Reviews / Pegasus T12 - Computer Active
» 4/5 stars

Not one for the catwalk, but this powerful portable has astounding battery life.

Sitting in a rather plain and straight edged chassis, the Pegasus T12 T7400 from Rock is aimed at those wanting both performance and lots of battery life. And powered by a fast Intel core 2 duo T7400 processor, it’s certainly no slouch.

It opens up to reveal a sizeable 15.4” widescreen display. When viewed straight on the screen is both bright and clear, but move to view it at an angle and, although still perfectly viewable, it dims quite considerably.

Notebooks often suffer from sub-standard keyboards, but the T7400 key’s are well spaced, feel good and don’t emit a nasty clacking noise with key press.

Dotted around the case you’ll find ports including four USB2 and a PCI Express slot, but Rock has decided against both firewire and a memory card reader. The latter will disappoint those with digital cameras. Stereo speakers and a microphone are built in, but you’ll need to buy a webcam for video chats.

Although there’s no problems in terms or processing power, the use of Intels integrated graphics means it will struggle to play anything but the most basic of games.

Storage files isn’t an issue though, a 120Gb hard disk provide ample space and should keep you going for some time; if your collection of digital photos, music and videos starts filling up, the DVD-writer will archive files to free up space.

As expected, WiFi is built in so, provided there’s a wireless network at home, you’ll be able to surf the internet from the sofa. Bluetooth however is not included.

In our battery test the notebook excelled. In the least demanding benchmark test that simulates simple document reading activities, the Pegasus T12 T7400 kept going for an astonishing 8 hours and 21 minutes. In our productivity test this dropped to 7 hours and 45 minute, while it clocked up 5 hours and 11 minutes in our DVD play back simulation.

But to stay away from the mains for so long the Rock relies on an oversized battery the juts out 4cm from the rear of the chassis. It also adds a fair bit of weight to the notebook, tilting the scale at 3.1kg. Although there are plenty of heavier notebook computers around, if your carrying it around all day you might find your arms give up long before the battery.

The T12 T7400 ships with Windows Vista Home Premium as standard, so you’ll get to play around with vista’s impressive aero interface as well as Media Centre.

If your simply after a powerful computer that isn’t tied to the mains, this notebook would be an excellent choice. The weight wont appeal to those looking for a true ultra-portable, and on a £1000 notebook we expect to see common extras such as firewire and a card reader as standard, but the Pegasus T12 T7400 still offers a lot for your money.

Computer Active We Say… Powerful processor; amazing battery life; good keyboard.


Will Stapley.