Ok, new to tablets but owner of probably 10 laptops over the years.

My last laptop was the wonderful Fujitsu P1020, I would get 5+ hours with the P1020 but I'll be real lucky to get 2+ with the C3500.

I tried to watch a DVD but only get about an hour and a half on an almost full charge.

I'm on the fence about sending this back but I haven't found a suitable replacement. Especially at this price range.

My observations:

1: Hot running - yep I only have about 14 IE windows open and one Mozilla window and the fan comes on about once a minute. I'm now using the Cool Pad and it allows me to type on my lap.

2: Speed - not bad, much faster than the P1020 which had a transmeta that ran at about 500Mhz but doesn't have a fan and doesn't get that hot (it's slower tho).

3: keyboard - fair, not great but at least the layout is nice. Much better than the layout on my 17" Toshiba P25 laptop (which is just sad). Keys seem t take more pressure to activiate and I'm missing more keys when I type really really fast.

4: Screen - I have one bad pixel, surprisingly this is the first laptop that's had even a single bad pixel, it's ok and not obvious. I think that this was one of the last at the Costco so I'll live with it ( Costco at Roseville, CA ). Very bright screen but I haven't tried it outside yet.

5: the pen - pretty interesting, just grabbed the powertoys and some demo stuff to try.

I bought it based on price and the fact that it had a built in dvd-cdrw, I don't see anything in the price range without going back to a normal laptop and if I did that it would be the really nice looking Fujitsu P-7000 series (more info at www.lego.net)

I'm hoping that someone comes out with a longer life battery and some tricks on making it run cooler.

I like it and unless someone has other suggestions I'll probably keep it. Heck I can upgrade to 1G ram for 250 bucks and still be less than most of the competition.

<ref: my current laptop collection (including the kids and wife's) are: Averatec C2500, Toshiba P25, Fujitsu P1020, Fujitsu C series, Dell Inspirion 7500, Compaq Presario (old costco model), had a bunch of Sony's but they didn't last very long />

I forgot, I was going to ask if anyone knows if the battery can be replaced or rebuilt with more cells?

What type of run time are the other tablets getting (real world)?


thx
bobm

I think most tablets get between 2 and 5 hours real world, allthough 2-3 seems the most common.

Does anyone know how much power DVDs take compared to wireless?

Bobm,

From what I know this current battery is a 6 cell solution at 4400MHh, I think a BIOS update might help extend battery life since this unit is very young in it's production but there can be many power saving options such as having the LCD dim when you go to battery mode can sometimes extend battery life. I think AVERATEC might come out with a 8 cell solution with time if customers demand it and keep requesting it. This is all I can think of right now.