about if you watch a film? Wings start flappin?

You running your games in full native resolution or you scaling down?

 

Well I'm currently not running anything but WoW in full native resolution - that being 1680*1050.
If I remember correctly I'm running Mass Effect at 1400*900 with dynamic shadows off and the rest on high settings. I removed the motion blur, but that was because I didn't like it. The game can lag very slightly at the lake in the Citadel (if you know the game), but nothing serious, and everywhere there's combat it's been flowing unhindered.

That said, running the games in anything but native resolution does not seem to blur or worsen what's on the screen, as I've seen other LCDs do - so you only need it if you're a real stickler for high resolutions. I mostly wanted the 1680-resolutiom for the extra screen estate when working/programming.

I think I can say for sure that you won't get the same performance out of this computer than what's in your stationary rig there. Though you will miss out on some background static.

I think the fan came on when I was watching a film, yeah. But I'm not entirely sure - it wasn't something that bothered me, so it can't have been bad. I did have the volume somewhat high though, due to a lack of subtitless.

Cheers,
Ben.

 

Could you please run 3DMark06 with 1280x800 , it's the default resolution for comparing the results.

I have seen results of the Samsung R560 (with a GeForce 9600M GT GDDR3) with default 1280x800 resolution of 5500-5700 Marks.

Normally the Nox must arrive at the same level!

 

Thanks for all the info, BigBee. One question. - whats your thoughts about the screen? We know for a fact that it is glossy, which came as a shock to some. How is it to look at and what about reflection/sun?

 

I got the 1680x1050 15" glossy on my 6625, and I dont have any problems with reflections, exept if the sun is shining straight on the screen or on something brightly colored near the screen (like a white t-shirt on you). It not hard to turn a bit aside to avoid refections and in normal daylight you wont see any reflections unless you really try to find them (wich you dont do ).
And the glossy makes colors much better imo

 

Good news Sprint, but is it the same kind of screen they use for they new models? Another question, if any knows, what kind of panel is the screen? I'd assume the cheaper models are using TN-panels, but what about the 1680x1050 which comes with the Nox?

 

As for the screen. Yeah it's glossy - no I'm not used to it, since it's my first time with one. I don't mind it though. It does irritate once in a while but I'd say it's a tossup between glossy and non-glossy screens for me. Both are good in their own ways.

I have no idea which panel-type it is, so you'd have to tell me how to find out if you want to know that.

EDIT: Oh and as far as I can see from notebookcheck the one who scores higher (5760) in that test has an unnamed clock speed and laptop. But I'm not that knowledgeable in the area of GPU-benchmarking and, as such, wouldn't know how much you can trust notebookcheck.com

 

Your 3DMark score is too little...

5500-5700 is normal for a GeForce 9600M GT GDDR3.

So there is a Problem, probably (i hope) the driver for the graphics card...
Which version do you use?

 

Well that's the thing. I'm using beta drivers, so that would be 7.15.11.7563.

I really don't think you can find something much newer. Be my guest and call it too little, but that's what I get if I only change the resolution. Might be my Vista install - might be a lot of things. Might be just my computer. But to be honest, I don't really have any complaints about the computer itself. Please do link to the benchmarks which shows a much better performance.

 

http://www.forumdeluxx.de/forum/showpost.php?p=9700347&postcount=6
http://www.forumdeluxx.de/forum/showpost.php?p=9725575&postcount=82
http://www.forumdeluxx.de/forum/showpost.php?p=9729082&postcount=99
http://www.forumdeluxx.de/forum/showpost.php?p=9802509&postcount=462
http://www.notebookjournal.de/storage/show/image/image487f824bdb877

All the tests are 1280*800 obviously, the first four tests are Samsung R560 the last is an Acer 5930G.

It's just a comment of me, nothing more.

 

Cheers for the links and thanks BigBee for the mini review, you've made me feel slightly more comfortable as I ordered this nice lappy before any reviews came out. Thank god it didn't turn out to be a pos!

 

It might be possible its just the difference between 3Dmark06 scores in Vista 32bit and 64bit.

There is a case here as well:
http://www.overclock.net/benchmarking-software-discussion/289706-vista-64bit-3dmark-06-result.html

I think since 3Dmark06 is, after all, a 32 bit benchmarking software. Its not particularly optimised for x64 Vista. All we need now is confirmation from a 32 bit Windows to see the 3Dmark06 scores.

 

That could be the difference, yeah. But thanks for the links

 

BigBee, would you think if I got a Nox/Mythos with a P8400/8600 cpu and 2GB of ram and Vista 32bit, would the 3Dmark06 score differ by a lot?

Reason is if i get the vista 64bit and the extra 2GB ram, i would break my budget so i'm wondering if the performance difference is worth breaking my budget! lol

would appreciate your feedback

 

do 3gb, 32 can handle that. But a gb or 2 less shouldnt touch the score that much, but the processor probably have a impact (also with less ram actual games might be slower)

 

The score of my first three links are made with a Samsung R560 with a P7350.

So the cpu is less important. With a greater CPU the score will not change a lot.

 

I remember seeing a benchmark between 64bit and 32bit Vista here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=283698

He seems to have overclocked the CPU

EDIT: Oops! Its XP 32bit vs 64bit Vista.