Averatec 3700 Series Notebook Review (pics, specs)

by Andrew Johnson, Alaska USA

Averatec has totally refreshed the design of their 12" notebook line with their 3700 series, which continues Averatec's trend of offering great specifications at a bargain price. This time, however, it's a truly well-rounded machine that combines great looks, strong performance, and a long battery life.

Averatec 3700 Series 12" ScreenNotebook (view larger image)

Specs as tested:

• CPU: Mobile AMD Sempron 3000+ (1.8Ghz)
• OS: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
• LCD Size: 12" XGA (1024x768) traditional anti-glare screen
• Optical Drive: Multi-Format DVD +/- Burner
• Hard Drive 80 GB
• Memory 512MB DDR, shared with video
• Wireless LAN: 802.11g
• Dimensions: 10.79" x 8.82" x 1.21"
• Weight (lbs.) 4.2 lbs.

Build & Design:

The 3700 is a great looking notebook. It has a simple compact design, with nothing sticking out, a flush-fitting battery, and slightly rounded corners. It is a simple white color with one piece of silver trim, and a silver bottom. Compared to the previous generation, it is just a bit thicker, but has a significantly smaller footprint. I greatly prefer this design to some notebooks which seem as if their only goal was to be thin, at the expense of a flimsy feel, wasted space (like a thick bezel around the screen), and a larger footprint. Do buyers really only look at the thickness spec when searching for a small notebook?

When open, the notebook is clean and simple. It has an even, thin bezel around the screen, which looks very nice compared to the thick, space wasting bezels on so many notebooks.

Build quality is the usual fairly sturdy with a bit of flex here and there. A firm push on the back of the LCD will cause ripples to appear, and the keyboard is not super-stiff. Speaking of the LCD, the hinges seem sturdy and well-damped. Also, there is no latch. The LCD just closes and stays closed until you pull it open. Nice.

There seems to be a very small gap between the LCD and keyboard when closed, which worries me somewhat. In the past, I've seen notebooks that mark the LCD with the keyboard over time. It might be wise to use the included LCD sleeve to protect the screen when transporting this notebook.

Averatec 3700 front side view (view larger image)

Averatec 3700 left side view (view larger image)

Averatec 3700 right side view (view larger image)

Averatec 3700 underside (view larger image)

Screen:

The screen is a basic, easy-on-the-eyes matte type. It is 12 inches and 1024x768 resolution. It gets commendably bright, and has good contrast and even backlighting. Viewing angle characteristics are the usual, with a better horizontal than vertical viewing angle.

Speakers:

The speakers definitely impressed me. Not because they sound especially good. Perhaps a little better than most small notebooks. But because they sound good even though they point directly down from the rear of the notebook!

Processor and Performance:

This is my first experience with AMD's Sempron mobile processor. I am impressed. It seems to be a great competitor to Intel's efficient and popular Pentium M. The 3000+ in the Averatec 3700 actually runs at 1.8GHz, and is comparable to a Pentium M at the same speed.

General performance was responsive and snappy, even when using Averatec's hardware "S" for silent mode/battery savings, which locks the CPU speed at 800MHz. This really shows that for most common tasks like office work, web browsing, and DVD viewing, modern processors are far more than fast enough.

Heat and Noise:

I expected a fair amount of heat and noise from a 12" notebook, especially one without a Pentium M. I was wrong.

The 3700 has a fairly large vent and an intelligent fan for keeping the CPU cool. When I first started using the notebook, the fan seemed somewhat loud and also sporadic. Then I found out there is a fan calibration option in the CMOS setup, which I ran. It ran through over 10 different fan speeds, ranging from inaudible to annoyingly loud. Now, depending on CPU load, it will switch between off, almost inaudible, and a hum that isn't too loud. However, when it switches speeds, it revs up to full speed for a second, which is a bit annoying. Still, things are much better after running the fan calibration, which I would recommend anyone do.

As with most notebooks, and especially small ones, heat and noise is proportional to how hard you use the notebook, i.e. what the CPU, video, and hard drive load is. For low load work like typing and web-browsing, the notebook stayed very cool except a little warmth on the right side of the palm rest. The fan cycled onto low speed periodically.

With DVD playback, which heats up many notebooks significantly, the right side only got a little warmer. The left side also began to heat up just slightly. Throughout the entire DVD the fan stayed at the "almost inaudible" setting.

Only running CPU-intensive benchmarks continuously, which use the CPU 100% and don't really emulate normal use (except gaming and rendering graphics), could cause the fan to run at the high speed and the notebook to heat up more. The bottom was warmer than the top palm rest area. However, it never got uncomfortably hot. In fact, it was cooler than an old 12" Averatec I've used gets when just sitting idle! This was tested with the laptop sitting on a flat surface. Literally using it on a lap might make things heat up more because the air intake might be blocked.

Also of note, Averatec's "S" button for silent mode really works. Even with 100% CPU load, the fan would switch to low speed shortly after pressing the button to lower the CPU speed to 800MHz. It also didn't take too long for the fan to shut off after completing the CPU-intensive benchmark, although it would cycle back on periodically.

Benchmarks:

As mentioned before, the 3700 seems plenty quick and snappy for a variety of tasks, especially for a compact notebook. The integrated S3 graphics on the Averatec 3700 make it pretty useless for 3D games. It's really not the purpose of this notebook. However, it does allow an independent external monitor, while some other notebooks only allow the external monitor to mirror the LCD.

To give some numerical comparison to other notebooks, I ran the Super Pi Benchmark.
Super Pi: Time to calculate Pi to 2 million digits: 2:11

Notebook	Time
Averatec 3700(AMDSempron 3000+ 1.8 GHz)	2m 11s
Fujitsu S6231 (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	2m 6s
Sony VAIO FS680 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 53s
IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s
Asus Z70A (1.6GHz Pentium M)	1m 53s
Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 (1.73 GHz Pentium M)	1m 48s
Dell Inspiron 6000D (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	1m 52s
Dell Inspiron 600M (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	2m 10s
Sony VAIO S360 (1.7 GHz Pentium M)	1m 57s
HP DV4170us (Pentium M 1.73 GHz)	1m 53s
Sony VAIO S380 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s

Keyboard and Touchpad:

Averatec 3700 Series keyboard and touchpad(view larger image)

For such a small notebook, the keyboard is very good. It has an almost perfect layout and makes good use of the limited space. The only key that is too small is the right shift key. I would have preferred that the arrow keys be compacted into one row to allow for a full sized right shift, like on Apple keyboards.

The keyboard sounds like a desktop keyboard. A bit more loud and "clicky". Some may like this. There is some flex when you mash the keys, which is something I only notice if I purposefully mash the keys.

The scrolling touchpad is flush with the palm rest, so some might accidentally brush it while typing.

Input and Output Ports:

Aside from the standard array of ports, Averatec included a mini firewire (1394) port and a 4-in-1 multi card reader. The 3 USB 2.0 ports are all on the right side, which could get in the way when using an external mouse on a small surface.

Wireless:

The included 802.11g wireless works very well and connected to my home and work wireless network without problems.

Battery:

Battery life is impressive, especially at this price point. DVDs are always fairly taxing for a system. I was able to get over 2 hours and 10 minutes of DVD playback with the LCD at a comfortable level 5 of 7. On a dark Airplane, this could easily be lowered to increase battery life.

If I am really careful I can squeeze a full 4 hours of battery life out, with LCD brightness at low and doing only simple tasks. If I allowed the screen to turn off, this could be even more.
One little thing that is especially notable to me is that the battery slides in easy, and fits flush. It seems ridiculous when a battery sticks out the back of a notebook.

Operating System and Software:

The 3700 includes Windows XP home and a fairly low amount of "annoyware."

Conclusion:

I am extremely pleased with this notebook. It has a full feature set at a great price, and it looks outstanding. It is surprisingly cool and quiet under most conditions, and battery life, while not excellent, is very good. At this price, a spare battery could double the battery life and still keep the price below the competition. The keyboard is a nice layout which makes good use of the small space offered on a 12" notebook.

Pros

• Attractive design
• Bright, overall nice screen
• Good use of keyboard real-estate
• Fairly sturdy
• Value!
• Good battery life. Battery fits flush instead of jutting out.
• Small power brick

Cons

• Bad USB placement
• Keyboard flex (I don't notice with my typing style)
• Tight clearances make me worry about keyboard touching screen when closed.
• Included sleeve wise to use.

Pricing and Availability: Averatec 3700 Series

 

Great Job!!

 

Say that "S" button is a really user friendly feature, I'd like to see that used more. Underclocking is a great way to conserve battery life when you know you won't need the full power of the processor. Averatec does a great job of providing affordable notebooks that are friendly to users as well. For under $1,000, the 3700 definitely seems like one of the better thin-n-lights -- in fact, good luck finding too many other thin-n-lights under this price point.

 

True, a very user friendly feature. Only gripe is it's difficult to know if it's active or not.

 

nice review, but i'd have to disagree with the heat issue. the left palm rest side gets quite warm after 15 min of idling, right after boot-up, as does the underside.

i like the keyboard action, but it is slightly cramped; right shift key is easy to miss.

overall, decent notebook, but i think it'll be going back.

 

Mine really just barely got warm after even a 2 hour movie. Are you using portable/laptop power mode? Otherwise you are unnecessarily running at 1.8GHz just to idle. Also, did you run the fan calibration?

 

yes, i am using portable/laptop power mode; did not run fan calibration. seems to me that even if idling at max 1.8GHz, the unit should not get as warm as it does. i have a dell 4150 whose palm rests do not get warm, after hours of intense use (video stufff).

i noticed the unit at cc was also warm on left palm rest area.

anyway, i'll try the fan calibration (in cmos, right?) and report back.

also, there seems to be significant keyboard vibration when playing a dvd, less so with a cd.

 

Hmmm, I'm not sure what's under the left palm rest area. It seems like both the CPU and hard drive are on the right, which does get somewhat warm on mine under any use. Unfortunately there are not many 12" notebooks that don't generate a fair amount of heat due to their size.

 

i stand corrected, i meant right palm area and right-side, underneath.

i ran the fan calibration--not sure if it worked correctly because the speed that it automatically selected is just too weak. is there any way i can have it at full power? (the noise won't bother me).
actually, im really not sure if its working properly, because i don't hear the rev-up you talk about and i don't feel any variance in the speed, just the same mild flow.

i watched a 2 hour dvd and the right palm rest was more hot than warm. this was watched with the S button engaged (i checked with a utility i downloaded from amd to check cpu speed; by the way, when it was full-bore, the utility said it was going at 1831GHz and with S button, 792GHz--does that sound right, especially the former?)

i like most aspects of this notebook, but it's going back due to the heat.

maybe i'll give the 4000 series (if i can find one around here) a look.

 

Nice job fascj!!

Really enjoyed your review, your writing is great!!

Plus, that looks like a great 12" notebook, which avoids the blunders of similar 12 inchers.

Once again, well done!

 

Ahhh! Duhhh. I should have known that's what you meant. I believe both the CPU and hard drive are on the right side, but the main source of palm-rest heat is the drive. When the drive spins down from inactivity, the area cools down on my machine.

Perhaps you can trick the fan calibration. It seems to work by inputting a certain amount of power and then reading the speed in an attempt to have certain calibrated speeds. Perhaps if you totally block the in and out vents during calibration, the fan will require more power for the correct RPMs during the calibration, which will make it spin faster under normal use.

Hard to determine if yours is working properly. A single low speed or even off is desirable to many people.

As for your clock speed, these don't seem to be an exact science. Your numbers are fine.

As for the 4200, I reviewed that too, and I can definitely say it was hotter than this one, which is a surprise since it’s bigger. It had almost no air intake location. Someone suggested removing the plastic PC card cover would help. Good luck, and by al means don’t tolerate something that will annoy you.

 

Andrew,

thanks for the tips.

but i think i'll return it; won't bother with 4000 series. may have to shell out the bucks for a fujitsu or ibm (s2000 and z series, respectively, look promising).

over and out.

 

Nice review. I picked up a 3700 the other night and no problems with the unit so far. There are obviously reliability concerns with Averatec, but lots of bang for the buck. For $850 (after rebate) you get a DVD burner, firewire, and 80 gig harddrive. We'll see if the new models will be better built than previous offerings from Averatec.

I wanted something small & light, and this thing fits the bill. The 12.1" standard display is still big enough to view the web and do word processing. Anything much smaller becomes very difficult to see, IMO. I looked at a few thin and lights with widescreen displays, but web pages and most programs do not take advantage of the wider aspect ratio. A 12 inch standard display gives you more screen real estate in this regard than a 14" widescreen.

 

my only con from the specs is the weight. 4.2 lbs for a 12 inch seems heavy by todays standards.

 

Man Averatec are certainly improving.

A tad bit weightly at 4.2lb for 12incher but the no sticking out battery is great.

 

I also have to disagree on the heat produced by the laptop. When I run 1-2 Windows of Firefox and Trillian (a chatting program) if I don't put it either on either the Silent mode or get an external fan blowing onto the right palm rest then the laptop will eventually get too hot and overheat. Though I do have to comment that the overheating protecting is nice, never had a problem starting the laptop up. When it overheats I have to wait for the CPU to cool down before it will let me turn the laptop back on. So, I don't know, it might just be my laptop is messed up, 'cause the CD drive also doesn't work on mine, it will read DVDs, but not CDs, even though it is the combo drive and says it can run both on the drive cover. Great review as well!

 

Hi all,I bought an averatec 3700,but if I press the silent button nothing appens,does someone know why?

 

I solved the problem installing the AMD mobile sempron driver