X-bit labs

ABS Zensation Z3 Notebook Review (page 7)

Category: Mobile

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

[ 02/25/2004 | 10:08 PM ]

Max Performance and High Performance modes are available for the user when the notebook works from the wall outlet. When the notebook is powered by the battery, you can enable only three modes, save for Max Performance. Again, the Power4Gear utility allows you switching between the profiles; you can also do this by means of hot buttons – they are above the keyboard, next to the browser and e-mail client launch buttons. The utility also allows creating your own power consumption profiles, so the Power4Gear technology is quite valuable.

The standard battery of ABS Zensation Z3 has a capacity of 4400mAh. According to the manufacturer, the notebook can work as long as 5 hours when powered only by this battery.

Let’s check out the performance and life time of the notebook in different work modes:

As you see, ABS Zensation is really capable of working for 5 hours from its own accumulator in the Max Power Saving mode. Although you will have your notebook work for that long only if you do not load it with heavy duties. If the workload is higher, the battery life becomes shorter, of course. Although even in this case the battery of ABS Zensation Z3 lasts for an impressive period of time, I should say.

By the way, when the battery has only 5% of its full charge, the notebook automatically switches into the “save to disk” mode. It allows saving all open documents to the hard disk drive before the computer shuts down completely.

Conclusion

ABS Zensation Z3 is an excellent business notebook: wide network capabilities – phone modem, wired 10/100 Ethernet and 802.11g/b WLAN – allow using this notebook wherever you are. Other characteristics are up to the mark, too. In fact, this notebook lacks only one thing – support of the Bluetooth protocol. This machine boasts the performance of a good office PC, and it works as long as 5 hours powered by its batteries.

One of the definite strengths of  ABS Zensation Z3 solution is four USB 2.0 ports, which add much to the functionality of the notebook, although their placement could have been better. Many notebook manufacturers limit themselves with two ports only, so this is an obvious advantage of the Zensation. Add also the support of the IEEE1394 interface, which is another advantage.

The performance of this notebook may make many desktop computers look crippled: the combination of a Pentium M 1.6GHz, 512MB memory and a 5400rpm HDD is a powerful combination.

I should also stress the fact that the system offers wide opportunities for future upgrade, such as increasing the system memory amount to 1GB or installing a faster processor.

Overall, we were very pleased with the ABS Zensation Z3 and unanimously agreed on awarding it with our Editor’s Choice!