In article , davsarg@btinternet.com
(David Gartrell) wrote:
> and play too (Far Cry, Half Life2, DVDs,
Just be careful with the screen. I bought a Rock Quaddra XT Pro earlier
this year and the screen (on both the original and swap machine they
arranged for me) is great for desktop apps, but very poor for gaming and
DVDs. The screen is bottom-lit and this gives a *very* obvious brightness
gradient up the screen if the scene is dark-ish, and the bottom bar under
a DVD movie is far brighter than the top, giving an unpleasant distraction
both in movies and games.
Im sure a newer chassis will have a better screen, but I thought Id
mention it because its easy to get carried away with the machines great
specs and forget the screen is a *very* big factor on a laptop. If you go
look around somewhere like PCWorld youll find there are some great and
some very poor screens available (try opening up a cmd window fullscreen
to see how even and black a screen can manage) and price isnt always an
indication of screen quality.
FWIW when I went round PCWorld to see which machines looked better than my
Rock it was the widescreen models which usually had the most even lighting
and best blacks.
Good luck with your choice. Oh, and a final bit of advice; Rock support is
superb, but dont be afraid to chase them if you have any queries. If they
say Ill ring/email you back and they dont, dont assume theyll get
around to it eventually... keep hassling them. Nice people, but forgetful,
or very busy, or something.
Andrew McP