[plainsman]

Hi all,

Been following info on the iiview a2 for some time, here's my thoughts and experiences for those interested.


Saw it selling on babypc.com.au and netbooks.com.sg, just when i was about to buy netbooks.com.sg stock out on wed nighty. to my disappointment.

Kept following updates, then I random check and saw before noon on Friday netbooks.com.sg got stock again, I pulled the trigger and ordered white one.

Couple hours later, netbook.com.sg rep contact me to arrange delivery, tentatively set early sat afternoon.


delivery slightly delayed but the guy is courteous and helpful, thumbs up.


have spent a few hours so far and here's my thoughts on the machine:


1. its reasonable deal, for $699 u get netbook with typical atom n270 1.60ghz,

2 gb ram (double of most netbook deals)
320gb hard disk (double of most netbook deals)

access to both readily removable panel below the netbook. hence future upgrade to bigger hdd is simple. ram is already max out at 2gb as per specs.



2. screen, official specs is 12-inch Matt LCD 1280x800, but mine came with 12-inch Gloss LED 1366x768. I believe mine is 2nd batch, hence the slightly refreshed panel.

for those who prefer matt screen prob slightly disappointed, but on upside you getting newer panel and LED instantly full brightness instead of LCD which need time to be optimal brightness when wake up from sleep.


3. come pre-installed windows 7 ultimate. at first i thought its RC1, but delivery guy said 2nd batch is the full version and not RC.


4. build quality - pretty ok. its light (1.36kg) as advertised, slim although definitely not as slim as macbook air. plastic finish does feel a little cheap but considering what you paid... the only let down i feel is the keyboard, comma fullstop and ? keys are smaller than the rest, keyboard travel differs from different keys at times. right arrow feels a little strange.



5. heat/noise - heat is not much of issue, but bottom panel houses hdd and ram and can heat up occassional during disk intensive task. noise is a slightly more prominent issue - i can hear the fan nonstop spinning when i put my ear near left side of keyboard. if you don't really care its not too much of an issue.



6. speakers/mic - both work fairly well for typical netbook/notebook. speaker doesnt really sound like mono as per the specs. it works fine, i tested with nba.com's TV telecast of michael jordan hall of fame induction.




7. performance - so far up and down. windows 7 multi-tasks non stop, plenty of processing in background.. widgets, slide show wallpaper, multiple browsers, aero and visual effects. the netbook feels responsive at times and laggy at others.



8. battery life - i got the laptop and play with it non-stop, about 1hr 30 mins left 16% battery. think windows 7 is major factor, laptops with battery life of 5 hrs often drop to 2 hr or less when install with windows vista.



9. bundle - average. u get laptop, simple black laptop sleeve, ac adaptor and power cable, driver disk, mini-hdmi to vga adaptor, usb-to-LAN adaptor.



tomorrow, i'm going to install win xp with included drivers disk. will assess performance and battery life again and update.