Another Ibuypower Battalion 101 E-turbo Series [1] review

People in this forum helped me greatly with the purchase of my laptop, and thus I feel obliged to post some sort of follow up.

I ordered an Ibuypower E series laptop on the 14th of June, and it arrived at my house the 28th. However, since I am out of town for the week, I can not get a detailed review up. I will give impressions about my buying experience.

Specs:
Battalion-101 E-Turbo Series (Aopen 1557) 15.0" SXGA+ 1400x1050 LCD TFT Notebook
Original Metallic Silver/Black 2-Tone Color
Intel® Centrino 1.8GHz CPU with 2M Cache
512MB DDR-333 PC-2700
128MB ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 256-bit 3D Video
60 GB 5400rpm ATA-100 Super Slim
8x DVD-ROM & 24X16X24 CD-RW Combo Drive
Wireless LAN Wi-Fi 802.11g 54Mbps Mini-PCI Module

My ordering experience was good. I spoke with Lee over email and phone, and he was very helpful. When I ordered, Cyberpower S4 series was cheaper, and Lee matched their prices. He gave prompt replies to my email, and had my order number and information ready within 20 minutes after my order. I'd give it a straight up 5 out of 5.

Waiting... That's a different issue. Actually it wasn't too bad. When I ordered my laptop on the 14th of June, the expected ship date was the 22nd. However, since I did not rush, an extra few days was expected. The thing that annoyed me was when I called, and I was told the laptop would ship the next day for 3 days. Eventually, the laptop shipped the night of the 24th, after calling them 3 or 4 times that day. I'll give this 3 out of 5.

Shipping:
I received my laptop yesterday. The laptop ended up shipping on Thursday, the 24th, with overnight shipping. The reason for this delay is because Fedex messed up. What are the chances that the same package is going to miss the flight Thursday night, and get on a delayed flight Friday night? I guess it's just fate. This seems to be a freak occurance, because Fedex has usually been good about getting over night deliveries on time. I called Fedex multiple times to see if I could pick up my laptop over the weekend, but alas, it never happened. They did say that I can call up the shipper and try and get some shipping refunds. Since this seems to be a chance occurance, and not the fault of Ibuypower, I will not rate shipping until I see how my computer has been packaged.

As a side note, checking order status online is completely useless. If you want updates, you have to call them up. Also, they do not seem to like picking up phone calls on Saturdays.

The weird thing is that I ordered a computer from Ibuypower a few years back, and their service was way better, no delays, and I never had to call them to get updates. I think my computer actually shipped out early. The customer service of many companies seems to be going in a downward spiral.

Anyways, I hope this information is relevant and helpful. I will try and get pics and reviews up sometime next week.

They charged my card two days after I ordered. It was processing from my order date until two days before shipping (8 days). After processing, it was "Currently in Production (assembly/testing)" until ship date.

i think they just dont update the site, until they do the burn in

That's pretty messed up. You should call them up and see what the deal is. Also, try and get them to upgrade your shipping.

Finally got to play around with my computer this weekend. My camera still isn't in, so I wont have any high res pictures up anytime this week. However, I will continue with my review.

Packaging: 5 out of 5
The box of the computer was in a box full of foam peanuts, and the computer was held in place by foam blocks, and everything was wrapped up in plastic.

Aesthetics: 5 out of 5
The computer is pretty...The dark grey/silver combo is really professional looking. I don't really mind the translucent keyboard. Best part...I got the computer without an OS installed, so no Windows sticker!!!

Screen: 4 out of 5
The screen is nice. Has decent viewing angles, pretty clear colors, and good resolution. It beats my old Vaio's screen. The only problem is it has a pixel which is stuck in pink on the upper portion of the screen. Not really noticeable, but annoying to know it's there.

Sound: 2 out of 5
The speakers are tiny, so the sound is what is expected. For their size, the speakers do sound alright though. The sound processor is decent, and out of my 2.1 speakers, I get good sound.

Keyboard: 4 out of 5
The keyboard feels similar to my Vaio, so I don't really have any issues with it. The only gripes I have are that the end and home keys are secondary functions and that instead of putting secondary functions as small text in the corner of the key, they are normal sized text that is boxed off (I don't know how clear and coherent that sentence is).

Other buttons: 3 out of 5
The little quick launch buttons are alright. They all do their job, except for the wireless one. It doesn't do anything. I just wish the button wasn't there, I'd rather have no button than an idle one. Tech support is working on resolving this issue. Lastly, I have no comment on the AV buttons, because I have not used them at all.

Heat: 4 out of 5
The computer runs pretty cool. It seems to get warm around where the RAM is. Also, the top of the keyboard gets a little warm, and the right palm rest also gets warm (this is while doing nothing but web browsing and instant messaging). The warmness isn't annoying or anything though.

Fan Sounds: 5 out of 5
This thing is dead silent. I have to put my ear up to the comp to hear anything spinnning. The fan does seem to come on every once in a while, which is different from what I've heard in other people's reviews. I think I might have to update some centrino and speedstep stuff.

Build Quality: 4 out of 5
The computer seems pretty solid. I don't type hard, so I can't notice any flex in the keyboard or anything. However, when I popped out the battery, I noticed some bad painting. It looks pretty cheesy and low grade. But I guess they figured no one would take out the battery and see the low grade paint. Also, My memory cover wasn't popped in right. I just had to unscrew it and rescrew it in and it was fine.

Performance: 5 out of 5
No benchmarks done yet, but the comp boots up in like 30 seconds. Everything is instantaneous. I love it.

All in all I'm very happy with my laptop. For the price, it's got the best specs. Other than a few minor issues, It's a great machine.

I finally got some benchmarks done. These were just taken with the default settings, and no special preparations were done before the tests; McAffee was still running and all standard background tasks.

3DMark03: 2840 / CPU: 567
3DMark01 SE: 10156
Aquamark: 23084 / GFX: 2652 / CPU: 8909

I don't know what's up with their slowness, but best of luck to you, and hopefully your computer will be in on Tuesday, and in full working condition.

you looking for a backpack style, or the regular messenger bag style case?

I got this Kensington one from Circuit City for $30. It's pretty nice, has all the padding I need, and enough space to hold my adapter, papers, cd's and even my wireless router.