Rock Pegasus 550N review

Rock's Pegasus 550N uses the same old chassis we've seen time and again from Rock and other manufacturers, but it's what's inside that counts.

Rock has opted for Intel's Mobile 945PM Express chipset and a fast Intel Core Duo T2400 processor. Combined with 1GB of RAM, it's a powerful specification that pushed the Pegasus to produce excellent benchmark results.

In fact, this notebook will cope admirably with even tougher tasks than the ones we made it perform. The only disappointment is the Intel GMA 950 onboard graphics, which aren't good enough for playing the latest games.

The 15.4" widescreen display will help you get some serious work done. It has a big 1,400x1,050 resolution, so you'll have the space to view large spreadsheets or two applications side by side. Unfortunately, the screen is let down by its display quality. There is a mild graininess across the whole display, and whites have a slightly greenish tinge. Colours and greys were well graduated, however. It will suffice for office and day-to-day use, but there are better displays out there for photo manipulation and video viewing.

The keyboard is also unimpressive. The keys don't have enough travel for our liking, which makes typing difficult and tiring after a while. The touch pad isn't terribly accurate and the buttons don't provide as much feedback as we'd like. Neither is unusable, but they will cause frustration with regular use.

The chassis is slim and tapers to a point at the front. It weighs only 2.65kg, but it's not really suitable for mobile use thanks to a battery life of less than three hours. There is a bit of flex across the body, which could become a liability if it took a nasty knock.

There are plenty of ports, including three USB2 ports and a memory card reader that supports MMC, SD and MS formats. A built-in webcam is fitted above the display, so you can easily use video chat or conferencing software.

Inside there's a DVD writer and a modest 60GB hard disk. We expect to see slightly larger hard disks in notebooks at this price, but office application users won't be bothered by the relative lack of space.

This is a very fast notebook with a high-resolution screen, so it will suit those who run demanding applications. Unfortunately, the average battery life and poor input devices make it impractical for long-term mobile use. There's nothing awful about this notebook, but we can't think who would benefit from its strengths while not caring about its weaknesses.

Author: Seth Barton