6. Is This A Multimedia Notebook With Extrodinary Graphical and Multimedia Capabilities?

Z60m: Widescreen innovation for an extraordinary graphical and multimedia experience

If you're inclined to believe the hype on the vendor Web site, the Z60m is a device that has extraordinary multimedia and graphics capabilities. But are two simple stereo speakers and a wide-screen display enough to justify such claims? Frankly, we don't think so. The loudspeakers in the Z60m don't sound too bad - mid-range and high-end sound is reproduced cleanly without any noticeable distortion - but it's a bit much to try to present these capabilities as capable of a first-class multimedia experience.

The loudspeakers flank the keyboard on either side.

The same thing goes for the display. The black/white contrast in 64 measurement zones averages out to 467:1 and may therefore be rated as very good. But brightness diminishes to values as low as 90 cd/m2 (nits) on the right edge of the screen, whereas values in the middle of screen at nearly identical settings measures 152 cd/m2 (nits). In other words, the homogeneity of brightness distribution is not among the best we've ever measured. For work outside in natural light, this display is subject to serious limitations - as is the case for nearly all notebook computers.

Each box in the diagram represents one of 64 measurement fields, and contains related brightness and contrast values measured for that field. When relating values among neighboring fields, high value lines emerge from linear interpolation of measurements from adjacent boxes. The various colors indicate parts of the display surface for which measured values occur within specific value ranges, as indicated in the legend. Note that the colors shown do not match colors captured directly from the monitor.