Quick look at Budget Laptop / Notebook Acer 4710z

[Choto Cheeta]

Now days Notebooks are really getting cheap, if one plans to buy a Desktop for office for some personal Day to day usage its really recommended that he/she should go for a laptop / notebook… I got my hands to one of the best budget laptop / notebook, available right now on the market, the Acer 4710z.

Acer 4710z

Intel Dual Core T2080 @ 1.73 GHz (1 MB L2 533 FSB)
1 GB DDR-II 667 MHz
160 GB SATA
Intel GMA 950 (Mobile 943 Chipset)
14.1? Wide Screen 1280×800
DVD RW
1.3 MP Web Cam
Inbuilt Mic and 2 stereo Spks
Wireless LAN / 5 in 1 Card Reader / LAN / Bluetooth / IEEE 1934 / USB 2.0 / Supporting EXT Skps / 56.6k Modem

Read the Full Config here

Price

INR Rs. 33,500/- all inclusive (Kolkata, India)

Quick Look at the Product....

Design is good and compact, as you expect for a Laptop… Though personally I think the white keyboard though looks good but will get dirty as you daily use it…

Port management is good, 4 USB ports are distributed at both sides, head phone slot is given at front, which was nice to see as easy to plug in, but again this creates a small problem while pluging in bigger speakers … lol…

Hardware Performance

Screen is good and bright enough… did have issue if you directly get the sun at front of the screen otherwise, good performance for the Wide screen Display… I run 720p HD movies, run quite fine, though gave little issue with 1080p movies as you expect with GMA 950…. it is not ment to play such high HD content (Note usually a movie of 1080p is around 14GB in size and minimum of 1920×800 Resolution)…

Is there any Difference between 15.4? and 14.1?… ?? Not really, I dont see much of a difference on screen size with Dell 1520 and this one side by side… both set to be running at 1280×800 !!!!

Processor is T2080 Dual Core non 64bit one… for this segment is more than enough…



GMA 950 is Vista Ready (not DirectX 10 for GMA 950) runs at Direct X 9.0L (DX 9.0C is for Windows XP and 9.0l is for Vista under non DX 10 hardware) Mode…



Plugged my vg1930wm with its external display out put, and run the LCD at 1440×800 resolution… Run fine no issue at all….

.

The Built in 1.3 MP Web Cam is really good quality.. as expected from a 1.3 MB CAM… the only issue is Indian ISP bandwidth, all though you may over come the speed issue with now days 2 MBPS Broadband connection but this 1.3 MP and Voice chat will eat up a lot of Bandwidth so data charges will be really high… !!!



So though the CAM quality is really good but in real time we really cant use the cam because of the high cost of Bandwidth ….

.

Once my good friend Bobby, told me that they stopped making laptop’s, now days the all make only NoteBook, because if you call is Laptop people will put it under their lap and will burn them self and end up suing you… So now days these are all noteBooks…

Quite true in this case also, I run some test on it to see the temp limits…



As you can see while under load of Pi Test, Temperatures shot up at close to 58c… Run the Test for a long time… System was stable under 60c all the time… So though little hot but no Stability issue…

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I tested the Battery by playing a 720p HD Video from DVD… now under vista wtih Screen brightness Set to 40% it gave the Critical Battery warning on exact 1 hour and 51 mins….

Software Sector

As I said its a Budget Notebook for mainly office usage… so apart from gaming i run quite a lot of softwares under it to test…

1st glance hey no OS, dealer will install Linux, so I asked no stop, I would install by my self… I installed Fedora and Ubuntu, all run fine apart from WLAN and the bluetooth, no driver at Acer Web site… a let down… I installed some mosic players like WinAMP and VLC… No issue with VGA or sound, worked well…

Now turn for Windows… XP to start with… Beware, immediate hiccups, SATA/RAID driver are not found under Default Windows XP installation source… !!! so HDD not found… Its not a problem for a Pro user, as for me too, it only delayed procidings, as no Floppy drive so I have to go to the Acer Support Site to Download the ACHI (SATA/RAID) drivers for the Model 4710z…. and then using N-Lite I needed to integrate them with Windows XP… !!! And then Burn a Bootable CD to install Windows XP… No issue for me, but certainly a halt for average home / office users… After installation only point to note is Bluetooth didnt work with Windows XP, even after trying to install driver from Acer Support site for Windows XP version of Bluetooth driver, it still said, installation cant progress becasue only Vista is supported !!!!!

But once again, this Lappy is Windows Vista Ready, So at next OS text for Windows Vista No issue at all… all went smooth with Vista’s Default un-touched installation… With 1 GB RAM Vista running quite smoth and good with this model…

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As I said Home of Office use budget Laptop… so it performed great with Office apps under Vista…

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MutiTasking…. ??

How about some Pro Apps, Litte Image editing, Run PhotoShop… run Well… Installed Ulead Video Studio 10 plugged my Handy CAM with its IEEE 1394a… Run Quite fine on Single click DVD Making for a miniDV… Installed Pinnacle Studio, even there too though encoding time is more than a Desktop C2D or even High End Lappy like Dell 1420 / 1520 or Such… but it didn’t the job well…

While Video Editing I Surf the Net / used Office apps, Chatted in Yahoo, no issue… that app run Fine in Background while I run my tasks in Fore ground….

.

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So My Verdict ??

Pros

• The Cofig is Good (Dual Core / 1 GB / 160 GB / Vista Ready / WLAN / Modem / Bluetooth / DVD RW)
• 14.1? I would say makes it light and gives better battery life too
  Price of INR Rs. 33,500/-… really good price even compare with Dell 6400….
• Fully Vista Ready…
• Can run 24×7 for those Torrent hungry people !!!

Cons

• The Battery life isnt that great…
• No Native support for Windows XP
• No bundle OS, so you have to find your own
• No support for Linux at Acer Support Web Site..

So I would say really good deal for Rs. 33,500/- …. Great Vaule for money product....

[ravi_9793]

Looks nice..but one Q...........Does this laptop comes with any OS pre installed ..or only with DOS.

[Choto Cheeta]

^^^

I already wrote... No OS... says Will come with Linux but didnt come with any from Factory... dealer offer choice of Fedora or Ubuntu un-officially ... !!!

[ravi_9793]

okkk..........sorry I didn't read ur post completely, Actually I felt little lazy(long post)..

Actually I am planing to either upgrade my PC, or buy a new PC/laptop.

[Sukhdeep Singh]

Congrats cheeta...Any ideas for one with C2D 1.7 and how much is 1GB laptop RAM these days...i have friend and she was askin me which laptop to buy....will suggest this one

[fun2sh]

@choto cheeta

wat abt acer 4710. i purchased it in 41k and all config is same as 4710z but 4710 is C2D @1.73 AT 533 fsb. but i think mine was overclocked by acer itself as it show around 700 fsb.

and i hav no problem with XP on it. bluetooth also works under this. but i see ur photo tru 4710z is of good quality in comparision to mine 4710. which software u using for cam ?

[Pathik]

Hey choto is the 4520 available in ur area?

[john_the_ultimate]

Saurav, nice review..........even I am looking for a budget laptop. Will surely be looking into this one. And do you have any other suggestions for this price point.

[Choto Cheeta]

@sukhdeepsinghkohli

its not mine Frnds Lappy, right now at my place for Testing

@All

ISP Down because heavy rain in Kolkata, will reply in details of the question later on when ISP comes Back or I get chance to come online

Anyway Few Quick thoughts...

Originally Posted by Ravi

Actually I am planing to either upgrade my PC, or buy a new PC/laptop.

Well keep in find if you are a power user who will atleast like to RIP 3 DVDs a day, use Adobe Premire / Maya and such performance software all the time.. this one is not for u...

This one would be,

for a Home user, who will occasionally ecnode his Handy CAM movie, Bit of Photo shop, Some ImToo Format conversion for Web Sites or to mobile phone... stuff like home / Office usage...

@sukhdeepsinghkohli

Well if with 2 GB from Acer Company RAM + Warrenty, price was up at 37k where I bargained it down to 36.5k !!! but with a Dual Core procy and GMA 950, 1 GB is enough... 2 GB will not going to boost any thing...

Originally Posted by fun2sh

and i hav no problem with XP on it. bluetooth also works under this.

Strange... both are same in config exact even uses the same drivers, its just the Procy is different, but I saw no Native support for Windows XP... drivers (Bluetooth) gave a Hard time in XP too

Originally Posted by fun2sh

but i see ur photo tru 4710z is of good quality in comparision to mine 4710. which software u using for cam ?

Yahoo Messenger with Vista default drivers... actually in the support CD / Site there are 2 Web Came rivers available... none matches with the name (Crystal Eye) written for the Web Came... so trusted the Vista's Default driver and used Yahoo Messenger

Also dont mind though, about Acer 4710, C2D with GMA 950, personally dont like the idea when you have option of x3100

Originally Posted by john

Saurav, nice review..........even I am looking for a budget laptop. Will surely be looking into this one. And do you have any other suggestions for this price point.

Thnx for the comment bro...

see, there is one thats Dell 6400 , same config as Acer... but its little costly at Rs. 35k but Dell one promised to have better Battery backup and even Dell will offer you option for 9 Cell Battery... performance of both would be same exact as for same config, but I am not happy with the Battery Back up of the Acer model... so do consider Dell option too 9 Cell should give better battery backup...

but 2 hours on load isnt bad at all with this one

[infra_red_dude]

excellant review, saurav. kudos!

one thing what i'd like to clarify is about the processor. it is advertised as pentium dual core t2080 then why is it identified as core duo 2250, even tho it has only half the cache? or is it that ur version of cpu-z needs update?

[Choto Cheeta]

thnx for the comment...

No, it is T2080 if u see the specifications (CPU-Z)... it went to Power saving mode becsue power cut when i was running the CPU-Z vista immidialtely shifed it to Power saving mode... may be thats the Issue

[fun2sh]

wat x3100 u were talkin choto. were talkin abt intel graphics x3100. if yes then wat option was u talkin? i didnt undertand anything

and why there is so much difference in prices of 4710 n 4710z. they hav only different processors.

[Choto Cheeta]

^^^

Yes Intel Mobile 965 / x3100 i was talking about...

When going for a C2D... i personally dont like the idea of C2D on a GMA 950 (in this same Mobile 943)... Dell 1420 base option is available with x3100 with same price range as urs 4710 ... performance is better with x3100 and 965 chipset

and why there is so much difference in prices of 4710 n 4710z. they hav only different processors.

If u see a lot of thing is different.. 4710 is Mobile 945 where as 4710z is Mobile 943... also Promiised Battery life is also Better with 4710 its 2.8 hours compare to 4710z is 2 hours....

[infra_red_dude]

that difference in processor performance is huge. a 32bit 1mb cache vs. a 64bit 2mb cache. it does matter a lot. plus the mobo constitutes the price difference too.

[arunks]

is theree any diiference between dual core processor and core duo processor..

i purchased a laptop with core duo t2450 @2GHZ..
so which is better one

[sabret00the]

wow very nice review but one correction though,

Once my good friend Ayush Arya, told me that they stopped making laptop’s, now days the all make only NoteBook, because if you call is Laptop people will put it under their lap and will burn them self and end up suing you… So now days these are all noteBooks…

was not said by Arya but it was said by me in City Center as this is what I was told by trainers at Dell facility in Bangalore during training....

[infra_red_dude]

not much difference except the cache.

[fun2sh]

but hard disk in 4710 is is not SATA. mine shows as ATA IDE only. also acer has quoted the size of 160gb but formatted size is 149.05gb

also can any1 tell how can i know (without openin my Lappy)that i can upgrade my graphics card on 4710

[infra_red_dude]

i think its sata. coz thats what is mentioned on the site. mebbe it uses the ahci to emulate ide interface. regarding the size all 160GB hard disks are 149GB in actual capacity (thats coz the hdd manufacturers and the OS makers use different conversion factors for bits and bytes). you can't upgrade the gfx card.

[Choto Cheeta]

Originally Posted by sabret00the

wow very nice review but one correction though,



was not said by Arya but it was said by me in City Center as this is what I was told by trainers at Dell facility in Bangalore during training....

oppss.... My miss take, My miss take sorrry brother

[cyberzook]

gr8 review!!
but where is your pic.. removed it ?

[Choto Cheeta]

Originally Posted by cyberzook

gr8 review!!
but where is your pic.. removed it ?

Nope its still there under Web Cam Section

[ax3]

@Choto Cheeta ........ WONDERFUL review frd ...........

just awesome ....... detailed & with solutions 2 [regarding OS & drivers] .....

must say u really worked on this ........ bt which 1 is LIGHTER [weight] ? ....

[ThinkFree]

Very decent configuration at not a premium price

[Kiran.dks]

Good lappy. I don't understand why didn't they make it 2MB Cache, which is common these days.

[Choto Cheeta]

Bro, its a Budget segment... Go as Low type war... so even this 1 MB Cache is more than enough for the use for which it is ment

@Choto Cheeta ........ WONDERFUL review frd ...........

just awesome ....... detailed & with solutions 2 [regarding OS & drivers] .....

must say u really worked on this ........ bt which 1 is LIGHTER [weight] ? ....

Thnx for the comment... 2 and a half KG .... !!!!

[fun2sh]

but on intel's site its written that 945gm chipset cna be upgraded with a graphics card

[saurabh kakkar]

Great review Great job Cheeta i m a fan of Yours

keep the Good work Going

[sabret00the]

thanks to ur review buddy...I already suggested this notebook to one of my colleagues today...and I'm also considering this one for my girl friend whose desktop has conked off a month back....

[infra_red_dude]

afaik, none of the acer models haf an option for MXM card (gfx card for mobile computers). its supported by the chipset, but the final authority on it is the manufacturer.