IFT00 opinions?

I am looking for opinions on the Compal IFT00, there isn't much hand's on info on this notebook. What is the quality of the keyboard, the speakers, materials, battery life, screen impressions, viewing angles, quality in general. Anything really. I am down between buying this notebook and a ASUS S37S.

Thanks
Will

 

I have the IFT00. It has a very nice screen (great picture) though being glossy it is difficult to see in direct sunlight. Indoor light is not a problem, and even on the lowest brightness setting the screen is easily visible. I think 1280x800 is a sensible resolution for this screen given its size. The graphics card is barely powerful enough for gaming at this resolution anyway. The vertical viewing angle is not good. You will find yourself adjusting the screen quite often. The horizontal viewing angle is very good, though that is less important. The hinge is a little stiff, so you will need to hold the keyboard down when you open and close the lid, or adjust the viewing angle.

The build quality is not what I expected. The plastic feels cheap, and the panels all have some flex under pressure (but it does only weigh 2.4 kg, so some things had to be compromised). However, in 3 months I have no scratches or wear marks, which is a good sign considering I move it around a LOT. The removable panels on the bottom creak when pressure is applied (such as picking it up with one hand). The keyboard has far, far too much flex on the left side. It's possible this could be corrected by reassembly, though I haven't got around to it yet (too obvious a flaw to be on every model). The right side of the keyboard has little flex, comparable to that of many mid-range laptops. The wireless switch feels very cheap and rattles when the laptop is moved (not particularly useful anyway). The battery also moves around slightly, though this is fairly common too in low to mid-range notebooks.

The touch panel is just a dumb gimmick. It scratches easily (out of the box, it was scratched), the heat sensitive areas are too small, and if you drag your fingers at all you end up opening something you didn't want. Being heat sensitive adds nothing to the functionality of the computer, so I would have just preferred regular buttons with tactile feedback. The other problem is that it's difficult to read the icons when the bright blue back-light is illuminated (too bright). Also, one of the five buttons is used rarely, if at all (Smart Charge). It would have been nice to have Play/Pause, Skip Forward/Back and volume control up there instead, but for these features you have to use the function keys (F1, F2 etc). I don't think you can configure the browser and email buttons in Windows. The browser button goes to your "home" page, instead of opening up your default browser. So if you are working in Windows Explorer in XP, it will open up in that. Overall, the whole touch panel takes up 30x2 cm and doesn't add much to the computer.

The speakers are just laptop speakers. They don't have any bass, they are not very loud etc. Headphones or plugging it into a stereo is a much better option. SPDIF output is available if you buy a 3.5 mm to optical adaptor (unusual configuration).

Battery life is good, although I bought the 9-cell. With wireless on, screen brightness on minimum (bright enough to see easily), and listening to music / browsing / typing etc the battery lasts nearly four hours. Gaming however cuts battery life to less than 90 minutes, as you would expect. If you close the lid, the battery lasts over six hours (while downloading overnight etc).

The CPU / graphics fan can get quite loud, though it only turns on full when the hard drive is being accessed (7200 RPM Samsung) which is annoying. You won't hear it very often in games or browsing etc. The system overall is not completely silent, but considerably quieter than my old desktop (which is 8 years old now). The DVD burner is surprising loud when seeking however.

The features are very good. This is probably the most expandable 14 inch laptop available. Drivers and BIOS updates are released quite regularly. I think it uses the same motherboard as the 15 inch IFL90, which is good for possible support in Linux. RAM up to 4 GB is supported. There are two full height mini PCIe slots, and possibly one half-height one above the keyboard (for a Robson module I assume). It has support for solid state hard drives, which I will definitely upgrade to when they come down in price. Bluetooth support is optional and does not take up any of the mini PCIe slots. There are 4 USB ports, including two on the right for a mouse or any mouse or any bulky USB devices (the ports are spaced far apart). There is no digital video out, just VGA / Svideo. The ExpressCard / memory card reader I have not used yet. They are only maginally useful for most people at the moment anyway due to the popularity of USB memory sticks and the fact that most devices that use flash memory have USB connectivity. Unlike the IFL90, there are no ports or aerials for a PCIe TV tuner. If you want to buy one of these (when they are more readily available), you would need to modify your laptop. The video card uses the MXM II interface, which is possibly upgradeable in the future. If cooling is adequate in the smaller case, the 8600M GT from the IFL90 should be compatible. I am doubtful of the compatibility of the ASUS MXM II cards though, but I don't think anyone has tried the GDDR3 model yet.

Performance is also good. The drivers have minimal bloat and the computer is very stable. The Intel 4965AGN wireless card is great and causes no issues. The GeForce 8400M GS is not a gaming card, but it will cope well with HL2 engine games. You will have to turn the graphics down for most games. FEAR and Quake 4 Demo were both very playable, but I don't get to game as much as I used to.

Overall, the notebook is acceptable. I bought it because it was very expandable and because I plan to keep it for a few years. The screen and battery life are very good. The build quality is not that great, but seems to be durable. The unique features like the heat-sensitive touch panel is pointless and gimmicky, and you may not need the webcam. The finger print scanner is another pointless feature. If I had to do it again, I would probably go for build quality over expandability. Expansion is expensive, and build quality is something you notice right away. Compal should have spent a few extra dollars on better plastic instead of a stupid touch panel and a useless fingerprint scanner. But it seems to get the job done.

Having now owned my own notebook, in the future I would sacrifice a few hundred MHz or whatever of performance for better build quality, longer battery life (LED screens), and more features (connectivity etc). These last three factors cannot be upgraded, and a slight performance advantage now will mean nothing when running software 2 or 3 years in the future.

I think this is the first customer review of this notebook, which is why it is so detailed.

 

Perfect review! Just what I was looking for. Was hard to locate a decent review for this computer.

Btw.. The white version of this computer does not have the fingerprint thing or heat sensitive buttons. Anyone tried that model?