[ordinaryguy]

Battery life and warranty information is provided at the provided URL. There is no reason to be betting one way or the other.

In short, a toy for high school students but completely unsuitable for university requirements.

And if it was a better machine, we could claim that it was a toy for university students, but completely unsuitable for CAD work. Then again, if it were even less powerful, we could claim that it was a toy for grade-schoolers, but completely unsuitable for high school requirements.

The press release clearly states that the machine is "perfect for use as a second or third home machine." Furthermore, it states, "The Balance notebook is the lowest-priced laptop currently on the market..." Does that sound like the perfect machine for a college freshman?

The machine is bullet-point and price competitive with Dell's Inspiron 1150, but contains much more software. Anyone buying a computer at Wal-Mart and expecting it to be a state-of-the-art machine needs to get a clue.

[ShadowAce]

Anyone buying a computer at Wal-Mart and expecting it to be a state-of-the-art machine needs to get a clue.

This, I think, is the key statement on these threads (This i at least the 2nd Wal-Mart computer thread in the past two days). No one goes to Wal-Mart to buy state-of-the-art.

If someone wants, or needs, a cheap, portable, machine to read e-mail or play solitaire, then this is the machine for you. It won't play Doom 3, and it's definately not bleeding edge tech. But it will do the job it was built for.

[finnigan2]

" Anyone buying a computer at Wal-Mart and expecting it to be a state-of-the-art machine needs to get a clue."

- Amazing. You've managed to capture my entire argument in one short sentence. No, I don't expect Wal-Mart to sell state of the art, but how about worth the money? This piece of iron has only one thing going for it - a low price. If you want a computer, "perfect for use as a second or third home machine" I suggest that for $100. more you can get a desk top with triple the RAM and speed, a much larger screen size and loaded up with tons of free software with three or four months of free internet connection to sweeten the deal. Why in the hell would you then choose this clunker - so you can carry it into the bathroom to do work while sitting on the toilet?

[miliantnutcase]

Yeah and if it was unsuitable for CAD work it would be unsuitable for 3D modeling and animation. I'll stick to my Sager 5680 =P (everyone is like wth is that?)

High school(pr0n downloader) > university comp(music dowloader) > engineering/CAD > 3D animation (Maya) :o