pretty good laptop, very good for the price
Written: Feb 25 '05
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Pros: -Pretty case
-Very good price
-Functions well
-Great hard drive space & good memory
Cons: -Poor battery life
-AC adapter problems
-Speaker placement
The Bottom Line: It's a fine computer; it's average for computers of its general range. There are a few problems and annoyances, but it works fine & is great for the price.
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| ryuri's Full Review: Averatec AV3250HX (av3250hx80) PC Notebook |
I bought my Averatec 3250HX in September, and at first, I was ecstatic about everything. At first glance, this looks like a beautiful computer. The case is sleek, silver, and fits together nicely, and the touchpad is oddly attractive. I have to say, at the very least, the design is almost perfect.
However, if you look a little closer, you notice that the keys are somewhat cramped together, with no spacers, and that the place of the Function and Control keys are reversed, which is odd both because of the minor inconvenience it causes to keep hitting the Function key as you just begin to get used to your computer, but more so, for me, that once I'd gotten used to the placement of the Control key, whenever I used a "normal" keyboard, such as on our desktop computer, I would keep hitting the wrong key. Also, sometimes the touchpad "spazzes" and sends your cursor flying, but most of the time, it works great. The last thing is that I find that the speaker placement showed extremely poor judgment on Averatec's part, because it's almost impossible not to put your hands over them as you type. I would have preferred to see them somewhere near the top of the keyboard instead.
I find the screen to be of good quality, and it doesn't derive any complaints for me. Some users whose reviews I've read have complained of a stuck pixel somewhere on their screen, but I don't have that problem, so I would just assume that those users were unlucky. Also, I've heard complaints of a poor viewing angle, but I don't seem to be much affected by that. The display is clean if not perfect, and it works wonderfully at the default 1024x768 resolution.
The Averatec is not the fastest of computers, and I do wish that they had showed better judgment (again) and used a better chip than the Athlon XP-M Mobile, but it's "fast enough" when working normally, although sometimes it slows down when running multiple programs, and then pages take quite a long time to load. The 80g hard drive is more than enough space for me, and the 512MB RAM works just fine, too. I suppose more hardcore users and gamers would require more, but if you're a gamer, you definitely wouldn't have been looking for this kind of computer in the first place.
The Averatec gets warm when used, but not hot enough to make you uncomfortable. With heavy usage, it feels somewhat hot if you leave your hand on the bottom for some time, but again, the heat for me is not really a problem.
The only real complaint I would have with this computer is the battery life. The battery doesn't even last 2 hours when it advertises 3 (although someone said that it does really last 3 hours if you put it on the lowest resolution and screen brightness and just let it sit there doing nothing) with low to moderate usage, and deteriorates quickly with more heavy usage. Also, it uses a surprising amount of power when in standby mode. I would have really liked to see an extended battery--scratch that, I would have really, really, really liked to see an extended battery, but I don't believe that Averatec offers that yet, which is really too bad.
Also, I noticed that my AC cord has been having problems recently. I have to hold it in an odd position, play with it a while, and position it carefully in order to get it to work. However, I'm not sure if it's the cord or the plug itself that's causing this, or if it's something that I unknowingly did--but whatever it is, I do wish that Averatec could have built it with a bit more endurance, since this computer is only a few months old and I am expected to have it for at least another year or so.
Also, the positioning of the USB ports is a tad inconvenient--perhaps they could have switched them with the optical drive--and I feel that they're spaced a bit close together, too, but you can squeeze 3 USB cords in there.
I also wish it could have come with Bluetooth, but for the price, I didn't expect it to, nor did I expect miracles. I almost had a hard time coming up with definite pros and cons for this computer, because, frankly, it's just sort of good-average. If you want a really high-end computer, then look somewhere else--perhaps to a Sony Vaio--but if you're just a regular person looking for a regular laptop for a good price, then Averatec is probably for you.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 999.00
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 12 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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Epinions.com ID:
ryuri
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Reviews written: 1
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