Anyone unhappy with their HEL80?

I've had a Thinkpad Z61M on order for nearly a month now and I am starting to get really fed up with Lenovo's runaround. No one seems to know when the thing will ship!!

Anyway, I'm thinking of taking my business elsewhere and ordering an almost identically equipped HEL80. Are there any major drawbacks to this machine that I need to know about? Anyone have any gripes? Has anyone actually compared this machine to a Z-series from Lenovo in person?

Thanks guys!

 

I personally do not have access to my hel-80 right now seeing as it is a gift and cannot be opened until Christmas, but the biggest complaints I have heard are:
1. Keyboard can be a bit flexible around the enter key. Many have fixed this by placing a piece of two sided tape under it. I don't anticipate this to be much of a problem because of the overall quality of the notebook.
2. Some people say that they can hear an extremely faint hum from the headphone port when the volume is turned up loud. I don't know about you guys but every piece of audio equipment I have ever owned has not been completely silent when the volume is up so I don't see this as much of a problem either.

 

I actually am very pleased with the HEL80.

To address the above post:
1. The keyboard is not a problem for me, as I don't notice any negative effects when I use it.
2. The noise that is heard is very faint. If you look around--even if it's just around these forums--you will see that many other notebook systems suffer from the exact same noise. I had to look for it before I noticed it and even then it doesn't bother me.

In my HEL80 review (use the link in my signature), I nitpicked all of the complaints that I'd seen posted about the HEL80 and addressed them all. Whether or not they would be an issue to you is a personal decision.

 

I recently traded my matte screen for the 1280x800 glossy it is a good screen but it has a lot of glare I am looking for an anti-glare filter now. Also the viewing angles are not great. The matte screen was awesome very comparable to the quality of the T60p but the resolution was too high for me. Everything else about the machine is excellent and the keyboard is really not a big deal and I am a programmer. However if the screen must be top notch then you can't compare certain Thinkpads with this machine because the screen quality of at least the T60p is the best I have ever seen and I recently got to see a brand new one. Everything else about the Hel80 is excellent.

 

This is what I was looking at back when I was originally shopping:
http://shinza.com/product_info.php?products_id=50

 

Also realize that the Compal graphics card is clocked at 350/350, rather than 400/400 like most vendors. It still performs quite well, but it's a bit slower than "stock".

 

and while you can overclock the graphics card, for some reason the core goes much higher then the memory clock will. For instance when I OC my HEL80 I can get 450 on the core (from 350) but I can only get the memory to 361 (from 350). Pushing any further then that will cause artifacts on my machine.

 

Thanks guys. I have no plans on overclocking anyway, as I'm not really a gamer. If I ever were to play a game, it wouldn't be an action game that depended on high FPS.

And I would be ordering with the WSXGA+ which sounds like it is of much better quality than the WXGA.

I'm still waiting to hear back from my Lenovo customer relations manager to see if he is willing to give me a discount on my pending Z61m to hang in there a little longer. If not, I'm canceling the order and going with the Compal. There is no reason for me to continue to wait for this Thinkpad if they aren't going to compensate me for my inconvenience.

 

The screen quality is excellent on the Glossy it is just very high on the glare and the viewing angles are more narrow than I expected. I am going to try a NuShield filter. This filter should give me wider viewing angles, better contrast (which isn't a problem now), and reduce the glare significantly. I will post my experience with this filter but I have high hopes. If that works then the rest of the screen is excellent as good if not better than others I have seen so don't get me wrong I am sure the screen is built to last. Otherwise the keyboard again is no problem I have typed on it for hours and really like it as it is easy for my fingers to find the keys with very good accuracy. Also the machine is very very sturdy and if you buy from Powernotebooks you get an awesome warranty. I also talked with the folks from Xotic PC and they were very helpful. You are not going to get that level of service from a major manufacturer. One other great thing is that I got my machine built with a Seagate momentus drive. The drive is performing excellently and it is quiet. Also the HEL80 is much cooler (temperature wise) than either the Dell I had for a short time at work or the Thinkpad I played with. So the HEL80 is an excellent machine in many ways.

JKozlow that machine you are buying is wicked expensive man. Wow : ) I am happier than ever with my HEL80 after seeing that price and I got 2gb of ram, a great graphics card, an excellent DVD Burner, 7200rpm Seagate Momentus drive and Windows XP Prof with the T7200 processor. Also I will be shocked if you don't get severe eye strain and headaches from the WUXGA which is I believe 1920×1200. If you have never seen resolution that high before you should definately consider how tiny that will be.

 

No, I got the WSXGA+ not the WUXGA.

And I got a great deal on my machine. It's actually cheaper than the HEL80 identically equipped.

My Z61m has:

T5500 Core 2 Duo
15.4" WSXGA+
2 GB RAM
100GB 7200rpm
x1400 GPU
DVD SuperMulti Burner
A/B/G/N Thinkpad Atheros Wireless
Bluetooth
Camera & Mic integrated
Titanium Cover
6 cell battery
XP Home

for $1464 shipped (tax incl)

I cannot get a comparably equipped HEL80 for that unless I buy it barebones and assemble it myself. Even then, it would cost me around $50 more than the Z61m based on my calculations. Problem is, I am getting really tired of waiting for the thing to arrive. Lenovo definitely needs to get their act together.

 

Okay I was just going to the link you had.

 

Oh - gotcha. For some reason the forum inserts that link automatically whenever you type "Z61m". Weird.

 

I'm happy with my hel80. The noise is a bit bothersome since I often wind up in quiet conditions running off the battery, wearing headphones, and having resumed from standby (the magic cocktail of circumstances required for me to hear it).

I'd call the keyboard subpar; not awful... just subpar. Tape helps it quite a lot. Elsewise, I use the laptop heavily, and it performs well. I like the screen, the battery life with the 9-cell is nice, the wireless reception seems a little better than most I've seen, and I like the touchpad (though the stock drivers are a bit goofy -- I use the Windows ones).

 

jkozlow3 there aren't many real negatives with the HEL80 only nitpicks but, there aren't many severe issues with this unit.

What I suggest you do, if you still have any doubt, is to call either xoticpc or powernotebook to either clarify or any other general inquiries. Of course the forum is also quite helpful, but I still recommend you call. Feel free to ask away on the forum though.

 

I am unhappy with my HEL80.

At first I was pretty happy because I thought I was getting a good deal on a laptop with those specs. About $1580 for a laptop with 2gb of ram, an nvidia video card with 256mb of vram, a 2 ghz core 2 duo chip, and a matte screen.

It cost me about $90 to overnight it, so my final cost was $1670, but I'm not counting that as most people won't need to do that.

But as I've used it, I've become increasingly unhappy with it. Whenever I bought it, I bought it from powernotebooks.com, and they were definitely helpful and friendly. That was probably the best thing about the whole experience.

The things I'm unhappy with are first and foremost the firewire. I specifically asked the salesman if it would have firewire, and he said yes. But when I got it, it was one of those useless 4 pin ones that won't power an external flash drive, and since none of mine came with power adapters, they can't be used with this laptop. I guess it's my fault for not asking more about it, but I was in a hurry and needed a laptop 2 days from then, and assumed that when he said it had firewire, it would be firewire that I could use.

I can add a firewire card for $100 something, plus whatever shipping will cost, but it will stick out of the side and not be integrated into the laptop, in addition to costing an absurd amount of money for something that should already be integrated into the computer.

The optical drive is the noisiest I've ever heard, in any computer. It's deafening, it will literally drown out any music that I have playing from the laptop speakers.

The battery sticking out the back is unpleasant and aesthetically unappealing. I thought that it wouldn't be a problem for me, but I've found it bothers me more and more.

All in all, I wish I had bought a macbook pro. The final cost of this laptop equipped so I can actually use my flash drives will be near what a macbook pro costs, and considering that the macbook pro comes with an operating system and this one didn't, I think the macbook is ahead of the game. The HEL80, with an operating system and working firewire, would end up costing me $2000. For that price, I could have walked into an apple store and bought a macbook pro the same day and walked out with my laptop.

In addition, that macbook pro would be sleek and integrated, with no firewire card or batteries sticking out and uglying things up, and they're usually regarded as among the quietest laptops out there. My girlfriend has one, so I've had a lot of firsthand experience with them and I'm impressed with the fit and finish and general build quality of them. I was always put off by the price, though. But now that I've actually bought this HEL80, I'm realizing that the same amount of money would have gotten me a macbook pro, and been a lot higher quality and quieter.

So, the HEL80 is a decent computer. But for the money it's going to cost me in the end, I could have had a high quality computer, and not had to settle for merely decent.

 

Welcome to the forums, Vcount. I am sorry to hear about your unhappiness with the HEL80.

They have a 15-day total satisfaction return policy on their notebooks. Perhaps you may want to consider a return on the HEL80?

To be fair--many notebooks don't have any form of Firewire at all. Even fewer have the version you are looking for.

I've found this to be true while installing applications--but some discs are louder than others. The balance of certain discs causing more noise than others is a theory I've heard that I like.

Running applications or playing games/DVDs does not cause the optical drive to spin at full speed and create that noise.

Extended batteries seem to be on the rise these days. I thought I would hate mine but have ended up not even being bothered by it as it is largely out of sight, out of mind. I can totally understand those that are bothered by it, though. A 6-cell battery is available for the HEL80 and it won't stick out of the back.

You may want to look into the MacBook Pro option. It sounds like that's the system you would be happiest with. From what I remember though--you end up paying quite a bit more for a well-equipped MBP. Far more than the amount you paid for your Compal.

 

Only unhappy with the total neglect of Windows XP since Vista is here on the Compal driver site.

I find it very funny that people who are unhappy with their HEL80 talk about the MacBook. Why bother with Compal, if you have the money for a MacBook?

I use it for exactly what it was meant for, raw power for a reasonable price.

 

I've noticed this also.. all these people saying "I should have gotten a macbook pro!"...

 

Well, you know I thought the same thing. I came into this from a stance of "okay, I don't want to get hosed for 2 grand plus for a decently performing computer", because I had seen and admired the macbook before, but been repelled by the price.

I mean, I even thought that these people who bought the apple laptops were some kind of suckers, to be paying so much for that level of performance. "Hah!", I thought, "I could get a laptop performing that well for hundreds less!"

What I have just been realizing, though, is that in order to get the functionality I want from this computer, it would end up costing me as much as a macbook. I mean, I was pretty happy that I was getting the awesome stats this computer has for under $1600. But in my case, at least, this computer is a much better computer on paper than in person, for reasons like the noisy optical drive, the lack of full firewire, and the battery sticking out.

In order to get the firewire working, I'm edging ever closer to macbook price territory. Certainly if I wanted to add DVI out as well, which I had wanted on a laptop, it would kick me solidly into macbook price territory, and that's without an operating system. Including an operating system in the price, the macbook is even ahead of the game price wise! And fixing the aesthetic things like the noisy optical drive and sticking-out battery would only increase the price of my HEL80 even further past that point, issues which never even come up with the macbook.

So I didn't come into this thinking that I wanted to spend 2 grand + on a laptop, but now that I have it in my hands and am realizing how much money it would take to get the HEL80 to have the features I want, I am realizing that the macbook would have been a better deal for me from the beginning. And I'm realizing that maybe people spend that much on a laptop for a reason, and perhaps aren't the suckers I took them to be.

And as for everyone ELSE saying that they should have got the macbook, I obviously don't know their exact reasoning. But I know on my end, I was also looking for a non-windows, sharp looking laptop whenever I went looking and found the HEL80. In this performance range, the options for a non-windows, sharp looking laptop is pretty limited, and the only real contenders for me were the HEL80 and a macbook. I decided to get the HEL80 after researching the price and performance points, and reading a review by somebody who had lots of pictures, and installed Ubuntu where the wireless worked right from the box. That being one of the chief pains when doing a laptop linux install, I decided I'd go with that. But the functionality is so limited under Ubuntu, with my modem not working at all, and with no webcam and no microphone and the bluetooth and card reader requiring quite a lot of work to get working. Not that this isn't normal, of course. But with the macbook, at least, there are a lot of people who have written custom drivers and how-to's for getting these things up and running. But I haven't been able to find anything similar for the HEL80 so far. That may be my not looking hard enough, granted. But the macbook results for these things were all right there, out there and ready to be found right away.

Perhaps the other people saying this were also looking for a non-windows, sharp looking laptop, though.

Thanks for the response chrisyano, I'll look into returning it. The people at Powernotebooks really were very nice, that's a really excellent company. I wish they sold macbooks, so I could buy one from them.

 

Chrisyano, our return policy for PowerPro and Crown laptops is 15 days, no questions asked. We do not refund for shipping, or any Activated software. For complete details see our PowerPro Warranty

For Sager laptops the return policy is 30 days with the same terms.

Vcount, we are sorry that you are not totally satisfied so as long as you are within 15 days from your original ship date please call us to arrange for its return for refund. Please take a moment to read the 1st paragraph of your PowerPro Warranty to be sure you understand your rights and obligations under the return policy.

 

Thanks for catching that, Donald. My post has been changed to reflect the correct return period.