Specs:
Chembook 2230 from DL
1.5 Dothan
512MB RAM
40 GB 4200 RPM HDD
DVD - R/RW
$1463.31
This is my review of the Chembook 2230 (Compal AT23) bought for a friend (so sorry no benchmarks). First, the box that it came in was in good shape. The inner box was secured by a cardboard top insert and Styrofoam antistatic things on the side. It was still loose, but good enough. Opening the rest of the stuff was straight forward. When I started it up the first time there was a FAT32 Partition w/ Dos on it (confused me at first, but deleted it and installed 2000). Everything worked as intended, installs went without a hitch.
Noise/heat:
The area under the left palm does get warm, but not so much that it becomes uncomfortable. Same with the bottom. The lappy is dead silent when under normal use. I can not hear the HDD unlike that of the 3800 which is like a freight train coming down. When I had to do a hard shut down (hold the power button), the fan came on when I turned it back on. The fan was loud, but luckly never came on the whole time (Windows install, patches etc). The DVD drive is much more muted than the 3800, but kinda faded into the background after a while.
Performance:
Speed seemed a tad slower than my AMD Athlon 2800+, but was fast enough to do everything with out breaking a sweat. Battery life seems on par with what is listed on discountlaptops.com. Video is good (at least when watching movies)
Sound:
Sound was OK (better than that of my Inspiron 3800), it had decent midtones, but lacked bass.
Keyboard/mouse:
Keys are really solid (much better than the 3800) with good enough key travel, feel, size and sound (they sound sturdy). Key layout is straight forward (it is kinda annoying with the placement of the del key). the FN is in the correct spot. The touch pad is good, button feel is much better than the 3800 again. My personal preference is a touch stick, but since most companies are moving away from this method, I guess I will have to suck it up and learn to like the touchpad.
Screen:
The colors seemed washed out when compared to my Philips CRT, but brightness was good. I did not notice any vertical gradient problem during normal use. The colors are better than that of my 3800. No dead pixels
Size/weight/build quality:
Surprised at how small this feels when compared to, you guessed it, my 3800. Weight is also very nice. There was a small creak in the left hinge, but very small. When pressed, all surfaces around the keyboard seem sturdy and have a very small give. (again much better than the 3800, which seems to be made of paper).
Others:
The PC Card eject button is a little hard to store. Only 2 USB ports me crazy!!!!!!!!!! The drivers for the Vid card was off. After unraring, browse to c:/D&S/user/local settings/temp/random chars/ go deep unyil you see a program called setup. The power brick seemed very small when compared too some of the Dells that ive seen. It is on par w/ the xtend PS that i got for the 3800, albit a little lighter.
Overall, I am very happy with this and would recommend this to anyone. Better than my 3800 (Dell replaced the MOBO twice to try to solve groups of keys that did not work, wandering mouse, and a 10 min battery life. Nothing was fixed. Two keys popped off and a mouse button. The Bezel around the LCD leaks light and the PS cable broke. I am never going to buy from Dell again.
Pics soon
Chembook 2230 from DL
1.5 Dothan
512MB RAM
40 GB 4200 RPM HDD
DVD - R/RW
$1463.31
This is my review of the Chembook 2230 (Compal AT23) bought for a friend (so sorry no benchmarks). First, the box that it came in was in good shape. The inner box was secured by a cardboard top insert and Styrofoam antistatic things on the side. It was still loose, but good enough. Opening the rest of the stuff was straight forward. When I started it up the first time there was a FAT32 Partition w/ Dos on it (confused me at first, but deleted it and installed 2000). Everything worked as intended, installs went without a hitch.
Noise/heat:
The area under the left palm does get warm, but not so much that it becomes uncomfortable. Same with the bottom. The lappy is dead silent when under normal use. I can not hear the HDD unlike that of the 3800 which is like a freight train coming down. When I had to do a hard shut down (hold the power button), the fan came on when I turned it back on. The fan was loud, but luckly never came on the whole time (Windows install, patches etc). The DVD drive is much more muted than the 3800, but kinda faded into the background after a while.
Performance:
Speed seemed a tad slower than my AMD Athlon 2800+, but was fast enough to do everything with out breaking a sweat. Battery life seems on par with what is listed on discountlaptops.com. Video is good (at least when watching movies)
Sound:
Sound was OK (better than that of my Inspiron 3800), it had decent midtones, but lacked bass.
Keyboard/mouse:
Keys are really solid (much better than the 3800) with good enough key travel, feel, size and sound (they sound sturdy). Key layout is straight forward (it is kinda annoying with the placement of the del key). the FN is in the correct spot. The touch pad is good, button feel is much better than the 3800 again. My personal preference is a touch stick, but since most companies are moving away from this method, I guess I will have to suck it up and learn to like the touchpad.
Screen:
The colors seemed washed out when compared to my Philips CRT, but brightness was good. I did not notice any vertical gradient problem during normal use. The colors are better than that of my 3800. No dead pixels
Size/weight/build quality:
Surprised at how small this feels when compared to, you guessed it, my 3800. Weight is also very nice. There was a small creak in the left hinge, but very small. When pressed, all surfaces around the keyboard seem sturdy and have a very small give. (again much better than the 3800, which seems to be made of paper).
Others:
The PC Card eject button is a little hard to store. Only 2 USB ports me crazy!!!!!!!!!! The drivers for the Vid card was off. After unraring, browse to c:/D&S/user/local settings/temp/random chars/ go deep unyil you see a program called setup. The power brick seemed very small when compared too some of the Dells that ive seen. It is on par w/ the xtend PS that i got for the 3800, albit a little lighter.
Overall, I am very happy with this and would recommend this to anyone. Better than my 3800 (Dell replaced the MOBO twice to try to solve groups of keys that did not work, wandering mouse, and a 10 min battery life. Nothing was fixed. Two keys popped off and a mouse button. The Bezel around the LCD leaks light and the PS cable broke. I am never going to buy from Dell again.
Pics soon
