averatec

I've had this laptop for a little over a month. I thought the 256 mb of ram was more than adequate, but bought another stick of 512 and sold the 256 anyway. I honestly didn't see a big improvement in my day to day programs, but there might be benefits to getting the 3225 or 3255.

I've used my laptop at simple lan parties, playing CS and UT and it works pretty decently, playable.

When on battery, I typically leave my power settings to Max battery, and can usually manage just under 3 hours, I think if I turned off the wireless, I'd be able to hit the 3 hour mark. Max Battery usually leaves the computer running at about 400 mhz, but that's been more than enough for my typical web browsing.

My sister has a Dell and for the price, I don't think I ended up too badly, it feels like the Averatec is very solidly built, but maybe because it's only a month old.

The wireless works very well also, my friend has a Dell D400, very nice and small, but more expensive. At some places, I could connect to wireless accesspoints he couldn't even see.

One night, we got our new accesspoint, one with WPA and I couldn't get it to work with the Broadcom software. I called around 4:00 am local (eastern) and got a personal customer service person to answer my question immediatly.

One gripe I had was the LCD. It seems somewhat washed out, especially next to a desktop LCD. It's also difficult to read at an angle (compared to other laptops I've seen), but that wasn't a problem at all, since I'm really the only one that needs to see it.

Overall, the laptop had been great, especially for the price paid. 3 USB ports, no unnecessary Parallel, Serial or PS2 ports.

Strengths:
Amazing value for money without compromising on features. Built in wifi, CDRW, DVD, compact and light all in a beautiful Sony-like case

Weaknesses:
Could do with more memory as standard and longer battery life - about 3 hours real world.

Summary:
I didn't want a desktop replacement; I wanted a small, wireless laptop to use around the house which was powerful enough to do a little image editing on vacation and could be used as a portable DVD player when I was occasionally marooned in a hotel room. I would have liked the Sony 10" sub-notebook but my pocketbook didn't stretch that far. (...)

At this bargain price, I was expecting to be disappointed with build quality and design but it compares favorably with the alloy cased Sonys. Compared to my old laptop, the Averatec weighs half as much and is much more compact; that said, the keyboard and screen are both still very usable. The 12" screen is just big enough when I'm away from my desktop. When I want to do some serious work I go back to my 21", color balanced CRT and desktop.

The AMD processor seems to have enough horses to get things done and I've even played some of my older PC games on the machine, though it's modest graphics capabilities would probably struggle with the latest releases. The design sensibly omits com, midi, mouse, keyboard and printer ports in favor of 3 USB2 ports. If this were a desktop replacement this would be a disappointment but in an ultra-portable it makes sense.

Battery life is reasonable but not astounding. A nice feature of the design is that it incorporates a switch to turn off the wireless transceiver on the fly when you want to save power. Another nice feature is that it is not only the machine that is scaled down but it's power brick too allowing you to travel much lighter.

Overall I highly recommend this machine especially if you are lusting after a sub-notebook or ultra-portable but don't want to pay the usual premium for a diminutive laptop. All my geek friends who I have shown this PC to can't believe how much machine you get for your money in such a neat package.

Averatec (formally known as Sotec) surely knows how to enter "slim notebook" market. - the price ^^ this laptop is a excellet buy for it's price tag. similar slim note book for Sony or Fujisu cost almost double.

After did some research, i'vd decided to try this laptop.(i had Dell Inspiron before). It has been about 2 months, and here are Pros and Cons.

Pros.
1. Price - cant find any cheaper one with this price tag.
2. Portability- Previous dell was okay but this one is only 4.3Lb. Here is a laptop that you can lift with one hand ^^
3. Performance - With AMD 2000 Mobile processor with Power Saving Mode. -- not bad for games, internet, also for some video editing
4. Adjustable Video Memory - at CMOs, you can set you video memory vary from 8 - 64Mb. It is kind of cool .
5. Wireless Lan - I've been using it for a while, and the reception is excellent .Also it is Wireless G (which is much faster than Wireless B)
6. Look for Rebates ( I purchased mine at Bestbuy with $200 Rebate, overall cost was $750, not bad huh?)
okay Here is some Cons

1. Keyboard- this is my most dislike about this laptop . It has been improved from previous one 3150 seris but still don't like the touchy feeling when i type my report.

2. Battery Life - Avertatec claims it last up to 3 hours but i think it is more like 2 house or less. But it is still good compare to other laptops.

3. Here comes the tricky part - the Power Setting for AMD process is rather wieird.
Here is my recommandation for Power Setting
* When you use your laptop with AC power, set it to "Laptop/notebook"
* When you use your laptop without AC power set it to "Desktop/office" mode
(find this from Power Option in Control Pannel in Windows)
By doing this you can save battery life by minimizing CPU voltage use and FAN use.

I tried other setting and it uses battery faster. (talking about battery it cost only $99 to purchase extra one - other brand clost alomost double the price)

Here is my conclusion.
I would recommand this notebook for anyone who is interested to purchase "slim Laptop".

Ah one more thing, their Customer Service is "Quick" when you call them they pick up less than 3 mins.
However, here is what i found after talking to several of them, most of them don't have enough knowledge to help you out, even the simplest knowedge.