Pegasus
TL- ICT for Education
(Sep '04)
The
Rock Pegasus is a sturdy 12-inch notebook which is ideal for students.
The smaller screen means that the overall carrying weight is low,
at 2.1kg. The proportions of the machine (290 x 225 x 30mm) offer
similar portability in an ordinary case - one is supplied
with the machine. Despite its small size, though, this is a fully
featured notebook, with no significant flaws in the specification.
A strong battery performance means the Pegasus could act as a
users’ main workplace for most of the school day.
The
processor is a Pentium-M 1.6GHz, supported by 256MB of RAM. While
the machine didn’t manage to achieve a particularly high
benchmark score, we were impressed by its performance in general
use.
Office and e-learning applications will not prove a burden to
the machine, and graphics performance was sprightly. The 12-inch
screen has a wider-than-usual aspect ratio, with a native resolution
of 1280 x 800 pixels. This is very useful for DVDs, of course,
but is also useful for general Windows use, It’s probably
not the best screen for elderly staff, though, since the high
resolution reduces text in menus and on the desktop to a small
size. The Pegasus offers a high degree of connectivity for such
a small machine, though adapters will be needed for older peripherals
requiring serial or parallel ports. The inclusion of an SD Card
slot is particularly useful for digital camera users or for the
easy transportation of documents between machines.
THE
VERDICT:
A
three-year collect-and-return warranty, backed by insurance, complements
the specifications to make a great value package for pupil use.
