Quality of Compal IFL90

So I have finally decided after 6 months to buy the IFL90. Now that some of them have actually shipped and some of you on this website have received them, I would appreciate it if you all would help me read some feedback about the quality of the laptop.

First, how is the quality keyboard? I read one review where the person said that the keyboard had no flex and another one were the reviewer said that there was a quite a bit of flex. I would like to know if there is in fact any flex since the Compal HEL80 had a lot of flex from what I read.

Hoq the palm rest on the laptop feel? Is it rough or smooth, does the quality feel cheap or sturdy?

Third, how is the screen and thickness of the laptop. One of the main reasons I did not decide to got for the Dell Inspiron 1520 because it was chunky and had a mediocre screen

 

there's quite a bit of flex, at least on the model I've seen (v1) there wasn't a lot of difference between EL80 and FL90, keyboard in fact seems the exact same type, varies from model to model tho, there is models ending with 2 (which have the TPM module and the fingerprin reader) which perhaphs have less flex. However, the model I've been seeing had something along these linnen things placed underneath the keyboard, so I'm only assuming a notebook without it would be the same as the one on EL80, with the same amount of/lack of flex.

You can use some sort of linnen, called Sorbothane, and cut out a layer to put under your keyboard. I'll be doing this soon myself, or something similar. I'll post the results. Overall the keyboard feels to be the least quality of the whole product.

Palm rest is smooth-ly. It's not as rough as you'd find on thinkpads, but it's a nice plastic, slightly rough to the touch. I'll see it today morning and let you know if I made a mistake remembering. The downside certainly is that it's a bit bendy, at least on the version I had seen and will see this morning, not at all like the hard proper-feel touch on the EL80 I currently possess. The EL80 seemed tougher compared to the FL90 I've seen. That also regards the screen cover - I've actually noticed some flex on the LCD cover, nasty. Could be different on IFL and on FL90 v2 (the one with TPM). Could also be just the particular machine.

It's not chunky; and the screen is like the one on the EL80, in fact, it's the same screen as far as I can tell. There was a bit of light leakage from the bottom center, more than I have on my EL80. Could be just this particular model tho. This was a WXGA screen at 1280x800 optimal res, gloss.

Mind you, this is FL90 I'm talking about, the VBI version. The IFL could be different and so could be the FL90 v2.

It's best to go to a shop and see for yourself, everyone looks for something different in a laptop and everyone has their own qualities and issues to cause a disqualification

 

thanks for the in depth reviews. Its actually very possible that the version you have seen may have been a different version, since other people have had different experiences in performance such as the gpu.

I read flippoet's review and he seemed pretty positive about the build quality. Either he was totally oblivious to the obvious flaws or your machine is different from his. I just hope its not the latter.

 

ME TOO!! maybe i'm just inexperienced but it seems good to me but when i read what other people say i just get confused at what their complaining about

 

Judging build quality is soooo subjective. Flex in particular seems to depend a lot on the P.O.V. of the reviewer. I've seen very conflicting reports about flex on various machines. Sounds like this:

Reviewer 1: The keyboard flexes so much it is unbelievable. It is so bad that whenever I hit any key, the whole house flexes! Hmm... something strange is happening... the... Great gods!!! The flex I generated while typing this created a rip in the space-time continuum.... aaaaaaaaaarghblke!

Reviewer 2: Flex? What flex?

Reviewer 3: ths computr is, bestestest in the un1verse1!1 the kybard wuz maid wit, anty-flex soe it iz no flexorz.

 

Well, I know my flex. But I did say it depends vastly on whatever one likes/feels, so really, go and get yourself to the nearest shop and see an FL90 with your own eyes.

To set some ground rules perhaphs -> no flex for me is IBM Thinkpad keyboards. Flex for me is when I can press a key and hear a sound of 'vibration', 'resonannce'. Flex for me is when I can push down a key and then push down the whole keyboard some more. Flex for me is when I can push down on the keyboard in one place more than in another. Flex for me is in other words a 'dancing keyboard'. I think that should describe my point of view when it comes to flex. At least keyboard wise.

Chassis-wise, when I say flex, well, I usually don't, I just say it's bendy like I did few posts above. It's when I can press on the chassis somewhere with say 0.5kg-1kg and the plastic,well, flexes bends. Making a funny noise at that. Try pressing the compal EL80 on the palmrests. Almost nothing, just a wee noise if you press real hard. Try pressing a toshiba TECRA 9100 (my previous laptop) and you're in flex hell, a whole symphony of sounds and ripples, along plastic bending over 3-5mm to reveal almost inside parts.... Pathetic.

That's what I call flex, and that's why I dislike it - despite being just crap quality and feeling therefore like being slightly blown after buying it, it reveals often the insides of the notebook which it should so much care for. More dust inside etc, that should not be there in the first place. As for keyboard flex, well, I dislike it because also it plainly should not be there, and it's nasty to type as it is a bit louder and especially on laptops as you basically type on the motherboard, the less vibration/resonnance etc the better imho.

 

Thats the problem, in the US we have no way to do that. Thats why the barrage of questions from everyone.

 

Had no idea your market is crippled that way You can get the FL90 vbi in almost every shop over here. It's flooded with compals.

 

Bah, so that's why we (USians) are impatiently waiting for our long-ago pre-ordered Compals -- you guys in the EU are hogging them all!

 

Hehe, we mostly have the VBI versions about. But yes, there is a decent amount of non-vbi versions about too. Strange that Intel would not even think about deploying the VBI in usa, as it seems. The VBI barebone over here costs about 600$ for the end user over here. That's including the ODM. WXGA. FL90. The FL91 with X3000 intel graphics is about $500 for end-user at it's cheapest.

 

You know what they say: you get what you paid for.

EDIT: Maybe that explains the flex issue?

 

well, as regards the whole build, it's not half bad. the keyboard actually is one of the cheaper parts of it I reckon so they could just as well put something serious in there. or at least some kind of polyethurane (or however you spell that) material sheath underneath it to make sure there is no bounce. The keyboard is nonetheless one of the mainly interacted with parts of the notebook, the EL80 I got for example feels mad sturdy sitting on my lap right now, but the keyboard could be better Well, I'll sort it out. That just leaves the bumpy keys issue, that is, the keys sometimes are having too big a gap between eachother when pressed, so my fingers get caught under them. Strangely tho (or maybe not ) this issue leaves with time, perhaphs my keyboard gets accustomed to my typing techniqueS? or is it the other way around.... can't say for sure ;-)

I'll leave a post once I sort the flex business. I'm really looking forward to the sheaths of that funky material underneath the keyboard. It should take away the writing strain I sometimes feel now, and make the keyboard a lot nicer to work with, quieter, and overall the whole notebook quieter as well as it will/should isolate a bit the noise the fan makes

 

what is the build made out of? magnesium alloy like the dell's1520?
(well dell put plastic ontop of their magnesium alloy but still)