Reviews / Pegasus 665 - Windows XP

Pegasus 665-T55

Intel·s new chips appear in mobile form, and rock is quick to use them

Just when you were getting used to Core Duo, Intel releases Core 2 Duo. This is a low-power rendition of the processor that has just arrived on desktops. But when it comes to the mobile version, a Core 2 Duo is based on mobile core, does it offer much more than what has gone before? Well, almost.

The mobile rendition of Core 2 Duo offers a couple of others that was missing from its predecessor: support for the 64-bit versions of Windows, and hardware virtualisation. There·s also a speed gain over Core Duo without increasing the heat produced. This is very important: this processor matches its predecessor·s power requirements and heat production. It also uses the same processor socket, so manufacturer·s can use existing notebook designs.

This is what rock has done with the Pegasus 665 -this is the previous Core Duo-driven Pegasus 660 with a newer processor. This notebook family is available with any of the three top-end Core 2 Duo chips, but rock has catered for the more budget-minded buyer, too, and this model uses the most affordable of Intel·s chips, the T5500. This runs at 1.66GHz (as opposed to 2.33GHz at the top-end), and only packs 2MB of cache, but is still very fast.

Thankfully, rock has also built a useful notebook around Intel·s new chip, 1GB of memory means that there is plenty of room for editing your images and movies. Plus, the 80GB hard drive provides plenty of space for when you·re on the move, while the eight-speed dual-layer DVD rewriter offers plenty of flexibility for getting data on and off the machine.

While the nVidia GeForce Go 7600 is not the fastest mobile graphics engine, it is capable of pushing around the latest games, and the default resolution of 1280 x 800 looks great. It·s short of displaying 1080i high definition movies, but it can handle 720p content.

At just over 3.1kg this isn·t too heavy, but the small 15.4-inch footprint means the space available for a battery is small. In testing, the installed six-cell unit managed just 80 minutes, Even so, if you·re looking for a cutting-edge laptop on a tight budget, this does have a lot to offer. You·re just going to have to stay close to the power points.