Joined on 08/29/04
Top Value Netbook
Pros: Textured shell is very appealing and smudge/scratch resistant. Awesome keyboard for a netbook. Over 7hr battery life in actual usage /w wireless on.
Cons: Trackpad can easily be activated by resting palms. Double-clicking is awkward with trackpad design. Screen is somewhat dim. Maimed chipsets with no GigE or 802.11n support.
Overall Review: As of the time of purchase, this netbook was released and various Linux/*BSD systems do not support most of the hardware out of the box. Good news is that after updating the kernel and associated modules to CVS, *NIX runs on it without a hitch, whcih indicates that support will be excellent in a couple months. A BIOS update helped a little with the dim screen, but the brightness control buttons act in a nonintuitive way: it has 16 brightness levels, but the actual brightness is the brightness level modulo 5.
Defective, Again
Pros: Quiet and stable, nothing else. Burns good CDs. If only it worked properly, it would have been good.
Cons: Defective on arrival - unable to recognize any DVD-Rs for burning, even when it's listed on the supported media list.
Overall Review: This drive is effectively no better than just another DVD combo drive. After two consequetive bad experiences with NEC, it's lack of support, and it's product oddities, I've completely lost faith in this company.
Quiet But Unreliable
Pros: Runs very quietly and loads up CDs and DVDs in short amounts of time.
Cons: When I got this burner, it was unable to recognize any DVDs I put in, even after a firmware upgrade. Plus, some of my burned CDs or DVDs did not work in other drives.
Overall Review: It looks nice and stuff, but by today's standard, this burner is not very solid. It would be what I call "cheap".