Computer laptop notebook review

AOpen's BareBook divine: White-box notebook should please SOHO and/or corporate users with its strength, flexibility, ease of use - Review - AOpen BareBook

In delivering its white-box OpenBook 1735W BareBook as a means of appealing to the SOHO (small office/home office) and corporate demographic, AOpen Inc. has unleashed a delightful 7.2-lb. Desktop replacement that comes equipped with 18 G of memory.

Designed with the professional office worker in mind, the 1735W boasts a 15-inch monitor, excellent audio quality with audio deejay and digital audio output, a built-in V.90 56 Kbps onboard data/fax modem and 10/100BaseT-LAN, as well as an IEEE 1394 port and S-terminal for TV-output. Not to mention, the unit's simple, silver casing is elegant, but not flashy.

The 1735W, 12.8-inches by 10.9-inches by 1.5-inches (326 mm x 276 mm x 37.3 mm), can perform a variety of functions suited for business applications as it comes loaded with Windows 2000, but it can also run DVD-ROMs, CD-RWs, as it displays a pristine picture quality. ACPI compliant, the 1735W offers an 84/88 keyboard, one-touch Internet/multimedia hot keys, a 1.44 MB, 3.5-inch FDD, a super-sensitive touchpad pointing device, and an AC adapter with a rapid-charge 8-cell, 38.4 WH NiMH battery pack that takes up to two hours to fully charge and will run for five hours thereafter. Furthermore, the laptop features the Intel Pentium III 850 MHz processor with a 256 cache, and it's durable. The 1735W passed the 'drop-test' (raise the unit to chin level, release, and watch it hit the ground) with no damage inflicted whatsoever.

The notebook's audio system leaves a little to be desired in that it boasts two 1-watt speakers. It's not clearly audible unless you've got headphones, but it certainly won't disturb others around you, should you choose to listen to a CD. Still, the laptop's audio system does have the SoundBlaster-Pro and MS-Sound System, an optional audio CD-PlayOff solution, SP-DIF/head phone external digital audio interface, and a wire-line communications and connectivity jack. This dynamic notebook also offers support for up to 512 MB of memory with two SO-DIMM modules, 512KB Flash BIOS and Shadow RAM support, in addition to a one-year warranty and product 4 support. It retails for $3,999.

Specifications

Processor and Core Logic:

Intel BGA2 PIII 850MHz/1GHz and processor with 256K cache;

Intel BGA2 Celeron 750 MHz/1GHz and processor with 128K cache.

ALi M1632M + M1535+ chipset with integrated VGA battery, FDD and CD-ROM.

Display:

15-inch TFT XGA, 1024 x 768, 16M colours; simultaneous LCD/CRT display at 1024 by 768 (or 800 by 600, 16M colours).

System Memory:

Support up to 512 MB with two SO-DIMM modules, 512KB Flash BIOS; Shadow RAM support.

Storage Subsystem:

10 GB+ Enhanced-IDE hard dish drive

DVD-ROM, CD-RW

1.44-MB