Samsung GT9120Pro VXC review

While Intel's Pentium 4 is struggling to keep up with AMD's Athlon XP on the desktop, it's a different story in the mobile arena. We've still got to wait for Mobile Pentium 4 to rear its head, but in the meantime the Pentium III-M is the performance king of notebooks. We've been privy to most of its flavours, but Samsung is now giving us a look at the full-on 1.2GHz chip in its new flagship desktop replacement - the GT9120Pro VXC.

Performance was a bit of a mixed bag. Although its overall benchmark score of 3.33 is a lot faster than the 2.76 clocked up by the 1.2GHz Athlon 4-based Mesh Pegasus 14.1 Pro (see p145), it's also a fair way off the 3.67 clocked up by the 1.13GHz Fujitsu Siemens Celsius Mobile H (see Reviews, issue 85, p161).

Is this a problem? Not really. It's still easily comparable to the 3.37 from our previous A-Listed Dell Inspiron 8100 1130UT (see Reviews, issue 84, p132), and the Samsung offers an enormous amount of features for the relatively modest £2,099 asking price.

The first feature you notice is the fingerprint recognition system. Unlike NEC and IBM, Samsung has integrated the system, rather than using a separate PC Card. It sits next to the touchpad below the keyboard.

The keyboard itself is good enough for the average user, with sensibly sized keys. While not as solid as Dell or IBM's high-end notebook keyboards, it's more than enough for the money.

Other noteworthy features include Wireless LAN, a Toshiba DVD-ROM and CD-RW combo drive, a 30Gb hard disk and 16Mb DDR Radeon Mobility graphics. The latter has yet to prove itself as a true contender to Nvidia's GeForce2 Go, and the Samsung's 3D results, while good, still couldn't compete.

Running 3DMark2000 at 1,024 x 768 in 16-bit colour returned a reasonable score of 3,456, but it's disappointing compared to the 4,435 from Toshiba's 850MHz Pentium III and GeForce2 Go-based Satellite 3000 (see Reviews, issue 84, p135). What's more, the Samsung failed to complete 3DMark2000 and 3DMark2001 at any higher resolutions or colour depths, so you're stuck with 1,024 x 768 in 16-bit colour until some newer drivers come along.

The screen's native resolution is 1,400 x 1,050, which is perfect for a 15in TFT. Text remains sharp and legible, and you can fit numerous applications on the screen without squinting. It uses Samsung's own WiseVIEW TFT technology, and the screen is bright with expansive viewing angles, no light and dark patches and pure colours across the board.

Unfortunately, our review sample had a plastic lid, which won't afford much protection to the screen during travel. However, Samsung assures us next year's models will be finished in magnesium alloy, making this notebook an even more tempting proposition. It's solid in its current state, but there's too much flex in the palmrests and lid for comfort.

There are, however, plenty of easy upgrade options. Both the combo drive and hard disk can be replaced in modules that simply slide in and out. There's also a free SODIMM socket underneath for more memory, and you only need to remove one screw to access it.

All the necessary ports are there, including IEEE-1394 and two USB ports, as well as the traditional legacy ports, which are in keeping with the often-overlooked integrated floppy drive. It's difficult to think of anything that's missing - Samsung's one-year Fast Guard warranty even guarantees free collection, repair and return of your notebook within 72 hours.

If there's one criticism, it's the over-styling of the chassis. Samsung has made an effort to make the GT9120Pro VXC an aesthetic desktop replacement, but the large number of pits in the chassis make the notebook look tacky rather than classy. It's also lacking a spare Flexbay for installing a second drive or battery, although with its combo drive and our second longest battery life yet - an incredible 166 minutes - you're unlikely to need one.