Advent 4211 review

Average user rating

7.8

very good

Average user rating from 9 users

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Advent 4211 user reviews

August 8, 2008

Posted by: neuralsurfer

"Entirely delightful"

What I like:

Price, Portability, Performance

What I don't like:

Battery Life

Review:

Totally impulsive buy especially after I saw it for the first time at PC World when it was out of stock. The second time I went to see it over lunch time - they had it in stock and I had to have it! I called my wife shortly after and said - thanks for my birthday gift for this year.

Now to the real review - I have been looking for something portable, light and effective to use while travelling for work and otherwise. The Advent 4211 is absolutely superb for internet use, basic office/word processing (plenty of RAM at 1GB), storage (120 GB although not solid state) and media connectivity (usb ports, card reader etc.).

The chances are that you would have read other reviews on the internet by the time you get to this one – so at the risk of repeating what the others may have said (although similar reviews show consistency and perhaps re-assure the person considering the product) the downsides are the following:

1.) The battery life really sucks. You get about 2 hours but just watching the battery symbol deplete rapidly somehow makes the process more unpleasant. Of course there is a cure to this – wait for the 6 cell lithium ion battery which will come out soon unless there are more fires at the factory in Taiwan/Korea.

2.) There is no optical drive which can be a pain especially when you want to install new software and or watch movies while on a plane. I have an 8GB flash drive which I plan to use but still no substitute for an optical drive! The 120 GB hard disk is big enough for storage of movies if you plan in advance. I still need to run a movie on it to see what the quality is like. The external speakers are decent but I presume you will be using headphones.

3.) The keyboard although great and much better than the Asus can be a bit cramped but is by and large very functional unless you have monster fingers.

4.) The appearance – alright now I am nit-picking – could be sleeker but no means is it unpleasant or tacky. It is minimal but well finished in a ‘less is more’ kind of way. The Asus in my opinion looks like a cheap toy while the Acer, although quite sleek looks very blingy! It must be those ultra bright screens which are absolutely non-functional while using outdoors. So to put it in perspective the Advent figures in the middle of cheap/tacky/blingy and sexy sleek and sophisticated styling on ultraportables such as VAIO and the LifeBook.

I would like to end by saying that this laptop is perhaps the BEST value for your money currently in the market. I chose it over Asus (700’s, 901 and the 1000), Acer Inspire One and the small HP notebook (which by the way is quite sexy but apparently very very slow I hear – not to mention a steep price-tag.) I have two other laptops at home which serve all my heavy duty needs – this one is a great addition for mobility. The VAIO and Lifebook would be nice to have but would I spend so much money considering such a cheap and good alternative in the market – especially for 2nd laptop buyers like myself. Good luck shopping.