latest Aldi Gericom laptop special 12 May £999

itxweather

robonz wrote:

Aldi will be selling next week their latest laptop offering packed full of latest technology at a competitive price as we have come to expect from them.

http://uk.aldi.com/

Here is the spec:

Intel® CentrinoTM Mobile Technology Intel® Pentium® M Processor 740 Processor speed 1.73GHz

* 533MHz FrontSideBus
* 2MB L2 cache
* 90nm
* Intel® PRO/Wireless LAN 2915ABG
* Intel® Chipset 915PM

nVIDIA® GeForceTM Go 6600 with 128MB DDR3 PCI-Express

nVIDIA® GeForceTM Go 6600 is the superior notebook GPU with hardware acceleration for Microsoft DirectX 9.0. Shader Model 3.0, powering higher performance and extraordinary visual effects on today's hottest games.

15.4" WXGA Display 16:10 Widescreen

Resolution up to 1280 x 800 pixels

Multi Format DVD Burner 8xDVD±R/RW Double Layer^

For watching and burning DVDs/CDs. Write speed: 8xDVD+R/8xDVD-R/ 4xDVD+RW/4xDVD-RW/5xDVD-RAM/2, 4xDVD+R DL/24xCD-R/10xCD-RW, Read speed: 8xDVD/24xCD.

1024 MB DDR 2 RAM 533MHz

Fastest laptop memory currently available on the market. Up to 30% faster than DDR 1-400, 2 sockets.

Fast 100GB Hard Disk Drive

With 5,400rpm. Made by Seagate.

Digital TV Tuner***

Discover the new digital television of the future with first class image and sound quality. Future proof.

Analogue Stereo TV

Analogue stereo TV & FM Radio Tuner Card. Watch and record TV on your laptop! With Power Cinema and the built-in analogue/digital stereo TV and FM tuner, you can watch and record TV programs right on your laptop! The included IR remote control works with the TV, DVD, CD, radio and digital photo functions of the Power Cinema software.

Intel®PRO/Wireless LAN 2915ABG

The notebook can be linked to a wireless LAN network or in an ad hoc mode, with another wireless LAN compatible notebook. Integrated wireless LAN enables this notebook to be linked to a wireless network i.e. hotspots.

5 in 1 Card Reader

Supports Memory Stick, Smart Media Card, MultiMedia Card, Secure Digital and XD Card.

Soundsystem

High definition audio system, SB-Pro-compatible +AC 97 CODEC, 2 internal speakers, internal microphone.

Bluetooth Mini USB Adaptor Class 1

Up to 100m indoor and outdoor.

High Speed Interfaces

4 x USB 2.0, 1 x Firewire IEEE1394.

Audio & Video Interfaces

Analog and digital audio-out, Mic-In, VGA-Out, TV-Out (S-Video).

1x PCMCIA Type II Card Bus supported Modem and LAN

56k V.90/V.92 modem and fast ethernet 10/100/1000 Mbit LAN (includes telephone cable).

Battery: Smart LI-ION Battery

8 cells, 4400mAh, Runtime: up to 4h. Charging time: approx. 2.5hr (power off)/ approx 3.5hr (power on).

Dimensions & Weight: 363(W) x 366(D) x 34.2(H)mm, approx 2.75kg.

Huge Software Package!**

Microsoft® Windows®XP Home SP2, Microsoft® Works Suite 2005, Microsoft® Flight Simulator 2004, Cyberlink DVD Solution (PowerStarter, PowerDVD, PowerProducer, PowerDirector, Power2Go, PowerDVD Copy, PowerBackup, PhotoNow!, MediaShow), Cyberlink Power Cinema 4.0, Skype Software incl. Headset and 120 minutes free telephony, Wanadoo Preload

Hi,

This notebook PC really does sound a good buy. Aldi have probably sold out 2-days after officially launching it though no doubt (just my luck) :-(. Think that they will order these in though if you ask staff at stores that don't have these in stock (am I right here?).

Anyone have any idea as to what sort of warranty is provided with this particular notebook PC from Gericom?. is it a 12-month or 36-month warranty and is it return to base or on-site/collect and return?.

Thank you in advance for any advice.
Best Regards.

barginunter

I've just bought a Medion notebook from Somerfield! 2.66ghz 256 mb 40gig dvd-rw(dual) wireless lan 15" screen £499. Doesn't come with much software - XP SP2 + Nero, free trial AV and AOL.

monomer

itxweather wrote:

Anyone have any idea as to what sort of warranty is provided with this particular notebook PC from Gericom?. is it a 12-month or 36-month warranty and is it return to base or on-site/collect and return?

The warranty is 24 months from date of purchase. From the literature you get with the notebook, there is a pick up service that will take your notebook away and repair it.

Warranty for the battery is restricted to 6 months and warranty for the screen is restricted to 12 months.

itxweather

barginunter wrote:

I've just bought a Medion notebook from Somerfield! 2.66ghz 256 mb 40gig dvd-rw(dual) wireless lan 15" screen £499. Doesn't come with much software - XP SP2 + Nero, free trial AV and AOL.

Hi, That sounds a good buy!. Pentium 4 or Celeron?. Either way all of that kit for £499.00 cannot be a bad buy surely?.

itxweather

monomer wrote:

The warranty is 24 months from date of purchase. From the literature you get with the notebook, there is a pick up service that will take your notebook away and repair it.

Warranty for the battery is restricted to 6 months and warranty for the screen is restricted to 12 months.

Hi,

Thank you for your reply. Any idea's what Gericoms policy is on dead pixels?.
Any ideas who pays for the pick up and return service, the customer or mfr?.
Does the TV receiver that's built in receive DVB?. Also, do you have to attach an external antenna or is the WLAN antenna built-in?.

Thank you.

monomer

itxweather wrote:

Thank you for your reply. Any idea's what Gericoms policy is on dead pixels?.
Any ideas who pays for the pick up and return service, the customer or mfr?.
Does the TV receiver that's built in receive DVB?. Also, do you have to attach an external antenna or is the WLAN antenna built-in?

To quote:

"Claims for lcd screen pixel faults under this warranty are limited to cases where there are more than five defective pixels, or where any two defective pixels are less than 7.5mm apart. A pixel fault is given if one or more colors break down or if there are other colors shown. If there is a scratch on the display this is not a pixel error."

As for the pick-up service, it seems to say that Gericom "will take over the costs". However, they're not liable for transport damages caused by you not packaging the laptop properly.

The so-called 'built-in' TV receiver is actually not so much built-in, in that it's inserted-in... It's a Gericom OEM PCMCIA card made by a Taiwanese company called Lifeview. You need to sacrifice the laptop's only PCMCIA slot to use it. It does have digital TV decoder capabilities, but it would probably be best to download the latest software and UK channel list from the Lifeview website to make life a little easier. The digital TV function can be a bit fiddly to set up, but the non-digital channels work very well.

There is no external aerial for the WLAN. It's a Centrino laptop and it's all built-in. I've managed to share a broadband connection with my other Centrino notebook and surf the net all over the house!

itxweather

monomer wrote:

To quote:

"Claims for lcd screen pixel faults under this warranty are limited to cases where there are more than five defective pixels, or where any two defective pixels are less than 7.5mm apart. A pixel fault is given if one or more colors break down or if there are other colors shown. If there is a scratch on the display this is not a pixel error."

As for the pick-up service, it seems to say that Gericom "will take over the costs". However, they're not liable for transport damages caused by you not packaging the laptop properly.

The so-called 'built-in' TV receiver is actually not so much built-in, in that it's inserted-in... It's a Gericom OEM PCMCIA card made by a Taiwanese company called Lifeview. You need to sacrifice the laptop's only PCMCIA slot to use it. It does have digital TV decoder capabilities, but it would probably be best to download the latest software and UK channel list from the Lifeview website to make life a little easier. The digital TV function can be a bit fiddly to set up, but the non-digital channels work very well.

There is no external aerial for the WLAN. It's a Centrino laptop and it's all built-in. I've managed to share a broadband connection with my other Centrino notebook and surf the net all over the house!

Hi Monomer,

Thank you for your detailed response. Guess the dead pixel policy is pretty much in line with most mfr's. Gericom seem to be pretty generous giving a collect and return warranty as standard whereby they pay for the carriage charges which as i'm sure you can appreciate could work out very costly if in the worst case scenario the PC needed a lot of repair work whilst under warranty. A lot of mfr's charge a significant amount of money for a "paid-for" collect and return warranty. Thank you for confirming what exactly the external antenna shown in issue 189 of ComputerAct!ve is for (for the PCCard TV receiver), was confused because, as you have said the notebook is a Centrino which from what I understand consists of a Pentium M CPU, Intel 855 chipset (or 915 chipset with this particular machine), 802.11g ProWireless 54Mbps WLAN with integrated antenna. What's your opinion on the build quality of the £999 notebook from Aldi?. Is is comparable with the build quality of blue chip mfrs, if this was made by a blue chip mfr how much do you think it'd be retailing for?. Is this comparable with a Turion 64-bit notebook PC?. Oh, one more question, how long does the Gericom notebook PC run for whilst powered by the batteries using the integrated WLAN?, think it's quoted at approximately 4-hours (sounds brilliant if that is indeed how long it runs for!).

Best Regards.

P.S. Any idea's whether or not Ubuntu Linux or another Linux distro will run on this notebook PC?.

monomer

itxweather wrote:

Thank you for confirming what exactly the external antenna shown in issue 189 of ComputerAct!ve is for (for the PCCard TV receiver), was confused because, as you have said the notebook is a Centrino which from what I understand consists of a Pentium M CPU, Intel 855 chipset (or 915 chipset with this particular machine), 802.11g ProWireless 54Mbps WLAN with integrated antenna. What's your opinion on the build quality of the £999 notebook from Aldi?. Is is comparable with the build quality of blue chip mfrs, if this was made by a blue chip mfr how much do you think it'd be retailing for?. Is this comparable with a Turion 64-bit notebook PC?. Oh, one more question, how long does the Gericom notebook PC run for whilst powered by the batteries using the integrated WLAN?, think it's quoted at approximately 4-hours (sounds brilliant if that is indeed how long it runs for!).

Best Regards.

P.S. Any idea's whether or not Ubuntu Linux or another Linux distro will run on this notebook PC?.

Not a problem. I've got no complaints about the build quality of the notebook. I got this notebook for my sister but I've had a few days to play around with it before she comes to collect it!

The thing I've noticed, comparing it with my ASUS notebook, is that it has an air vent at the bottom of the notebook (compared to mine where the vent is at the top near the keyboard). There are stickers at the base of the notebook to warn you not to block this vent. I wouldn't want to have the notebook on my lap for too long! The fan blows air out through a vent on the left-hand side of the notebook, but it generally only tends to kick in at high speeds when you're running CPU-intensive programs.

There's a german review of the notebook here (translated by babelfish):

The review complains about the 94 millisecond response time of the LCD. I've not noticed that much LCD streaking myself, but then I'm not so much of a gamer.

The built-in sound quality from the notebook is pretty impressive, notebook speakers tend to sound very tinny. It even comes with 3D virtualisation technology so it can emulate a surround system. Of course, the built-in speakers don't compare when I plug in my external 2.1 Creatives, but then I wasn't expecting it to!

As I mentioned in a earlier post in this thread, the DVD drive took me by surprise! Not even the manual mentioned that they were using a car CD-player style system which doesn't feature a pop-out tray! Apparently, from reading a few (translated) German forum boards, the DVD rewriter function is noisy, it's not a function I've tried yet.

I've not run the batteries into the ground to test how long it can run for with Wi-fi activated, so I can't really say.

Alas, I don't feel qualified enough to answer your other questions! I'm sure there are others who has got this notebook who can help though!

All in all, I have to say I feel that for what you get, the price is very good!

The_Only_Homer_Simpson_UK

Ive had this notebook now for just over a week and I'm well impressed with performance etc.
I agree with monomer who quoted earlier that the vents on the underside top left corner underneath the heat sink could easily get blocked if you did actually use it on your lap! however common sense should tell you not to block it ( eg leaving it on a soft surface --- bed / sofa etc ) would tend to restict air flow and cause it to overheat.
In general use the fan does kick in on power demanding applications in short bursts and with prolonged use the underside does get warm ---but show me a laptop that doesn't!!

great value for the money and one guy I was talking to in the Queue last week at Aldi said the nearest he could find with a similar spec was a Sony retailing at £1600 notes!!

Hope this helps