View Full Version : Advent 4123
Matblack
22-09-2008, 16:37
Very tempted by one of these
http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2008/09/advent-4123-netbook.jpg
Bigger screen that the Dell Mini Inspiron, 160Gb HD and 1Gb of RAM eaily upgradeable to 2GB, looks better than the EEEEEEEEPCs and more useable
MB
Are they the re-badged MSI Winds? I do like the look of those.
Am going for the Dell myself, 8.9 is the sweet spot with these little netbooks imo, and it's totally fanless and silent. Me likey.
Matblack
22-09-2008, 16:43
I was quite taken with the Mini Inspiron, but this one has a USP, you can bung a SIM in it and has HSDPA built in ;)
Also we'd be using it for Aitch to do spreadsheets and things on and I don't want the screen to be too small. Might have to go and have a proper nose up at PCWorld and check the screen sizes :)
MB
leowyatt
22-09-2008, 16:46
How much are they Matt?
Matblack
22-09-2008, 16:46
£349
MB
leowyatt
22-09-2008, 16:48
how big is the screen? I know someone who would be very interested :)
As you'll no doubt know, having read the same article I just did (I know from whence that image came), it's a rebadged OEM jobbie. As such, it might be worth hunting for one with less of a mark-up.
My concern with these generics (I have plenty of experience, sadly) is that support tends to be very lacking. For example, drivers tend never to get updated - i.e. you'll get what's on the CD and like it.
Not saying there's anything wrong with that - just something to factor in to the decision.
PS - 10.4" screen, and no, they're not rebadged Winds. They're rebadged ECS G10ILs. :)
PPS - as it has a spinning platter, it'll not be as robust, or probably as frugal, as the SSD-based alternatives.
I was quite taken with the Mini Inspiron, but this one has a USP, you can bung a SIM in it and has HSDPA built in ;)
If it wasn't for the ability to plug my phone into the Dell and use it as a modem I'd have probably done similar to you. Fortunately I can :D
Also we'd be using it for Aitch to do spreadsheets and things on and I don't want the screen to be too small.
Fair do's :) Dont plan to use mine for anything other than web browsing and a bit of email, and maybe some remote support if a clients on fire or something. My current laptop is just too big, hot and heavy to satisfy those itches and be convenient enough to throw in a glove box. It'll even be better for the generic browsing around the house.
leowyatt
22-09-2008, 16:55
The SDD drives aren't an option for Kitten as they lack space. This seems to fit the bill quite nicely.
I think the bigger netbooks suffer from a bit of identity crisis. To me they (SCC's) should be what the original EEE was - portable, cheap, light browser terminals you can reasonably take anywhere to primarily do some convenient surfing - and SSD fits that bill better. Anything more than that, I'll use the laptop - if for no other reason than the chips in these things dont really lend themselves to much more.
The devices that tread the line better are the 12/13" Macbook Air's/Tosh Portege's and the likes - they just cost a bomb. It's funny really, the 8/9/10"s are cheap, the 11/12/13"s are expensive, and the 14/15/17"s go cheap again.
Flibster
22-09-2008, 18:15
PPS - as it has a spinning platter, it'll not be as robust, or probably as frugal, as the SSD-based alternatives.
I thought that SSD's had no noticable battery saving or in some cases made it worse?
I'm sure I saw something that showed that.
However, that machine is a funky little thing. So tempted myself - ideal for out and about.
The devices that tread the line better are the 12/13" Macbook Air's/Tosh Portege's and the likes - they just cost a bomb. It's funny really, the 8/9/10"s are cheap, the 11/12/13"s are expensive, and the 14/15/17"s go cheap again.
Yup. My 17" lappy was peanuts really. It's a complete brick to move about, but it's a lovely workhorse.
This is not a Mac. I repeat. There is no Apple logo on this hardware. :p
Matblack
22-09-2008, 18:58
I like my new little 4211, so much so I'm posting from it right now :D
Decided against the 4213 as the only thing which was noticeably better was the track pad and thats not worth £70 to me, I can always BT to my phone to get HSDPA and I won't have to remove the sim from my phone to do it :)
MB
Flibster
22-09-2008, 19:03
I like my new little 4211, so much so I'm posting from it right now :D
Decided against the 4213 as the only thing which was noticeably better was the track pad and thats not worth £70 to me, I can always BT to my phone to get HSDPA and I won't have to remove the sim from my phone to do it :)
MB
Questions! :D
1) Battery life?
2) Audio quality?
3) Svideo output?
Ta. :D
Very tempted by these, however I think the dual core ones are due soonish?
And the 4211 is the MSI Wind Daz mentioned. Looks nice. :)
Matblack
22-09-2008, 20:45
Very tempted by these, however I think the dual core ones are due soonish?
Apparently so, but to be honest at this sort of price I didn't really want to wait around :D
MB
I can see why and I am damn tempted. Really if it can play movies then that's all I'll use it for combined with that T-mobile internet dongle.
Matblack
22-09-2008, 21:42
http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/5029/snapshot200809223cy1.jpg
Built in webcam works :)
MB
SidewinderINC
22-09-2008, 21:46
That's borderline terrifying MB
And the 4211 is the MSI Wind Daz mentioned. Looks nice. :)
This is not a Mac. I repeat. There is no Apple logo on this hardware. :p
It's hackintoshable! (http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=113018) *hides*
leowyatt
22-09-2008, 21:55
http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/5029/snapshot200809223cy1.jpg
How is pinky? She ok? ;D
You look like Gamesmaster, only without the head implant thing :D
You look like Gamesmaster, only without the head implant thing :D
He does! ;D;D
Matblack
23-09-2008, 09:34
Aitch is pleased with her new toy and wants to know if she cann watch films on the train with it, I am getting the feeling that I may never get to use it and might have to buy another one for myself :D
All in all its a good bit of kit, it now has OpenOffice, AVG and Firefox on it, it won't get much else installed as I want to keep it fast booting and clean. As far as battery life goes from a quick experiment the little 3 cell is good for about 2-2.5 hours, not great but enough for a train journey to London. The sound quality is quite frankly rubbish but the case is so small its hardly suprising, there isn't room for the kind of speakers you'd put in a Dell laptop even the m1330, for movies it has a 3.5mm jack.
My only issue at the moment is getting the BT to connnect to my phone so I can use it for a bit of surfing, it seems to have a cheapo BT driver which denies the connection so thats something I'll have to do some research on, I know its possible its just a bit of fine tuning.
No S-video out Flibster just VGA 9 pin Dsub output.
MB
I want to know what films are like as well :) Put some on it and let me know how it plays them.
Matblack
23-09-2008, 11:25
I want to know what films are like as well :) Put some on it and let me know how it plays them.
Any particular format? Do you want me to transfer the movie to the internal drive or play off an external?
There were a few reviews knocking about which says it can handle 720 HD with the right software but 1080 goes too slow.
I have identified an issue with it connecting to my phone which is annoying, the 4211 has a Toshiba BT stack which won't play nicely with WM6 so I need to find a solution, maybe change the Tosh driver to a M$ one :/
Need to work on that, unfortunately I'm out tonight so it may take a while to get it on the net via the BT, also need to install ActiveSync so I can do the same thing with a USB in the meantime.
MB
Graphics chip appears to be a GMA950. I have one of those in my Mac Mini. Concur on 720p playback. I haven't tried 1080p yet, but I will soon.
Good point, probably an external hdd xvid film. Also something using the H264 720p codec.
I would be surprised that 1080p would kick its butt, I think its encoded at higher than the res of the screen?
So is 720p - the Wind is 1024 x 600 iirc.
On the internal monitor, yes. GMA950 can do 1440x900 easily via VGA (2D only, don't even think about running games), and I'd expect the same for 1680x1050. Haven't pushed mine as far as would be required for 1080p.
Matblack
23-09-2008, 12:57
Woot! Posting this using the 4211 on a BT connection to my phone \o/
MB
Stan_Lite
23-09-2008, 13:00
Might have to go and have a proper nose up at PCWorld and check the screen sizes :)
MB
I think I'll be doing the same when I get back home. I bought the little 7" Eeeeeeeeeeee and it's fine but the screen is just a tad on the small side and the keys are just a little too small for my fingers.
I want to have a look at something with a slightly larger screen and slightly bigger keys but not too much more bulky. When I was in the shop looking at the Eeeeeeeeeees, I loved the two little 11" Asus machines they had there but they were £1100 and £1300 and I can't justify shelling out that much for a travelling laptop that sees scant usage (and then only browsing and stuff) - not when there are 9" and 10" machines around for sub £400.
Matblack
23-09-2008, 13:08
Just spoke to Orange and up'ed my data allowance from 8mb to 250mb that extra 242mb cost me -£0.50 <<<<< yes thats a minus sign :D
Not a massive ammount of data but enough for me :)
MB
Ooh, nice. Might enquire about that one myself. I think I've got close to my current 15MB limit twice in the last year, but there's stuff I just don't do because I'm scared I'll break it and have to pay.
My sub-£200 (inc. replacing both batteries) Compaq ultraportable, with faults, will have do me for now, even if I am tempted to splash out on something new. :(
I dunno if this have been posted before. The advent quality is not up to par when compared to other machines in that class. I had the advent on the day of release or so and used it for about two months before I got rid of it and bought the Asus 1000h instead. The build quality on the asus and the battery life are what did it for me.
I am currently using my 1000h and from a single charge, I get just slightly over 5hours of use compared to the Advent wind which gives a little of 2hrs [Granted it comes with a less powerful battery]. The wifi card in the wind is not as good as the asus hence why I had connection issue - dropping off intermittently and reconnecting at random.
A review of the advent with loads of photos is somewhere on the-sps. Anyone can easily look this up.
I am getting a 8800mh battery for the asus soon and that should see another 7-8hrs minimum squeezed out of it. This means no charger to pack with me etc. My advice will be for people to have a look at the 1000h or 901 before buying the advent. :)
Matblack
24-09-2008, 18:01
I dunno if this have been posted before. The advent quality is not up to par when compared to other machines in that class. I had the advent on the day of release or so and used it for about two months before I got rid of it and bought the Asus 1000h instead. The build quality on the asus and the battery life are what did it for me.
I am currently using my 1000h and from a single charge, I get just slightly over 5hours of use compared to the Advent wind which gives a little of 2hrs [Granted it comes with a less powerful battery]. The wifi card in the wind is not as good as the asus hence why I had connection issue - dropping off intermittently and reconnecting at random.
A review of the advent with loads of photos is somewhere on the-sps. Anyone can easily look this up.
I am getting a 8800mh battery for the asus soon and that should see another 7-8hrs minimum squeezed out of it. This means no charger to pack with me etc. My advice will be for people to have a look at the 1000h or 901 before buying the advent. :)
I don't use the Advent away from a power source very often and I like the screen and kbd and the general styling more than any of the other units I saw. The driver update for the wifi fixed the drop out issues for me so all in all I'm pleased with my purchase but I'm sure there are other better solutions out there :)
MB
Dont get me wrong MatBlack. It is a very good attempt by MSI as a first "go" at the UMPC market and it is definitely a better value in price to the 1000h. I also feel the keyboard on the Msi advent wind is rated as been the best so far. Next generation of wind may be a winner all round and wipe the floor of the asus.
I tried various updates for the wind before I sold it off, but none of it worked for me. What I noticed is that drop outs from connection occurs at a particular spot at work and at home - weak signal??- when I took the 1000h to those same spot, it returned a "very low" connection message on the wifi strength. I suppose this may mean, the wifi card or antenna of the wifi card in the 1000h is slightly better? So far I am yet to have a drop out issue with the asus.
It may be of interest to you that you can overclock the Atom in these machines. I did mine this morning using the eeectl exe file. Then use cpu-z to see the outcome. I can easily overclock to over 2.0ghz but the temp on my machine increased to 67degrees. This is probably down to the fact that it was connected to the mains for some time. At the risk of frying my 350quid machine lol, I removed the application and used the on-board hybrid engine instead [hybrid engine - present in asus machine to control speed of cpu as needed and enhance battery life]
vBulletin® v3.7.4, Copyright ©2000-2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.