Compal Satisfaction Poll

Are you happy with your Compal Laptop?

 

I thought I'd answer this the same way I answered the Apple one. They aren't regrets. I'm just not "completely" satisfied.

The sound card/chips/whatever for my HEL80 generally haven't impressed me. Integrated mic volume is too low (and indeed, an external mic using the mic jack is equally low). There's that noise it makes when I resume while on battery. The keyboard is a little cheaper feeling than I'd like.

Those aside, I'm pretty satisfied. I really like the screen. The hardware hasn't given me any problems besides that relatively minor sound card issue. The default touch pad drivers... suck... the Windows ones are a great improvement (fewer features -- right and middle click still work), though I can't move the cursor from one edge of the screen to the other with one sweep, which is a little unideal... The speakers are good, given they're laptop speakers. It runs cool (CPU's around 46 degrees C right now).

 

I would probably fall somewhere between the completely satisfied and the satisfied, but with regrets. But since the complaints would all be minor ones, and none of them particularly bother me, I'm much closer to the completely satisfied option--which is what I voted for.

There are a number of things about the HEL80 that can make or break the user's owner-experience. I'm fortunate enough to be able to handle them all without problems.

After all, I got mine for about $1700 fully loaded--I can't expect it to be on the same level as a notebook that costs 500+ more.

 

Go get the logitech headset I reviewed.. it's easily capable of becoming to loud for recording... I can get you my audio driver version too, that might help since I noticed a bit of variation among versions.

I voted completely satisfied mainly for the fact that I completely understood what I was getting into, and the technology matches my needs fine for a price that was fair.

I would be hard put to vote any product I purchase that didn't make me happy because that generally means a failure on my part to get something that meets my real needs for a price that is competitive with other items of similar nature on the market. As for "regrets", all computer hardware will and does have issues for every user at some point in use or another. Thats where understanding the product comes into play.

If I had to say I "regret" this purchase, it would have been because "I regret I didn't do my homework before the purchase". But, I did it, and the product serves it purpose... = happy camper

 

I really am satisfied, and happy I purchased the HEL80 instead of some other laptop. I just don't like the word "completely," since there were some issues -- anyways, were you using that headset with the usb or the analog?

I ask because I've got this USB mic that works great, presumably because it skips past the sound card. The reason I'm not happy with the USB mic is because it loses the integrated echo cancellation (that I haven't actually tested...) and the microphone isn't the greatest for portability. If I could have a headset that was nearly as portable as my earphones are though, that also had a good mic... that could be good...

 

I'm using good 'ol analog with the echo suppression and noise cancellation disabled in the options.. for lack of a better word I got "weird" results using those.. My audio is supposedly better then a cellphone for listeners on my TS server.. (probably could make better but I run a lean codec so I can hog more of my 8mb/768kb for pings) Also have Mic boost enabled / volume around 70% for the mixer (recording, mute mic for playback)

 

Have you tried the integrated mic for comparison? (I'm wondering if my mic is unique or whether the linksys headphones will provide that kind of improvement.)

 

go get a set of braincandy ear bud noise cancellation headphones, hella good

 

I tried about 6 versions of the audio drivers AND a desktop microphone without success.. depending on the drivers I either had low volume issues, or major echo's. The echo's seem to be related to using speakers of any sort (even though I couldn't hear myself from them), but I could record myself talking and hear what peopel where complaining about. I found this solution by accident one night because I was using a borrowed pair of earphones to play games with. The volume problem varied from driver to driver... but overall it was pretty hard to get it "right"... the louder I made the volume to more echo I got till it turned to a solid "white noise", but basically anything low enough to not have that problem was to quiet to be heard.

If you got the $50 to drop on a set of the logitech's, I'd say go for it knowing you can atleast return them after testing.. Just be careful opening the box since it's the crappy plastic fission style boxing (I used a VERY sharp knife to cut the back in a way to let me in without it being noticable just incase I had to return it) Maybe the logitechs aren't for you, but I know they work well, they are fairly easy to find, should be able to use them as a nice reference point..

 

Yeah, I'd say 'not satisfied'. The screen is too dark, it tares, it ghosts quite badly in games, it has a screen door effect, the backlight is bleedling slightly. The keyboard is cheap, the audio is just plain bad, it is over all too large (the battery protruding is stupid, why is it so short and fat, make it long and skinny) and too heavy, the lack of DVI out is mystifying to say the least.

Alright for the price, I guess. I should have saved up the extra $1000 and bought a Macbook or a decent Asus or some **** thing instead of cheaping the hell out on the Compal.

Better than Acer, though right?

 

I voted not satified too, for the same general reasons as the above user except add on the warmer-than-I-would-like palm rests and touch pad.

I had no problem with brightness though. I assume you have tried the function F5/F6 to change the brightness? Also, I don't play games so didn't notice ghosting.

I was suprised by the poor quality of the keyboard. It is said that it can be fixed with double sided tape, but what does it say about a company that they let it go out the door like that without even trying a simple fix?

Edit: I want to be clear that I am talking about Compal and not the reseller. The reseller is only authorized to make repairs that Compal approves.

 

I'm trying to figure out what made you wish to buy the notebook since you seem pretty adament about the battery sucking (photo's and reviews didn't make this clear?) and the keyboard? (reviews and other noted information from forum?)

This is one of those moments where I think "Why did you buy the SUV if all you do is complain about the fuel prices?"

 

Better than Acer.

I think I wound up with a better screen than you, as just tossing it on a blank screen saver, I can't see any light bleedage. The keyboard I agree with, but it's the same as the Z96j keyboard, which is a similiar Asus model, so I guess it's par for the course for the price point. The same probably goes for the battery shape and the vga instead of dvi... The audio... I'd rather not address. I haven't got the ears for it. The whole system does seem a bit flakey to me though -- as evidenced by my Oblivion problems and microphone issues and that tiny little noise when I resume from hibernate. Mostly I find it just fine, which is to say, functional.

About the screen though, I really like it. I wanted to mention that the tearing is a game/driver issue, not a display issue. I think I can see the sparkles charlotte refers to, though they don't normally register in my brain as anything other than normal color... I can't see your screen door effect though. Are you using the WXGA screen, or the WSXGA?

 

I'm staisfied, but there's a few minor things that bug me. The main thing being the placements of the ports. I can't help but feel that there could be room for a couple at the back beside the battery. The two USB slots on the right side are annoying when using a mouse.
Secondly I did notice the high fan noise that cycles quite often, but with a headset on I'm not bothered. However if someone has a solution for this I'd be thrilled.

All in all it's a great notebook for a reasonable price.

 

The only things I dislike is that the bluetooth is slightly flaky (it may just be the cheap devices I use with it, too), I have a single dead pixel right in the middle (and didn't get dead pixel insurance), and that the graphics chip is underclocked, and it cannot be clocked up to "stock" speeds as laid out by NVIDIA. Other than that, it's a great machine.

 

I think you hit the nail on the head right there.

It's the WSXGA+. I really don't think the screen is that great. Granted I have a highly trained eye because of what I do, and the flaws of everything I look at immediately jump out as a result. Your mileage may vary.

I agree, and a few more USB ports would be nice.

I don't want to unfairly rag on it. I know the issues were documented, and I thought they wouldn't bother me that much. They probably wouldn't on their own, but together they add up.

The poll is based on a subjective opinion, and I have given mine. I also backed it up with facts and examples, which are important for prospective buyers to hear. I win at internet forums!

 

I would spend $1000 extra on something better than an insanely-high-priced-and-low-performance-hyped-up-mac.

 

After more time with it, I'd just like to add fan noise and frequent cycles, too bright and badly placed LEDs on the front, slow POST and a squeaky palm right hand palm rest to the list.

Want to kick back and watch something in bed at night? Well those LEDs are going to be blaring right into your eyes. And the wireless and disk access ones blink constantly so it's a real fun light show! I guess I'll tape them over to dull them. That will look really great.

I'm a fairly light sleeper so sleeping with the HEL80 powered on in the same room is just out of the question. Even in a fairly cool room the fan cycles on for no reason (laptop is on, but idle).

It seems to take longer than most other computers of any kind before the ugly phoenix technologies post screen comes up (any way to disable that and just get text, btw?). It just sits there on a black screen for several seconds (maybe if it showed the video card BIOS screen or something it would appear to be doing something instead of just spinning the fan at max speed for a bit).

And my palm rest is squeaking exactly as documented in video in that thread about it.

Also, since I have to buy a USB soundcard to get my editing software to work (at least I hope that will fix it ) I will have used up all 3 USB ports and won't be able to use a mouse without a splitter (Sound card, 2 USB drives). Looking back on my old and busted Asus it has 6 USB ports.

That's what I get for cheaping out! And since life hates me I just landed a new contract that had I not blown so much cash on this thing would have enabled me to get something pricier that would have worked for me. A return is impossible at this point.

That being said, it continues to play CSS pretty well (with no HDR).

 

Yeah, I'm not sure exactly where, but somewhere in the bios settings there's an option that says "quiet boot - enabled" or something like that; if you disable it, it just has the basic text bootup.
(on HGL30 that is, I think the BIOS settings are pretty much the same)

 

Happy with mine.

If I wasn't happy, I would sell it and get something else.

Hint-hint.

 

Considering that this was the only system that fit your budget and requirements, I'm surprised that you're so nitpicky with it.

Most of the complaints you make would be present on other notebooks as well. LEDs on the front...definitely. Fan noise on a gaming notebook...also definitely. Plastic flex noises...definitely on pretty much any plastic notebook--although those noises in particular are not common I'd say.

As for the USB ports...consider a cheap 4-port USB hub. I have three devices in one so that when I need to take my notebook I only have one hub to unplug and off I go.

And you can try to play with the BIOS splash screen...but it can get very dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. Pitabred has a thread on it in the Compal forum. I don't think the Phoenix BIOS splash is irritating.

 

It's just my nature, I suppose. I am honestly genuinely surprised at how mediocre a lot of parts on the notebook are, though, and it's important for perspective buyers to get the whole story. Not only that, but I am simply the most vocal, others have backed me up on my opinions of the machine. If you were to shine the light of honesty elsewhere in these pages there's a lot of fanboyism to balance out the spectrum.

Not true at all. My old Asus M6, which could be considered a gaming notebook for its time had a fan that cycled on only when things got really warm. This fan appears to cycle on regardless of temperature. If it is thermal based it has a threshold that's much, much too low. This is definitely a software setting at some level and is changeable at least by Compal is nobody else.

Similarly the LEDs were vibrant, but not blinding and placed on the left palm rest so they were blocked by your hand, but you could easily take a quick glance down there to see what was up if you needed to. They were not too bright to sit in a dark room and watch stuff. The LEDs on the Compal are just insane if you want to do that. Maybe if the screen was brighter they wouldn't seem so out of place.

Flex and plastic noise make the whole thing seem cheap.

Obviously this is the solution. Great, one more thing to buy and carry around.

I'm fine with the text. Thanks Iza.

 

Not to draw this out... but not everyone is having a problem with squeeky plastic... and the LED's are only a problem from your perspective. I could point you at about 100 more systems from various brands that have far worse. Atleast these LED's are covered with a non-clear plastic rather then the glass type that are extremely obnoxious like on my new d-link router. As for the fan... mine isn't audible unless I've been gaming for a while, and then I don't notice because I'm either wearing headphones or using my 5.1 system. Maybe you should try upgrading the bios to 114B. That solved most of my initial thoughts about the thresh-hold on the cooling. My fan barely runs at all now even with the lid closed.

If you want to get truly nitpicky on mediocre parts, I can point at you 3 models from dell that have a chassis problem that will destroy the motherboard and void the warranty all in one nice swoop (currently working on a class action lawsuit for those customers). Or I can show you about 3 dozen models from HP that by the time you are done sending it in for repair you would have been better off buying 2 laptops so you don't suffer 50% down-time. Ask some certified notebook repair technicians sometime before touting your user experience as the gospel.

Also take a serious look at the general population of people that come to these forums (or any hardware related forum)... They tend to be the few that suffer problems that are willing to get self-help on the issue, or they are from the few that have a problem that for some reason don't want to call the tech-support they are paying for... People that have great experiences don't tend to poke there heads around here unless they are truly geeky. Ask Donald how many HEL-80's they have sold since release, and then have Chrisyano give you how many people unique people have posted on the compal forum since fall last year. Thats just going to be a fraction from one vendor, but it will still be a slim percentage.

All notebooks are built by the lowest bidder, nobody tries to hide it. Notebooks are in the same boat as the pre-built Computer Store X whopper's, it's all made from the cheapest bulk purchases. These volume lots even change during the lifetime of a product causing different parts. The other problem with lumping these machines all together is that when Compal designs a system they test for parts that are out at the time they are trying to produce and market a system, and they have little to no control over quality degrading after manufacturing starts. This is often caused by new hardware coming out and vendors trying to get rid of whatever is left on their shelves as cheaply as possible. You can take this a step farther and take a clear open eyed look at just how many actual manufacturers put together the raw components... you will come to find that almost all notebooks come from about the same dozen or so component vendors, just rebranded. Then take a look into the electronics side of things and you will realise that most electronics starting from the wire and resistors on up are sold and generally excepted with upto 20% variance (read this as flaw). You get an unlucky system that has too many of these 10%+ parts and sure you will have problems, all electronics suffer this.

Just my two cents because you seem very overly dramatic about your issues for a notebook that you bought that you could have returned, and you are sitting here on many threads preaching issues that aren't all true for every user, while acting like those of us not agreeing with you are fan boy's.

I believe you said something about a new contract you have gotten recently? Great... Pack up that compal system and toss it only E-bay for 90% of what you paid, toss in that extra grand and get a system that keeps you happy. Otherwise, stop posting the same complaints all over the Compal threads and try contributing useful and/or new information.

I'm starting to feel like the compal forum is nothing but your outlet for sharing unhappyness with everyone else about a purchase you were never forced to stick with.

 

I have to say that I was a little disappointed with my HEL80. However it has been able do every task I have thrown at it with ease. I have the glossy screen and have been very pleased. Somethings still bother me a little but I have gotten used to most of them. I think that Compal can do better but unless you are going to go and buy a Thinkpad which will be more expensive than the HEL 80 I really can't see doing that much better. Again Compal can do better the keyboard gets on me a little since I do a lot of typing but it is a comfortable keyboard, my only issue is that my 'N' key needs to be hit on the center and the enter key won't work if you hit the edge. I think the drivers for the touchpad could be improved but otherwise everything including my microphone has worked well not perfectly but well. I would be concerned if your fan is on all the time or is noisy mine is very quiet and I am actually impressed with how cool this system is. Also I have finally started hearing the electrical noise coming from the headphones but this doesn't bother me and it is impossible to hear with music playing.

Overall I have grown to really like this machine a lot and yes I sometimes wish I got the Asus A8j or the Thinkpad T60p but I am sure both have issues. I have read on forums that you can get a great Asus A8j or a really bad one and if you are lucky to get a great one than it is a fine machine. The Thinkpad T60p has driver problems and it comes loaded with a ton of garbage, I have also heard of quality issues and issues with some flexview screens being great and some being sub par because of supplier issues. Also the T60 does get rather warm. I did get a chance to use a T60p and again it was not perfect but it was the best laptop I have used to date but it was a very expensive item in comparison to the Compal HEL 80 with comparable parts. Also there was no huge performance difference. The things I loved about the T60 was the flexview screen, it was brighter and felt more rugged and the keyboard was excellent, I also really like the thumbstick.

Basically until the quality of laptops becomes better across the board I bet there is really no perfect laptop.

 

That is exactly right. With notebooks, there will always be a compromise of some sort to be made. I've felt very lucky to not have been bothered by any of the little annoyances that seem to be the biggest complaints about the HEL80. A business-class keyboard would be nice, but it's not a deal-breaker for me.

I would really like to have a touchpad on/off button though.

 

I'd like dedicated video in a convertable tablet... like... DX10 video card with a convertable tablet.

 

Coupled with good battery life, that would be dang sexy..
I'm a firm believer that since 2D isn't horsepower intensive at all, a discrete gpu should consume little to no more extra power than, say, a integrated GMA solution. This could be accomplished in a number of ways, or combinations thereof, and a dedicated video chipset need not be more powerful than GMA.. because who really needs incredibly fast GDI acceleration?
But that's another story/pet peeve that I will not continue here...

 

I would love that as well. Five or six years ago, I thought I'd have a tablet by now. But every time I check up on them--sadly they don't have the GPU power I would like. Perhaps one day...

 

Well I've had my Power Pro L8:15 for about a month now and I must honestly say it is a mixed bag for me.
Overall I think it is a solid system. This is my first notebook, but I am no newbie to PCs. I have built my last 3 desktops myself and I do a lot of tech troubleshooting and repair for my church and friends.
First the pros:
Purchasing from PowerNotebooks.Com was a great experience and I could only hope more online vendors or any vendors had the class those folks do.

My system powers up quickly and cleanly.

The Matte high res screen is very nice and bright with excellent color and not a single dead pixel to be found.

The fan kicks up high at boot and then quiets down to almost inaudible and I haven't heard any other fan noise even while gaming.

The battery life is very good at about 3 1/2 hours while surfing and video conferencing.

Since this is my first notebook, I really don't have a reference for realistic heat values. I am typing with it in my lap now and the palm rest are warm, but I am not perspiring and my thighs are not uncomfortably warm at all.

The key board is responsive and fairly quiet. The keys have a good tactile feedback. The "flex" that many have complained about, isn't an issue for me and I am fairly anal about such things. I am already adjusted to the Fn/Ctrl key switch.

I really like the Biometric scanner and once I figured it out, Omnipass is cool too.

This notebook is larger than your run of the mill Dell or HP 15.4 even without the 9 cell battery, so it took a while to find a suitable transportation means for it . I went with a Targus neoprene sleeve inside of a Ogio Bounty Hunter backpack. Very nice!

I like the layout of the keyboard and the other "easy keys".

The webcam works well with fairly nice resolution.

The mic has good pickup and adjust easily.

The speakers are adequate and are just fine for gaming or DVD playback.

I upgraded the RAM very easily.

I am satisfied with the layout of the accessory ports and yes one more USB port would be nice, but you could say that if you had 10.

The fit and finish are very nice. I personally like the brushed aluminum and the copper trim.

The Duo Core 2.g chip is plenty quick and my 7,200 RPM Hitachi is fast and quiet, although it does get a little warm.

The Bluetooth and WIFI work very well and were easy to set up.

Now the cons and I will say this list isn't as long as the pros, but some items or significant and like much of the rest of this post, quite subjective.

My most disturbing con is the touchpad driver. I have had fits with this software and I'm struggling with it even now. I have tried the Synaptic drivers, I have uninstalled and reinstalled, I have disabled the device itself and it continues to thwart my typing. The driver(s) will not retain the settings I input and I am constantly struggling with the dancing cursor while I type. So far PowerNoteBooks support hasn't been able to resolve the issue.

My "easy keys 1 and 2" for Side Walker do not function. I've done all the driver reinstalling and no go. So far no resolution from tech support on this issue either.

I frequently get garbled or staticy sounding audio from the speakers depending on the source. Some games, Windows logon tune, and some audio software post like Omnipass telling me I am successfully logged on.
Audio through headphones sounds OK. I have tried driver reinstallation for this problem with no change in results.

The last nitpicking is the lid latch. The latch works fine, but opening the latch and lifting the lid is clumsy at best. There is no easy way to get a grip on the lid while holding the spring loaded latch open.

None of these cons are deal breakers and I will keep the notebook, but I believe Compal needs to address some of these issues.

If I find a fix for the touchpad issue that is satisfactory I will pass it on and I am still waiting on an answer about the SideWalker button problem.

Note added later the same day:
I remembered something in one of the forums about Logitech SetPoint causing some problems for some Compal owners and I decided to dump my SetPoint to see if it made any difference. Lo and behold, my Elan touchpad driver started performing as ordained and my Side Walker buttons mysteriously started responding at the same time.
No more issues with the dancing cursor while typing and Side Walker works! For what it is worth I did notice something else a little strange. I had my Logitech USB Trackman Marble tweaked up with high speed cursor movement in SetPoint. After uninstalling SetPoint, the Trackman retained the tweaks I had entered in SetPoint. Don't know why, but I am now a happy camper. The only lingering issue is the crackling speakers. PowerNotebooks.Com is working on this now.


akquicksilver

 

Fanboyism? Only because it's a very capable, well-featured machine, especially for the price. You can't find anything that approaches any of the qualities of the HGL-30 and is even close on price. BTW, it's "prospective". Perspective is the angle from which you see the computer, which is very different from that of many other people who own the same machine, and even if a few people do share your views, it's by no means universal.

And 486's were gaming machines of their era, and they didn't even HAVE a fan. They were always quiet. Make sure you have good airflow around your machine, and my fan rarely comes on unless I've got Beryl or something making the 3D mode of the graphics chip come on.

So why not keep your old M6 if that's what you want? It's a design decision, good for some, not for others. I like having the LED's up at the top, where I can see what is going on without moving my hand from the keyboard. I'm also looking at pix of the M6... seems like the power button still lights up with a bright blue LED? The screen is quite bright if you put it on the max brightness, if you got the glossy screen... I've watched a number of movies on it, at night, in the dark, and I haven't noticed any glare or anything from the LEDs, which is a counter-anecdote to your complaints. It seems to me (and it appears that others agree) that this isn't about being "honest" to people considering the machine, it's that you have an issue with the design decisions, and are just complaining about it. Please don't try to place yourself as a great consumer protector of any sort, or that the computer is bad. State that what you say is your opinion on some of the choices made with the design and specs, and nothing more, as there are many who disagree with you.

 

quicksilver, i had the same problem with crackling speakers, i thought i blew the speakers lol , but after farting around with it for a couple minutes i found i had my microphone on and it was causing interference, i muted my mic an everything is back to normal

 

I really do love my HEL80, but at the same time I have a few minor gripes. The keyboard flex is probably the biggest. I've been too lazy to try and fix it, and the vast majority of the time I have it hooked up to an external keyboard. It runs a bit warm, and the fan spools up to full power quite frequently. It's irritating, but again, not a huge deal.

Overall the positives far outweigh the negatives. The HEL80 offers a lot of value for the money.

 

I am mostly satisfied with my HGL30. The only gripes are:
Palm rests and touchpad get too warm at times
fan cycles noisier than what i would expect (even when doing simple things as browsing)

 

I've had my Hgl30 for about six months now, and overall I'm very pleased with it. While I'd probably have gone with the asus A8JS if it were available then, I thought this was the best machine at the time and have not been disappointed.

I tend to abuse it a lot taking it to classes in my backpack but it's held up pretty well (one little tab is flaking off).

Fan cycling is also a little annoying in a quiet lecture and you're surrounded by people I may try a bios flash if I really can't stand it, but I'm not there yet...

Heat is not really a factor anymore now I've gotten used to it; doesn't seem that bad at all now.

The keyboard doesn't seem that bad at all to me (then again, this is my first laptop so I don't have much to compare it to). I do dislike the tendency of the keys becoming slick over time, but I guess that's just a natural thing for people who aren't super touch typists...

One thing though about omnipass, I had it working at first but after my latest reformat I haven't been able to get it to work. After I add a profile and test it out on login or something it reads my finger but wants me to enter a password anyway. Not that I really need it.

Gaming wise it's been stellar for its form factor.

Love it overall! By the way...I've never found a use for Media Office or if it's worth using, so...if anyone does use it, let me know how you do

 

I just recently got the HGL 30 from Milestonepc.com, after selling a gateway MX7515.

Overall, i like it, but with some regrets.
Little things I don't like:


1. If your hearing is good, you can hear a very slight high pitch hum from the on board audio when you have headphones on (yes, I muted CD audio and such). The worst part is that a metal 'cage' has been added onto the hard drive (to help block EMI from other components), and there is STILL background noise!
2. When I plug in my USB hard drive while listening to headphones, i get a huge amount of interference in the audio. With just the speakers, this is not an issue at all. Maybe it's because I've gotten used to the distortion free sound of a Audigy 2 ZS.
3. The palm rest gets only slightly warm, but when you use the PC card or express card slots, the temperature goes way up, and can become uncomfortable.
4. After flashing the BIOS, the fan doesn't come on as much, but in a quiet environment it could become bothersome.
5. The status lights are definitely in the wrong place. when your typing or gaming, your hand covers them all up.
6. Theres no volume buttons, you have to use a function combination to turn it up or down (fn + f6 for example)
7. Media office application is pretty useless to me, I would really like to know how to remap the buttons for it.
8. The built in microphones can't seem to pick up my voice, even with its volume all the way up. If it was just a bit more sensitive, it would be perfect for MSN.
9. The lid's colour is very odd, you will definitely stand out with it.

Having said all these gripes, i have been known to be a very picky person. I'm just pointing out every little thing I can think of so that when considering buying, you'll know EXACTLY what to expect.

Things I love about it (which greatly outshine the bad things):

1. This thing is FAST for being a 14" laptop! If your a gamer on the go, this thing will serve you very well. Especially if you put the video card's clock speed back to normal.
2. It runs quite cool. I can have this on my lap for hours and it's not uncomfortable at all.
3. Fingerprint reader is pretty handy if you don't want to remember passwords. It's quite quick and seamless once it is set up.
4. With the 9cell battery this thing gets at least 2 1/2 hours of power.
5. The build is rock solid. Theres no screen flex at all, and it feels very sturdy for being made out of plastic.
6. The camera is quite excellent for MSN, although you don't actually want to take detailed pictures with it
8. The wireless is superb, gets good reception, and has various features like power controls, signal strength controls, etc.
9. I'm still on the fence as to whether I like they keyboard or not. The last laptop I had had no flex at all. I will admit, if you have never heard about the flex, I don't think you would notice it.

Overall I really like this computer, the price is right, the weight is fine for moving to classes all day, and it has just the right amount of everything.

I would have put this in a review, but its more of my personal opinion (i also don't have a camera for pictures)

 

I am not fully satisfied with my compal hel80:
1. It has a horrible integrated audio, very cheap keyboard, bad placed microphone and useless finger print reader.
2. It is VBI, but you can not change vga card, because there is no mxm module inside - forget about directx10.
3. Hel80 has only 2 memory slots.
4. It has awful cooling system. HEL80 is noisy and hot.
5. Thoshiba and sony use much better screens in their notebooks.
6. There is no dvi.
7. Only 3 usb ports.
8. SD card leans out (about 1cm) of the card reader.

 

1) The speakers are bad, but the integrated sound card is actually pretty full featured. Like all notebooks, you want really good sound get earphones or external speakers

2) Most notebooks can't have cards replaced. Don't be so dramatic.

3) Most notebooks only have 2 memory slots. Again, don't be so dramatic.

4) It's a high end notebook in a smallish package, it's warm, but not unlike many other notebooks of same size and configuration. There are programs like RMclock that can help lower the heat from your processor. As for the fans, some people don't like, some people don't care. Again, it's not that much unlike another system with equal power.

5) USB ports are easy and cheap to add with small hubs. Most people truly toting there systems around don't have more then 1-2 devices. Internal USB hubs add to the constant power draw so this is actually a good thing.

6) I'm not aware of any card readers that fully "consume" your memory card. Again, I think you are being overdramatic and unrealistic.

As for the keyboard, it's not that it is cheap, it's that it wasn't well secured and braced underneith. Easy fixes have been posted though. Most integrated mic's don't really work well enough for anyone, so where it's placed doesn't really matter. =P

Fingerprint reader isn't useless, mine tracks most of the website passwords I have to enter, and it gets me into windows. What more do you want it to do?

 

Today I was lucky to compare the HEL80 with the dell e1405:
1. I have a very sensitive ATH-A700 headphones. I can easily hear in them all this annoying noise that HEL80's sound tract makes. There is no noise in e1405's tract.
2. Because HEL80's gpu ram does not cooling down with a fan, the left palm rest becomes hot (>~40C) when you work in high resolution (>=1600x1050) and it is impossible to do something with that. e1405's left palm rest stays cool.
3. I can fully insert SD card in e1405 card reader.
4. The e1405 has 4 usb ports.
5. The e1405 keyboard has softer keys and it is not so flexible as HEL80's keyboard.

So we have a comparison result: Dell's notebook construction allows to avoid mentioned above points without adding new. So if Dell could why Compal could not?

 

1 USB port shouldn't make or break a deal, as I said, it is a notebook computer, meant to be portable, not strapped to a table with ton's of USB stuff attached.

I'm not even going to justify the card reader... those things aren't designed to stay in the drive when not in use...

OK, I'll give ya the flexible keyboard isn't so great if you are REALLY picky.. I'm just not that heavy a typer I guess so it doesn't bother me.

What is a "sound tract"? You mean signal noise in the jack? Thats already been addressed for the HEL80, and it's fairly common in A LOT of notebooks. It 's just a "feature" of on-board audio.

As for heat, I've had much warmer systems, and much cooler systems.

I find it rather amusing when people make long lists of things they don't like, and it's not just that they don't like it.. but they REALLY don't like it.. I just have to ask myself "then why didn't they send it back?"

 

I' ve had mine for just over a week. I haven't put it through all it's paces yet, but for run-of-the-mill apps (browsing, email, music, light gaming) it's great! A few minor things (keyboard flex is my biggest pet peeve) but nothing that I wasn't prepared for and can't either fix or get used to.

 

Make sure to do a search on the keyboard. There should be several posts with detailed solutions that are simple and cheap.

Of course, for free you could always just type with a lighter touch

 

If you can find the review I wrote on the HEL80 it has direct links to the most relevant posts regarding the keyboard fix.

It's in the News & Reviews Forum.

 

So far so good...mostly. The only problem that bothers me is the rather unstable right-hand side palmrest, which came to not being secured soundly a few days back, making squeaking noise when I press mildly upon it.

 

That may also be related to the keyboard flex, rahkun. Check the other posts that reference that on how to fix it.

 

there is a post called "squeaky chassis" or something like that were a user even posted a video of his rather excessive squeak. Not sure if they ever found resolution though..

 

Thanks for the tips pyro, Chris; they're already bookmarked!

 

I was aware that some users had that problem before I purchased mine. Unfortunately the palmrest on mine felt sturdy for the first few days, but it went loose afterwards. What's more, I noticed that either the chassis surrounding the keyboard or the keyboard itself is warped (not lined up perfectly, height-wise), and that the whole body actually BECAME very flexible, as in squishy all around.

Again the problems as they stand now are not THAT bad, but I sure hope they don't get any worse.

And thanks pitabred. I'll definately try the mod.

 

If your entire chassis seems less then sturdy you should definatly go after the warranty if you can. Maybe it is something as simple as a few loose screws from having all the goodies installed?

 

Ok; my turn.

To begin with, I haven't had a chance to see the HEL80 in real life before the purchase- I got it off the internet, basing my choice upon reviews of other people.

I must say, switching from a Toshiba Tecra 9100, it's somewhat an improvement; tho I'm not entirely happy with it.

The things that bug me the most are the loud fans (there probably might be a way to fiddle with them - I might check it out later, I already cleaned the dust off it as I got it used - even 3 months of usage allowed for a good accomodation of a dust cover, heating the cpu up to 50% more than I got it to fend off after the simple air cleaning) and 'bouncy' keyboard, especially to the bottom right area - sort of 'bouncing' back with a spring effect when pressed, tho as I've read through this thread, there are some solutions at hand to make that work - which i'll check some time soon

So I guess apart from the terribly noisy as for my taste fans (one of the main reasons I chose to get a notebook was because of the nosie of my desktop box - to only end up with a noisy box once more is very depressing - I guess I could live with the noise if it came as a side-effect to highly improved performance, then again, the 7600Go bundled with the currently-on-board celeron M 1.46GHz performs pretty much just like my PIII 933 stationary dell xps with a Geforce 4 Ti 4200 - only slightly faster, about 1000fps more according to the non-benchmark glxgears - so not much gain, neither on the performance nor on the noise side) and a crappy usb port layout (the 2 usb ports on the right hand side could well be placed on the back, that would be awesome), which is none other's than my fault for not taking a good look at the machine before buying, only really annoying thing in my case adding up to the not-completely-satisfied mood is the money I paid for it - I could've easily got something along the lines of an acer with a better (core2duo) cpu and bigger (20gb+) hd, + pioneer dvdrw instead of the one in the compal, or a comparable, core2duo/athlon64X2 HP system.

One other slightly annoying thing, but that is probably just in the system I have, is very high vibrations and noise coming from nowhere else than the harddisk (a toshiba 100gb sata 5400 disk). it's mad as I've never seen something like that on a 2.5" disk before, I guess I'll be doing a good job passing it on to someone else soon

So to sum up the pc is very neat, it has most the features I'd expect, past the flexy keyboard and loud fans I could live with the rest, or had it been a 50 quid less box that would also make my day I reckon. I guess however that the fan noise is a bios/software case mostly (had the bios been more 'relaxed/rational' about temperatures -or allowed the user to choose the ranges, in the best case, through acpi settings- it wouldn't make the fan such a nuisance). I think the worst as when it comes to heat is the separate graphics memory, I guess the geforce7600 could use just the system memorey for 2D, and only use the built-in mem for 3D operations - something to think for nvidia, maybe. Anyway the hardware is well capable, so there isn't anything to really get annoyed with, apart from the eventual not-doing-the-homework before the buy, as with the usb ports and their placement on the case.

Regards,

//m.

 

Ok; my turn.

To begin with, I haven't had a chance to see the HEL80 in real life before the purchase- I got it off the internet, basing my choice upon reviews of other people.

I must say, switching from a Toshiba Tecra 9100, it's somewhat an improvement; tho I'm not entirely happy with it.

The things that bug me the most are the loud fans (there probably might be a way to fiddle with them - I might check it out later, I already cleaned the dust off it as I got it used - even 3 months of usage allowed for a good accomodation of a dust cover, heating the cpu up to 50% more than I got it to fend off after the simple air cleaning) and 'bouncy' keyboard, especially to the bottom right area - sort of 'bouncing' back with a spring effect when pressed, tho as I've read through this thread, there are some solutions at hand to make that work - which i'll check some time soon

So I guess apart from the terribly noisy as for my taste fans (one of the main reasons I chose to get a notebook was because of the nosie of my desktop box - to only end up with a noisy box once more is very depressing - I guess I could live with the noise if it came as a side-effect to highly improved performance, then again, the 7600Go bundled with the currently-on-board celeron M 1.46GHz performs pretty much just like my PIII 933 stationary dell xps with a Geforce 4 Ti 4200 - only slightly faster, about 1000fps more according to the non-benchmark glxgears - so not much gain, neither on the performance nor on the noise side) and a crappy usb port layout (the 2 usb ports on the right hand side could well be placed on the back, that would be awesome), which is none other's than my fault for not taking a good look at the machine before buying, only really annoying thing in my case adding up to the not-completely-satisfied mood is the money I paid for it - I could've easily got something along the lines of an acer with a better (core2duo) cpu and bigger (20gb+) hd, + pioneer dvdrw instead of the one in the compal, or a comparable, core2duo/athlon64X2 HP system.

One other slightly annoying thing, but that is probably just in the system I have, is very high vibrations and noise coming from nowhere else than the harddisk (a toshiba 100gb sata 5400 disk). it's mad as I've never seen something like that on a 2.5" disk before, I guess I'll be doing a good job passing it on to someone else soon

So to sum up the pc is very neat, it has most the features I'd expect, past the flexy keyboard and loud fans I could live with the rest, or had it been a 50 quid less box that would also make my day I reckon. I guess however that the fan noise is a bios/software case mostly (had the bios been more 'relaxed/rational' about temperatures -or allowed the user to choose the ranges, in the best case, through acpi settings- it wouldn't make the fan such a nuisance). I think the worst as when it comes to heat is the separate graphics memory, I guess the geforce7600 could use just the system memorey for 2D, and only use the built-in mem for 3D operations - something to think for nvidia, maybe. Anyway the hardware is well capable, so there isn't anything to really get annoyed with, apart from the eventual not-doing-the-homework before the buy, as with the usb ports and their placement on the case.

Regards,

//m.