Compal HEL80 Review (pics, specs)

by gotgenes

NOTE: This review covers the non-VBI version of the Compal HEL80. This can also be considered a review for PowerNotebooks.com's PowerPro L 8:15.

Overview and Introduction

In early June, Compal released its newest 15.4" whitebook, the HEL80. Based around the Intel 945 GM chipset, this notebook targets users interested in a lot of power in a semi-portable form. The notebook proves to be quite feature-rich for a very reasonable price.

The Compal HEL80 (Click for larger image.)

Configurable options:

• Up to 2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo processor offered by most resellers; Merom (aka Intel Core 2 Duo) ready
• Up to 2 GB DDR667 RAM
• Up to 100 GB 7200 RPM drive offered by most resellers
• DVD read-only CD-writable optical drive standard, upgradable to dual-layer DVD+/-RW optical drive
• WXGA (1280 x 800) glossy or WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050) matte screens available
• Optional built-in Bluetooth
• Optional built-in TV tuner with remote

Standard goodies:

• nVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 with 256 onboard memory
• Realtek ALC883 Intel HD Audio
• Built-in microphone
• 9-cell battery
• Fingerprint reader
• 0.3 megapixel camera (interpolated to 1.3 megapixels with Windows software on the Windows Drivers CD)
• ElanTech programmable touchpad with a scroll area on the side
• Media buttons, email and internet browser buttons, two configurable media buttons
• Realtek RTL8168/8111 Gigabit NIC
• Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG wireless NIC
• See Input and Output Ports below for list of available ports

The Compal HEL80 reviewed in this article came configured with a WXGA (1280 x 800) glossy screen, a 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, Arctic Silver 5 instead of stock thermal paste, an 80 GB 7200 RPM hard drive, 2 GB of DDR667 RAM, and dual-layer DVD+/-RW optical drive, in addition to the standard features above. I also ordered built-in Bluetooth, however, at the time of construction, as well as the time of this writing, the Bluetooth module was unavailable, and so will not be reviewed here, but I hope to report on it in the near future. As I did not purchase the optional TV tuner, this shall not be covered in this review.

Reasons for Buying

I began looking for a notebook in preparation for entering graduate school for a degree in bioinformatics (an interdisciplnary field of biology, computer science, mathematics, and statistics). Performance really helps when working with very large datasets, so I wanted to buy a notebook that could substitute for a desktop in terms of horsepower. This meant I would likely need to look at whitebooks (configurable notebooks available from notebook resellers, as opposed to Ensemble units that the ODMs mean to be sold as-is).
I also value quiet (which is synonymous with cool temperatures in notebooks), and very readable screens, both particularly for the late night hours prime for hacking my own terribly malformed code. I prefer a widescreen aspect ratio for the benefits of being able to have two documents side-by-side (or at least only partially overlapping).

I wanted a notebook that I could comfortably tote in a backpack, as, in between hugging trees and saving whales, I prefer to commute by bike, and it's always nice to work in a coffee shop rather than at my desk every now and again.

Finally, Linux is my primary operating system of choice, so I considered it mission-critical to find a notebook with Linux-friendly hardware.
I considered 14.1" notebooks like the ASUS W3J and the ASUS A8JM, however, I grew wary at reports of warm temperatures and active fans in these notebooks. Additionally, I disliked the pre-configured nature of these notebooks, and the limited one-year warranties. This led me to look at 15.4" whitebooks.

ASUS released their S96J configurable whitebook a few weeks prior to the release of the Compal HEL80. This notebook received a very good review from NBR, and plenty of positive comments in the S96J Owner's Lounge thread in the NBR ASUS forum. However, just as I set out to buy an S96J, Compal unveiled it's upcoming Intel Centrino Duo-based notebooks for Summer 2006, the 15.4" HEL80 and the 14.1" HGL30. Both notebooks had very appealing specs, and I decided I could hold off purchasing a notebook for a few more weeks until they were released.

The Compal HEL80 finally arrived to resellers in early June, while the HGL30's release date still remained unknown. After a phone conversation with Donald Stratton at PowerNotebooks.com, I decided to go with the HEL80 due to its immediate availability, additional features over the ASUS S96J, use of nVIDIA GO 7600 rather than the ASUS' ATI X1600 (currently, nVIDIA still holds a strong performance lead in Linux graphics drivers), and acceptable form-factor.

Where and How Purchased

As mentioned above, I purchased the Compal HEL80 from PowerNotebooks.com over the phone with the ever-helpful, patient, and knowledgeable Donald Stratton (a.k.a., Paladin44 on the NBR forums). I purchased this notebook under the PowerPro line (model L 8:15), which comes default with a three-year parts, labor, and shipping warranty. PowerNotebooks.com also sells the notebook under the Crown line (model P 15:2), for those who want either a one-year parts, labor, and shipping warranty, or a warranty that includes accidental damage protection and/or on-site technical support.

I highly recommend purchasing a Compal HEL80 through PowerNotebooks.com; their customer service goes above and beyond the call. I also recommend calling in your order rather than going through their website, as they have very prime special offers only available by phone. I chose to go with standard shipping over expedited 2-day express, so my notebook made it from Nevada to Georgia in precisely two weeks after I placed my order with Donald. [Edit: Oops! PowerNotebooks.com is based in Nevada, not Arizona. Thanks to Donald Stratton at PowerNotebooks.com for pointing out my error. Apologies to PowerNotebooks! Boy, do I feel so geographically inane, now. -gg]

Build and Design, Input and Output Ports

Compal really knows how to build a solid notebook, as demonstrated by the HEL80. Aside from the small amount of screen flex at the back of the notebook, I could find nothing wrong with the notebook's construction. Members of the NBR forums expressed concern about the extended 9-cell battery; however, I would like to report that the battery only protrudes 3/4" from the back of the notebook, and appears and feels quite contiguous with the notebook.


Shot for scale size of the HEL80, DVD jewel case to the right of it (Click for larger image.)


Another shot for scale size of the HEL80

The notebook probably comes in as one of the largest 15.4" notebooks new on the market. It measures 14.25" x 11" (with 9-cell battery) or 10.25" (with 6-cell battery) x 1.75", and weighs 6.95 pounds with the 9-cell battery. Thus, the notebook has a large-ish footprint and sizable weight; you certainly will notice carrying this notebook around. Since I'm happy to use backpacks, this does not bother me too much, however let the buyer beware. I think of it more as a desktop-replacement notebook in a size and weight that's more portable than the 17" equivalents of this hardware.

Compal placed the ports, slots, and vents in all the right places. Here's a quick listing of the ports of the HEL80:

• VGA out
• S-Video out
• Three USB ports
• One IEEE-1394 Firewire port
• One Type II PCMCIA slot
• One Express Card slot
• One multi-memory card reader (Secure Digital SM/MMC, Memory stick/Memory Stick Pro).

Back side of the HEL80 (Click for larger image.)

Going from left to right sides, the back of the notebook has the AC adapter input, a 1 3/4" vent, modem input jack, 9-cell battery, Kensington-compatible lock slot, and S-VIDEO out.


Left side of the HEL80 (Click for larger image.)

Going from back to front of the left side of the notebook, one finds the TV tuner slot, a 2 1/4" vent, one USB port, one Firewire port, the RJ45 Ethernet cable input, and the Type II PCMCIA slot and Express Card slot.


Right side of the HEL80 (Click for larger image.)

Going from back to front on the right side, one has access to the VGA output, optical drive, two USB ports, and the microphone and headphones jacks. Wiring the computer up to an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse/trackball is easily done without jumbled, criss-crossed cords, something very important to me, as I commonly use the notebook with external hardware at work and at home. My only criticism with regards to ports is the choice of a VGA rather than DVI port, however, most modern LCD monitors function very well with VGA input.


Left of front side of HEL80 (Click for larger image.)


Middle of front side of HEL80 (Click for larger image.)


Right of front side of HEL80 (Click for larger image.)

The front of the notebook, going from left to right, features the left speaker, the multimedia card reader, Bluetooth indicator LED, hardware-level wireless card on/off switch, power, battery, and hard disk indicator LEDs, port for the TV remote receiver, and the right speaker. [Edit: Thanks to Donald Stratton at PowerNotebooks.com for informing me the window was not for an IR port but for the TV remote receiver. -gg]

I'd like to make some comments on the LEDs because I feel their coloring is worthy of note. The power and hard-disk access are an awesome white LED color, while the wireless LED is an innocuous orange color. The battery indicator switches from an orange LED when charging, to a green LED when fully charged, to being off when running on battery, to a flashing orange when battery power is critical. As I don't have Bluetooth yet, I cannot comment on the Bluetooth indicator LED. The choice of colors is nice, quickly informative, and I really love the white color of the white LEDs.

Just above the keyboard lie the Caps, Num, and Scroll Lock indicator LEDs, respectively, the two programmable buttons simply labeled 1 and 2, the web browser and mail client quick-launch buttons, and the main power button, which also features a very cool white LED.

I have few comments on the bottom of the notebook. It looks rather standard but there is no flex, with the expected exception of the open grills over the fan and heatsink areas. It's a testament to the solid, minimal frills construction of the HEL80.


Top panel of the HEL80--note the aluminum veneer. (Click for larger image.)

For the more subjective part of this section, I'd like to start by saying that I find the HEL80 to be a good looking notebook in a subtle, understated sort of way. The top of the notebook is a silver plastic with much of the surface area a brushed aluminum veneer that I find quite attractive without being flashy (subtle, subdued). The remainder of the keyboard is constructed out of a high-grade black plastic. I suppose black is now an "out" color, as it seems that the majority of notebooks being sold these days are some sort of metallic/silver or iPod white. I've always enjoyed bucking the trends, and I tend to have more conservative tastes, so I definitely appreciate the subdued, confident look of the black on this notebook.


Keyboard and touchpad face of HEL80 (Click for larger image.)

Even better than black, though, is black with highlights, and the Compal design team really knows highlights! The keyboard is bounded by an aluminum veneer, with a rather aesthetically pleasing 1/8" copper veneer circumscribing the very edge of the keyboard. Also of note are the lines on this notebook--a good blend of hard beveled edges with smooth, rounded corners. I particularly like the rounded top edge of the keyboard surface, as there's no hard plastic edge to dig into your wrists, and I hope other manufacturers take note of this design. This notebook doesn't make much of a statement, but it does provide an easy-to-look-at platform that lets its powerful hardware do the talking.

Screen

As mentioned earlier, I purchased the HEL80 with the glossy WXGA resolution (1280 x 800) screen. In the three weeks that I've owned the computer, I have found one stuck pixel. Even though I have the lower resolution screen, the pixel is far from obvious and requires me searching the general area each time to find it.


An extreme look at the horizontal viewing angle of HEL80 WXGA glossy screen (Click for larger image.)

In terms of grayscale, horizontal viewing angles are excellent. The angle at which you can read a text document is limited only by your ability to read letters on a skewed plane. For colors, the viewing angle is less than stellar, though still fair; I estimate that within approximately 30 degrees off center the colors and contrast begin to skew, with 60 degrees from center creating a large loss in color integrity.


An extreme look at the vertical viewing angle of HEL80 WXGA glossy screen (Click for larger image.)

Vertical viewing angles on the HEL80 are not good. Even viewing the screen straight on, I can detect contrast and brightness variation from top to bottom, with the top having greater brightness and contrast than the bottom. This can be noticeable when watching DVDs, though I find my brain quickly adjusts. Viewing the screen from any degrees below center causes a perceived drop in brightness and contrast, though the screen is quite readable. Viewing the screen from any degrees above center causes a perceived increase in brightness yet a decrease in contrast, making even black and white text frustrating to read. I do notice, particularly on the black screens of bootup, that the bottom of the screen shows some bleeding of white. This is not obnoxious but I feel it important to point it out, as it will be obvious.


Vibrant colors of the glossy screen (Click for larger image.)

Now, when viewing the screen with one person, dead-on, colors are quite vibrant. In low-lit indoor environments, I find the screen to be very readable even at the lowest brightness and excessively bright at full brightness. In well-lit indoor environments, such as the research lab I work in, at full brightness is quite comfortable and very readable. The screen is rated at 150 nits of brightness, so while you can find notebooks with brighter screens, I don't feel a brighter screen to be necessary. I believe the screen is rated somewhere close to 18ms for gray-to-gray, which is quite acceptable, and I detect no ghosting in visually-demanding applications.


Near mirror-like reflection off the unlit glossy screen in a sunlit room (Click for larger image.)


Reflection off mid-level brightness glossy screen in a sunlit room (Click for larger image.)


Reflection off the glossy screen in a sunlit room on a darker scene from 3DMark05 (Click for larger image.)

As the screen is glossy, there is reflection from ambient light in the environment, particularly windows on a sunny day (see above pictures). I grew up with CRT technology so my brain automatically removes all but the most obnoxious of glares., However, if you are sensitive to reflections and find them very distracting, strongly consider the WSXGA+ matte option, and as always, go visit a local electronics retailer and look at the notebooks there. Every notebook in the Best Buy and Circuit City in my area features a glossy screen, so I found it pretty easy to get a feel for a glossy screen.

One final comment on the WXGA resolution. I think this is a standard resolution, and projects text and pictures at the size at which the overwhelming majority of North American computer users are viewing their screens. It is certainly very comfortable to read. You will be able to have two documents side-by-side, but you will likely have to have the edges of their windows overlap. If this will drive you absolutely nuts, I advise you to go with the WSXGA+ matte screen for more screen real estate, just be aware that text and pictures will appear smaller, as well.

Overall, I feel content with the screen, however, it is important to realize its limitations, particularly when gathering several pairs of eyeballs around it. Make sure your boss is at the same eye level as you when you point at a figure on the screen, or rotate the screen back to make sure that he or she can see what you're pointing at, and DVDs are probably best viewed with two or fewer pairs of eyes, with three pushing it. Due to the brightness and contrast latitudinal variation of the screen, I would strongly urge people of the visual arts where color is critical to look at a different notebook or only do work on an external screen whose capabilities you trust. For all others, however, the screen should be quite adequate.

Speakers

Perhaps in recompense of the underwhelming WXGA resolution screen, the speakers of the HEL80 prove superb considering their diminutive size, which makes me happy as an audiophile. I find them remarkably powerful, as, fully cranked, I can hear the notebook playing music or DVDs in the living room of my apartment from the kitchen. Of course, such small speakers are lacking in bass, but in the mids and highs, they're quite good. I wouldn't try to mix a recording of the London Philharmonic using the HEL80's speakers, but they're definitely up to snuff for watching a movie during a car trip, or serving as a portable media player at a camp site.

Processor and Performance

I don't have much to comment on here. Again, I purchased this notebook with a 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo processor and 2 GB of DDR667 RAM and 80 GB 7200 RPM hard disk drive. Bootup into Ubuntu Linux with the nVIDIA binary video driver takes 1 minute 20 seconds to login screen. Bootup into Windows login takes almost precisely one minute. Applications load with mouthwatering swiftness, particularly noticeable for hefty apps like OpenOffice.org, The GIMP, and Blender. The best part is that with the dual cores, you perceive no sluggishness in currently open applications. Quite frankly, this much speed and smoothness of operation spoils me.
As I don't play PC games, I cannot comment on game performance, though I imagine it's excellent for a notebook of this form-factor, and quite comparable to the ASUS S96J.

Benchmarks

• 3DMark05 score: 3093
  
• PCMark05 score: 3831
• Super Pi: 1m 45s
• HDTune results:
  

The 3DMark05 score lacks any wow factor, for sure. Again, I do not play PC games, but reports state that despite the low 3DMark05 scores, real-world game performance does not disappoint. In addition, I have not overclocked my notebook from the default 350/350. See Paladin44's HEL80 overclocking thread in the NBR forums to see the marked improved performance of the overclocked GeForce Go 7600.

Heat and Noise

The Compal HEL80 runs cool and quiet, particularly when considering the processor, full-fledged dedicated GPU, and 7200 RPM hard drive. When doing my typical tasks with spreadsheets, word processors, text editors, web browsing, and email, the fan tends to spend a lot more time off than on. In Ubuntu Linux, the processors are throttled down to 1 GHz until performing something CPU intensive such as hard disk indexing, compiling, or running 3D applications, when one or both of the processors will throttle up to 1.5 GHz or the full 1.83 GHz, and the fan will also step up its speed and become an audible "whoosh" that I don't find disruptive. Within seconds of the compilation or app finishing, the fan returns to normal quiet levels.

Immediately upon bootup, the Compal HEL80 will blast the fans at full throttle, which can be rather noisy, though I've never heard them at this level during even the heaviest of tasks. Use of the optical drive on the Compal HEL80 will actually provide the noisiest experience with the notebook, as you'll definitely find out should you decide to go the install-your-own-OS route. I would definitely not try burning a dual-layer DVD in the middle of a million-dollar business meeting, if you catch my drift.

The majority of the warm air within the notebook exits out of the two exhaust vents at the back left side of the notebook, wonderful news for right-handed users who like to use external mice. However, our left-handed friends have nothing to fear, as the air escapes as anywhere between balmy to quite warm, but never what I would describe as hot.

The warmest area of the notebook is the top of the touchpad and the areas directly to the left and right of the top of the touchpad. Admittedly these are areas that, for touch typists, your hands may be in constant contact with, however, to reiterate, these areas are warm, not hot to the touch. I find the temperatures to be quite acceptable.

In summary, the Compal HEL80 has excellent heat and noise levels.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The standard-sized keyboard does show signs of flexing, particularly over the optical drive. The keys depress to a typical depth for notebooks, a few millimeters. Aside from the far right side of the keyboard, all keys depress and return in a very quiet manner, though it's important to note that some of the very important keys (Return, Backspace, Del, Home, End, etc.) do reside on the far right side of the keyboard.

I do find the position of the Function and Control keys on the bottom left side of the keyboard to totally counterintuitive in position. In my opinion, as a critical, highly used key, the Control key should always be located at the far bottom-left corner, and the Function key ought to be placed to the right of that. Ask any UI designer and they will tell you that the four easiest points to hit are the four corners. On this notebook, however, the Function key occupies the coveted extreme bottom-left corner. I have learned to live with this but I continue to press Fn and some key when I meant to press a Ctrl-based shortcut combination. Within a few repetitions of this error, though, I catch myself and position my fingers accordingly when going for the Ctrl key. In summary, certainly, I have tried out worse keyboards in other notebooks, and I find the keyboard on the Compal acceptable—worthy neither of high praise nor harsh criticism.


HEL80 quick-launch buttons (Click for larger image.)


HEL80 media buttons (Click for larger image.)

The media keys located to the left of the keyboard and prove quite accessible. When resellers just began selling the Compal HEL80, they advertised the notebook as having a feature called "Instant-On Media Player" (IOMP), which allowed display and playing of media such as CDs and DVDs without booting into an OS. A similar feature can be found under various names from other notebook sellers, for example, in the new HP line of notebooks.

Early HEL80 owners tried to figure out how to get this feature to work, as the media button labeled "MODE On/OFF" proved capable of powering on the notebook. However, the notebook continued to boot into an OS and fellow owners and I could not find a way to subvert this and play media. The staff at PowerNotebooks.com contacted Compal directly on our behalf and discovered that this advertised feature was not actually present on the HEL80s, much to the disappointment of the HEL80 owners. Thus, while the media keys are convenient, they're wholly unnecessary, as, with the exception of the "MODE On/Off" key, which launches your multimedia application of choice (in either Windows or Linux), the play/pause, rewind, and fast-forward keys are simply duplicates of keys available through the Fn key in combination with F9 through F12, respectively. I think this is another case of an artifact in the notebook from an earlier design. Still, all current HEL80 owners are hoping for a firmware update that gives IOMP capability to this notebook. Don't purchase this notebook counting on it, though.

While I'm not fond of touchpads, the ElanTech touchpad on the HEL80 earns my respect as an input device. It responds very well, and features excellent sensitivity, and very good recognition of one-, two-, or three- finger touching and tapping, even in Linux. I find its surface comfortable, even after long use of 4-5 hour sessions. The dedicated vertical scroll area to the right of the main touchpad area comes in handy and I find myself taking advantage of it extremely frequently.

The left- and right-click buttons below the touchpad prove quite usable, depressing at the perfect depth, with a satisfying click. In a quiet area such as a library, study lounge, or airplane cabin, I think the click would be irritating to people nearby, and in those situations, I opt to just use the touchpad for clicking actions.

Wireless

As mentioned above, the Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG NIC provides wireless services for this notebook. I'm most happy to report that this card performs excellently not only under Windows XP, but also out-of-the-box under Ubuntu Linux's latest release, 6.06 LTS (codename Dapper Drake), thanks to the awesome folks behind the ipw3945 project. I do notice better automatic network detection under Windows XP, however, I believe this boils down to configuration and software in Ubuntu that I simply have not found time to futz around with yet, as it works well enough far more often than not. Speeds in either OS prove excellent. I have not yet tried Ad-Hoc mode, but hope to get around to doing so later this summer.

Battery

In Ubuntu Linux, doing typical (heavy web browsing, word processing, etc.) tasks, I see between three and close to (but not quite) four hours of battery life, mostly depending on screen brightness. As mentioned, in a dimly lit room, the screen can be very comfortably viewed at the lowest brightness setting. I have definitely not gone past the four hour mark yet. I cannot comment on battery life in Windows XP, as I simply do not spend enough time within that OS to give a first-hand report. I'm quite glad for the 9-cell battery and the extra hour or so of power it provides. I'm sure gamers should expect to see very diminished battery life when playing games, perhaps more along an hour and a half to two hours.

Operating System and Software (also Linux Compatibility)

Buying a whitebook from a notebook reseller often leads to the benefit of not having to pay for an operating system if you don't want it, though all resellers I've seen offer the option of installing some version of Windows XP for you for a reasonable extra charge. As a Linux user, I love this, though I did purchase an OEM copy of Windows XP Home, as I need to make sure that my cross-platform programs I develop truly run cross-platform. Both Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux 6.06 LTS (aka, Dapper Drake release) installed without a hitch.

I have to say, the Windows XP install took entirely too long for my tastes, requiring a reboot for nearly every driver installed to support the notebook's hardware, taking me around an hour and a half to complete. Three more reboots were necessary to fully update Windows XP. If I didn't require a dual-boot setup and only used Windows XP, knowing what I know now, I would have had PowerNotebooks.com install Windows XP for me, to save me some time. It would have been worth the extra couple of bucks compared to purchasing an OEM version and installing it myself.

Ubuntu Linux took me less than an hour to complete, and that's including a custom, tweaked out install and verifying the CD had no defects. Ubuntu Linux required three reboots: one at the end of installation to boot into the freshly installed OS, one after updating the system, as an updated kernel was downloaded and installed during the automatic update, and once after downloading the 686 kernel that allows for Symmetric Multi-Processors (SMP), (e.g., utilization of both cores). If I had been paying attention, I could have cut this down to just two reboots by downloading and installing the 686 kernel at the same time as the system update happened. You just have to love the uptime of Linux! Excepting kernel and Xorg updates, no software update ever requires a reboot.

The integrated webcam, fingerprint reader, and multimedia card reader do not yet have driver support in Linux. I am unsure about the modem at this point. It certainly does not work out of the box, but drivers may be available for it. I do not yet know about Linux support for the Bluetooth module, but will report when I receive it. Other than those exceptions, all hardware works out of the box on Ubuntu Linux. Hibernate (suspend to disk) works properly in Ubuntu, however, currently Suspend (suspend to RAM) has issues with turning the screen back on; I am investigating this matter currently.

For software, with Ubuntu, you get all critical software such as a web browser (Firefox), email client (Evolution, though I prefer to use Thunderbird, which can be easily obtained through either Synaptic or the Gnome Application Installer), office productivity software (OpenOffice.org 2.0 suite), picture editor (The GIMP), multimedia applications (Rhythmbox, Totem movie player), and so on. I would like to bestow the following advice to those interested in using Ubuntu that there is a very nice tool called EasyUbuntu which will help you install software that, due to legal and licensing restrictions, is not included in the Ubuntu installation or software repositories (e.g., MP3, Quicktime, and Windows codecs, Macromedia Flash Player, Microsoft TrueType fonts, etc.) It is a cinch to use, and I highly recommend it. Of course, these are just some of the default programs installed, and there are loads of totally free programs available for download from the Ubuntu and supporting repositories. For anyone interested in installing Ubuntu, feel free to post either in the NBR Linux forum or on the Ubuntu forums if you need/want assistance. I'm always glad to help others, especially those trying Linux for the first time.

For Windows, the HEL80 came with a CD of drivers and software for the chipset, nVIDIA graphics card, NICs, webcam, OmniPass software for the fingerprint reader to associate passwords with your fingerprint, Intel wireless manager software, and watchdog software and something called TPM that I've yet to install. Also included for Windows XP are Nero DVD/CD burning software and PowerDVD player.

Customer Support

As mentioned above, I purchased the Compal HEL80 from PowerNotebooks.com as their PowerPro L 8:15. Customer support from PowerNotebooks.com proves nothing short of excellent. I have yet to call technical support for a problem. This comes in for two reasons: the notebook has not shown any problems thus far, and Donald Stratton often answers any questions we may have on the NBR forums before we even need to call Tech Support.

Having communicated with Donald through the NBR forums, email, and phone, I can say that PowerNotebooks.com has a truly knowledgeable sales staff that will help you find exactly what you need. Donald even saved me some extra money by telling me to hold off on an extra battery until I get a feel for the Compal and determine if I will really need it. Where else do you call to purchase something and the sales staff tries to find ways to help you save money? PowerNotebooks.com gets an A+ in my book, and I look forward to purchasing my next notebook with them.

Conclusion

The Compal HEL80 proves to be an extremely good notebook in the 15.4" widescreen form-factor, with awesome value to performance. I highly recommend this notebook to anyone whose preference defers to performance without totally sacrificing portability. For those interested in a similarly powerful and feature-rich notebook, but willing to spend a little more for greater portability, I recommend waiting for the launch of the Compal HGL30, due to ship from resellers starting at the end of July. For the impatient, however, the Compal HEL80 makes for a great buy.

Pros:

• Great price-to-performance ratio
• Feature-rich and highly configurable
• Solidly built with understated good-looks
• Excellent port placement
• Standard 9-cell battery that provides close to four hours of operation
• Good, audible speakers
• Game-capable hardware under the hood
• Very quiet, with moderate heat output
• Linux compatible

Cons:

• Large and not light
• WXGA (1280 x 800) glossy screen, though not the worst, is not the best
• Somewhat disappointing 3DMark05 performance at factory clockings
• Keyboard shows flex along the right side
• VGA out only, no DVI

 

Nice review. I can't wait!

 

great review, thanks gotgenes!

 

Excellent and well-thought out review! You hit all the main points in considering this model. Good Job!

 

Nice Review, very informative

Isn't that kind of slow, I would have thought it would've been faster.

 

Now that's a REVIEW

Thanks gotgenes

 

Is there one fan or two in this notebook?

 

Take a look at the 2nd picture from the bottom and you will see there is one fan.

 

I did, too, but that's what I got so far. I actually haven't booted into Windows since doing those benchmarks but the next time I do, I'll re-do Super Pi and see if I get the same results. I'm also hoping someone with a similar config to mine will post their Super Pi scores soon. *Cough* Hint, hint! *Cough*

 

You should see Chaz's review of the WSXGA+ Crown P 15:2 (HEL80) very soon. Hopefully he will have the Super Pi score there.

However I caution about worrying too much about synthetic benchmark scores as a measure of the productivity of your laptop. These things are useful tools, but they are only indications, and don't really reflect real life productivity and speed.

 

gotgenes, is it possible to modify xmodmap to switch the fn and ctrl key assignments within ubuntu? that one layout of the keys is a pisser for someone who relies heavily on the keyboard for keyboard shortcuts.

thanks!
-defsquad

 

I think the Fn key by itself does not send any kind of code so this may be only doable in the BIOS... I have been wrong in the past though

Now, if the Fn-XXX combination sends a code different from the XXX key alone, then one might remap ALL the Fn-XXX to Ctrl-XXX and vice versa... but I think it would be to much of a hassle to earn your geekdom in that way

 

Hi Guys,
For the ones that actually bought the Compal Hel80, How does it really look? (Stetically)
I mean, doesn't it bother you that it is actually almost half an inch thicker that most laptops?
Also, does the copper line really look good? isn't it a bit cheezy?
Thanks for the help deciding.

 

The HEL80 has brushed aluminum on the lid and around the keyboard. The touchpad is also brushed aluminum and it all looks quite good.

The only one thinner in the 15.4" gaming class is the HP nc8430. The HEL80 is actually about in line with the rest of them in terms of thickness.

Sounds like your main concerns are with the aesthetics of the system. Read more in the Compal Forums, there's a bunch of discussion on the HEL80 in there.

 

Yeah, I'm pretty much decided, so these are only details. Thanks.

 

I think the thickness is really misleading, which is especially mentioned by posters at NBF who claim its thick.. yet when placed side by side with an S96j (which a reseller took a picture of) is no thicker. The reason why it looks thicker is because the edges slope downwards, thus you can see the entire thickness, while in other notebooks such as the S96J, it slopes inwards, thus the edge hides some of the thicknes.

i.e
something sloping down like this

/----------

vs

sloping this way
\----------

 

Nice graphical description .