Winbook Keeps It Real!!!
Written: Oct 16 '00 (Updated Oct 16 '00)
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Pros: Warranty, design...
Cons: More HD for price....
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| jmrm5's Full Review: Winbook Si800/128 |
The Winbook Si800/128 is one nice notebook computer. It is packed and put together quite neatly to say the least. It ships with a Intel Pentium III Processor whizzing at 800 MHz, DVD, 128 MB of Ram and a nice fat 12 GB hard drive. (I feel this should be upgraded to 20 GB for the price asked)
Next on the list of major features is it’s 14.1" XGA active matrix colour screen. Now this is no longer the biggest screen you can get, (Gateway makes a larger one) but it is still quite formidable. The entire unit is only a wafer thin 1.6" and a (relatively) lightweight 7.1 lbs. It should be noted that the unit ships with a 128 MB SDRAM module and ATI 3D Mobility Graphics Accelerator w/4 MB Integrated SDRAM.
I feel this unit should ship with the ATI moility 8MB card for the price you are paying but then again this notebook model is a little dated. It also has a 56k v.90 internal fax/modem. The Si800/128 also has a “Lithium Ion Smart Battery.” How it is smart I could never figure out.
One promising feature on the motherboard is the 256k integrated L2 cache on-chip. This is a nice touch considering that most notebooks usually come with 128k. The unit also features a rather quick 6x DVD-ROM drive which is built-in. I must say that this DVD seemed much faster than other DVD drives I have tested. I do not know why it just seems faster for some reason when compared to other 6X drives.
Winbook sends these machines out the door with Win98se which is already dated by the current standard. Winbook however has an upgrade program in the works that will enable users to get WinME, which is still not my ideal choice. I prefer Win2k Professional. For simple stability purposes.
Winbook further offers a 3-year warranty which is very nice, considering a time where notebook ship with 1 year warranties is the norm.
It should be noted that Winbook has indeed fixed its BIOS problems that plagues the company in its early years. It is even possible to get BIOS updates for various models now, which is what it should have been in the first place. Regardless, I have not or do I anticipate any problems with my Winbook BIOS anytime in the future.
To date I have been extremely happy with my purchase, a simple HD reformat, and an installation of Win2k Professional was in order and I was one happy camper.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2200
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 701-800
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 9-12
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jmrm5
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"jmrm5 is a professional reviewer for a national electronic equipment magazine and a newspaper."
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