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Notebook Reviews Averatec 1000 Series Notebook: AV1050Editor's rating (1-5): Review posted August 16, 2005 by Lisa Gade, Editor in Chief Subnotebooks have never looked so good. A few years back, they were few and far between with prices that were as heavy on the wallet as the units were light on the back. Now Averatec, known for their affordable yet stylish and technically competent notebooks, brings us the 1000 series which have looks to die for at a modest 3.6 pounds and $1,150 to $1379 list price. The 1000 brings to mind the venerable but now discontinued Sony Vaio TR2A and TR3a which received our Editor's Choice award in November 2003. It's similar in size, also features an internal optical drive, bright and glossy display, Intel Centrino technology and good looks. The TR2A and TR3A sold for approximately $2,200 in the US, $1000 more than the Averatec. Of course, you were paying the early adopter price for the Vaio which was available nearly two years before the Averatec, but Sony's current subnotebook, the T350, still costs nearly $1,000 more.
Features at a Glance There are two 1000 series models, the AV1050, which we received for review, and the AV1020.The AV1050 is more commonly available and is the better choice in terms of CPU: it has a 1.1 GHz Intel Centrino Pentium M 733 processor, while the 1020 has a 1 GHz Celeron. The 1050 has an 80 gig hard drive and the 1020 has a 60 gig hard drive. In all other respects, features are the same: 10.6" WXGA AveraBrite display (similar to Sony's XBrite), 512 megs of DDR RAM, WiFi 802.11b/g and an internal DVD/CR-RW drive. In the Box The notebook and its compact charger: that's all! Inside the small box you'll find a sheet of paper explaining that the manual can be found in PDF format pre-installed on the notebook and that you'll need to make your own recovery CDs. We're fans of included recovery media, but alas, they're becoming increasingly rare. Even Sony, a tier one pricey manufacturer, doesn't include the disks. Should you need to wipe your notebook clean and re-install the OS and included applications you can do so from the recovery partition, though we suggest making those recovery CDs just in case your notebook won't boot from the hard disk. Design and Ergonomics This is a great looking notebook! The top lid is red and the interior surfaces are matte white. The bottom is bright silver. Bringing to mind the Apple iBook, Averatec has taken style a step further with their colorful lids. You can order several different lid colors direct, and we've seen a selection that looked just lovely. You'll find the "standard" Averatec 1000 in stores with a Burgundy Brandy top rather than our zingy red model.
This is one of the smallest notebooks on the market, easily fitting into the subnotebook category, which means it's quite small and light but still usable with good ergonomics. It weighs only 3.6 pounds and measures 10.47" x 7.97" x - 1.36" (at its thickest point toward the rear). Despite the small size, the keyboard is surprisingly roomy and usable, though like the Averatec 4200, key travel is a bit short and dead. The keyboard has oversized backspace, del and right control keys, and nested arrow keys on the bottom right corner. The also roomy trackpad has two buttons and both horizontal and vertical scroll features activated by running your finger along the right or bottom edge (arrows mark the spots). Again, like the Averatec 4200, the trackpad isn't the most sensitive and is best suited to hearty tappers. |
The speaker grill, which runs lengthwise along the back edge of the Averatec houses stereo speakers. The power button is beside the speaker grill on the right and the quick launch media player button is on the left. On the right side you'll find (front to back) standard 3.5mm audio in and out jacks, two USB 2.0 ports, a fan outlet and a VGA port. The 4-in-1 card reader slot is located just above the audio jacks. The DVD drive lives on the left side with the PCMCIA slot just above it. Behind those under a door you'll find the IEEE 1394 FireWire port along with a modem and 10/100 Ethernet jack. The power connector and removable battery live on the back side of the unit and the WiFi on/off slider switch is located on the front edge. The Averatec 1000 has a strip of LED indicators along the front right edge which indicate power, WiFi status, hard disk access, num lock, caps lock and charging status.
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Horsepower and Performance
The Averatec AV1050 has Intel Centrino technology (Intel 855GM Chipset with Intel 855GME graphics), utilizing the 1.1 GHz ULV (ultra-low voltage) Pentium M 733 processor with 2 megs of level 2 cache and a 400 MHz front side bus. It comes with 512 megs of 333 MHz PC2700 DDR RAM, and we've found no way to add more RAM. It's rare to find a non-upgradable machine these days, though the 1.1 GHz ULV hits the sweet spot with 512 megs of RAM as a consolation. The 1000 is a good performer for business and Internet tasks, but you likely won't be running memory intensive apps which demand more RAM.
The unit comes with a 1.8" fixed ultra-ATA 80 gig hard drive. We benchmarked the Averatec 1000 using PCMark04 and it got an overall score of 2011; a respectable score, though it was dragged down by its integrated graphics. PCMark05 couldn't complete it's tests since it requires a fully DirectX 9.0c compliant video card. The bencmarks are as follows:
PCMark04 overall score: 2011
CPU: 2173
Memory: 2153
Graphics: 551
Hard drive: 2493.
Want to watch DVDs or burn CDs on the go? The Averatec's DVD/CD-RW drive can burn to any CD writable or re-writable media (+ and -), as well as play CDs and DVDs. The drive speeds are: 8X DVD Read, 24X CD read, write and re-write. Averatec includes CyberLink PowerDVD, PowerProducer, Power 2Go and CyberLink's integrated launcher for media playback and burning.
Integrated card readers are becoming ever so popular on notebooks these days, and the Averatec 1000 has an SD/MMC/Memory Stick/Memory Stick Pro card reader built in just like its big brother the Averatec 4200. Quite handy if you own a digital camera or PDA that uses these media.
Graphics, Sound and Multimedia
The Averatec 1000's 10.6" display is gorgeous. The AveraBrite display isn't quite as luminous as Sony's XBrite displays, but the Averatec is half the price and stunning enough to garner only praise. Bright, glassy displays are all the rage on wide screen mid to high end notebooks and it's wonderful to see it on a budget machine. The 1280 x 760 resolution is perfect for watching DVD movies, working with Excel spreadsheets and playing games that support wide screen modes. It's bright, color saturated, clear and sharp and videos look great. Though the display is quite small relative to the machine's resolution, we had no problems reading text thanks to the contrasty, bright display. In fact the contrast is a little too high- making text easy to read but graphics can look a little harsh. Like all B5 subnotebooks, if you have poor eyesight, the high resolution packed into a small LCD might cause a problem, but otherwise, you'll be able to work a few hours without suffering eye fatigue.
The display is driven by an Intel 855GME integrated graphics chipset (a part of the Centrino package) with 64 megs of RAM that's shared with system RAM. That's the same graphics processor used on most other 1st generation and current B5 subnotebook Centrino machines, and it's a surprisingly good performer, that's capable of image editing with Photoshop and gaming with current non 3D titles. Like other Centrinos with the Intel 855 graphics chipset, it comes with Intel Extreme Graphics 2 display drivers. Though not suited to running the latest intensive 3D games (integrated graphics cards, even Intel's newer 900 graphics chipset aren't powerful enough), it's fine for less graphically demanding games such as Max Payne and Rise of Nations.
The machine runs Realtek AC97 audio and has two small stereo speakers which provide decent sound and volume for a notebook this size. Audio out through the stereo headphone jack is excellent and the Averatec 1000 has a standard 3.5mm mic port should you need to record audio.
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Ports, WiFi and Expandability The Averatec 1000 has the standard set of subnotebook ports, suitable for road warriors and students. There are two USB 2.0 ports, an IEEE1394 four pin (unpowered) Firewire port , a VGA port and standard audio out and in jacks. The PCMCIA slot supports type I and II cards and CardBus cards. The unit has an internal card reader that accepts SD, MMC, Memory Stick and Memory Stick Pro media. It comes with Intel PRO Wireless 2200BG 802.11b/g WiFi, which had very good range and reliability in our tests. You can use Intel's networking utility or Windows to manage WiFi connections. Like most notebooks, it also has integrated10/100 wired Ethernet and a 56k v.92 modem. Battery The Averatec has a good capacity 4,800 mAh Lithium Ion battery. The included charger is both compact and light— about half the size of Sony's huge charger. No need to weigh down an otherwise light package with a big, heavy charger: Sony could take a few lessons here! The machine offers very good battery life, lasting nearly 5 hours in our tests with WiFi on and the display set to half brightness. Conclusion An excellent notebook for the price! It fares well against much more expensive competitors such as the Sony T250 and T350. While not ultra-thin it's a gorgeous looking B5 sized notebook in the TR3A tradition and is similar in size to the Fujitsu LifeBook P7000. The color schemes are attractive and stylish, and fit and finish are good. Performance is on par with other B5 subnotebooks and the machine won't keep you waiting when using business and Internet apps. In fact, Photoshop, Rise of Nations and Dreamweaver ran fine as well. If you're a student and you don't want to make regular visits to the chiropractor by the time you're 35, consider this very affordable 3.6 pounder. If you travel frequently with your notebook and want something that will fit anywhere, run quite a while on a charge and won't break the bank, get this little guy! Pro: Good performer by B5 size subnotebook standards. Intel Centrino technology provides both strong performance and good battery runtimes. The Averatec 1000 looks great, really great! Good set of ports, excellent display, relatively roomy keyboard and trackpad. Integrated card reader is handy. Runs cool enough to keep on your lap. Good for light gaming (stay away from Doom 3 and other killer 3D apps however). 1 year warranty despite the low price. Con: Can't upgrade memory. Keyboard is a little dead, as is the trackpad. List price: $1379 (AV1050), $1149 (AV1020) Web site: www.averatec.com Comparison Shopping: Where to Buy
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