The camera is quite good. The microphone is rubbish. Definitely need a mobile headset.
Although mine came with Linux it also came with the BenQ Windows drivers/utilities on DVD - although not very helpful for a machine without a DVD reader or if the only external optical drive you have is for CD.
I think another USB port could and should have been fitted, but 3 seems usual for netbooks. Also a DVI port should replace the VGA port (DVI-VGA adapters are cheap if required).
Would I buy again, at the same point in time? I don't know. I looked at several 11.6"-12"+ options, including mini notebooks. I tried to avoid the GMA500, but the rest of the spec had the edge for me, including the battery life and quick charge feature that I'm a little disappointed with. The machine took so long to arrive, I was about to cancel my order and buy a Gateway LT31 instead!
Lastly, getting info out of BenQ, whether directly, through the local distributor, or through a dealer, has proven very painful.
I've been waiting several weeks for the price of the 3.75G HSUPA upgrade option. The distributor has written to me during that time to let me know that they're still trying to get me the info.
So far, overall, I'm quite impressed with the machine. Build quality seems good. Finish is good, except for a small blemish in the blue lid. Usability is good, especially for a machine this small.
Battery life is a little disappointing, as I haven't managed more than 6.5 hours. Maybe need to fiddle with power settings. (One thing to note is that the Bios is factory set to quick charge, despite the manual stating that it can ruin the battery!)
That said; my experience with Win XP (Pro/Home) across 4 machines of varying specs has been such that I've experienced many more BSOD than on any other o/s (incl Win 98), especially in the early days of setting up and loading new software. I ran Win 2000 on one machine for nearly 10 years with only 2 or 3 BSOD. And in the 2 yrs of running Vista I've also only experienced 2 or 3 BSOD.
Hopefully this machine will settle down, and hopefully we'll finally get decent drivers for the GMA500 graphics.
There is however one concern: I have experienced quite a few BSOD, whether this is down to glitches with the graphics driver I don't really know.
This BenQ Joybook Lite U121 Eco has the Intel Atom Z530 Processor, Mobile Polsbo US15W Express Chipset, with the much maligned GMA500 graphics. I gather much maligned because of the GMA500 drivers apparently being poorly developed.
So that leads me to think that the graphics drivers are the most likely source of the BSOD problems.
Clean it's probably faster than my main 2 year old notebook, which has the same 2GB RAM that this has, but runs an AMD Turion64x2 @ 2GHz (dual core, so supposedly equivalent of ~3GHz single core) with nvidia graphics running Vista Business.
Plugged into the same wired broadband home network, playing various YouTube videos whether in normal or HD quality, they played very much the same on both computers. If a video stuttered it did so on both machines.
The keyboard is *almost* full-size, but is quite comfortable to use. The track pad is very good; it is the only track pad I've been able to use that hasn't instantly frustrated me to the point of instantly plugging in an external mouse.
The screen is a reasonable size for me, and certainly workable for doing "proper" work, although I do find the height of 768 pixels to be a significant limitation, including when browsing the Web.
As there was no manual to help me setup Linux properly, I didn't play around with it too much. When I complained to the dealer that it hadn't come with Windows as promised, he sold me a discounted OEM copy of XP Home, which added hassle, especially as there's no optical drive, significant time to getting the machine setup, and cost some extra dollars.
In the end, it took ~4 weeks to arrive. The dealer only offered the version with the ocean blue lid, which is very glossy, and is probably the only significant thing I don't like.
Although I was told it would come with Windows XP Home, it actually came with Linpus Linux, and several hardware features didn't work or had limited functionality. For instance, the Ethernet port didn't work, the maximum screen resolution was not 1366x768, etc.
Ordered 1 last week from a dealer in Auckland, New Zealand for NZ$985.25: Win XP, Z530 processor, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, Bluetooth, 6-cell battery, 802.11 b/g/n, etc.
Does NOT have optional Built-in 3.75G HSUPA, which I'd really like to retrofit, but haven't been able to source. Any suggestions?
NOR does it have an SSD, which is probably not so bad as would likely get a slow MLC rather than SLC, so will retrofit a 32GB SLC as a boot drive when I see 1 at the right price.
Pity BenQ doesn't seem to be extending the Windows 7 upgrade offer to this model.
I see in your reviews of some other BenQ Joybook Lites that they have ExpressCard readers internally that one could use to semi-permanently install additional hardware features. Do you know whether this model has one or more of the same?
Well, I dunno if that was a mistake in the press release or what, but it doesn't have HDMI, nor is it mentioned on the product page. There seems to be a CPU option between the Z520 or Z530 CPU though, but again, we don't know what will be available where. They're considering launching it in Europe though, which is at least good news.
i cant turn on blue tooth in mine, please some one help, i know where the buttons are but its only turning the wlan switch on/off
vishal3399 1 year ago
save the world by supporting this laptop! lol
ffdxshow 2 years ago
Oh yeah, forgot...
The camera is quite good. The microphone is rubbish. Definitely need a mobile headset.
Although mine came with Linux it also came with the BenQ Windows drivers/utilities on DVD - although not very helpful for a machine without a DVD reader or if the only external optical drive you have is for CD.
I think another USB port could and should have been fitted, but 3 seems usual for netbooks. Also a DVI port should replace the VGA port (DVI-VGA adapters are cheap if required).
frumzion 2 years ago
Would I buy again, at the same point in time? I don't know. I looked at several 11.6"-12"+ options, including mini notebooks. I tried to avoid the GMA500, but the rest of the spec had the edge for me, including the battery life and quick charge feature that I'm a little disappointed with. The machine took so long to arrive, I was about to cancel my order and buy a Gateway LT31 instead!
frumzion 2 years ago
Lastly, getting info out of BenQ, whether directly, through the local distributor, or through a dealer, has proven very painful.
I've been waiting several weeks for the price of the 3.75G HSUPA upgrade option. The distributor has written to me during that time to let me know that they're still trying to get me the info.
frumzion 2 years ago
So far, overall, I'm quite impressed with the machine. Build quality seems good. Finish is good, except for a small blemish in the blue lid. Usability is good, especially for a machine this small.
Battery life is a little disappointing, as I haven't managed more than 6.5 hours. Maybe need to fiddle with power settings. (One thing to note is that the Bios is factory set to quick charge, despite the manual stating that it can ruin the battery!)
frumzion 2 years ago
That said; my experience with Win XP (Pro/Home) across 4 machines of varying specs has been such that I've experienced many more BSOD than on any other o/s (incl Win 98), especially in the early days of setting up and loading new software. I ran Win 2000 on one machine for nearly 10 years with only 2 or 3 BSOD. And in the 2 yrs of running Vista I've also only experienced 2 or 3 BSOD.
Hopefully this machine will settle down, and hopefully we'll finally get decent drivers for the GMA500 graphics.
frumzion 2 years ago
There is however one concern: I have experienced quite a few BSOD, whether this is down to glitches with the graphics driver I don't really know.
This BenQ Joybook Lite U121 Eco has the Intel Atom Z530 Processor, Mobile Polsbo US15W Express Chipset, with the much maligned GMA500 graphics. I gather much maligned because of the GMA500 drivers apparently being poorly developed.
So that leads me to think that the graphics drivers are the most likely source of the BSOD problems.
frumzion 2 years ago
In my opinion, the performance is good.
Clean it's probably faster than my main 2 year old notebook, which has the same 2GB RAM that this has, but runs an AMD Turion64x2 @ 2GHz (dual core, so supposedly equivalent of ~3GHz single core) with nvidia graphics running Vista Business.
Plugged into the same wired broadband home network, playing various YouTube videos whether in normal or HD quality, they played very much the same on both computers. If a video stuttered it did so on both machines.
frumzion 2 years ago
The keyboard is *almost* full-size, but is quite comfortable to use. The track pad is very good; it is the only track pad I've been able to use that hasn't instantly frustrated me to the point of instantly plugging in an external mouse.
The screen is a reasonable size for me, and certainly workable for doing "proper" work, although I do find the height of 768 pixels to be a significant limitation, including when browsing the Web.
frumzion 2 years ago
As there was no manual to help me setup Linux properly, I didn't play around with it too much. When I complained to the dealer that it hadn't come with Windows as promised, he sold me a discounted OEM copy of XP Home, which added hassle, especially as there's no optical drive, significant time to getting the machine setup, and cost some extra dollars.
frumzion 2 years ago
In the end, it took ~4 weeks to arrive. The dealer only offered the version with the ocean blue lid, which is very glossy, and is probably the only significant thing I don't like.
Although I was told it would come with Windows XP Home, it actually came with Linpus Linux, and several hardware features didn't work or had limited functionality. For instance, the Ethernet port didn't work, the maximum screen resolution was not 1366x768, etc.
frumzion 2 years ago
Ordered 1 last week from a dealer in Auckland, New Zealand for NZ$985.25: Win XP, Z530 processor, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, Bluetooth, 6-cell battery, 802.11 b/g/n, etc.
Does NOT have optional Built-in 3.75G HSUPA, which I'd really like to retrofit, but haven't been able to source. Any suggestions?
NOR does it have an SSD, which is probably not so bad as would likely get a slow MLC rather than SLC, so will retrofit a 32GB SLC as a boot drive when I see 1 at the right price.
Anyway, not yet arrived.
frumzion 2 years ago
Pity BenQ doesn't seem to be extending the Windows 7 upgrade offer to this model.
I see in your reviews of some other BenQ Joybook Lites that they have ExpressCard readers internally that one could use to semi-permanently install additional hardware features. Do you know whether this model has one or more of the same?
frumzion 2 years ago
I hope they launch this in the UK.
PABHERE 2 years ago 2
Pretty high end for a netbook.
AJComixII 2 years ago 2
Also, did they drop the HDMI port? (their original press release stated this)
Portablemonkey 2 years ago
Well, I dunno if that was a mistake in the press release or what, but it doesn't have HDMI, nor is it mentioned on the product page. There seems to be a CPU option between the Z520 or Z530 CPU though, but again, we don't know what will be available where. They're considering launching it in Europe though, which is at least good news.
minipcpro 2 years ago