BenQ - The new Sony (Benq Joybook 5000)

Member Name: nanoblade

Product:	Benq Joybook 5000
Date:	11/07/04 (797 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good screen, looks nice, great value

Disadvantages: Flimsy feel, Not enough RAM

BenQ? Had you heard of them a few months ago? Well I hadn’t. BenQ are new to Europe although they are well established in the Middle East. If you hadn’t heard of them before Euro 2004 you must do now! When I saw this laptop for an insanely low price a few months ago I was a little skeptical, but after days of research I couldn’t find anything to compete with it, and became more confident about BenQs reputation. So I went ahead and bought it, and I can honestly say this was the best thing I have ever spent £850 on!

The laptop comes with the Centrino 1.4Ghz which is approximately equivalent to the P4 2.2Ghz, with the benefits of greatly increased battery life. BenQs quoted life of 6h is not far off from the actual 5 hours that you get from the battery. It also comes with all the standard bits: DVD/CD-RW drive, 256Mb RAM, 40Gb HD, Wireless built-in, Network port, ATI 32Mb graphics card (pretty good for a laptop this small). But what is different about the BenQ? Well for starters the screen is much much brighter than most others out there 200-nits in fact (whatever that means), it comes will all the ports you’ll ever need for multimedia: firewire, 3 USB, mic, headphone, network, s-video out, VGA. It is also a very light laptop considering all the options it comes with, incredibly easy to transport around, and no need to carry any external devices really, unless you want a floppy drive, but what’s the use in that eh? Another thing which is great about the Centrino processor is that you almost forget that it has a fan! For most of the time the fan is actually off, so the computer runs totally silent, and when it comes on under normal use it is for a very short period, and more to cool the Hard Drive than anything else.

On the downside the laptop feels a little flimsy, when you transport it you’ll notice the screen actually touches a little area protruding above the touchpad, which creates a small line on your screen, b
it annoying really. Despite its flimsy feel it is obviously very rugged as mine has survived for 6 months so far with no problems. If I’m really pushing it then I guess I could complain about the 256Mb of RAM supplied, I honestly don’t think its enough to run Windows XP at any decent speed, well for me anyway. I highly recommend upgrading to at least 512 or 768 like me, RAM prices are very cheap at the moment, you can pick up an extra 256Mb module for £30 or so, and installation is very easy.

The laptop is also beautiful to look at, most people say it looks more like a mac than a PC which is a good thing! Since using Centrino I will never ever again buy a P4 laptop, and since using BenQ laptops I will never switch to another manufacturer except for Sony and Apple of course :-)

Summary: