So I am starting my second half of classes in community college in a few weeks. So I thought I would get myself a laptop to help me with my studies. Well its become more of a playtoy for me rather then a study aid, but thats a good thing in this world I live in.

Let me start out by saying that this laptop is very decent. I got it from Newegg for $499 and got approved for their credit card so that means no payments until 6 months from now.

Quick specs on this laptop as featured on Newegg (no longer listed in their inventory for some reason)

Intel Celeron M 1.6ghz Processor

512mb DDR2 Ram

Windows Vista Home Basic

15.4inch glossy wide screen monitor

80GB HD

DVD Player / CD-RW Combo Drive

2 USB Ports, VGA Port , Dialup and Ethernet ports , front panel mic and headphone.

Taking it out of the box:

I open the box with my set of keys. take it out. I see a small amount of documentation along with the battery, charger , and of course the laptop itself. One of the leaflets said something about a recovery parition on the hard drive. No Vista or Driver restore discs. Its all integrated into the laptop.  Then proceeded to install the battery, and plug in the charger to the laptop / plug charger into the wall. Turning on for the first time was a lengthy process. Its inital setup time was 30 minutes. This covered Windows starting for the first time, and intital factory recovery partition setup. It was quite the boring experience but I went and did something else while it did its work. When I came back, it asked me to register my laptop so I did. By the way , this is a business class notebook , so the referring website on the registration page said. This must mean a better quality product and warranty. Well see.

Exploring the Windows Desktop :

I proceeded to look around at the Start Menu to see what preinstalled junk was installed and to my surprise , only Microsoft Office 2007 was the only try me and buy me product installed! This was super shocking! But those preinstalled offers came in a seperate folder. For example. Norton and some other software like Intervideo WinDVD 5 was in a folder called swsetup. WinDVD 5 is used to play DVD Movies. But norton is an optional install. It is not preinstalled on the factory notebook like other desktops or notebooks I have seen in the stores. This is a big plus to a clutter free experience on a new notebook. Maybe the 30 minute setup was a tradeoff for a virtual clutter free first time setup. Esentially one can trash the try me offers in the recycle bin without it setting up. However, the AOL Toolbar was present on my machine launching internet explorer. I do have an AIM account so its handy to see if I got new mail when surfing the web.

Recovery Media Creation:

This laptop does not prompt you to create recovery media at any time. You must initiate the program yourself. Also present was one problem. Since the laptop only had a CD Burner it says 9 CD-R's were neccesary to create recovery media. Naturally since I wanted to burn to DVD , I told the program to save the recovery image as an ISO File in the DVD-R DL Format since it only took 1 of those discs to create a media. I then proceeded to transfer this image onto an external HD and then plug it into my desktop where I could burn the recovery image. It took about 30 minutes and I made 3 copies of the recovery dvd.  The ISO is still on the external drive as backup.

The Overall Hardware/Software Experience :

This is a regular keyboard with function keys that serve the other purpose of adjusting brightness , volume , etc. Also missing is a full size number keypad. However the keypad is a virtual keypad by using the function keys. Engaging this function will make the right side of the keyboard a number keypad. Engaging the function again will make the keyboard work as normal again. LAME. The volume from the speakers is not too loud either. I tried playing a DVD Movie, and even at the highest volume , it was still sounding like it was in a medium volume state and not a full volume state. Maybe this is a good thing since you do not want to blow your speakers. However, a game I played , Tumblebugs had louder audio then the movie did so who do I want to blame for this? Intervideo? Speaking of which, Intervideo WinDVD 5 2ch version was installed which I do not think it "Works with Windows Vista" or is "Certified for Windows Vista" I immediately uninstalled WinDVD 5 and purchased DVD 8 Gold from Corel , and it works like a charm and its more compatible and reliable too. Laptop also ships with Roxio Creator Basic to burn media. One thing that this laptop gets a bad mark for is the amount of ram it ships with. It only has 512mb of memory. Also Windows Vista Basic ships with it , but thats the minimum required to run vista basic. The Integrated Intel 945m video card wont help things either in this state. I went to Newegg and purchased an additional 512mb memory module for the laptop for only $11.99 which was a  super bargain price and things are running smoother now. The battery lasts average about 1 hour and 20 minutes to 1 hour and 45 minutes depending on the use of the laptop. I have this plugged in a majority of the time so it does not matter. Finally , the wireless card is acceptable. I use it at the library all the time with no problem. WEI Score : 2.0 (haha, no gaming here)

Conclusion

The $499.99 price point is pretty competitive in todays market but I wish it would have shipped with more memory. At this price point ive seen laptops ship with double the memory , but $12.00 for an additional module didnt set me back too much at all. Overall its a nice laptop, and it gets the job done. But it gets docked for shipping with a non vista certified dvd playback solution , and only 512mb of ram at its price point.