Rock Xtreme 685
The
Rock Xtreme 685 (£1609 inc. VAT) is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. With its
matte-blackdesign, rubberised coating and sharp angles it looks like any self-
respecting grown-up laptop. There’s even a fingerprint scanner sitting between
the mouse buttons.
Don’t
be fooled: this is a custom- made gaming monster with enough power to keep
playing long after other machines have given up and gone home. Not literally,
mind - the battery life’s only 96 minutes. However, in those 96 minutes, you
have power courtesy of a quad-core Intel Core i7-2860QM CPU and a AMD Radeon
HD6990 graphics card assisted by 6GB of RAM.
“Quad-core
- Modern CPUs are designed around multicore
architecture - ie they have more than one
processor working together on the same die.
Dual core and quad core chips are the most common, and mean better multitasking
as each core can run a separate program thread independently”
The
graphics card in particular is a heavy duty beast. Released last year, it adds an extra 2GB of dedicated video memory
to the 2GB already shared with the Intel CPU. In real terms this means that
practically any game will play seamlessly on this machine.
Adding to the experience is the bright,
LED-backlit screen. It has a full 1080p pixel resolution of1920 x 1080 so high-definition content - including the latest games - looks
fantastic. Although the screen size is 15.6-inches, it feels wider thanks to
the thin bezel each side.
Viewing
angles aren’t fantastic, but the screen feels resilient on its hinges and is
surrounded by a tough chassis. The rubberised coating on the lid and palmrest
both avoids grubby marks and feels comfortable to use. There’s no different
coating for the touchpad, although it is indented slightly to mark it out. We
found it fine to use, but you’re going to want to invest in a USB mouse for
gaming.
The
keyboard is a standard isolation-style layout with a numeric keypad.
We detected a minimal amount of flex in the centre of the board, but this isn’t
noticeable during general typing.
In
terms of gaming, connectivity delivers the goods. There are four USB ports (two
of which are the faster USB 3.0 format) for peripherals as well as an eSata
port that doubles as a fifth. You can also connect an external monitor or HDTV
through either the HDMI or DVI port on the rear of the laptop. There’s also an
Ethernet connection and a 3-in-l media card slot for expanding the 750GB hard
drive.
Rounding
out the features is a built-in Blu-ray optical drive for enjoying high
definition content. Also worth mentioning is that the Rock Xtreme 685 comes
with a three year ‘collect and return’ manufacturer’s warranty.
As
a gaming laptop, there’s no doubting the Rock’s capabilities. But the design
and build quality is far less ostentatious than rivals like the Alienware M18X
or MSI GT683DX. If you want blinking LEDs and glossy surfaces then look
elsewhere. But if you want an awesome gaming laptop that can also double as a
serious work machine, pick this up right away.
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