Product Review

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Perfect Notebook

The Perfect Notebook?

About eight months ago I purchased a Toshiba notebook from Circuit City (http://www.dogriverdesign.com/product-reviews/pr2003-02-01.asp). For the most part I was thrilled with it. It had all the necessities that I needed and only lacked a couple of things that I wanted. But for the price, it couldn’t be beat.

Recently an associate purchased a Toshiba notebook that was much faster, with an integrated DVD burner. Naturally I wanted to get one too, but they were out of stock. At long last Best Buy received the Toshiba A25-S307 and I bought one for around $2,000 with a $250 rebate.

The basic specs can be found at www.bestbuy.com. Needless to say this thing should be a rocket with a 2.8GHz processor, 512 megs of ram, wireless, usb 2.0. You name it, it probably had it. I finally began using it and I have to say that I have never been more disappointed. My previous 1.7 GHz Toshiba totally outperformed this one. The main bottleneck being the video card. Toshiba removed the dedicated Nvida GeForce 2go processor and replaced it with an integrated Trident Cyberblade.

The disappointment increased when I called Best Buy and asked what I needed to do to return a computer which I’d had for less than 3 days. They said it would cost me 15%, (nearly $300!) for the restocking fee! WHAT!!! Fortunately there were dead pixels in the display and they took it back.

Now what was I supposed to do? I’d already agreed to sell my old Toshiba and needed to replace it and fast. To my surprise Best Buy had a new eMachine notebook on display. Two things immediately caught my attention. The display - a high resolution 15.4” wide screen display which I’d only seen on Macs and second it had built in 54g wireless. The price, $1199 with $150 rebate!

Well, I think I’ve found my perfect notebook. Here are the basic specs: AMD 2400+ mobile processor, 512 megs of ram, ATI radeon igp video, 40 gig hard drive, usb 2.0, firewire, 15.4” wide display, DVD CDRW combo drive, modem and network interfaces.

The bottom line is that I can’t stop using this eMachines notebook. The performance is great even for games, the wireless card works with both my home and office wireless routers, the display is gorgeous (basically giving dual display functionality on a single display), the keyboard is a total delight to type on, and the battery just seems to last forever. I’ve been writing for over two hours straight and I’ve still got over an hour worth of battery life left.

I’d recommend this computer to anyone in the market for an inexpensive and feature rich notebook. Time will tell regarding the reliability of an eMachines notebook, but if my experience with our work desktops is any indication, I’ll be using this notebook for a while.

In closing this article I have just a few comments. Toshiba-I don’t know how much was saved by pulling the nVida video processor but it wasn’t worth it. You’ve ruined the product. Toshiba, if it ain’t broke DON’T FIX IT! Next comment - It’s not what you buy but where you buy it. I bought from Best Buy because of their no interest credit, but now that I know they charge a restocking fee, Best Buy isn’t going to be the first place I go. The benefit of purchasing from a mega store is that you have recourse. If you don’t like the product you can take it back. Best Buy has really hurt themselves in my book. Circuit City allows a true 14 day tryout on all their computer products. If you don’t like it, they take it back, no questions asked.

Please send any questions about, or ideas for product reviews to Staff@dogriverdesign.com.