The Zepto Nox A14

Ok... This is where we are as of now.

I have to round keyboards up since well you know... I should be able to get a few out before Christmas, and the rest after Christmas but before the new year.

 

Woo hoo! My A14 is coming! =)

And I am not the Christmas gift, unless giving to yourself counts?

 

lol..

Yeah it is in the works. Like I said I needed to round up keyboards since they didnt get sent.. sigh. I have a few and the rest will be here on Monday.

 

These zeptos only have one graphic interface right? no gpu on the motherboards? I'd easily pay 600 usd to get something extra like an integrated gpu that is worth below 100 usd. The fact that they do not have 2 gpu's is the only thing making me consider anything else than zepto. Guess they can't make use of the latest technologies as a small company

 

No onboard video on these units. What purpose do you want integrated and a video card for?

 

More battery life I think when only working with Office

 

Then I dont think you would go for a Nox as an office/long battery life unit? I guess I could understand why you may want to try and get best of both worlds but that would mean going with a slower processor and a smaller lower rpm hdd and i think that would take too much performance away.

I am sure it will be an option at some point though.

 

Well, not really. The processor and hdd could stay top notch. Being able to turn off the graphics card could give me one to two hours extra battery life with a 9cell, it is an obvious benefit. Sure, I and many other will be basically replacing the stationary comp with a Nox but I really don't fancy having two laptops. Some days I don't have time for play and then the GPU power drain will only be a waste. This function is starting to become quite common now. Hybrid technology, the ability to turn off the dedicated gpu and only use integrated graphics.

 

Ok...

Only one is leaving today and I am sorry to say that the rest will not be till after Christmas. Since the keyboards will not be here until Monday. I will upgrade shipping for some people who need it. I had two people who wanted theirs before christmas that I knew of. If you were one of them and are curious if yours went out please email me and I will let you know.

Assuming they past testing the rest will leave monday, tuesday would be absolute latest. Those of you who needed them by a certain day and you have already told me you will for sure get them by then.

Again those who ordered 9 cell batteries will get 6 cells at first and then a 9 cell at a later day and will be able to keep the 6 cell as a spare.

 

Buy a MacBook and be happy

 

No way man, I will buy a Nox B14 if it is available in jan-feb. Actually when I'm typing this I'm in dire need of a new computer. Bloody virus ate my registry and I will have to format soon. Can barely run any executables.

 

B14...?

Differences between A's and B's are?

 

Dockingstation.

 

Yeah, i would really like to know if its gonna be more diff between a and b, or i wll buy the a14 asap.

And one more thing, the price differ like 300€ on the same config between the global zepto side (in € with vat) and the swedish site (in kronor) in favor for the global one. And then the global one even got an extra year of warranty :S

 

Swedish:
Du måste tänka på skatt tillkommer. Om du beställer från global så måste du ändå betala skatt till sverige.

 

Ok

But check this one, the start page of the a14 on zepto global, the better a14 cost less then the other, or did i miss something?
http://www.zepto.com/Shop/Notebook.aspx?notebookid=1280

And i taught global was based out of denmark as well?

 

So they have a special offer. That is a good thing.

 

Just got my Nox A14 with 9650mGT. Here are the results of the 3DMark06 benchmark.

 

Cool that you posted Benchmarks hopelovebeauty. Are you satisfied with the score?

I am thinking about buying a Nox A14, I have a couple of doubts. Maybe someone who owns one, can help?

1) Is the batterylife horrible, like on the A15?

2) I have read in some reviews that the speakers on the A15, and also on the A14, are really bad. Is that true?

3) Are people generally pleased with the Nox A14? - I hear so much different about Zepto, and know that they had a lot of Bios problems with the A15, it was noisy and unstable, and whatnot. But I can't find anything about the Nox A14, and hoped thay they might have fixed it by now.

Thanks.

- Rune, Denmark.

 

Hi, I got the 9650m gt on my NOX A15 and I only get 5300 points (in 1280*1024 with Vista Ultimate x64 and 179.28 driver). Could you tell me which driver you use and in which resolution you made the test? Thank you

 

What do you think yourself.... Same hardware, same GPU, same consumption..
The screen is just 1,3" smaller so it still uses a lot of power

Yes they are, just like I mentioned in my Mythos A15 review

The A14 is just the same as the A15, so you can read that reviews...
It's just a little bit smaller and that's it.. Same material, same hardware...

I think it will be 1280x800

And the other hardware (processor / RAM) is also benched in 3D Mark '06!


In comparison with a 9600M GT with driver 179.13 on Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit:

(and with the same hardware as Djinus)

 

Mmm, I can sense that you insinuate that my questions are a bit stupid. And maybe you are right. But the reasons I ask, anyway, is because:

1) The power consumption could be different from the A15, because the reviews I've found are so old, that the CPU used in the A15 for sure is from another series, than the p7350 and p8400, people often put in their A14.

2) A new bios could easily have been put to use in the A14, and could both increase the battery life, as well as make the laptop more stable. I can't find info about this, and that is why I asked on a forum, where there is actually people owning the A14.

This combined with the smaller size could make for a very different laptop, both concerning batterylife and stability.

Nevertheless, thanks a lot for your input CLB-NL, I am hungering for more info about Zepto in general, and will read your Mythos A15 review, right now.

I just thought it would be nice to know about other peoples experience with the zepto A14, before I throw 1600 dollars after a new laptop.

Cheers

- Rune

 

Hi, here's a user review made in french http://www.laptopspirit.fr/forum/index.php?showtopic=4315. Translated with google : http://translate.google.be/translat...php?showtopic=4315&sl=fr&tl=en&hl=de&ie=UTF-8

 

No no that's not my intention.. I'm sorry

 

I would rather read the different "zepto service" topics before you decide on buying your laptop. I dont know where you live, but most ppl arent to saticefied with the service (or the lack off) the are getting, to put it mildly

 

Thanks for the input all of you!

Seems there is just a bit too many problems with the A14.

A pity, as I can't find an alternative in that size, that are as powerfull.

Cheers

- Rune

 

Asus and MSI both make 14.1 inch laptops with the 9600M GT also. I hope this helps. God Bless

 

Not that I can buy in Europe/Denmark, I'm afraid.

I have looked a lot, but I'll simply wait 'till the good stuff comes to europe

- Rune

 

So, I was looking at the Zepto USA site and couldn't find the 9650 upgrade. Same with the Zepto Global site. I'd order from one of the other places, but the keyboard would be localized and I'd get screwed on the currency conversion. Any info on how to get a 9650 from the USA site?

Also, I'll be ordering in March (happy birthday to me) - anything coming down the pipeline I should know about that would make me want to go for something else altogether?

Thanks!

 

I have only done a battery test on high performance savings. On this, it lasted me approximately 1hr 55mins. I haven't tried battery saver yet. Oh, and this is on a 6 cell. I ordered the 9, which will be here eventually.

The speakers are by no means awesome, surround sound, hi def, etc speakers. However, I never expect anything amazing on a laptop, especially one so small. It is definitely good enough for me though. I watched part of a movie and played some games and to me everything sounded good to me.

I am very pleased with my purchase decision. This laptop definitely seems solid and stable. I will admit when I attempted to load on Vista x64bit it gave me some issues. The bios is a little tricky to get into sometimes (you have what felt like miliseconds). Then, there aren't alot of custom options. The HDD also had GPT formatting when it came so I had to clean it off so Windows would accept it too.

Really, what is great about this is how much power it packs in a small chasis. It is certainly the best of both worlds in terms of gaming and mobility.

I am using the same driver actually. And it was tested in 1440x900 res

 

A score with a 9650M GT on a 1440x900 resolution with 6200 points...
That's impossible =s

 

Is the build quality any good? (do they use the same material as the white Macbooks?)

And what about screen quality? is it anywhere near the quality of Sony Vaio notebooks?

Is it really noisy? (can you hear the fan running all the time? or just when you game/use it at quiet places?).

 

Try to do some reading..

Quality - Its zepto.. so the quality sucks..

Screen quality - I have a nexus so i guess its bit the same on the nox, and its great.

Noisy - yes. Dont know if its any different with the A14

 

The quality and the robustness of the laptops is GREAT ;-)
RebDK is talking about HIS issue with the customersupport.

The screen is just great! You can find some pics here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=309733

And they told me that the A15 is noisy and the A14 isn't!


Just search on the forum kira, instead of shooting search-questions

 

I have to agree with CLB on this one. The build quality is very nice. Not cheap by a long shot. It's just the service that needs improvement (understatement). If you have a good reseller, you'll only have to deal with that if your laptop it totaly busted.

 

They arent on the websites because they are hard to get and it hasnt really been something official from Zepto on it. I sold some just recently with the 9650gts and they were awesome. If you need a quote for an A14 with one of those cards, just email us

On a side note, they will be on the website soon... I just dont have an official date on it.

 

thx. A14 it is then.

 

Sorry if i misunderstand you, but how can you expect the A14 to be silent?
It has higher performance components than A15 and nearly every notebook in this class is noisy; that could only be avoided if you can switch to an integrated grafics.
Just that there are no wrong expectations, i own a 6324w (also 14inch, highperformancotebook of last series), and its great, just not silent (oh and it lacks a undervolting feature in bios, as it wont run at full speed without undervolting; but you can greatly workaround with rmclock)

But nevertheless, i'm waiting for A14 comng out soon, too

 

I said: They told me, I haven't checked it in reallife!
Hopefully I will get an A14 soon for reviewing so I can check it myself..

I have a 6224W and it's as quite as the heaven, only when playing games the fan is blowing a bit more.

 

The build quality is nice overall. Much better than your average HP's or Fujitsu or Acer machines you see in markets (i fiddle with them alot in work). The "matte" finish is nice, and really different from all those glossy fingerprint magnets which seems to be the trend nowdays.

Though i had the problem with the kb being mounted poorly, i had to implement some two-sided tape beneath it.

 

Dave... aka ZeptoUSA...

Any word yet on if Zepto is going to be looking at using the 130m graphics card? I know it is essentially a renamed 9650m GT. Just curious if the A14 would be able to run this GPU as well as the standard 9600m GT. Also wondering if you have heard if they will be more widely available and therefore easier to get loaded in a NOX A14?

 

Hi,

As you can see I'm new to this site, however I browsed the forum whilst considering what notebook to get, so I might as well contribute back to this forum after it has helped me.

I have purchased a Nox A14 with these specs:

CPU: Intel P9500 2.53Ghz
RAM: 4GB DDR2 800mhz
GRAPHICS: Nvidia GeForce 9650m GT
HDD: 320GB 7200 RPM
SCREEN: 1440 x 900 (gloss finish)
OS: Windows Vista 64-bit

You can probably notice that these are the top specs that the Nox A14 can be configured with.

So far, the notebook has proved itself useful; it really is incredible performance from such a small machine.

Only complaints I have:

• System runs very hot, and the fan can be quite irritating when it comes on. You can choose a point at which the fan starts (55, 65 or 75 deg. C); I have chosen 75 and the fan will turn on maybe every 5 - 10 minutes for about 30 seconds.
  
• Currently, I have found no overclocking utility that works with the 9650m GT graphics card. Despite the high temperatures as above, when the fan does kick in it is very effective. Thus gaming performance could be increased without higher temperatures, and when only 2D use is needed the graphics card could be underclocked to leave the system silent.
  
• I have had an issue where a screen hinge cover has cracked. This is only an aesthetic problem to me, but it seems this is one weak point in the chassis. The other concern is a very thin plastic cover on the bottom over the core components. Apart from this, the chassis is solid and well-finished.

Some performance details:

Windows Vista performance index scores are -

CPU: 5.4
RAM: 5.9
GRAPHICS: 5.9
GAMING GRAPHICS: 5.5
HDD: 5.8

Which gives a base score of 5.4. Highest scores possible are 5.9


3dmark 2006 score (1280 x 800 resolution, stock drivers, no overclock):

5785

(The highest I've obtained was 6100, this was on a fresh install however, the above score had many other background processes running)

Overall, this is definitely a premium notebook, with some small flaws that may soon be fixed.

If anyone has any questions, or benchmarks they would be interested in, feel free to ask.

Thanks.

 

I have yet to hear anything about the 130m as of yet. I will see if I can find out something for you. With all the changes at Zepto I havent heard much on up and coming changes and additions.

 

I also recently received my Nox A14 with the same specs as the one you posted. So far, it performs very well, the fan gets a bit loud and furious but it's for good cause.

Oddly enough, I had the same issue as you with the hinge cover, except that my hinge cover was completely broken and fell on my lap when I took the notebook out of the sleeve it came in...still waiting for a new hinge cover to be sent. In addition, my underside panel did not come with any screws. Not a big deal, ZeptoUSA sent a batch of screws within a few days. I guess this particular unit slipped through the QA cracks...

But the laptop itself feels pretty solid and performs pretty well. ZeptoUSA has been very helpful in communicating and rectifying issues...just wish the hinge cover will be in stock soon...the notebook is real ugly when missing a hinge cover...

 

Yeah the hinges have been an early problem. I have some on order and I can get any a replacement who needs one. The new ones should be a better quality as well.

 

Ok... no specific word as of yet. I dont think we will see any major changes to hardware in the next few months at least. So I do not have any info for you yet. Sorry.

 

No problem Dave. Just thought I would ask. I am keeping a close eye on the notebook market to determine my optimal time to "pull the trigger." The A14 is still my definite front runner, and I was just curious if the 130m was a planned change in the A14 hardware lineup. Thanks for the response though.

 

If the 130m becomes more "available" I think it is a possibility. This is a reason why the 9650gt branded card isnt really sold through most of the Zepto resellers yet. As they become easier to get, the faster you will see it being sold.

If I hear anything, I will let you know.

 

Did you run a PCmark05 test?

I have been wanting to compare results from a few different tests.

 

.......