Best Buy Unveils Ultrawide Notebook

Best Buy this week begins selling the first Windows notebook with a DVD-appropriate wide screen. The Vpr Matrix 200A5 also sports high-quality sound and a design by Porsche Design.

The Vpr Matrix 200A5 comes with a 2-GHz Pentium 4-M processor, 512MB of DDR-SDRAM, and a 40GB hard drive. To keep you connected, it has both an Ethernet port and integrated 802.11b (Wi-Fi) wireless capability. As befits a multimedia machine, it's equipped with an NVidia GeForce4 420 Go graphics processor and a DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive. It carries an estimated retail price of $2399.

The notebook is available only in Best Buy stores and on the store's Web site, and in Porsche Design boutiques.

Screen Battle

Apple already offers a wide-screen PowerBook, but the Vpr Matrix 200A5 is a debut product for Windows users. Other Vpr Matrix notebooks, the 170B4 and the 180B5, do not offer the same wide screen.

The screen is a 15.2-inch LCD with a 1280-by-854 native resolution. Do the math and you'll find it has an aspect ratio of 3x2 (also referred to as 1.50:1). That's wider than a standard monitor or TV's ratio of 4x3 (1.33:1), but narrower than a wide-screen TV's 16x9 (1.76:1).

Why can't a wide-screen PC be as wide as a wide-screen TV? Examining a conventional portrait page layout in 16x9 is "kind of awkward," according to Steven Lee, Best Buy's vice president for strategic development. The slightly narrower shape also allows the 200A5 to use the full width of the screen for a wide-screen DVD and still have room below the picture for on-screen controls.

Other Extras

The 200A5 is also the first PC to upsample audio, a practice usually found in high-end CD players, according to Best Buy. The notebook increases the bit stream of any digital source to a sample size of 24 bits and a sample rate of 192 kilohertz (24/192), which is much higher than the 16/24 signal coming from typical audio CDs or MP3 files. Of course, a 16/24 signal upsampled to 24/192 will not sound as good as native 24/192, but it can still be a considerable improvement over an unprocessed 16/24 signal.

Sound is only as good as the speakers, and size and weight limitations pretty much guarantee that you won't find really good speakers in a notebook. Best Buy recommends that you use either external speakers or high-end headphones to really appreciate the 200A5's audio.

Like other recent PCs from Best Buy, the 200A5 is the creation of Porsche Design, the Austrian firm also known for its unique pens, watches, smoking accessories, and other consumer goods. The design firm has only a family relationship to the car manufacturer.