I just bought this notebook a couple of days ago, and I'd like to know if it's worth the money I paid for it (1299 euros - 1675 US dollars)

Here are the main specs:
FUJITSU AMILO M 1425
-Intel Pentium M 725 1.6GHz FSB 400MHz 2Mb L2
-TFT WXGA 15'4''
-2xSODIMM 256Mb PC333 DDR
-ATI Mobility RADEON 9700 128 Mb
-HDD IDE 80GB
-DVD+/-RW Dual Layer

I'm not really a game freak (well, at least not a pc game freak, PS2 and GameCube are my life ), but I've been playing more lately. I've only run 3D Mark 2001 SE, and it scored 10722. Is it a good result? Any other benchmark I could run (not only graphic-oriented)?

Waiting for replies Thanks

PD: Sorry for my not-so-good english

Well, I have gone through a more in detail use. Impressions:

BUILD
Sexy nonetheless Nice silver outside (no scratches found) and silver/black inside (if someone asks I'll put some photos). Not very heavy (3 Kg) nor big (358mm x 272mm x 33/25mm). The keyboard touch and response is very good with almost no flexing . Also good touchpad with scrollbar. 9.5/10

DISPLAY
Cristal clear TFT Screen with great angle view (much better than my girlfriend's Acer Travelmate 4001WLMi ) NO DEAD PIXELS AT ALL. Full marks here

SOUND
Not great, not bad, only average. Stereo speakers with subwoofer.

OPTICAL UNIT
DVD+/-RW DL unit from NEC. No problem reading anything, and all DVD's and CD's that I burned with Nero were succesful (my DivX player was able to read them all). Great, great

BATTERY
2 'official' hours. I'm using the laptop connected to the power supply, but I don't expect the battery to last much more than 1 and a half hours. I'll try it tomorrow.

NOISE AND TEMP
When you boot it it's silent (and I mean SILENT, you can't hear a thing) but after a while of working/playing/movie viewing the fans start revving up until it reaches the optimum temp. Still, the fan noise is not loud at all.
There's this strange thing. When I put my ear next to the keyboard I can hear some electric buzzing (I guess is the noise from the HD and the rest of the parts)
The keyboard zone gets warm, but nothing serious.

BENCHMARKS
3D Mark 2001 SE: 10772 marks

I'm very happy for now, and I think that for 1675 bucks it's not a bad deal.

Great notebook.

I want to buy a ACER TM4002 WLMI, but this weekend i have seen that AMILO 1425 and i think i wouldn't go for the 4002...

I only have a couple of questions...

Can you test the battery time waching films?
I have read somewhere that the oficial time is 3 hours... 2 hours isn't much for a centrino.

Since your gf has a TM4001wlmi, is the touch of the keyboard, touchpad, and even of the material of the case, better in the Acer or in the Fujitsu?

And... could you take some pictures of it?

if possible some pics, side by side with the Acer TM4001wlmi will be great!!!

Thanks!

Yep yep, I've got the same questions as above.
I too am considering the acer 4000 series. Though Im not certain if I will go for the widescreen variety because Im not certain its as portable as the 15 inch one because of its odd size. (let me know if im being stupid about this! )

The fujitsu you purchased, for the price, is super. Im assuming thats an after tax price you gave. Where did you buy it fom by the way? Im in Holland, can I get it here?

Kiwi

I don't think that would be a bad price before taxes, especially if your HDD rpms are higher than 4200. If that's including the VAT taxes etc from europe then it's definately a sweet deal.

Could you put some pictures?

yeah, put some pictures

That brings back some memories

I remember back in xmas 1995/96 I got a P90, 16MB RAM, 1GB HD, 1MB on-board video, and a 28.8 modem (full-size ISA card, mind you).

I was the envy of all my friends as they all still had 486s with 8 or 4 MB RAM, and 14.4 modems.

To think that was only nine years ago!

I'm considering buying this notebook, but I have one question - how upgradeable is it?

I know the RAM at least is upgradeable to 1024MB. But what about the graphics card? Will I be able to later replace it for a Radeon 9800 256MB, or is the 9700 128MB sufficient, e.g. for running games like Rome: Total War?

i don't think u can, and yes, it will be more than sufficient.

And as far as the memory goes, should I go ahead and buy it with 512MB RAM and upgrade later? If so, what kind of all purpose RAM should I buy?

Freak, you'll need to buy 200pin DDR1 SODIMMs for the Fujitsu he speaks of, and I would recommend a single 512mb stick of DDR333.

Do explain!

Hi Wossa,

May I know where do you live?
I'm in Madrid and I just bought AMILO M 7424 a couple days ago.
And I need to suppress that this is my first laptop

Here are the main specs:
-Intel Pentium M 725 1.6GHz FSB 400MHz 2Mb L2
-TFT XGA 15'
-2xSODIMM 512Mb PC333 DDR
-ATI Mobility RADEON 9700 SE 128 Mb
-HDD IDE 80GB 4200rpm
-DVD+/-RW Dual Layer

all of that for 1399€ (around 1775 US Dollars)

And after use it for some times, I think I will just give a comment about Wossa's impression and add some.


Yes, It has a good appearance and not very heavy, only around 3 kg. The keyboard is great. The touchpad also has a scrollbar. But until now I still have trouble using the scrollbar,it's pretty hard to control the movement of the scroll (mouse scroll is much easier )
But I also have some problem with the scrollbar. When I type the keyboard, I often touch the scrollbar which move the mouse cursor and that really disturb me (since sometime mouse movement can change active window and etc). The weird thing is that I don't have this problem when using my friends' laptop. And I've measured the position the touchpad with other laptops and they are the same.. but I don't have this problem in other laptop.


DISPLAY
No dead pixel. But I think the screen is not that good. Still below HP's screen in term of angle viewing.


SOUND
A little bit above average.


OPTICAL UNIT
Still no problem until now with the DVD RW.

BATTERY
I'm pretty disappointed since I expect centrino could hold more than 3 hours. But this one only hold until 2 - 2,5 hours even though I only use them for browsing. I don't know why.

Totally the same situation with wossa. At first I thought there's some problem with the laptop since the keyboard get warmer and the fan frequently turned on, even though I only use it for browsing. If this is a usual case then .. there's no problem.


Another thing is, I don't like the fact that if I close the screen than the laptop goes to stand by status and the WiFi is automatically off. So If I close the screen and open it back up again in 5 seconds, I have to turn on the power again, log on again, and seeing my messenger has been logged out (because of the lost of connection).

Most of all the laptop is good, but I really disturb with this scrollbar problem, like when I write in this forum, sometimes the window get scrolled up because my palm touched the scrollbar.
I'm still thinking of returning it or not.

Ok, well, here goes: DDR1 is the standard of memory chip that the RAM stick uses, and it's the only kind compatible with the Centrino platform in it's current state. Often known as simply DDR, it's the general memory standard in computers nowadays (it will eventually be phased out by DDR2, which cannot be used in your notebook). 200pin means the pin count of the RAM stick, and although that is the same pin count of DDR2 notebook RAM, DDR2 has the notch in the RAM slot in a different place than DDR1 does, thereby making them incompatible with each other. SODIMM is just the general name for a stick of notebook memory, and means Small Outline Dual Inline Memory Module (not really of concern to ya ). I'll try and find pictures of each type of SODIMM (DDR1 and DDR2), but for the meantime i hope that this'll be sufficient.

EDIT: Found the pics, and a few more terms to explain. DDR333 is the speed of the memory (AKA PC2700, meaning 333mhz speed and 2.7gbps of bandwidth max). 512mb is the size capacity of the memory module.

THE PICS! Below is a 512mb Kingston DDR1 SODIMM:



And here is a 1gb DDR2 SODIMM, such as the one used in the Sager 9860:



Note: Not sure of the validity of the second one, Google Images was being rather asinine. Ask someone who has a Sager 9860 (or Adam/Luke, the forum's own PCTorque employees) for a better pic. Good luck!