Advent 4211 notebook review

Comments

• bought this on day of release after some serious searching around pc world stores for one that had stock.very pleased on the whole with it and what a bargain ! had an eee 900 which only lasted a week before it gave up the ghost completely,glad it did,buils quality and performance on the advent far superior.only downside is battery life,but not too bad at 2-2.30 hours,will wait for the larger msi battery to come out and buy that.screen really crisp and clear,keyboard responsive,processor fast and handles all that you can throw at it.
  my advice is get it if you can and spend the saving on not buying the wind on the larger battery when it comes out. Posted by Robert Greenock, scotland
• Bought first one three weeks ago. Fan very noisy and screen kept on blanking. Reckoned something blocking internally and it was overheating. Appalling customer service at PC World getting it changed, replacement runs very quiet and cool.
  So much emphasis on its role as an internet device, it misses out the key factor that this is fast enough and well equipped to run all the software most home users need. Previous tiny computers I have seen have been £1200 plus or severely cut down in features. The Advent / Wind is a full XP computer in miniature. Inbuilt graphics particulary impressive, on the screen in battery mode I have been playing Quake 3 on it perfectly with high frame rates yesterday! Old game yes, but impressive.
  I have also found that hooked up to a full HD resolution monitor through its built in VGA port it copes fine with Sketchup 3D models and standard tasks. You are not going to do any serious video editing or huge 3D model editing, but I produced 800 x 600 resolution clips in moviemaker with no problems. I also suspect it would be great for DJ and music creation with the simpler packages.
  Essentially this is the same speed as a budget laptop 18 months ago in use, and that's a perfectly decent speed.
  
  Speakers are dire but check the audio settings as mine defaulted to headphone effect. Plugged into external speakers or headphones and sound is superb. Full SD cards stick out of the memory slot which limits it for expansion, but with 80GB hard disc in there, that's not a big problem. Location of USB ports is a pain. being on the sides but next to the front edge, cables for mice and peripherals get in the way. Screen extremely bright but bezel around it a little flimsy which means you mustn't let people grab it harshly by the screen edge, which they tend to do as it is small. Case generally very strong but screen image , as will all budget laptops, will distort if lid pressed hard. You should be wary of putting this directly on your lap or soft coverings that completely block the base. There are big rubber bumpers underneath to raise the computer up so air can circulate without the fan needing to be on high. Lay it on a duvet or cushion and it will heat up quickly. Put it on a flatter surface and it will be fine.
  
  My previous laptop is a 17" HD metal framed gaming monster. It will now sit on my desk and this will travel, in a tiny shoulder bag, everywhere with me. One tip, Cut off all but a stub of the enormously heavy thick mains cable to the power block, and put on a plug yourself, this saves about 140grams and crucially stops the coiled power supply needing as much space as the computer in a bag. Why the manufacturers din;t do this and double the length of the thin cable to the computer is a mystery when they are sold as ultra portable! You can buy bits to make a lead extension at maplins.
  
  Only real problem at the moment is availability of some sort of slip case. there is only one company, wrappers, making these and really someone needs to design a case with stiff plastic protection in it for the screen as thrown in to a school bag, a pen could push on it. I expect more will be available soon. Posted by ajbooker, UK
• Lets not forget the MSI model comes with a 2 year International warranty. To me thats worths well over the £50 price difference. - Just had so many bad experences with PC World support, will do whatever i can to avoind those problems in the future. Posted by lemel, UK
• Got mine last week, hate the power cable, going to chop it off as well.
  Had problems with the power dying after the bios screen but that seams to have resolved itself. Also had to download the camera driver from the MSi website to get it working.
  My boss liked mine so much (Lots of wasted time in the office) that he bought one, however after two days of playing we still couldn't get the WIFI or BT to work, he has sent it back. I love it, I bought it for my honeymoon (yes I need one!) it’s so light and starts fast and will use it to back up photo etc.
  Posted by Andy, UK
• Hi, got my Advent 4211 free with T mobile package. Seems fine, only problem so far is the lack of a CD/DVD reader, which means i'm having trouble loading pictures from my Jenoptik Digital camera which the laptop doesn't recognise and says it doesn't have software to run. I have a cd with the camera but clearly no where to put it! Does anyone know a way around this or do I need to get another camera. Casper Posted by casper44, United Kingdom
• Hi Casper - simple solution would be to invest in a card reader - that way you can plug in whatever card you want without having to waste storage space installing lots of unnecessary software. £10 will get you a decent one from Robert Dyas! Also helps you transfer files from the card most of us have in our mobile phones!
  
  Seriously considering one of these machines. Anyone own a eeePC 901 with linux? I hear it is far better than the XP Version. Also what other alternatives are there? Posted by VMan, United Kingdon
• Bought Mine yesterday - got a proper result on PRICING - Read this and weep...
  
  Went into the store in Chichester after phoning to see if they had one - got there and the girl (who surpriseingly knew what she was talking about - tried to stitch me up with the £20 a month deal - I declined as I had cash in the pocket)
  
  I digress - She got a new one from stock, I picked up a 250GB Sata Drive and 1GB Memeory stick to upgrade it to 2GB (Take the bottom cover off and theres the slot for the extra RAM).
  
  PRICE I PAID ....
  
  Got to the till and then asked her to check the "business site pricing" on the items I had chosen - so ... she goes onto PCWB with me there and here's the pricing ...
  
  4211 - Store Price - £279.99 - PCWB price £218.99 (inc Vat)
  
  SATA 250GB drive - Store Price £89.99 - PCWB price £53.49 (Inc Vat)
  
  1GM Ram - Store Price 69.99 - PCWB Price £42.99 (Inc Vat)
  
  And here is where I got REAL LUCKY ... the rule is that the STORE will match any price of their sister company PROVIDING that PCWB have it in stock ...
  
  I looked at the stock levels for 4211 on PCWB with her ... it said "1"
  
  RESULT!!!
  
  So instead of paying £279.99 + £89.99 + £69.99
  
  I paid - £218.99 + £53.49 +£42.99 - I pad my money and went running out of the store as fast as I could in case they changed their minds!
  
  Oh and I got them to give me a Tech Air laptop bag (which fits it perfectly) FREE! LOL!
  
  As for the machin - I reviewed just about every machine and settled on the MSI wind and then discovered the 4211 is IDENTICAL (My box has "made by MSI" underneath.
  
  I had the new Hard drive installed within 20 minutes of getting it home - added the ram - reinstalled the drivers (which I had copied to my USB stick) and was up and running with my upgraded machine in less than an hour!
  
  I'm running XP Home on it, Office 2007 Enterprise, Firefox, Thunderbir, Lightning and Adobe Fireworks - its flying through it thanks to that Dual Core Atom! Awesome.
  
  I had it connected to my Wireless Netowrk and seeing my 4 other machines and my iMac in less than 10 minutes.
  
  I rarely get excited by this machine but it is (for the money) incredible value - if it lasts me a year and dies - I wont complain - I'll go buy another one!! £300 ALL in - thats a steal!
  
  All my business partners are getting one next week as I am writing this on the 4211 sitting on a SleazyJet flight to Geneva - I'll send it from the airport LOL! - NONE of them could get their hefty laptops out and work with space to spare on the tray table!
  
  ADVENT have had a lot of bad press (for good reason) if this is the shape of things to come then I say bring it on!
  
  OH - did I tell you I LOVE my new Advent 4211
  
  Posted by Ray, UK
• Ray, sorry dude by the atom N270 is infact single core. NOT dual core. Posted by steveyP, UK
• Added the extra 1 gig of memory and put Windows Vista Ulitimate on it.... runs great, though had to get drivers of the MSI site for the card reader and the fancy graphics for the Fn keys.
  Looking forward to giving it a good run when I start back at Uni next week, will be lighter than the old Compaq I have been dragging round the last two years. Posted by Pete G, UK
• Good little netbook, advice to any one buying, as mentioned above, price check with PCWB site will get you one for £219, and the cheapest ram for this bad boy is for £12 (delivered)
  
  http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/3274801/-/Product.html?searchstring=Kingston+KVR667D2S5%2f1G&searchsource=0
  
  Note: this system board cannot use more than 2gb Posted by Brett, New Zealand
• Ray, UK
  Looks to me like the girl in pcw forgot to add vat to the pcwb pricing.
  The 4211 is certainly not at the price you got it anymore. Posted by bikeman, uk
• I want to upgrade the HDD in my Advent, but wondered how to go about it when the OS image is on the old one and I have no disk (or drive) to copy anything onto first? I know there aren't any magic answers here, I just wondered how others have managed it? Posted by Mohawk, UK
• is anyone having problems with the webcam software? Ive had my laptop about a week, everything is fine, except when i open the cyberlink software, all the colours for everything that is open, including the cyberlink go to negative. When I shut it down again they revert back to normal. Could be a driver issue I suppose but would be interested to see whether anyone else has had a problem with it. When I use the webcam through MSN its fine, which is making me think its a software issue. Any suggestions would be most welcomely received, cheers. Posted by Shaz, England
• Can anyone tell me how to switch on bluetooth, wireless and how to work web cam?????????????????????????????????????????????????? Posted by Toyah, England
• Toyah: try using the function shortcuts by holding down the "Fn" button and pressing the corresponding F key across the top. F11 will let you enable and disable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, cycling through one on, the other on, both on and both off - a little confusing, but keep your eyes on the LED indicator lights at the bottom right of the body and you'll soon see what is what.
  
  For the webcam, I can't recall - I no longer have the review unit. Posted by chrishall, United Kingdom
• Quick question for you all My computing Knowledge is how do I say limited.. I haven't bought one yet but im interested.. I wish to use it for college work, So does it have standard programs like MS Word/Excel/PowerPoint etc etc.. and Say I wanted to Put all my I tunes music from my current Laptop onto this one.. How do i best go about doing this without to much complication.. Also Obviously this has WIFI connection, but does it have ports for Wired connection aswell, as currently do not have WIFI.. Posted by TOMTOM, United Kingdom
• hi can anyone tell me how to connect to belkin54g itsasking me type key i have put in both wep and wpa its saying network passwork needs tobe 128bits depending on network configuration this can be added as 8 to 63 ascil characters of 64 hexadecimal characters i have no idea what this means i just bought my advent notebook 4211 and so far not been able to use it anyone out there that can help me please..................................... Posted by vivien kelly, england
• I have now bought three of these notebookd for myself, partnet and daughter as upgrades for existing note book, gaming PC and sony media centre, they are superb value for money, appear to be excellent build quality, for those who wish to load other software having you ever heard of an external cd/dvd drive unit - dear me I am 50 years old and you other writers appear to be youngsters - educated I think not.
  
  I intend to upgrade Memory - visit Orcalogic.co.uk you will find they provide a second to none service at a price which for 3 upgrades cost £46:03 including seperate straps and screewdriver kits.
  
  My teenage daughter loves it - have given her usb television, wireless broadband and printer - sound through small sony speakers is more than acceptable, she wants an external drive for music cds and dvds which will happen - have seen goods one for £50:00.
  
  I work in a college and the have just bought 1000 of the MSi and having shown the Master and a number of the pupils the Advent 4211 they all say it is a better looking machine as well as nicer to handle and use. Posted by Simon Ash, UK
• OMG the stupid the techguys recovery is crap and doesent work cos when i try to backup i get a error
  
  and second i tryed to install vista but that never worked and tryed to restore but that never work ether sooo what can i do Posted by jack t, hull
• Hi wondered if anyone can help? My mother has one of these notebooks and unfortunately did not bring the manual. We are trying to set up the intergrated camera. The cyberlink YOUCam is bringing up a warning box stating we should make sure the camera is switched on. How do we do this? Many thanks
  Appreciated greatly.
  Ms frustrated UK
  Posted by Tracy Brookes, United Kingdom
• press Fn and F6 at the same time to switch the camera on Posted by Simon, UK
• To jack t. Why would you want to install Vista? Posted by Simon, UK
• ok here goes. I was only really having one problem with my 4211. The screen would go blank in battery mode. I had a look on yahoo answers (Good sites) and found like minded people that had the same problem as us. I found a direct link to the updated Advent 4211 drivers!
  
  http://support.thetechguys.com/layout.aspx?ID={5369a6ed-3e45-4381-9b3f-89014d901f4d}&CatID={789879f1-f9f1-470a-86b6-3445bf15cc31}
  
  try this, but be warned. Read all the instuctions. I forgot to take the battery off when I installed the new bios and did a reboot. Any Tech heads rolling they're eyes at me, I know it now.
  
  The site will say that the keyboard will stop working if it you don't follow the instuctions and leave it switched off with no power and no battery for ten seconds.
  
  I was having kittens when I got back and the keyboard wasn't working. So be warned.
  
  I'm now running on battery mode waiting for the screen to go blank, but it's fine so far. Posted by Simon Park, UK
• my hole key bord as stoped working:( iv tryed every thing i know of to fix it ,,, it was working fine then just stoped then i had to down load a virtal key bord to type now im useing a usb port keybored is there any way of gettin my keybored to work or my fn key ? pls help Posted by lee, england
• upplug it from the mains and then take the battery out. Wait 10 seconds and then put it back together. It's a simple fix, but does work sometimes. Windows has a virtal keyboard anyway. So you shouldn't have needed to download it.
  
  Hope that fixes it. Posted by Simon, UK
• unplug... I hate typoes as specially my own Posted by Simon, UK
• i cant set my wireless network up cant find the internet connection plz help Posted by karleejayne wilkinson, uk
• have you tried Fn/F11 to switch Wlan on? Posted by Simon, UK
• simon hi again iv still not the hey bored to work ,,, is there any way of turning the web cam on with out the fn key? the drivers are there but sez i have to activte it befor i can use thanks again Posted by lee, england
• Hi Lee. The only way I know is with Fn and F6 at the same time. It sounds simple, but some people miss it.
  
  If your going to find the answer it will be here. it's the Msi Wind/Advent 4211 Forum. I've been a member for the last month and theres loads of cool tips and tricks on here.
  
  http://forums.msiwind.net/
  
  Posted by Simon, UK