|
Company: WinBook
 
Market Price: $1700
 I've been searching for a laptop for about three weeks. I've played with all the different ones at Best Buy and Circuit City. I've also browsed through the sites of all the major players: Dell, Sony, HP, etc.
My quest to replace all computers in my life
What I was searching for was more than a desktop replacement; I needed a computer that would replace all other computers I have in my life. I had a desktop at work. I also had a laptop from work that was configured to use the VPN. I had a personal laptop for traveling and my home desktop for any heavy duty activity (Developing, gaming, etc.). It was too much to manage it all, so I wanted just one computer that I would carry with me at all times.
The WinBook J4 was not that computer.
Looks good, but falls apart in long conversations
At first glance of the specifications, the WinBook J4 looks like a killer machine for a one swinging price:
- Intel Pentium 4 Processor 2.40 GHz
- 15" SXGA+ Display
- 40 GB Ultra DMA Hard Drive
- 512 MB DDR
- DVD-R/RW Drive
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional
- 802.11b Wireless
- ATI Mobile Radeon 9000 Graphics (64 MB)
All of this for a mere $1600 after rebates.
The lame graphics card
Forget the price; it's that 64 MB graphics card that sold the thing to me this past weekend. This graphics card has 64 MB of dedicated memory, not shared memory. In theory, it should rock my world.
But looks can be deceiving. Although the Radeon 9000 is fairly new, it does not support DirectX 9. It only supports DirectX 8.1.
That fact took me a few hours to figure out. The computer comes preinstalled with DirectX 9 and upon doing all the DirectX tests, everything worked find on the WinBook. Sounds promising, but when you start up a program that utilizes DirectX 9, the computer crashes. I'm talking about the Blue Screen of Death and everything.
This means that playing a game like Star Wars Galaxies is out of the question.
Don't think that installing new drivers or praying to the graphics card gods will help the situation. The card just won't do it. It's over a year old and will only play games from last year.
Even though I hadn't researched this particular graphics card before buying the laptop, I had believe the saleman when he said, "Sure, this will definitely play Star Wars Galaxies. I'm a gamer, so I should know."
Vacuuming the living room
Other than falling to pieces with the latest games, the laptop itself sounds like my mom is vacuuming in the room with me. This is because of the giant fanning system installed on this machine. These fans were on the entire time I was figuring out that this laptop sucks. The fans have got to weigh at least one pound of the eight pounds in the thing.
It gets better though. When a CD is inserted, the sound of mom vacuuming then turns into a hovercraft lifting off the ground. It's louder than the Xbox.
My wife came in at one point and asked if the thing was going to blow-up. I wish it had.
All-in-all an almost okay deal
The price is pretty decent for what does work smoothly on the WinBook J4. I wouldn't recommend using it in a conference room where people need to hear you talk, but if you're a construction worker surrounded by large machinery, this laptop will probably suit you just right.
As for me, I returned the thing the next day.
In all fairness, the back of the screen was black and had a nice texture.
Related links:
Download drivers for WinBook J4 if you unfortunately bought it |
