6. Graphics, Display, & Sound

The machine has the same screen we used in the DIY Notebook Project , with a native display resolution of 1280x800 pixels (16:10 aspect ratio.) The maximum brightness of the monitor, which features a smooth, reflecting surface, is a good 194 cd/m² according to our measurements. As is typical of displays with glare-type screens, it offers a very high black/white contrast: a whopping 768:1. Compared to conventional TFT displays with matte screens, colors are much more brilliant and saturated; they are powerful and realistic. Frequent notebook DVD movie watchers will quickly learn to appreciate these characteristics. However, working with the machine in an office environment with ceiling lights will soon drive you nuts because of reflections on the screen, especially when using a dark desktop background as many users do. The bothersome reflection effect is not as pronounced if you make the desktop color lighter.

High contrast but extremely reflective: TFT display with glare-type screen

The ATi Mobility Radeon X700 employs 128 MB of dedicated memory for rapid processing of geometry data. As the benchmark figures further below indicate, the graphics subsystem also meets the requirements for the latest games.

Fast gaming platform: relatively low GPU but high graphics memory clock speed.

Gigabyte is a bit reserved with the GPU's clock speed, but they really crank up the memory clock speed. Accordingly, the W511A is like a gaming platform, though this comes at the expense of battery life under full load, as we will see below.

If the 15.4" display is too small, the W511A hooks up easily to a television via S-Video output. The available settings for the TV output are the same as those of competing units, and are thus in line with the standards for the category.

Loudspeakers And Microphone

The best picture on a multimedia notebook is worthless if the loudspeakers sound lousy. A Conexant chip inside the W511A performs sound processing, allowing sampling rates of up to 96 kHz. The driver does not offer separate settings for highs, lows, or audio effects, though. The two stereo loudspeakers integrated into the front provide adequate performance typical of a notebook. They overmodulate a little at maximum volume, but the overall sound is balanced. The system lacks bass, like all notebooks without a subwoofer.

The integrated microphone is quite conveniently placed on the left above the keyboard. In testing, it proved to be too quiet even when the volume booster was activated. Recordings using the integrated microphone also exhibit a clearly perceptible hissing undertone.