Customer Reviews

Averatec AV3270-EE1 12.1" Laptop (Mobile AMD Sempron processor 2800+, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, DVD+/-RW Drive)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I just received the Averatec AV3270-EE1, and here are my first impressions:

I've uploaded photos of everything that was included, including screen shots of the laptop itself.

At first glance, it looks somewhat solid. The casing, as stated by Averatec, is 1" thin, and made of magnesium alloy. The outside of the case (behind the LCD) was a little scathed on arrival, not too noticable but nonetheless not something you'd expect in a brand new laptop. The keyboard portion of the casing looks very sleek. Because this is a 12.1" laptop, the keyboard is a but scrunched, though surprisingly not too bad! The battery extends out a little in the back, but not too much.

There are 3 USB ports located on the right side of the laptop, next to the CD/DVD writer, with the power plug at the rear of the right side. The 4-in-1 memory card reader is located at the front of the laptop, next to the latch to open up the laptop. The VGA output is located on the left side, alongside the Modem/Network, and a PC Card slot. To get a better idea of how it looks, view the images I have uploaded.

The internal wireless card detected my network instantly after setup. It seems to be fairly strong compared to my wireless PCMCIA cards. There is a button to enable/disable the wireless, located next to the power button. Its a feature that is good to have, and can be found in many of the newer laptops today.

Sound quality is decent for a laptop, better than my old Dell laptop, but certainly not the best.

The screen is nice, but is somewhat difficult to see outdoors in sunlight -- too much glare!

This laptop is no speed demon. However, it will be more than suitable for people using it for word processing, web surfing, and checking e-mails.

Contrary to the review by Hans Devente on May 15, 2005, the total hard disk size shown is 53.0 GB, and free space is 49.5 GB. I have uploaded a screenshot. But he is correct, there is no physical recovery CD, nor is there an actual Windows XP CD.

There was no physical product manual included; the manual is located on the desktop of the system in the form of a PDF file. Averatec's reasoning: within the packaging, it states that Averatec wants to be more environmentally friendly.

Included are several pre-installed software. Cyberlink's PowerDVD/Power2Go/PowerProducer/Medi@Show, Phoenix FirstWave Recover Pro 2004 (Recovery Software), Apple iTunes, Apple QuickTime 6.5.1, Microsoft Works, Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0, Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer 2003, Netzero Platinum, and Symantec Norton AntiVirus. Upon the first bootup, several of these applications popped up asking to be registered. Norton encountered an error, and stated that it should be uninstalled/re-installed. This may just be an isolated incident. Most, if not all, retail desktops/laptops come with a bunch of this "junk" pre-loaded.


Overall, the laptop has met my expectations for a sub-$1k laptop from a relatively unknown brand, and those expectations were relatively low. For the price, I rated it 4 stars because of the issues I encountered. For those of you that are looking for a cheap full-featured lightweight laptop, look no further as this laptop fits the bill. However, if you demand the best, and have high expectations, look elsewhere.

Edit: After playing with the laptop for two weeks, I have found the laptop to be a bit sluggish. Slower than I expected, but it still gets the job done.

Already had THREE RMAs.
The first time windows wouldn't boot up, "Disk Read Error, Please restart."

sent it in for RMA.

3 weeks later they sent it back.

EXACT SAME PROBLEM. They didn't Fix a THING. No Documentation NOTHING.

2nd RMA and they finally fixed it.

Couple weeks later, the screen developed bright vertical lines across it. Bending the flimsy screen develops other lines.

Tech support tells me to reinstall drivers or do a system restore. They are UTTERLY USELESS. It's OBVIOUSLY a hardware problem due to the flimsy screen.

Sent it in for THIRD RMA. They tell me they need to do a system restore.
They send it back.

I boot up.
Windows error message:
"Windows cannot start because the file comdlg32.dll cannot be found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem".

AND ANOTHER ONE:
"the system is not fully installed. Please run setup again."

on top of that, the CD drive cannot be detected so I can't even boot from the CD.

BUY THEIR LAPTOP ONLY IF YOU WANT TO EXPERIENCE HELL.


~~
Additionally, their email support is horrendously disorganized. Firstly, a different person responds to your email each time. I've had tech support people tell me conflicting things. One demanded an inquisition of questions and documents regarding my purchase before issuing an RMA #. After I strongly complained, the next guy finally issued me an RMA # without the inquisition. Ridiculous.

If you have a problem with an Averatec, you are on your own. My 6 month old machine was shipped with the wrong operating system (Averatec blamed Amazon), the keyboard was defective, and when I called for warranty service, I was treated like a felon by Averatec "customer service". The repair, which should have been free, is going to cost $250. You get what you pay for.

I had been reluctant to adapt to notebook PCs due to the small keyboards and most laptops/notebooks are not really either small nor light.
I bought mine as if by love at first sight, beautifull siver, 1" thick and 4.5 lbs in weight, it stood out on the shelf.
The Averatec is fast enough so that you really won't miss ultra fast processing (wouldn't make sense to expect workstation or gamestation ultra speed in a notebook for the road) I would think.
It's a problem of definition, for me a "portable PC" is just what Averatec packages in the 3270, the best performance you can get economically.
With a 60/80 Gb HD, DVD burner, wireless card, SMALL and LIGHT frame, 2.5 hour battery, great screen, 512 Mb memory...
I watch DVD's, browse, work with Photoshop, listen to music and get asked frequently "what PC is that... for how much..?
It does perfectly well all that is not "extreme", but then again, how much extreme do you need..?
Makes me feel great.
I dumped my Toshiba Satellite and wouldn't pay 2000 bucks for a replacement, I tell you.
But got mine for $900.00 and got a $150 bucks rebate.
Need to have the fastestes or most expensive..? Don't look here.
Need a PORTABLE PC...?
Get an Averatec !

Great notebook! I had been hesitant given varied posted experience with Averatec, but this thing is solid. I get about 3 hours battery life with wireless on, so the AMD Sempron processor does a great job with power management. Speed is no problem for general use such as web browsing, Word, Excel, etc. Case is magnesium alloy, solid and nice looking. Wireless range is excellent with built in 802.11b/g NIC. Overall, very happy.

I just want to express my thorough dissatisfaction with my 3270 laptop. It has proved to be a true lemon from day one since I purchased it about a year and a half ago. As soon as i started using it , the problems started. After downloading 300 plus 6 meg pictures things started slowing down. I returned it to the store to add more memory. Things improved for a while. But it just didn't seem fast as it should have been for a "new" computer .So i tried removing unused programs from the desktop as well as what my computer identified as unused files. That when thing really went airy. So again i took it to the Circuit city were i bought it. they tried unsuccessfully to restore it, but couldn't find the restore file! so within the 1st six mouths i had returned to the store twice for service and now they say i had to send it to you to have the files restored.

After your repair. a few mouths later the DVD drive failed. that necessitated another "repair". after that i lost all excitement about haven a new laptop. So i now used it only occasionally. now after a year i decided to try to get my money out of this it. I started updating programs virus protection and the like. again things started slowing down and the DVD drive wouldn't open. I called Circuit City extended warranty. I sent it all the way from California to have the DVD drive replaced again. Just last week I got it back. finally i thought ' this thing will straighten up and fly right'. Wrong...after i started using it I got a black screen: " Pri Master Hard Disk S.M.A.R.T Status Bad". So tonight I called the warranty company gain. They said the hard disk was going bad. Well how bad the i hate this computer ... let me count the ways: 1) slow performance, 2) missing recovery files, 3) bad DVD drive, 4) bad DVD drive that's twice, and now bad Hard drive. as far as i can see this computer was bad from the start. I have never been as thoroughly dissatisfied with a laptop as with your product!

This is my second machine. Avertec was kind to send me a replacement after I sent mine in for the second time. I had this one ONE WEEK and it is busted and needs to go back. I have not had a laptop since last August when the machine I purchased in April went kaput. My suggestion to you is to pick another brand, unless you want to erase your hard drive every 4 months, spend $16 to ship it to them, wait 2-3 weeks for it to be returned and then plan on repeating the same process in 2-3 months. Nice people on the phone supporting total pieces of trash. Don't waste your money like I did. I'm at the point where I may just need to give it away and buy something else.

this is my second averatec,after the 3150.
screen brightness is improved,built in wireless is fine.
but be warned ,although it is advertised as 60 gb hard disk,
it only has a lousy 43 available.the rest is on an invisible
and unremovable hard drive partition,where the recovery software resides.this takes up almost a THIRD of valuable diskspace.and CANNOT be changed. There is also NO
recovery disk,and you cannot make one,because you cannot access the hidden partition.

i think this sucks.as i ,like many of you like my machine lean and mean!and want to make a clean install every couple of months
so be warned.
the rest works fine.

My first Averatec had a defect in the power system, such that the battery could not charge. I spent $20 shipping it back for a replacement, and a month later got a replacement.

The replacement has a dead pixel, the case smudges easily, the card reader is defective and after 1 year of use, the casing around the screen is cracked, the sound does not work at less than half volume, and the hard drive is dead. Note that the hard drive died just after the warranty expired, as is typical with companies using very cheap hardware.

The laptop also runs very hot, the fans are loud, battery life is about 1.5 hours, and the wireless is sketchy. My next laptop will not be an Averatec.

If you do buy an Averatec, expect to use it for about a year, with hardware problems now and then. After your warranty expires, the laptop will fall apart.

Not worth buying. I had this thing for about a little over a year, and it burned out.
To begin the list of problems I had with it, the AC adapter was always loose, and the battery power goes out quickly. Because it was loose all the time, I spent more effort, time, and money than was worth, recharging the battery, trying other AC adapters on it, and taping it.
It overheats quickly. After a few minutes, there would be a little burn on my fingers when I touched the touchpad. I even brought one of those Targus cooling pads, but it used up my battery power, and the AC adapter was too loose to recharge it unless you held it in place the whole time.
The CD/DVD player did not always work. It took me a thousand tries to install programs from some CDs or to watch certain DVDs and VCDs before it finally worked. I say certain because some worked and some didn't.
Sometimes my Averatec notebook would freeze on me. One time when it froze on me, I couldn't turn it off after I pulled the plug. An icon on the desktop that tells me if it is charging stayed on even when I pulled off the AC adapter.
The exterior smudges easily after I carried it in my backpack, and even a little touch on the screen would leave a mark. These smudges were impossible to get rid of,and I also noticed some of the paint from the spacebar was left on the screen after I carried it around too long.
Finally, I tried to have it fixed, but it just kept turning off, even when I borrowed an AC adapter that stayed on long enough to charge.
Averatec is definately not recommended.