pics of my sager np5791 and first impressions

hi. received my sager np5791 a couple of days ago from xoticpc.com.

specs:
2.4 core duo t7700
2gb ram
200gb 7200rpm hd
17" wuxga (glossy)
512mb 7950 gtx
biometric reader
bluetooth
intel turbo memory

i have a link of the all the photos i took below with some comparison in sizes to other laptops.

http://picasaweb.google.com/pixelchild/SagerNp5791

quick first impressions...

notebook is solidly built. compared to the many notebooks i've played with and the ones i've own. the quality is on par if not better than them. i like to note that i haven't had enough time to really drag it through the mud so this may change later.

i initially feared a bad paint job (orange trim) but it's fine!

keyboard has little to no flex.

screen seems dimmer than my dell inspiron 9300 for some reason. no dead pixels though. slight light leakage from the bottom but negligable.

came with a ghetto bag. cute.

came with driver discs which work with a nice easy menu. keep in mind the turbo ram software may have to be directly installed from options/folder8 of the vista cd.

it was packaged alright. not as nice as a sony is packed but this is trivial.

speakers (sound) seriously need work. the one thing i'm disappointed in. i set it to many different settings (including some tips from this board) yet my inspiron 9300 owns it. speakers on front of 9300 and subwoofer close to front on it could be the real difference here. again, sound could use work.

microphone is average. could be better.

no bloatware FOR THE WIN!

i really like the usb ports. nice and tight... i'm talking about usb ports here right? doh...

initially, i thought the border around the keyboard, the fake carbon fiber sort of look would be horribly tacky. it's actually NICE! nice texture and doesn't nearly seem as cheap as i thought it would be. i think it's a welcome addition.

i initially thought the audio input and output jacks would be better in the front... but with the crappy sound, i'd rather have them in the back so i could plug in speakers easily.

the fan isn't HORRIBLY loud. it's loud though for sure, louder than all my other laptops... but i don't even notice it now... sort of like a nagging wife.

the power brick, haha. looks like it came straight from the 80s. it's big and it's not really pretty but it gets the job done. it comes with a LENGTHY cord in my opinion, the longest out of all the sony's, dell's, and hp's at my disposal to test.

about performance, it still runs outlook 2007 slower than i would like. i think this is outlook's fault or anything office 2007. it's just so damn slow sometimes! it does irk me though, i won't lie.

webcam, my god, does this thing suck or what? first off, if you're used to logitech external usb webcams, you will be disappointed. no real supporting software. seems you need to capture via an external program. video capture can be done in-house but it's not intuitive and hardly efficient. i mean, way too much blur, lighting is below average, and well, it sucks. hah. HP and SONY webcams OWN this one easily. it's a real budget cam.

other than that, i really like it. i've been messing around with it since. right now i'm doing this on the dell because i'm still installing software. i have yet to try a game out... though when i do i'll post more!

 

wow some things i def didnt want to hear. i HATE leakage i really hope its not bad.. , wow i was debating on the x205 vs this and had hope the speakers were decent to hear they suck well.... that sucks. damn. i listen to a lot of music on my desk and if i knew that i would have taken the x205 in a second the speakers on it rock... and man i actually use the webcam. that stinks to hear its pretty bad. the one on the dell 1520 i had was awesome. it took great video and it was near crystal clear.. damn... i hope that i maybe like it better...

about outlook did you maybe try a fresh vista install...???

 

hey zf, sorry mate, i didn't mean to be a debbie downer. i'm just telling it like it is... for me that is. i'm pretty hard on what i expect though. don't get me wrong, the sound is audible for sure... who knows maybe i will have to fiddle with it even more to really get it right but so far i'm not really digging i.

i played it the toshiba at best buy, it wasn't really that nice. looks like a toy and very tacky in my opinion. i do like the speakers though! hot damn 4 speakers. also, the light leakage is MINIMAL like i said, nothing to worry about but this varies from screen to screen.

i'm sorry about the webcam though. i can't butter that one up. hah.

 

nice pics btw.. i do see some small things in the orange paint but it doesnt sem to bad. and is the bag at least useable till i find something i like better?? is it at least soft inside??

so do you think this is much better build wise than the toshiba?? i only got to see the x205 for a couple min they were setting it up at best buy and i couldnt actually touch it but they had music playing on it when i was there and that thing rocked sound wise.

maybe the web cam needs better driver?? or it it just that bad?? the dell had one of the best ones ive ever seen on a laptop imo.. full motion video and it was smooth

 

and wow you went all out on specs.. nice.

 

Dont worry about it. Light leakage is so minimal, you wouldnt notice that much, plus ive seen 10 times worse.

True on the speakers though, Really really disappointed with speakers and retarded subwoofer. whats the point of adding a subwoofer, not like its helping at all. Clevo shouldve thought this one out a little bit more, yah put everything in there that is top end, BUT forget the speakers, consumers won't care. overall the speakers sound ok but you definitely need either headphones or external speakers. Once you have that though, the realtek sound card is PRETTY darn good, makes everything sound terrific.

KB has flex indeed, fans were annoying but the more you use it, the more you dont even notice it. Webcam decent imo, not the best but will get the job done.

btw, i could've sworn the screen on my "returned" 5790 was brighter than this screen (5791). maybe its different but i checked the model number and its LP1000 ( or something like that i can't remember) on the 5790. The 5791 using pc wizard 07 , it showed LPLF600 by LGPhillips. the lp10000, looked it up on the net, is also an LG.

 

wow so far im not thinking this is to good.

 

Not to steer this thread off course, but if light leakage and LCD quality matter to you I would avoid the X205. The LCD on it is just dissapointing all around. The audio quality on the X205 is insanely impressive, but the LCD is just dissapointing overall.

*cough*

Back to your regularly scheduled np5791 discussion.

 

honestly zfac, don't let us spoil it. like i said, i can't stop playing with it. i love it right now.

 

same here, despite whatever we all said. we still love our NB. And No NB out there is perfect.

 

see my new post reg the screen.. let me know if anyone's is the same please??

 

imo i wish i got the matte screen

 

why? are you havin problems with the glossy?

 

I'm looking at the 5791 with UXGA screen with great interest. Please eloborate on the problems. Am also interested in the Asus G2s. Heard that screen is dual lamp.

 

well i spoke today via pm with justin and it looks lke they will take care of it for me, so im gonna call monday to see what i can do. i am just thinking also the wuxga may be to small for me.. i wish they had a glossy wsxga id go that route, im unsure of the matte finish but really want wsxga. so i guess im stuck with wuxga unless i go matte. we'll see..

 

update:

so far it's been about a week and a half. i have some updated impressions.

keyboard is not as responsive as i would like it to be. this may not be the fault of the keyboard or sager, but rather a personal preference. i feel my strokes have to be more specific and more deliberate. i can't just type away lightly at the keyboard and expect not to miss letters like i used to on my dell inspiron 9300. like i said, this is not necessarily a bad thing. it's just different for me. perhaps i just have to break it in.

i am more impressed with the construction then i was when i first received it, and even then i was impressed. the only negative side to all this is that i have oily skin and i see my oil stains on the keyboard and on the palm rest all the time. i frequently take a warm damp paper towel and wipe it. that's because i'm a neat freak and well, i have oily skin.

the laptop runs fast! other than office 2007 which is slow all around, everything is zip zoom fly.

my notebook can handle call of duty 4, total war 2, and unreal tournament 3 at full settings in native resolution. mind you call of duty and ut3 are still in beta so i would expect to run it even better when retail.

i had severe issues with crysis. i couldn't even run it at 800x600 with medium settings. it was just horrible.

speakers still suck. they are very low. for some reason, even when i use decent external speakers, the sound still doesn't sound all that great. i still have to tweak the settings i suppose. right now it's on factory stock settings.

i downloaded rivatuner but i'm too scared to use it.

the biometric reader is AWESOME. on par with SONY, whom i consider to be the best when it comes to their biometric readers. in fact, i wouldn't be surprised if they were manufactured by the same company. the software used is the same.

the webcam still sucks. heh.

i'm not sure what else to test.

oh dvd-rom works fine.

 

wow i could not even get the fingerprint reader to work at all.. no matter what i did it said bad scan.. i hope the new one works fine.. imo the web cam was def not great but it worked as well as most of the lower end 30-40$ at wal mart or somewhere. def not at all great but it was viewable in all but poor lighted areas under poor light .. yes i agree it sucks.

i have to agree on the speakers. they were only decent. not terrible imo but my wife's el cheapo toshiba sounded far better at louder volumes. maybe as you said there is something we are missing there idk yet.

mine is on its way back and the new one will be here soon. the spot on the screen bothered me a lot and the fingerprint reader i still think may be defective but justin took care of it all and has a new one on its way to me asap. so i hope everything will be a-ok this time. i do hope this screen will be brighter my first one was DIM DIM DIM.. i mean even at full brightness it was like half brightness or less on the toshiba. it was dreadful. most say it is kinda dim but that was a bit ridiculous imo.. ill report back when the new one arrives..

 

Stupid question but is the correct audio drivers installed?

 

Listen up people, the speakers do not not suck as bad as you think, you need to tweak your sound config:

The sound quality is good, its need some configuration within the RealTek software.

Set the Environment option to Carpeted Hallway.
And if you want even more quality, set the Equalizer to Soft (as in Soft Rock)

Try it, it worked well for several people, using WinAmp especially.

 

gophn i did exactly that and heard no difference at all.. when i get the new system i will try that again though..the only thing i heard with the hallway setting was a echo effect nothing more...

 

Thanks for the tip gophn, speakers sound significantly better now.

 

actually that's what i was using for a while based on the advice i asked you for. it DOES work.

the problem i should have emphasized was the overall low volume using windows media player. that's my main concern.

 

well okay thats kinda what i meant... there is no volume to it its just to quite

 

why is there a 100$ discount for the wuxga now?

 

because the wsxga were on backorder is what i was told by sager directly when i called them

 

I haven't tried WMP yet, but in games I don't have any problem with sound. In PowerDVD no problems either

 

Or ya could always use those handy dandy head phones IMO I haven't really heard a good set of speakers in a NB, but hey its a NB Ill give your suggestion a try when I get mine in.