Systemax Pursuit 4155 (Vista)

A newly revamped version of the Systemax Pursuit 4155 offers both Vista Ultimate and an Intel Core 2 Duo processor for a reasonable price. This 15.4-inch system features a 1.6-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB of memory, and a skimpy 60GB hard drive. Having a webcam on board helps this notebook stand out from the budget crowd, but otherwise it's not very compelling.

 

Measuring 14.3 x 10 x 1.5 inches, the Systemax Pursuit 4155 is a bit clunky around the edges and sports the same design as its predecessor with a smooth but dull silver finish on its lid, and a black bottom and sides. The matte-finish display, with 1280 x 800-pixel resolution, was bright enough for watching movies, but the speakers don't produce much volume. On the plus side, the 1.3-megapixel webcam produced a clear picture during a video call.

 

The full-sized keyboard was responsive and soft to the touch, and the touchpad was easy to use. We appreciated the pad's vertical scroll zone, but we couldn't always get it to work during Web browsing. Above the keyboard lie the power button and four programmable hot keys. We were disappointed with the lack of dedicated multimedia keys--especially ones for controlling the volume.

 

An S-Video port, modem jack, and AC plug line the back of this notebook. The most frequently used ports--the three USB ports (which are nicely spaced), one FireWire port, VGA port, and two audio jacks--are located on the sides. An ExpressCard and PC Card slot line the left side. For easy access to your wireless connection and multimedia files, the front of the chassis contains a 3-in-1 media card reader and Wi-Fi switch. 

 

We expected performance to dip a bit from the Windows XP--based Pursuit to the Vista-based model, and we were right. The new 4155 garnered a 3DMark03 score of 908, versus 1,199 for the XP version. The Vista-powered Systemax didn't do much better on PCMark05, either, scoring just 2,660, well below the 3600 average for mainstream notebooks. Our overall interaction with Vista was similar to the poor graphics-test results. The low graphics subscore also affected the system's low score of 2.0 (out of 5.9) on the Vista Experience test.

 

Battery life was decent, with the 4155 lasting 2 hours and 8 minutes on our DVD rundown test. That's just below average for Vista mainstream notebooks. In our day-to-day use with Wi-Fi on, we had to plug the system into an outlet a little shy of two hours to avoid the annoying low-battery signal. Wi-Fi scores with the 4155's 802.11g connection were acceptable. At 50 feet, we got 14.2 Mbps of throughput, a touch higher than its predecessor.

 

While the Systemax Pursuit 4155 looks good on paper, its performance and design just aren't up to snuff for the price. If you're really angling for low cost, you might be better off with a sleeker system from HP, like the Pavilion dv6500, which offers the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a webcam, an extra 20GB of hard drive space, and faster 802.11n networking--for only about $50 more.  
 

 

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