I ordered my 1557 (Batallion E) from iBuyPower. I originally ordered rush service on it but they still slipped past the "rush processing" date so they refunded the $50 rush fee. That was a little frustrating, but I did receive the notebook at a reasonable date after the advertised 10-day processing time.
The notebook arrived in great condition, with no dead pixels and everything as requested. IBuyPower sold me just what I thought I bought, so no fault goes toward them specifically.
My problem is with the 1557 itself, and after giving it a lot of thought, I decided to return it.
I decided not to review the notebook itself, as there are a few very good reviews out there, but I will talk about the issues that made me return this computer, maybe this will be useful for someone else thinking about this model.
1- I didn't like the keyboard at all. First, I think the transparent blue keys make the case look a lot cheaper than it could with a nicer looking keyboard. Also, the key labels themselves are not the best design, in my opinion. The FN functions (number keypads, brighntess controls, etc.) are cramped with the actual letters on the keys and highlighted with a plain square outline. It makes the keyboard look busy in a very uncomfortable way to me. By comparison, lots of other keyboard identify their FN functions with a different color and even font, making it far easier to focus on what you need to look for. Additionally, the keyboard it slightly arched in the middle, forming a bump that hits the screen when the lid is closed. Not as serious as one of my old Dell Inspirons, but still gets your skin grease on the screen all the time, as well as creating the impression of shoddy construction. Finally, the keyboard only supports 2 independent keypresses at the same time (more in simple sequential mode). Meaning, if you are playing a keyboard-driven game, and you have to intermittently press, say, arrow up, left, right, and space bar, it has a very high tendency to get stuck on one key. This specifically affected Need For Speed Underground, where I couldn't accelerate, apply the nitro boost and turn at the same time. Very frustrating.
2- The air vent on the right hand side. The internals on this laptop get very hot when playing games or using 3D apps, and this very hot air gets pushed out the right side of the notebook. Not a huge problem if you are just using your keyboard or a gamepad, but if you are using a mouse on the right side of the notebook, it gets very uncomfortable. My hand actually got a rash-like red color on the left side from the hot air when using a mouse for 20 or 30 minutes. This does not happen nearly as badly if you're not using the 3D capabilities of the laptop however. It's also worth mentioning that the laptop is rock solid stable regardless of how hot it got.
3- USB and Firewire port layout: My notebook usage involves a lot of USB and FW devices, such as external hard drives, a gamepad, a mouse, a USB keyboard, USB mp3 player, usb keys, a special USB memory card writer, video cameras etc. I often use many of these at the same time. I decided I would have to do with only 3 USB ports, but I really underestimated how annoying it is for all the USB and the FW ports to be on the back of the notebook, and in such an awkward place. They are laid out between the sound in/out plugs and the printer/serial ports. 2 USB ports stacked on one another, and a single one next to those. As you know, USB ports aren't the friendliest ports around when it comes to tactile feedback, meaning, they're pretty hard to plug in without actually seeing them, especially since USB is symmetrical and is very easy to try to plug a connector upside down. I found myself constantly having to lower the notebook lid and standing up over it to connect a USB or FW peripheral to it. It seems like a minor annoyance but I guess I have been spoiled by my old Travelmate's brilliant side-mounted ports. As I return the notebook today, I have noticed that I have already produced some minor scratches around the connectors as I fumbled to find the USB ports without looking. I can only imagine what this would look like in a year with this kind of use.
4- The speakers are easily the worst I have owned in a notebook. They are functional, and can actually be fairly loud depending on the situation, but the sound quality itself is just abysmal. Not that I was expecting bass-heavy subwoofery sound, but these sound so tinny that I have a hard time thinking of them as practical. It made it very difficult to even use VoIP applications such as Skype, and forget about listening to any music even in a casual way - you will only hear treble range, high pitch sounds. On the plus side however, is the analog volume control dial which is just a great, great thing to have on a laptop. I really wish more manufacturers would include this feature on their notebook designs - this is one huge reason why I was very close to spending nearly $3K on a HP nc8000 laptop.
5- The useless "Audio DJ" buttons. These things are just there, and perform absolutely no function when the computer is on. They are meant to listen to CDs with the notebook off, but honestly, when was the last time anyone used that feature on a laptop? most of us own other much better devices to listen to music, and even if we didn't, these speakers make it almost laughable, not to mention incredibly awkward to whip out a complete laptop just to listen to an audio CD. Maybe if it played DVDs on the screen with the computer off...but of course it doesn't. Maybe it's just me, I don't know. But what really did tick me off about these buttons is that they cannot be used in any way in Windows itself. This is a huge oversight, because they're already there and could have been a really sweet feature to use as a player control for winamp or windvd. Hell even the little LCD display could be used for something, such as CPU usage percentage.
6- While the 3D performance is great on this little machine, I am weary of settling into a notebook that is just ready to become obsolete in 3D terms with its 64MB 9600 card. If it was 128MB I would probably stick with it, but knowing I can now get a 128MB 9700 for a couple hundred dollars more (if that) makes it hard to justify.
7- General build quality is ok, but there are a few rough edges: the keyboard, for one, like I explained earlier. Also, the screen seems to arch away at the adges when closed, and the DVD drive is not perfectly aligned with the rest of the case. Not incredibly serious, but I have to think of what this will look like in one year of heavy every day use. I would expect a few things to slowly come apart. When something that is brand new is not looking flawless, you can bet those flaws will amplify themselves over time.
Other small details are the fact that the wireless button doesn't work, it's easy to accidentally open the DVD tray, the screen spindle action is a little strange, the sound seems a little garbled even through headphones, the 4-way pad seems very fragile, and some of the LED indicators don't actually indicate much.
Things I liked about this laptop: Performance and stability are amazing. Not a single crash over the nearly 2 weeks I used it, and I used it a lot. The 64MB 9600 is definitely an amazing notebook chipset, performing admirably (for a mobile chip) with most games I tried. The volume dial is something I am going to miss greatly. The screen is amazingly good looking, bright, great color balance and almost no perceptible ghosting. Wireless reception was amazing. Also, the latop is actually very pretty except for the keyboard. And finally, the price really is right for this setup - very cheap for the quality product you receive.
So there it is. And what am I replacing this 1557 with, that does away with all these shortcomings?
Well, I am preordering the Acer Travelmate 8003LMi. More expensive, yes. But it does come with a 128MB 9700 radeon, a DVD writer, bluetooth, 4 USB ports and 1 FW port mounted on the left side for easy plugging, better sounding speakers, a beatiful and cleverly designed keyboard, and a back-mounted air vent.
Just one slight problem: it's actually not in stock anywhere, but I will preorder from PCTorque.com as soon as iBuyPower refunds my money back. Speaking of which, they were very nice when I called to request RMA service to return the laptop, didn't give me any hassle at all. Now they just need to refund my money and I will give them an "A" for service.
The notebook arrived in great condition, with no dead pixels and everything as requested. IBuyPower sold me just what I thought I bought, so no fault goes toward them specifically.
My problem is with the 1557 itself, and after giving it a lot of thought, I decided to return it.
I decided not to review the notebook itself, as there are a few very good reviews out there, but I will talk about the issues that made me return this computer, maybe this will be useful for someone else thinking about this model.
1- I didn't like the keyboard at all. First, I think the transparent blue keys make the case look a lot cheaper than it could with a nicer looking keyboard. Also, the key labels themselves are not the best design, in my opinion. The FN functions (number keypads, brighntess controls, etc.) are cramped with the actual letters on the keys and highlighted with a plain square outline. It makes the keyboard look busy in a very uncomfortable way to me. By comparison, lots of other keyboard identify their FN functions with a different color and even font, making it far easier to focus on what you need to look for. Additionally, the keyboard it slightly arched in the middle, forming a bump that hits the screen when the lid is closed. Not as serious as one of my old Dell Inspirons, but still gets your skin grease on the screen all the time, as well as creating the impression of shoddy construction. Finally, the keyboard only supports 2 independent keypresses at the same time (more in simple sequential mode). Meaning, if you are playing a keyboard-driven game, and you have to intermittently press, say, arrow up, left, right, and space bar, it has a very high tendency to get stuck on one key. This specifically affected Need For Speed Underground, where I couldn't accelerate, apply the nitro boost and turn at the same time. Very frustrating.
2- The air vent on the right hand side. The internals on this laptop get very hot when playing games or using 3D apps, and this very hot air gets pushed out the right side of the notebook. Not a huge problem if you are just using your keyboard or a gamepad, but if you are using a mouse on the right side of the notebook, it gets very uncomfortable. My hand actually got a rash-like red color on the left side from the hot air when using a mouse for 20 or 30 minutes. This does not happen nearly as badly if you're not using the 3D capabilities of the laptop however. It's also worth mentioning that the laptop is rock solid stable regardless of how hot it got.
3- USB and Firewire port layout: My notebook usage involves a lot of USB and FW devices, such as external hard drives, a gamepad, a mouse, a USB keyboard, USB mp3 player, usb keys, a special USB memory card writer, video cameras etc. I often use many of these at the same time. I decided I would have to do with only 3 USB ports, but I really underestimated how annoying it is for all the USB and the FW ports to be on the back of the notebook, and in such an awkward place. They are laid out between the sound in/out plugs and the printer/serial ports. 2 USB ports stacked on one another, and a single one next to those. As you know, USB ports aren't the friendliest ports around when it comes to tactile feedback, meaning, they're pretty hard to plug in without actually seeing them, especially since USB is symmetrical and is very easy to try to plug a connector upside down. I found myself constantly having to lower the notebook lid and standing up over it to connect a USB or FW peripheral to it. It seems like a minor annoyance but I guess I have been spoiled by my old Travelmate's brilliant side-mounted ports. As I return the notebook today, I have noticed that I have already produced some minor scratches around the connectors as I fumbled to find the USB ports without looking. I can only imagine what this would look like in a year with this kind of use.
4- The speakers are easily the worst I have owned in a notebook. They are functional, and can actually be fairly loud depending on the situation, but the sound quality itself is just abysmal. Not that I was expecting bass-heavy subwoofery sound, but these sound so tinny that I have a hard time thinking of them as practical. It made it very difficult to even use VoIP applications such as Skype, and forget about listening to any music even in a casual way - you will only hear treble range, high pitch sounds. On the plus side however, is the analog volume control dial which is just a great, great thing to have on a laptop. I really wish more manufacturers would include this feature on their notebook designs - this is one huge reason why I was very close to spending nearly $3K on a HP nc8000 laptop.
5- The useless "Audio DJ" buttons. These things are just there, and perform absolutely no function when the computer is on. They are meant to listen to CDs with the notebook off, but honestly, when was the last time anyone used that feature on a laptop? most of us own other much better devices to listen to music, and even if we didn't, these speakers make it almost laughable, not to mention incredibly awkward to whip out a complete laptop just to listen to an audio CD. Maybe if it played DVDs on the screen with the computer off...but of course it doesn't. Maybe it's just me, I don't know. But what really did tick me off about these buttons is that they cannot be used in any way in Windows itself. This is a huge oversight, because they're already there and could have been a really sweet feature to use as a player control for winamp or windvd. Hell even the little LCD display could be used for something, such as CPU usage percentage.
6- While the 3D performance is great on this little machine, I am weary of settling into a notebook that is just ready to become obsolete in 3D terms with its 64MB 9600 card. If it was 128MB I would probably stick with it, but knowing I can now get a 128MB 9700 for a couple hundred dollars more (if that) makes it hard to justify.
7- General build quality is ok, but there are a few rough edges: the keyboard, for one, like I explained earlier. Also, the screen seems to arch away at the adges when closed, and the DVD drive is not perfectly aligned with the rest of the case. Not incredibly serious, but I have to think of what this will look like in one year of heavy every day use. I would expect a few things to slowly come apart. When something that is brand new is not looking flawless, you can bet those flaws will amplify themselves over time.
Other small details are the fact that the wireless button doesn't work, it's easy to accidentally open the DVD tray, the screen spindle action is a little strange, the sound seems a little garbled even through headphones, the 4-way pad seems very fragile, and some of the LED indicators don't actually indicate much.
Things I liked about this laptop: Performance and stability are amazing. Not a single crash over the nearly 2 weeks I used it, and I used it a lot. The 64MB 9600 is definitely an amazing notebook chipset, performing admirably (for a mobile chip) with most games I tried. The volume dial is something I am going to miss greatly. The screen is amazingly good looking, bright, great color balance and almost no perceptible ghosting. Wireless reception was amazing. Also, the latop is actually very pretty except for the keyboard. And finally, the price really is right for this setup - very cheap for the quality product you receive.
So there it is. And what am I replacing this 1557 with, that does away with all these shortcomings?
Well, I am preordering the Acer Travelmate 8003LMi. More expensive, yes. But it does come with a 128MB 9700 radeon, a DVD writer, bluetooth, 4 USB ports and 1 FW port mounted on the left side for easy plugging, better sounding speakers, a beatiful and cleverly designed keyboard, and a back-mounted air vent.
Just one slight problem: it's actually not in stock anywhere, but I will preorder from PCTorque.com as soon as iBuyPower refunds my money back. Speaking of which, they were very nice when I called to request RMA service to return the laptop, didn't give me any hassle at all. Now they just need to refund my money and I will give them an "A" for service.
