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2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
4.0 stars
"Incredible Display, Great desktop replacement."
Pros: Awesome display, Hefty hardware. Fast system.
Cons: Little overweight. No DVI output.
Summary: Just purchased this notebook after A LOT of research online. I'm a graphics professional and was looking for a notebook that was capable of replacing my workstation in the office. The two main considerations in my purchase was the quality of the display (color correctness and sharpness)as well as overall fast system performance.
My N3511 came with the following specs.
-Pentium M 1.86GHZ
-512MB DDR2400 RAM (later upgraded to 2GB DDR2)
-ATI x300 64MB dedicated video
-DVD-RW drive
-15.4" widescreen display
-WINXP home
The retail is 1499, purchased new from Newegg.com for 1349 along with 2 sticks of 1GB DDR2400 for a total of 2GB DDR2400 for an extra $200. Total cost was 1549.
Overall I'm please with this laptop. I did not purchase this laptop with the need for portability and long battery life. However, most of the reveiws I read slam it's battery life, while I was able to get a little over 3 hours of internet surfing via wi-fi with low brightness settings, not bad at all.
It's defiantely a little hefty. Weighs in at around 7.5-7.9 pounds, where as other comparable notebooks average in the 6.5-7 pound range. However, the half pound extra isn't taking years off my life and this notebook shouldn't even be on your list if portability is an issue.
The keyboard is nice. The only complaint is that it does have a little "travel", meaning that if you press on a key hard enough, the keys around it also sink in slightly with it. However, you reaaaallly have to press hard, and in normal use, the keyboard feels great.
CNTRL key is big and to the left side as it should, instead of the typical notebook Fn key, very big deal for someone who's always in Photoshop and other programs that utilize the CNTRL key a lot.
The touchpad could be a little bigger, although I find the small size adequete and also provides more palm rest area. The blue power light is very attractive. The system itself is covered in a charcoal grey and black. Very sleek and professional. Doesn't scream boring, doesn't scream LOOK AT ME AND MY iLIFE!
X300 lets me play warcraft 3 in perfect resolution. Haven't tried more intense games yet, but don't expect it to play the latest and greatest.
The noise level is very quiet. Fan only spins up occasionally during intense computing, but most of the time it's dead silent.
Also writing this review on my lap, and find the heat actually kind of comforting (probably 65 degrees in my apt right now)
Display as awesome as it is, is still not the true color representation i was hoping for. It get's the job done, but for you graphics professionals, there is no grand replacement for a desktop just yet.
I am able to work by hooking up my 21" LCD to my laptop with a dual monitor setup. One of my main gripes however, is that this laptop only comes with a VGA output, no DVI, which is standard, but annoying. Big quality loss when connecting to an external monitor. Probably not noticable to anyone unless you stare at 10 pixel graphics all day.
Power brick is relatively small and manageable.
Most importantly, I feel more sophisticated now that I own one. Isn't that what counts?
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