Xenon Metro 3220
The Xenon 3220 was another notebook that pushed our scales to the limit. It weighed in at 2.583kg. However, once we replaced the DVD drive with a floppy drive we managed to reduce the overall weight to 2.498kg. It just scraped in but again this notebook looks and feels quite big. It has a large 13.3in display and a large palm area so you can rest your palms quite comfortably while you type.
An Intel PIII 850 processor powers the Xenon notebook. On paper, the Xenon looked like it would be the fastest notebook on the block. It featured the fastest processor but that, unfortunately, did not make it the fastest in our tests. It was actually slightly slower in Content Creation Winstone and Business Winstone than the awesomely fast Compaq notebook, which was equipped with an Intel PIII 650 processor. The Xenon, however, performed much better in Business Graphics and High-End Graphics. We have to say that the hard drive made all the difference in Content Creation Winstone and Business Winstone. The Xenon did not score as well as the Compaq in any of the disk tests and as a result it scored lower than the Compaq in Winstone. In our BatteryMark tests the Xenon managed to run off its batteries for the longest amount of time. A time of two hours and 25 minutes was not a bad effort, thanks to the Xenon's large-capacity battery.
The Xenon is silver-grey in colour and it did not have the nice curves that some of the other notebooks had. It's a very square notebook and very plain. The keypad was well supported and provided a good all-round feel. Another positive thing about the keyboard is that the function and standard keys were coloured differently. The display was also very well supported but we did see quite a lot of rippling once we applied some pressure with our fingers to the back of the notebook. The display quality was good and the display size made it a pleasure to work on this notebook.
Upgrading the RAM and hard drive was a piece of cake. The hard drive pulls out from the bottom of the notebook after removing two small screws. The system RAM is also very easy to get to from the base of the notebook. Like the Gateway 5300, the Xenon has a hot swappable DVD/floppy drive. The Toshiba DVD drive was rated at a fast 8x and it can also read CDs at 24x.
The Xenon has all the standard input/output connectors but it also had an S-video connector. The notebook also features an internal modem. The Xenon and Gateway 5300 were the only two notebooks that did not ship with network adaptors.
The Xenon is quite a good notebook overall. With a faster hard disk this notebook would have been the fastest notebook in this roundup. The Xenon also comes with a nice Targus carry bag.
Xenon Metro 3220
Company:Xenon Systems
Ph:03 9763 2777
Price:AU$4,695
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