Let's not get too excited now
Written: Apr 02 '03 (Updated Apr 03 '03)
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Pros: Light, great battery life, reasonable screen, stick pointer, well-built, network ready.
Cons: Poor sound, slowish, average keyboard.
The Bottom Line: Fine for the real road warrior with moderate expectations. But perhaps it's not your thing if you need real power or the state of the art.
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| Clive_Conway's Full Review: Compaq Evo Notebook N600c (470023-406) |
I was surprised when I read the other reviews about this Compaq laptop. All the praise seemed a little over the top, and when I read comments about how fast it was, I had to laugh.
Let's be realistic here--this is a 1.2 Gig laptop. It isn't even vaguely close to state of the art, and any desktop machine of the same cost would be twice as fast. This is not a speed demon. With 32 Megs of video RAM and 256 to 512K (which I have) of system RAM, it's a tolerably quick machine, with no obvious bottlenecks.
Specification
1.2G/512K RAM/30G HD/14.1 XGA (1024x768) TFT screen/32 Meg Video/CDRW/External USB floppy/Ethernet/Windows XP Professional
Physical
This machine is light. I've always bought laptops which are really optioned up and labelled 'desktop replacement'. That usually means they weigh as much as your desk. I have now seen the error of my ways. Light is nice.
If you are working on your lap be warned--you may get a little hot.
User interface
It's a good 14.1" screen, typical of the better modern TFTs, with a 70 or 80 degree viewing angle, sharp pixels and even backlighting. It will also support continuous desktop across two monitors if you upgrade to the latest video drivers from ATI's website. This is cool in the office. I have the laptop on a stand next to a 17" monitor, and basically have a double screen.
Pointers on laptops are all rubbish, and I hate trackpads with a passion. At least this laptop throws in the little stick pointer in the middle of the keyboard, which is handy for those few occasions I can't be bothered plugging in the mouse. But give me a good wheel mouse any day.
The keyboard is average. Short throw, which is bad, but reasonably tactile action, which is good. My old Gateway was far nicer to type on.
The sound from the in-built speakers is disappointing. It tends to distort at just about any volume level louder than 'mute'. Through headphones or external speakers it is quite good.
In the field
A lot of laptop users don't go mobile very often. If you really are a road warrior, you'll find this machine coming into its own. With its light weight and battery life around 3 hours or more it's a very practical mobile machine. Unfortunately there is no built in floppy drive--that's a USB plug-in that you have to carry with you, but I must admit, I use floppy very rarely these days, especially with a CDRW drive installed. The CD writing and rewriting is a little slow, but it still feels like a luxury having it in a notebook.
And this machine seems to be built tough enough for life on the road.
A few gripes
Other than the minor issues mentioned (sound, keyboard, lack of grunt), it's a bit boring to look at, but then it is a 'corporate spec' machine. The other thing I am often annoyed by is the location of the CDRW, which is on the right side panel. Pretty common, I know, but hopeless on airline tables, and if you place your laptop to the left of your monitor as I have to in my office. Machines with front-loading CDs seem so much more sensible.
Overall
For the real road warrior with moderate expectations, this is a very good machine. But perhaps it's not your thing if you need real power or the state of the art.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1,000
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 14 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW
Hard Drive (GB): 21-30
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Epinions.com ID:
Clive_Conway
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Member: Clive Conway
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
Reviews written: 41
Trusted by: 7 members
About Me:
Writer, philosopher and adventurer from Adelaide, South Australia. www.eebahgum.com
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