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Averatec C3500 Review by a Complete* n00b

I just got one two days ago. I have the 'Costco version,' don't know if there are different specs from other sources. Bear in mind this is my first tab, I have been waiting forever for one powerful enough for sumertime MMORPG's out by the swimming pool and to use for 3D games on the road...

A few quick notes, starting with...

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THE BAD:

Graphics SiS M741:

Games designed for DirectX 9+ will run but textures don't map to wireframes so it looks really odd and dark. For some reason particle effects are fine though?? I run around City of Heroes with ease, but it's *extremely* dark and mostly all I can see is ppl's spell effects :-/ The movement is smooth and the comp handles the game easily though. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to suggest! (I will try running it in windowed mode tonight to see if that helps. I really haven't been working on this issue long to be honest) Hopefully this chipset will be patched / more supported as it is AMD's new baby from what I gather. It is fairly new.

I haven't found the option to turn the shared video memory up from 32MB to 64MB, it's not in the bios... Not under display properties either. Didn't they say you could share up to 64MB?

If the screen is not in native orientation (Laptop perspective) fullscreen modes do not work (of course for portrait, but reversed landscape I didn't expect.)

Digitizer / Stylus

Kinda wierd, likes to 'right click' a lot when I'm just hovering. This my be my shaky hands though...

The stylus just feels... "Cheap" I am afraid at any time I may break it. (Though they've yet to 'idiot-proof' anything against my superhuman clumsiness...)

The pointer will dissappear / lock in place sometimes and I have to keep tapping and swirling the stylus to get it to come to my stylus point.

You can't use the on-screen handwrite/keyboard tool to input text to fullsreen. The work-around is to have a text app open, input to the text app and copy/paste into the fullscreen... :-/ If I get my MMO running I will have to roleplay as a mute... Of course, I could break down and convert to Notebook mode and use the keyboard on the unit, but if I planned to do that then why not just get a light laptop?

HOT!

This thing gets hot after about 1-2 hours if it is lying flat. Uncomfortably so. But the fan pushes a tremendous amount of air through the back of the unit though so you can cool your scalded flesh somewhat conveniently. The fan is a bit loud, too. (Note: But if it is raised / propped it doesn't get very hot at all.)

DVD/CD

If you are holding in portrait mode and are operating on AC, you either have to have the power cord digging into you or the CD drawer opens continuously. Either are equally annoying, but I would rather not break the CD drawer so I endure the cord or run on batteries while holding. On the plus side, who can hold even a 5 pound tablet for the 2.5 hour battery life?

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THE GOOD!!

Graphics

DirectX 8 games and other 3d games seem to work fine that I have tried. Winamp's visualizations run smooth! Looked mighty impressive on my desk at work playing some MP3's!! Fullscreen video is flawless, but that's not really and accomplishment anymore in the laptop/portable world to me... (Four years ago, when I got my last laptop, a Compaq Presario, it most certainly was an issue though.)

Handwriting Recognition

OMG my handwriting is like ancient sandscrit with a leaky, fat marker in 7pt font. BUT! The C3500 picks up 9 out of 10 words from my aforementioned unsteady hand in either one-note or the handwritten input console. I don't know if it's because the tab comes with one-note which is great stuff or if the tab is just that good.

Wireless G

Downloading at 200 kb/sec. Little to no lag on City of Heroes. I should have upgraded to this a year ago.

Display

VERY bright, every other portable in the world you have to crank to the max briteness; I have to turn this one down or wear shades.

Too much to list.

A portable with FOUR USB ports?? That's nearly obscene to a technophile! S-Video out? DVD/CD rewrite? 80 Gig hard drive??? 2200+ QS mobile processor?? 512MB of 2700 DDR RAM??!! OMG this thing is the greatest ever. I can gush on and on but I'm trying hard to be as negative as possible so that this will sound like an objective review. ;-P

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Haven't tried:

MEMORY! I still haven't opened the memory door on the bottom to see if I have an open slot to upgrade to 1 gig memory.

I do not know how to test for 'pressure sensitivity of the digitizer,' if you tell me how I will check that tonight.

Like I said, I haven't been able to turn the graphics card up to the full 64MB.

Voice recognition; I don't have a mic yet.

I'm going shopping tonight to I'm going to 'gear up' my tablet. I want to get a different carry case, (the free one that came with it is sort of cheap looking and doesn't have a handle or storage for anything but the unit. It's fine for just storing/carrying the unit, but nothing else.) and a small mic, and maybe a USB GPS reciever so I can use this for map navigation in the car, camping, or out on the boat.

Thank you for this overview, It was nice to read your thoughts.

Don't forget the built in microphone in port - so you can play with speech recognition.

So would you recommend this unit to others?

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Insane Politics

I think it's the best thing since... Well, anything. I absolutely love it. I need to sort out some video issues like I said in my post, (this may be a matter of turning off hardware acceleration or something,) plus there exist a couple of other minor inconveniences, like the dvd drawer. But overall, this is the best computer purchase I have ever made IMO.

BUT, it does depend on what you want to do on it. It has the specs to game on, but will the chipset work for what you want to run? For me, I have found City of Heroes is specifically designed for Radeon or Geforce. Period. Will a driver patch / settings tweak for the SiS m741 allow it to run? I don't know yet.

I do know that from my research, based on reviews and specs, that this is the best choice available for gaming. And at $1300??? C'mon! That's about a cool GRAND less than the next closest contender.

All that to say, "Why yes, LPH, I would recommend the C3500 to others." ;-)

If you are a technophile (Which you are, or you wouldn't be here,) or love cutting edge gadgets (ditto) then you will enjoy the C3500 like a fat baby enjoys cupcakes.

:angel_not: Kazee

PS Thanks!
PPS: Oops... Like I said I haven't tried the voice recognition so I didn't discover the built in mic, I will try it this evening. Thanks for the heads up!

I agree completely. You couldn't have said it better!

I'm curious how the onboard mic works, so please let us know. It's relatively easy to check it using OneNote. Set the Tablet PC in a fixed location, start recording, then start increasing your distance away from the Tablet PC. "I'm 3 inches away. 6 inches away.... 10 feet away." Then, playback and see how far away it can record.

My guess is that students will want to have an external microphone to record class lectures (assuming professors allow it / copyright), but it'll be great if the onboard mic will work for seminars, small meetings, etc.

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-- Lora Heiny

TabletPCPost | WhatIsNew | TechnologyQuestions

You can actually use good quality head phones as a mic if you plug them into the mic jack. Sound quality isn't great but it still works for surreptitiously recording lectures. That's what I did with my Sony MZ-R50 when I had it.

..

Built-in Mic

The Mic picks up great, but the playback required external speakers. At first I thought it didn't pick up because the playback through the laptop speakers is too low (or I am too deaf) to hear. But when I plugged my desktop sound system, it was very clear up to 20 ft (about as far as I had to work with.)

This is almost definitely a setting that I need to adjust, just like my video issues may be. The speakers are plenty loud enough when playing mp3's etc (??) I only had about 20 mins to play with this again last night. I really need to take some time and adjust my settings correctly.

I did not run the voice software, I have yet to figure out this functionality but am looking VERY forward to playing with it. :-)

Memory Modules

Plus side: there are 2 (Two) SODIMM slots.
Down side: Both occupied by 256mb SODIMMS.

(Read: If you want a cool gig of memory, you have to buy two 512's.)

Wi-Fi Card

When you open up the memory door, you will see a small card. You will get excited thinking that it is something like upgradeable video. It's not. ;-(

A call to tech support reveals that this is the wireless G adapter. Now, the wireless G is stellar. Through a brick wall and 200yds away, my home broadband network is still available, albeit at a 'low' strength.

Video

Tech Support says the video can't be turned up to be 64 mb shared. It is set at 32MB shared factory. But the M741 pages I have looked at suggest that this board does support 64MB shared.

Tech Support

If you haven't called tech support yet, they are two things:
#1 Very, very friendly and pleasant and they take time with you.
#2 They have to take time with you, because they have little to no clue regarding the Averatec C3500.

They all seem to have the newly recognizable 'Tech Support Accent,' ie, tech support subbed out to India. Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with that, but people who have played Everquest or Star Wars: Galaxies or any other SOE game can tell you how results oriented and effective subbing tech support to India can be (which is not very.)

All for now, if I discover anything else noteworthy this weekend I will post, also feel free to ask any questions you might have.

:angel_not: Kazee

...

How awesome to get a great review from a "noob" like myself! (to be honest this is the first time I've posted on a forum). Kazeee...I to had a Presario once, screen burned out. I'm looking strongly to use my next notebook for web surfing, MS Office, and the occasional GAMES!! What else are you running on the 3500? I'm wondering how Star wars KOTOR and Warcraft III would look. (I suppose I can forget Far Cry and Doom III, right)? *sigh*

...

Hah! My nephews have both. I will load them this weekend and give a full report. They should run fine though.

Just another friendly service from...

:angel_not: Kazee

PS Farcry is a total resource hog. It barely runs on most midrange desktops. I don't feel it's because the game is 'cutting edge,' IMO it's more 'Ham-fisted design.' Anyone can ramp up texture quality etc. but when it comes down to it prettiness < playability. Balance is required.

DOOM III? Runs on less than powerful notebooks and at least one tablet that I have heard of. This probably will be no problem.

Eh, no. Doom 3 runs on a M200 which has a GeForce FX5200 Go... not the pathetic integrated video most tablets have.

I'm happy City of Heroes works on this thing. I was very interested in it, but looked at the CoH website and they said SIS doesn't work. Have you been able to get it to run any better? I wouldn't be using this as my primary gaming pc, but if I was at some boring meeting ;-) or away from home I'd like the option to be able to play a little (doesn't matter if it doesn't look fantastic, just playable). Thanks for your review, I might just get this thing now. I've been itching for a tablet ever since they came out.

Glad you arrived and posted. The review is quite a good read. Keep the ideas coming!

__________________
Layne P. Heiny / Administrator for Tux Reports Network

Please do not send private messages requesting technical support. Place your request in the proper forum and hopefully someone can help you.

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I have to apologize, I think I gave a bad impression of what I was saying when asked if I would recommend the C3500 to others. As a tablet, ie, note taking, web surfing, wifi, office use, cool gadget, cd burning, mp3's, dvd's, low end games, drawing, etc, etc, etc. it's great. I wrote this response and the one following at work and was in a hurry and looking back it looks like I was saying something different from what I meant.

I apologize too for being overoptimistic about KOTOR and DOOM III etc. running.

While it has the specs to game like I said, further experimentation reveals that the video solution hamstrings the unit for any games DirectX 9 or that require Hardware T&L. (Read: Most current games.)

No, actually I was saying it is bugged but I may not have been very clear. Indeed, CoH is designed for Geforce and Radeon only. It works, but like I said the textures do not appear on the wireframes. I originally thought that tweaking some settings (turning off hardware acceleration, etc.) would fix this but it doesn't. Downloading the latest drivers doesn't work either.

After more experimentation this weekend, I have found that the more games I have tried out on the C3500, the more apparent that the single biggest shortcoming is the aformentioned integrated video. What runs on the tablet runs great with a good framerate. What doesn't run is a growing list. Basically, zero for the DirectX 9 games, and if your DirectX 8 games need hardware T&L or a vertex shader they won't work either.

This leaves about any 3D game post 2002 out. Unfortunately, while this tablet obviously has great specs, Averatec made a very poor choice on the video solution, rendering the C3500 nearly useless for a gamer...

There's a ton of things this tablet does well, and it is pretty powerful for a tablet, and I do enjoy the tablet and recommend it as a tablet, but I guess my dream of a gaming tablet is still in the future....

:angel_not: Kazee

Well if I do get this Tablet, I'm not worrying about games. We have a decent desktop for that sort of thing. Handwriting and text input, surfing the net are about all I intend to do with it. I may do some video editing but nothing major.

I got an the tablet at Staples. Only 60 gigs though. Oh well. still a great deal. I've had 3 averatec laptops already and had only one fan problem. Sold all of them to coworkers that still love them.

I called tech support re: the video card. The manual sez you can switch it between 32,64 and 128. After a day, the called me and the option will come out with the next BIOS upgrade.

I put one of those cooling fan things for laptops under it. Seems to work fine. The AMD does run pretty hot. Oh well, winter is coming. Won't need to turn on the heat in the house with this thing.

512 of RAM is pretty good however, if you want 1024, you need to ditch the 2x256 simms it has in it and swap it out for 2x512.

This is the best deal out there from what I can see. You should upgrade to Service Pack 2 when you get a chance.

hi, i want to buy this computer and i am reading reviews for it. I wanted to know if you can send IMs in tablet mode or write on microsoft word and transfer it to type in tablet mode. thank you