Review of Compal CL56:
Arrival:
-came double boxed
-came with cheap laptop case and shoulder strap
-came with manual, drivers, and bonus software
-took 1 and 1/2 weeks for delivery at the cost of 1700 dollars from ibuypower
Initial Impressions:
-no dead pixels
-very light, only 6 pounds
-dead quiet operation, cannot hear it when in a silent room
-design is very compact and sturdy
-keyboard layout is very functional and easy to adapt to from a regular sized keyboard
Taking a closer look:
-lcd is good quality, no ghosting during gameplay, no backlight issues when examined from all angles
-2 speakers total. 1 on left and 1 on right. quality is decent.
-2 extra programmable buttons are a very nice feature. my first is set to standby, while the second is set to screensave
-only 2 usb ports in rear and 1 usb port on left hand side, akward since im right handed
-bottom of notebook reveals an easy acess cover to upgrade ram yourself, all you need is a screwdriver to remove 2 screws
-bottom of notebook has switches to eject the hardrive, dvd drive, and battery w/o having to take apart anything
Performance and Benchmarking Part 1 (default settings):
Tested at default settings (1700MHZ cpu, 390MHZ core, 200MHZ mem)
3DMark01: 9,718
3DMark03: 2.750
Aquamark03: 22,500
PCmark04:[add]
UT2004: 1024x768 91.16 fps botmatch (dm-rankin: 103.72 fps, as-convoy: 71.52 fps, br-colossus: 98.24 fps )
Farcry: [add]
Neverwinter Nights: [add]
Performance and Benchmarking Part 2 (overclocked settings):
Tested at overclocked settings (1700MHZ cpu, 471MHZ core, 246MHZ mem)
3DMark01: 10,537
3DMark03: 3,339
Aquamark03: 25,406
PCmark04:[add]
Farcry: [add]
Battery life:
General use = 4-4.5 hours
DVD Playback = 2-2.5 hours
Gaming = 2-2.5 hours
Pros and Cons:
+ good battery life 4 hours
+ light, portable, mobile
+ best bang for the buck interm of dollar vs performance package
- cpu exhaust vent is placed on right hand side, poor area for righthanded external mouse users
- center key area around E, R, T, Y, U misses keystrokes sometimes
- internal wireless card could not be toggled on/off, had to fix on my own with intel card as replacement
- color scheme does not sit well with me, this laptop would look much better had it been all silver or all black
Arrival:
-came double boxed
-came with cheap laptop case and shoulder strap
-came with manual, drivers, and bonus software
-took 1 and 1/2 weeks for delivery at the cost of 1700 dollars from ibuypower
Initial Impressions:
-no dead pixels
-very light, only 6 pounds
-dead quiet operation, cannot hear it when in a silent room
-design is very compact and sturdy
-keyboard layout is very functional and easy to adapt to from a regular sized keyboard
Taking a closer look:
-lcd is good quality, no ghosting during gameplay, no backlight issues when examined from all angles
-2 speakers total. 1 on left and 1 on right. quality is decent.
-2 extra programmable buttons are a very nice feature. my first is set to standby, while the second is set to screensave
-only 2 usb ports in rear and 1 usb port on left hand side, akward since im right handed
-bottom of notebook reveals an easy acess cover to upgrade ram yourself, all you need is a screwdriver to remove 2 screws
-bottom of notebook has switches to eject the hardrive, dvd drive, and battery w/o having to take apart anything
Performance and Benchmarking Part 1 (default settings):
Tested at default settings (1700MHZ cpu, 390MHZ core, 200MHZ mem)
3DMark01: 9,718
3DMark03: 2.750
Aquamark03: 22,500
PCmark04:[add]
UT2004: 1024x768 91.16 fps botmatch (dm-rankin: 103.72 fps, as-convoy: 71.52 fps, br-colossus: 98.24 fps )
Farcry: [add]
Neverwinter Nights: [add]
Performance and Benchmarking Part 2 (overclocked settings):
Tested at overclocked settings (1700MHZ cpu, 471MHZ core, 246MHZ mem)
3DMark01: 10,537
3DMark03: 3,339
Aquamark03: 25,406
PCmark04:[add]
Farcry: [add]
Battery life:
General use = 4-4.5 hours
DVD Playback = 2-2.5 hours
Gaming = 2-2.5 hours
Pros and Cons:
+ good battery life 4 hours
+ light, portable, mobile
+ best bang for the buck interm of dollar vs performance package
- cpu exhaust vent is placed on right hand side, poor area for righthanded external mouse users
- center key area around E, R, T, Y, U misses keystrokes sometimes
- internal wireless card could not be toggled on/off, had to fix on my own with intel card as replacement
- color scheme does not sit well with me, this laptop would look much better had it been all silver or all black
