Averatec 4200 Review (pics, specs)

by Andrew Johnson, Alaska USA

Averatec calls their 4200 series notebook "not too big, not too small...just perfect." For mobile users who want great portability but a more practical screen size and keyboard (and price!), this might be exactly correct.

Averatec 4200 (view larger image)

Averatec 4200 Specs as tested:

• CPU: Intel Pentium M 730 (1.6GHz)
• OS Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
• LCD Size 13.3" WXGA with AveraBrite
• Optical Drive Multi-Format DVD +/- Burner
• Hard Drive 80 GB
• Memory 512MB DDR
• Wireless LAN 802.11b/g
• Dimensions 12.44" x 8.81" x 1.3"
• Weight (lbs.) 4.7 lbs.

Build & Design:

Averatec chose an interesting color scheme for the 4200. When open, the keyboard, palm-rest, and screen bezel are all a simple elegant white. It looks outstanding, and is one of the very few notebooks I've encountered with an even bezel width surrounding the screen. This is how notebooks should look.

I think the white theme would have looked great all around, but Averatec chose a blue-metallic flake finish for the back of the screen, with silver trim, adding at least one too many colors. The bottom is silver as well.

The build quality is OK but not spectacular. It seems to be better than older Averatec notebooks and as good as or better than a lot of small notebooks. There is a still a little flex all over, including the keyboard. The LCD will show ripples only with a hard push on the back of the screen. There is no LCD latch, which is great! The screen just closes and stays closed. Latches always seem to be the first thing to break, and the Averatec looks more sleek without one.

Averatec 4200 above view of lid (view larger image)

Averatec 4200 Right side view (view larger image)

Averatec 4200 above right side view (view larger image)

Averatec 4200 under side view (view larger image)

Build quality issues or just shipping to Alaska?

When I received the notebook the optical drive looked like it stuck out a fraction of an inch too much. When I turned on the computer the drive did not work. All I had to do is loosen a set screw and push the drive in, and then everything worked out fine.

Also, in my testing I wasn't able to run HD Tune all the way through because there were a couple bad sectors on the hard drive. Averatec did offer to send a replacement immediately, however.

Screen:

The screen is the popular glossy type and comparable to other manufacturers screens. It has fantastic crispness, saturation and contrast and it is very bright. Blacks are very deep, and the illumination is very even. Its viewing angle performance is average for a good notebook, and DVD's look great.

Speakers:

The two tiny speakers point forward and slightly down, and while not impressive actually get fairly loud and are not too bad.

Processor and Performance:

The efficient Pentium M processor is fast, even at the 1.6GHz speed available with the Averatec. The 4200 is fast and snappy in all tasks. Program loading is a bit slow due to the 4200RPM hard drive. A 7200 rpm drive would really speed things up.

Heat and Noise:

In my testing the Averatec was extremely quiet. In fact, the fan was almost always off. When it turns on it is loud enough to be heard up close in a room with people talking, but it is not an annoying sound or unusually loud. The right side of the palm rest got a bit warm under light use but not uncomfortably so. Under heavier use it got a bit too warm for my tastes, and the entire notebook warms some. Underneath gets even warmer and sometimes hot. Maybe the fan should come on more. On the bright side, the fan has long cycles. It doesn't turn on and off annoyingly.

Benchmarks:

With an Intel 915 chipset and integrated graphics, the Averatec 4200 is not a gaming notebook. Still, the Intel solution is much better than some other integrated graphic solutions, and will play plenty of older 3D games like Battlefield 1942.

Super Pi Results: below are times it takes for the 4200 and competing notebooks to calculate Pi to 2 million digits of accuracy:

Notebook	Time
Averatec 4200 (1.6GHz Pentium M)	2m 02s
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

HD Tune: As mentioned before, the hard drive had a few bad sectors which prevented a full test of the HD Tune benchmark from running. However, I achieved a maximum 32.7 megabytes and a minimum of about 20 megs very near the end of the test where it encountered and errored.

Keyboard and Touchpad:

The keyboard is both good and bad. I like the layout, with delete easy to find in the corner and an extra column for home, pgup, pgdn, end keys. However it's not quite full sized, and the "enter," backspace, and right shift keys are especially small. I happen to be fond of all three of these keys, so it's too bad they don't get the full size they deserve. This annoys me because there is room for a bigger keyboard too, which seems to be a common problem with notebooks. I wonder if it was an aesthetic choice because the keyboard is precisely the same width as the screen. It does look good, but in this case I would have preferred function over form.

The touchpad is sleek and flush with the palm rest, as are the two mouse buttons. The touchpad has scrolling function. The buttons don't have as positive of a feel as some, and it's a bit easy to accidentally brush the touchpad while typing.

Averatec 4200 Keyboard and Touchpad view (view larger image)

Input and Output Ports:

Nothing out of the ordinary here, but the layout is well thought out. The 4200 includes the standard USB 2.0 ports (one on the right, two on the left), a mini 1394 (firewire), modem, Ethernet, s-video, and VGA ports. There is also a 4-in-1 media card reader. It doesn't read Compact Flash, which is the only type of memory card I use. Bummer.

Wireless:

As part of the Centrino package, there is built in Intel pro wireless 802.11b/g wireless LAN. It works well and connected to an assortment of wireless hotspots in my area, as well as my home wireless network, without problems.

Battery:

Averatec has a couple of unique battery saving features. It is an integrated button somewhat unintuitively labeled "S," which toggles a low power mode on and off. This lets you change between performance and battery saving modes quickly without using software. There is also a function key which toggles the LCD off without putting the notebook to sleep. Useful for people conscientious enough to use the feature. Another feature that can be enabled in BIOS is an auto dimming of the LCD after no user input for a while. This also saves the LCD backlight. Even with these features, battery life is nothing amazing for this type of notebook. Also, strangely, my Windows battery meter didn't give a time estimate for battery life. It only listed a percentage.

Battery life varies greatly with usage, but I was able to get over 3 hours with regular light use with wireless on and screen brightness at a comfortable level. DVD playback was a useful 140 minutes with wireless off and screen at maximum.

Operating System and Software:

The 4200 includes Windows XP home and a fairly low amount of "annoyware." Microsoft Works and Cyberlink DVD are included and useful.

Complaints:

There's not much to complain about. Averatec put together a nice looking notebook that offers a lot for its price. My biggest complaint is the keyboard. I don't understand why something that costs 100 times more than a decent desktop keyboard doesn't have an amazing one itself! Also the notebook gets too warm sometimes, but the fan only comes on when it gets even hotter. I think things would be better if the fan just kicked on at a lower speed.

Praises:

13.3" is a great size for a widescreen notebook. It's small and light, but fits comfortably in your lap. The keyboard is not as cramped as an ultraportable, and 1280x800 is a great resolution for this size screen. It would be too little for a 15.4" notebook and too much for a smaller notebook.

Conclusion:

The Averatec 4200 series is a great notebook with good specifications at a very competitive price. The Multi Format DVD burner is a real bonus at this price range. It also looks great! It's easy to buy because there are not many options. It comes well equipped but won't be best for those who like to customize. Battery life is worse than many competitors like Fujitsu and IBM, but the cost savings might be more than worth it if that's not your top priority. As long as the build quality holds up, it's a great choice.

Pros:

• Great looks
• Good performance
• Fantastic screen
• Great value
• Good battery life
• Quiet

Cons:

• Build quality / quality control not top notch.
• Heat
• Keyboard could be improved upon

Pricing and Availability

 

for a notebook of $1200 and the features you get here, you can't complain too much. I've found that Averatec has always been a little lacking in the build quality column, their notebooks always look and feel like plastic, but they of course make up for that in the value column because that's their play in the market. The fact they give you a glossy widescreen finish, Pentium M 1.6GHz processor, a nice array of ports, portability and a halfway decent build you just can't complain too much.

Nice review fsacj!

 

Nice review!!!

It's good to see a more obscure manufacturer reviewed here. I am going to recommend this in the forums, looks like a great notebook for the money.

 

I guess this reply actually does not belong here. But I just thought
it might be fun to see how well (or bad) my 3.5 year old Dell Inspiron 8100
(933 MHz PIII, 512 MB SDRAM) would do on the super-pi test.
To calculate pi to 2 million (actually 2097152) decimal digits
it needed 4 min 17 sec. I don't think that's too bad........

Maybe it's because I run linux (Fedora core 4)?

 

I think the 4200 is a great device. It's definitely a much more economical alternative to sony's S-series VIAOs which are generously overpriced. I think 13.3" is the perfect size becuase 14" is still too big and 12" is too small.

 

Andrew Johnson, you just take the best photos in your reviews! What kind of equipment do you use?

My boss and a co-worker both own Avaratec notebooks. They offer an excellent value and I'm sure the 4200 is no exception.

 

I aggree with everyone here... The Averatecs are an amazing value.

As for the photos, thanks! I used a canon 20D and a 24-70mm lens for these photos, but the real trick is the lighting. I use a soft-box which emits light over a large area rather than a point-source like a lightbulb or flash. I also usually shoot on a light table (normally used to view slides) for a perfect white background. Although I did forget to cut out a bit of junk on one of the photos. oops. Sometimes a bit of Photoshop perfection is needed.

 

I love the pearl white color on it, like the Ibooks. Its really sleek and sexy looking and a great price too. On the Averatec forums at www.averatecforums.com, there's been a new 4200 released with a 1.86 Pentium M overseas, should hopefully come here soon.

Staples is having a sale on this computer for $950, but I think its been sold out already. With the money you save on this notebook, you can buy an extra battery or two.

 

try removing the pcmcia slot cover when you use 4200/ the heat will go out by the `ventilation`

 

Hi fsacj and others.
Thanks for the great review, I went and bought one of these babies based on the pictures and writings (and the specs/price of course), and love it.

Only one problem, I think that it does have "build quality" issues, as my optical drive also arrived protruding and is undetectable in BIOS or Windows. Hmm. In fact, I noticed that a display model in my local Circuit City had an identical problem, asked the salesman and he just whimpered something about customers beating up the display models.

I've had a poke around with a screwdriver, but cannot find the "set screw" that you loosened to fix yours up. I'm hoping that this will fix my little problem too, as other than this (major!) problem, it's a beauty. So, any chance you could help me find it?!
Thanks!

(also wondered if it had held up after the initial repair, or is it a recurring nightmare?!)

 

In case anyone else has the same problem, here's the reply fsacj was kind enough to offer. Saved me one hell of a fight with the supplier (not averatec, saveateagle.com). He's right, you just have to give it a firm push in and yehaa.

 

I experience the same issue with the DVD drive: it protuded slightly and wasn't recognized. I'm glad I read this forum, because after pushing it in, the drive works fine, and it saved me from backing up the entire system and shipping the unit to Averatec! Unfortunately, when I called tech support in December they didn't alert me to this possibility. However they were friendly and professional.

(Concerning tech support, be aware that Averatec requests the user to perform a full backup of the hard drive before shipment. This is of course good advice, but the reason given was that tech support might wipe the drive in the course of repair, not because of damage during shipping. In that case, it seems reasonble they'd backup the drive, epsecially considering that without a working dvd/cd burner, backup is difficult for those without access to a LAN or an external drive. Also, they don't do RAM upgrades; this isn't terrible, but considering doing it oneself voids the warranty, it'd be convenient.)

The protuding drive issue aside, the 4270 does meet my needs, but I'm unimpressed overall. The build quality is mediocre but not unexpected. The case has a flimsy feel: the screen twists when lowering and raising it and there's marks from the keys on the display, which also attracts dust and smears easily. One of the USB ports is flakey. The "media center" button does little more than launch Windows Media Player, pretty pointless. And I find the fan can get noisy; it must be variable, it often goes on for me when paging. Perhaps the reviewer heard it on a lower spee.d

But the build quality is a minor issue, the more important is that the machine just feels slow. It's certainly far slower compared to my 1.7mhz P4 desktop. The battery life is also unimpressive; I find it to be less than two hours. In retrospect, I'd rather have spent a coupple hundred extra on a Lenovo/IBM, which are built like tanks and get excellent reviews in PCMag's reader survey.

 

Very nice review and excellent photos. Averatec 4100 and 4200 series has the problem with DVD Drive not being properly locked for many laptops. It is quite common among this series( I do not know why). And also I saw more complaints about HDD problems in averatec laptops.

I considered 4100 series( same chasis with Turion processor) before my V2000z purchase. I felt this is ideal size and weight for laptop and looks great too. But it was quite expensive( at that time atleast), and also I felt it much warmer/hot when compared to V2000z/L2000 series.

If only they improve the build/material quality and heat issues, this would be the one of the best laptops with ideal size.