ct14-a0 impressions & Walmart wierdness

I recently picked up a ct-a0 vizio thin and light at walmart and have been giving it a once over to see if its a keeper, so I thought id post m impressions here.

The unit is built solid enough and the design is kind of a cross between past and current generation macbook pros. Its aluminum unibody like the new macs, the keyboard is more like the previous gen macs and there is a slight angle to it like the new air models. So id definitely say this is mac inspired to an extent.

Having a 1600x900 screen is a big plus, every notebook should have at least this resolution today but they for the most part dont. Im not a fan of glossy screens but this one isn't bad in that regard as far as glare goes. I would much prefer he IPS matte display of the 15" but not that ones just too big.

I did a battery test, and it ran for 5 and 1/2 hours with the screen brightness up far enough i could live with it lower. I did a mix of word processing, video, slideshow, etc.

I don''t mind the keyboard. In fact i like the wide touching keys a bit better than the island keyboards. Its easier to find the keys when touchtyping for me. I type about 80wpm and it works welll for me. I do wish it had a backlight but its a low end unit so can't complain too much. Some reviews have said there are problems with it missing keys or double typing. I had double characters on keypresses a few times but you can adjust the character repeat rate of the keyboard in settings easily if you have problems. It really depends on how fast you type or how long you linger on keypresses as to if you have a problem and if you do its easily adjusted to your typing style.

The notebook is minimalist which is unusual in a PC but common on mac. There are only 2 usb3 ports, power, full size hdmi and headphone jack. No other ports or sd card slot which may be a deal breaker for some. I kinda like the clean look and can use USb3 for what I need.

The back left corner of the screen is lit up with a Vizio logo and there is a white light in the front bottom of the case that is lit whhen the computer is on and flashes when its asleep. The ac adapter also lights up green.

I ran some benchmarks on the SSD. Its a toshiba SSD, probably the same one thats in the z835 series ultrabooks. Without putting out loads of stats, essentially its a little faster than the sandisk u100, a little slower than the samsung ssd used in the previous generation series 9 units and alot slower than the adata drive used in some of the new zenbooks.


its not all roses, the lack of the keyboard backlight is a bit of an issue as is the glossy screen. My unit also had one problem, a stuck pixel in the middle of the screen that always shows red. I do think this is a keeper though so i plan to exchange it instead of returning it.


Oh, I almost forgot... WALMART WIERDNESS
i ordered this for store pickup at a store that had it in stock, but walmart.com delayed my order for further verification, so i had to wait a day or so until they called me and asked if i placed the order. They said it was a random security thing they were doing.

Next i go to exchange the unit and find out walmart stores wont do exchanges for walmart.com products, they only accept returns. So I need to repurchase it at walmart.com then return the other one. So I purchase a new one and get the same thing... order delayed for further verifcation.

The bottom line is their same day site to store has been more like 2-3 day for me.

 

I also had this verification, when I pre-ordered my vizio. They attempt to call your house phone (even though I did not provide it) and do a simple verification. I personally liked it for security reasons.

 

I liked it for security reasons, I didn't like it because it delayed my pickup for a day when I was going out of town the next day and had ordered with pickup in store that day. So it left me in a bind.

I've since returned the one with the bad screen and ordered a new one last night and had additional info to enter with my order. Apparently walmart is partnering with banks in the verified by visa program which does extra verification. Its a good thing to fight fraud, just in my case it wasn't explained well and left me frustrated with the delay.

Btw, I got my replacement unit today (wierd that you can't exchange in store, but need to return and rebuy) and so far its pretty much perfect. No stuck pixels on the screen and everything seems to be going fine.

I don't know why this machine gets dissed and overlooked by the media, especially with its new low price point at walmart.com. Theres nothing close to it at that price point. I wish it had a backlit keyboard but otherwise its a steal.

 

are you keeping this machine alchemist?

i saw the ct15-a2 at costco today and liked some things and disliked others. do you know if the 14" version has a smaller keyboard than the 15.6" version? they keys on the 15.6" were simply too wide for me and was wondering if vizio shrinks them down a bit on the 14"?

also, the screen: you said the glossy 14" isn't that bad, but have you tried it outside or with a strong light above or behind you? if so, do you get clear face reflections on the screen under these conditions?

 

I think its the same keyboard on the 14 and the 15. Its got wide keys that almost touch instead of the lil island keys that are so popular today. I'm really picky with keyboards myself. I type about 80-90wpm and touchtype but I haven't had any problems with this keyboard. It doesn't have the premium feel of the s9 I had for a lil while but its really easy to find the keys once you have typed on it a bit, and I think it will be better at hiding dirt than the island keyboards the tend to become dust traps over time. I do wish it was backlit though.

The screen is a glossy reflective screen... but the screen is really bright (and i leave mine at 1/2 brightness) and its not as mirror like glossy as some of the glossy screens ive seen. Its definitely going to have reflections outside, no way around that but it might still be visible outside with the backlight all the way up. It also has an option to turn the backlight off.

I'm curious if turning the backlight off and letting the sun front light it might give you a viewable screen. I know that would work with the old transflectives but no idea on this one. I'll try it out tomorrow in the sun and post how it does.

 

thanks man. i really think vizio did a solid job overall with their first model, but they can make even greater strides if they improve the keyboard and trackpad.

i want an ultrabook and 14" is the perfect/ideal size for me, but there's only a couple quality options out there.. it's basically down to the ct14 and x1 carbon for me now.

the only 13.3" i would consider is the S9. the sony z would be overkill for my needs and the zen prime simply has way too many QC issues.

i wish i knew what new ultrabooks we might see once win 8 comes out because i really want to upgrade my current machine.

 

I checked it out outside today... its pretty reflective so in direct sunlight its not very useful. Under a tree or in indirect light the screen brightness is enough to make it not too bad.

I went through 4 zenbook primes before getting the vizio and other than the 1/2 pound of extra weight and it being a little bigger I like the vizio more. At least it works as expected without all the issues the zens have.

I also had a s9. previous gen 11.6" model. So it had the good samsung ssd and the bad broadcom wireless. Great keyboard on these machines but wireless is all kinda bad trying to get through that duraluminum shell. The new ones have centrino wireless cards so they are better with range but still not great. Unfortunately the new ones also downgraded their SSD considerably to the sandisk u100. Its a nice machine with a good screen but the price is too high IMO.

Haven't seen much of the new carbon but it doesn't look bad at all. If I wasn't likely to upgrade to something touch in the next 6 months or so I would likely be considering it seriously. Lenovo has also been good with the discounts in recent times.

There will likely be ALOT of new machines this buying season... Microsoft is really pushing vendors to make touch centric machines for the Win8 launch. There will also probably be alot of discounts on current hardware because it will be instantly dated when win8 comes out... although there will also be the 'we hate win8' camp that will be looking for win7 machines while they last.

Thats one of the reasons I went with the vizio now, it wasn't as pricy as the zens and such and ill likely get something touch before the end of the year anyway.

How soon these machines are around really depends on if microsoft has learned anything from apples playbook on releases and made sure their vendors have win8 machines for sale oct 26th when the OS launches. We will see.

 

I checked out the Vizio 14" today at Walmart and the screen seemed to have the "screen door effect" (very slight and only noticeable on white backgrounds). I went to another Walmart to see if it was just a problem with that particular screen, but the other one had the same effect. Maybe I was looking at the screen too closely...

I also saw the 15.6" at Samsclub, and the screen seemed quite nice. I did not notice any screen door effect on it, although I admit I wasn't looking for it since I viewed it before the 14 inchers and thus was not looking for it. In fact, I did not look for the effect on the 14 incher, it just kind of jumped out at me.

I haven't tested the trackpad enough to come to a definitive conclusion, but on both models it seemed okay to me. Then again, I have a 6 year old laptop (which has a nice, non-jumpy trackpad imho) to compare it to.

The keys were a bit shallow--without much travel--but they definitely felt nice enough to where it would not be a deal breaker (for me).

 

I haven't really noticed a screen door effect on my 14". I'm typing on it now and havent had any problems. Im sure its not in the same league as the screen on the 15.6" model though... that one uses an IPS matte display which is likely the main selling point of that model.

The track pad can be a bit flakey at times until you install the updated driver on vizios site. After that it works pretty well IMO.

The keyboard is shallow no doubt about it. I think its a constant with ultrabooks though, when you have a real thin notebook there isn't much room for key travel. That said, the more i use it the more I like the feel of this keyboard. Its easy to touch type on and pretty comfortable.

 

can you guys describe in detail what the screen door effect is? thanks

 

Screen-door effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Basically it means that you can see a grid pattern rather than uniform areas of color.

 

I just stopped by my local WalMart and checked out the CT14-A0 as well. I was very impressed by the build quality and the screen. The keyboard seems very nice, and I did experience some weridness with the trackpad. That isn't a dealbreaker for me since I would use a mouse. Hopefully the CN15-A2 will be equally impressive!

 

The trackpad jittery nature cleans right up with the latest driver from the vizio site. The more I type on the keyboard the more I like it. Im doing a desktop publishing project right now with alot of editing and its been really great to work with.

 

thats great to hear. I'm really considering the cn15 but feel I should wait and see what happens with the new Win8 Devices as well