Mixed feelings about this one...
Written: Sep 28 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Impressive video/screen.
Cons: Sensitive touch pad.
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| ericlew's Full Review: Compaq Armada E500 (470027-663) PC Notebook |
I'll start by saying that I didn't buy the Armada E500 - it is company property! One of the perks of working for a hi-tech company is that we get the toys we want. I'll admit that I didn't get to choose which laptop I get, but I can't complain.
My E500 has a Pentium III 600 MHz with 128 MB RAM, running Win NT 4. The performance is more than enough for the kind of things that I do - whether using Cognos Impromptu, or Oracle SQL-Plus, I am usually constrained by network bandwidth more than local processing.
The laptop is quite small and light, considering that it contains a 12GB HD, a 3.5" FD, a CD-ROM drive (no, I didn't get the DVD), and a battery. The external power supply is also reasonable small and light, making the whole package very easy to carry.
The best feature of the laptop is the screen. It is huge and bright, and displays a high resolution of 1024x728. My favorite feature is that when using a lower resolution (for example, when playing games which use 680x480 or 800x600), the full screen is used, instead of a small area in the middle of the screen.
It is not a perfect machine, though. The keyboard has very little travel. But the worst is the touch pad. I use an external mouse 99% of the time, and the touch pad has been a constant pain. It is way too sensitive. If I touch it accidentally while typing, the cursor is moved to a different location on the screen, and the text I've been typing gets inserted in that location!
The laptop has two speakers for stereo sound, although no-one will be impressed by the quality of the sound. However, it does have a headphone output for the music fan. The built-in modem is as good as they get (56kbps), and the other ports included are parallel, serial, video, keyboard/mouse, USB, and an expansion port.
All in all, a good machine. Pity about the touch pad.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
ericlew
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Member: Eric Lew
Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 2 members
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