A newcomer to the pages of PC Authority (and indeed Australia), Zepto is a Norwegian laptop builder with ambitions Down Under. The Znote 6314W represents the mid-point of its flagship Znote range, but the 2GHz Core 2 Duo T7200 and 1GB of RAM means it punches above its weight for power. In our application benchmarks it scored 1.18 – more than enough to be your main PC. Our machine came with Windows XP Professional installed and, if you use the website configurator you’ll see that Vista is, as yet, unavailable.
OS aside, the 6314W is a well-specified system. 802.11a/b/g is included along with Bluetooth and Gigabit Ethernet. There’s a 100GB Hitachi hard disk with a respectable 8MB buffer and a spin speed of 5400rpm, while removable storage comes in the form of a memory card reader on the left-hand side and a dual-layer DVD writer. The memory card reader is compatible with SD, MMC and Memory Stick cards, and while it would be good to see xD-Picture and CompactFlash formats catered for, those with compatible digital cameras will have no cause for complaint.
There are a healthy number of other expansion ports: four USB 2 ports and a mini-FireWire port should be enough to keep most people happy, while the D-SUB VGA output is supplemented by an S-Video out for connecting to a TV. Sound is provided by Realtek’s HD chip, and the headphone port doubles as an optical S/PDIF port for advanced speaker setups.
Nvidia’s GeForce Go 7600 provides the graphics power, leaving the Znote a capable gaming machine. Average frame rates of 32fps in Far Cry and 30fps in Call of Duty 2 at our low (1024 x 768) settings mean that you shouldn’t have a problem playing games. Upping the display resolution to its native 1280 x 768 saw frame rates drop slightly to 27fps in Far Cry, and 25fps in Call of Duty 2 – a great result for a mid-range notebook.
The LCD itself is a 14in widescreen. While the 1280 x 800 resolution isn’t particularly high, it’s good enough for spreadsheets and side-by-side page viewing in Microsoft Word. It’s a murky display, though, and viewing angles are reminiscent of yesteryear, with the image becoming noticeably duller almost as soon as you move off-centre. We also noticed a lack of detail in many of our test images, signifying a poor contrast ratio that was confirmed in our DisplayMate tests. The screen is good enough for comfortable working, but watching films, particularly with more than one viewer, is a distinctly disappointing experience.
With the powerful core components on offer, we didn’t expect record-breaking battery life, but the light-use time of 2hrs 13mins is respectable. Under intensive use, the time dropped to 1hr 47mins, so the Znote won’t be a particularly practical machine for mobile business users. It’s otherwise portable, though, with a footprint of 340 x 245mm and weight of 2.46kg.
The Znote’s white styling split opinions in the office; the first arguing that the understated looks were clean and tidy, while others felt the finish to be dull and oppressive. It’s a comfortable machine to use, however, and the keyboard is a decent unit with a solid base, making typing comfortable (though the space key on our test unit was broken). The trackpad shares the same texture as the surrounding wrist rest of the unit, which makes accidentally clicking, particularly while typing, much too easy. However, the trackpad can be instantly disabled by pressing the Fn and F6 keys.
The Znote 6314W is a solid laptop, and a respectable Australian debut for Zepto. It doesn’t qualify for an award, however: although there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with it (aside from the poorer-than-average screen), there’s nothing that really makes it stand out either. The Asus A8JP offers a similar spec, with more quality for $200 less while Dell’s Inspiron 6400 (our alternative mid-range choice) offers an even more configurable alternative.
