Final thoughts and rating
PC Specialist's Enigma P960T does most things well but nothing brilliantly. The CPU is decent, the discrete graphics card will render games at the 15.4in screen's native 1,440x900 resolution without too many problems, and next-generation video is catered for by a compliant optical drive.Performance is good enough, matching a more-expensive Zepto Nox's, and everything is more or less as it should be - not surprising given that it's based on a generic design by a Taiwanese manufacturer.
Trouble is, spending £900 on a laptop (or £750 for a DVD-ReWriter instead of Blu-ray) should mean you buy into some exclusivity. Zepto does it with a gorgeous-looking chassis, and the likes of Dell and HP's high-end SKUs all have that touchy-feely goodness.
The Enigma P960T is without such a magic trick, and foibles such as fixed-resolution screen, lower-performing GeForce 9600M, and, well, a lack of colour choices, mean that PC Specialist will find it hard going in the >£750 space, where, for example, Dell's Studio XPS 16 begins to hold sway.
Bottom line: make no mistake about it, the PC Specialist Enigma P960T is a decent high-end laptop, but it needs a killer feature - ultra-cool design, thin chassis, high-res screen - for it to stand out from the crowd. As it is, it's one of many, and £900 isn't easy to come by these days.
The good
Good battery life, enabling the playback of Iron Man (Blu-ray) from a single charge
Decent all-round performer
The not so good
Fixed-resolution screen
GeForce 9600M is of the cheaper variety
Very generic design
HEXUS Rating
HEXUS.net scores products out of 100%, taking into account technology, implementation, stability, performance, value, customer care and desirability. A score for an average-rated product is a meaningful ‘50%’, and not ‘90%’, which is common practice for a great many other publications.We consider any product score above '50%' as a safe buy. The higher the score, the higher the recommendation from HEXUS to buy. Simple, straightforward buying advice.
PC
Specialist Enigma P960T notebook
