Hypersonic Sonic Aviator 3.06GHz Pentium 4

Features - Software and Other

The Hypersonic Sonic Aviator shipped with a number of extra features that we have not come to expect on notebook systems. For the most part these extra features gives the unit a unique advantage over some of its competitors.

Hypersonic does a decent good job when it comes to included applications. The Sonic Aviator ships with Cyberlink PowerDVD, Easy CD Creator 5, and hotkey and on screen display programs. PowerDVD will get the job done when it comes to software based DVD decoding and Easy CD Creator 5 remains our choice for painless and carefree CD burning. The hotkey software proved to be easily used, allowing the user to define what each application opened with the press of one of the three hot keys. Also included in this utility is an on screen display feature that displays a horizontal line when volume or brightness is adjusted.

It would have been nice to seen the Sonic Aviator also ship with some office-type suite as well but we understand how hard it is for smaller companies like Hypersonic to make deals with large software vendors to provide extra applications at a reasonable price.

The company redeems itself by offering an extensive driver library right out of the box. The system ships with a "driver" directory that includes every driver used to setup the system. This proves very useful, especially for those power users out there who find themselves tweaking and reinstalling on a regular basis. Demonstrating Hypersonic's dedication to performance is the fact that Intel Application Accelerator is installed on every system shipped out. This is something we have not seen any other manufacturer do, and although it is an installation step that can be easily overlooked installing the software can drastically increase IDE performance.

Another nice extra that Hypersonic offers are preinstalled games for the same price you would find them on the street for. At time of publication, Warcraft III, Grand Theft Auto III, and Unreal Tournament 2003 can all be preinstalled and configured before the system even arrives at your door. This is a marked change from the productivity-only applications that can be preinstalled on other notebook systems (also available on the Sonic Aviator) and provides a glimpse of the market that Hypersonic is targeting with the Sonic Aviator.

Lastly, every Hypersonic Sonic Aviator system sold comes with a performance binder that includes benchmark results of your particular system under a number of gaming and office benchmarks. It should become clear now that Hypersonic is going after the hardcore computer user with its Sonic Aviator system.

We did have one problem with the software support of the Hypersonic Sonic Aviator on the video card side of things. Unlike desktop systems, where video drivers are supplied by the manufacturer, drivers for notebook video chips are almost exclusively supplied by the OEM producer of the notebook. Video companies demand this because there are a number of tweaks and options that can differ from vender to vender (including clock speed and power saving features). Venders thus work with the chip producer to make a driver that fits specific criteria and this driver is updated to newer versions via collaboration between the vender and the video chip producer. Because of this, venders can specify what options they want available in their driver build. In the case of the Hypersonic Sonic Aviator, the vender has chosen to exclude the new POWERPLAY driver options, reducing some of the appeal brought to the table by the Mobility Radeon 9000.