RVW: Averatec C3500 Convertible

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

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Hi All,

I haven't seen a review of this laptop/tablet on this group so I
thought I'd give one.

On Thursday I bought the Averatec at CompUSA. Let it charge like the
little card in the box said. When the light turned green I pushed
the power button, it lit up and I could hear the hard drive
spinning. I looked at the screen with a flashlight and there was
writing on the screen. Went to CompUSA and they swapped it for
another one. Spent a couple of hours installing software then called
it a day.

Friday I go to load MS Office and nothing. I try 11 disk and none of
them were being read.

Saturday, I took it in and they tested it and they confirmed the
DVD/CDRW was dead. This time they gave me an older C3500 (I know
this because it had WinXPte SP1 while the other two had WinXPte SP2.
Not a problem since I downloaded the service pack when it first came
out.

I spent Sunday working with it and installed about 30 of the core
programs that I use.

Now then to the review;

On the plus side:
1. The screen (XGA) is very easy to see (the screen is only 12.1" so
I expected problems)
2. The built in wireless works very well
3. It has status lights for hard disk, DVD/CDRW and wifi where they
can easily be seen when set as a laptop
4. It converts from laptop to tablet very easily
5. It is for me very light weight (my primary laptop is a HP
zd7010us that weighs in at 10.4lbs including power supply

On the minus side:
1. In real world usage the battery last for about 2 hours (not the 4
that is listed in the manual)
2. The keyboard layout leaves a lot to be desired (for example, to
go end you have to hold down the [FN] key and press the [Home] key)
3. The pen doesn't always get read.

All in all for its price (1,299), it is a usable laptop. If you have
those times when you NEED a tablet but some of the time need a
laptop, this machine is definitely the way to go.

Ciao . . . C.Joseph

That which a man buys too cheaply . . .
He esteems too lightly
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