Bought this laptop when it was on sale. Total cost is $383.11.
Performance:
Runs pretty fast and snappy once I have a fresh copy of Windows XP and an extra 1GB memory installed on it.
Noise & Heat:
Very quiet when idle. But for some reason, mine would have its CPU temperature heats up fast, and then the fan would periodically turn on to cool it down. That is even when the whole system is at idle!!! I think it is probably a bad thermal connection between my CPU and its heatsink. Have to open it to check it out...
The fan was not that loud when turned on. Can not hear it running when I was listening to music.
Ergonomic:
The ports are on both sides of this laptop, and NO ports on the front nor back of the laptop. So, if you have a lot of things connect to the laptop, then you will find your desk really messy to look at. For example, the wire that connects to my audio speaker and the USB wire that connects to my mouse, frequently get in the way when I am trying to open the DVD drive.
The keyboard feels OK, but I prefer to use a external keyboard via USB connection. The biggest quirk that I had with the built-in keyboard is the small directional keys and the OVERSIZED "SHIFT" key right above it. I frequently hit the wrong key. When I thought that I was hitting the "ENTER" key, very often that I found I was hitting the "SHIFT key." Very annoying. I wish they could fix this by either shrink the SHIFT key, or enlarge the ENTER key.
The built-in mouse track pad is OK. Scrolling up/down and left/right works without the need to install any more drivers in Windows XP. The mouse buttons have rubber pads on it, which I finds amusing. I can feel the mouse buttons immediately without looking at them, which is good for me. The button clicking sound is also very soft.
Mobility:
It looks thick, but when I close the whole laptop, it is actually thin enough to carry it comfortably. Weights a bit heavy at 6.6lbs. But I don't carry it often, so, it really doesn't bother me.
Wireless:
The Broadcom wireless 802.11b/g is excellent. I get a very strong signal with it, unlike my previous laptop (a Sony VAIO). It uses a button to turn on/off the wireless.
PROSThere are a lot of quality things about this laptop that I have found very surprising, for the price that I paid.
1) Very beautiful LCD screen, which is made by Samsung/Seiko
2) Good built-in speakers by Altec Lansing
3) Excellent Harddrive performance by Hitachi
4) The BroadCom wireless 802.11b/g
5) The Slimtype DVD drive that can burn CD-R, CD-RW, Single and Dual-layers DVD-R, DVD-RW
6) A single stick DDR2-667 memory that came with the laptop, even though the laptop only runs at DDR-533!
7) A thick plastic casing, which is good for rugged use, bad for thermal dissipation.
CONsThe biggest downside to this laptop is its ability for FUTURE expansion. So, basically that you will be stuck with the same configuration for the rest of this laptop's useful life.
1) Lousy ports locations, wires frequently gets in the way!
2) No PCMCIA, ExpressCard slots!
3) No flash card reader!
4) No Firewires 1934, no serial port, no parallel port!
5) BIOS configuration is very basic. Can't even change the size of shared video memory.
6) CPU upgrade is limited to Celeron lines. No Core Duo nor Core 2 Duo cpu upgrade in the future!
