Averatec D1133 All-In-One – A good buy in comparison to others of its genre, but will you buy this instead of a budget desktop?

Sum n Substance:

Thumbs Up:

• Swifter than Atom Nettops
• Novel and flexible display
• More ports than those found in the usual low end  computers of the category

Thumbs Down:

• Audio volume low which spoils quality media potentials
• Not as good as budget desktops in performance

Inside the Trunk:

Price: $ 549

Central Processing Unit: 1.5GHz AMD Athlon X2 3250e

Available Memory: 2GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM

Graphics Configuration: 512MB (shared) ATI Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphics chip

Hard Drive: 250 GB; 5400 rpm

Optical Drive: Dual Layer DVD burner

Networking: Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 n wireless

Display size: 18.4 inches

Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium SP1(32 bit)

The Whiz Kid Speaks: Low Price and compromisable performance- if this is alright with you, the D1133 is the best for you. Maybe if you are a hobbyist computer user who uses it only occasionally, you can go for this. Though slower as per computer benchmarks, if you compare the D1133 to other Nettops which use Intel’s Atom chip you’ll find that it is faster owing to the AMD Athlon X2 CPU. The screen is however smaller than that of a recent Lenovo version. A self contained computer, it’s not as robust as the budget desktops in its performance.

In design the D1133 resembles the D1100.The flexible LCD display can be adjusted for your comfort. You can even tilt it to a horizontal position so that it’s parallel to your tabletop. Well, at present such flexibility without a touch screen doesn’t seem to be of much benefit.  But the LCD is too good for the given price! You might say that the Lenovo  C300 Screen, being 20 inches,  is bigger, but do you know that the resolution of the Lenovo Nettop is only 1600 X 900, whereas that of our D1133  is 1680 X 945? You might not be able to watch DVDs from a distance. Though the image quality may be good, I wouldn’t really vouch this for watching from closer quarters because that might harm your eyes. Even the volume without external speakers is pretty low. You’ve got to really sit very close to the gadget to listen. This is true for the Lenovo model too.

So, when any of these companies claim that your Nettop can double up as an entertainment device, you can challenge them. How can a Nettop entertain you like a conventional home theatre system? So if a company or a vendor makes such claims take this with a pinch of salt. As this is a fixed terminal, you cannot use it as a portable entertainment device like your laptop or netbook which you can entertain yourself with audio-visually , when out of home on a holiday.

Now, if you are pressed for a choice between the Averatec and Lenovo gadgets you should first identify what it is that you want. If its speed that you want, go for the Averatec, but if you want some good features and usability convenience you’d better go for the Lenovo one. Performance wise the Averatec offspring scores above the Lenovo, but if it’s more media usage and storage that you are thinking about, go for the Lenovo product. But a budget PC is always a better choice in comparison to both.

Certain tests based on different criteria like image processing speed, iTunes encoding, and multimedia multitasking were conducted for Nettops and budget desktops. In the Adobe CS3 image processing test, the Averatec D1133 took only 376 seconds whereas the Lenovo C300 took 550 seconds. In the Apple iTunes Encoding test, the D1133 took 306 seconds, whereas the Lenovo C300 took 777 seconds. The D1133 beat the Lenovo for a third time in the multimedia multitasking test in which it took only 1,730 seconds to complete the task whereas the Lenovo C300 took 2,103 seconds. In most of these tests 3 other performers namely, Gateway SX2800-01, Asus Eee Top ET1602, e Machines EZ 1601-01 also took part, in which the Averatec D1133 always scored second.

The controls for all the audio visual functionalities and power were located all in one but they are found under the base of Averatec D1133 which is not quite recommended. With a whole lot of ports than its counterparts, Averatec D1133 gives you good connectivity options. Power efficiency is another plus that you can think of. Tri–Gem parent of Averatec gives you one year coverage but online technical support is not available.

Nitty Gritty: Portability is an issue that the makers of Averatec can think about. I don’t particularly vouch for buying the Averatec in comparison to Lenovo as its performance and price are good.

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