AJP 2200T > Reviews > Unbeatable at this Price

Author's product rating:   

Speed	Fast
Look & Feel	Good
Comfort & Portability	Good
Robustness & Durability	Good
Value For Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Value for Money, Features, Build Quality
Disadvantages:	Speakers are Dust Collectors

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I purchased an AJP 2200T Laptop at the start of November 2001. Its about 5 months old now so therefore the price i paid for it may not seem that extraordinary any longer, but for the record, it cost me £1134 including the VAT and Delivery.

I ordered the laptop online through AJPs website and the one optional extra I went for was a DVD drive (I dont know why though as its never used).

The machine arrived 3 days later, neatly and well packed in side two boxes. The laptop was supplied with a carry case, chrager, phone lead, manual, Windows XP license & disc, a driver disc and Power DVD 3.0. The laptop simply had to be lifted from a plastic cover and switched on as even the battery had been charged.

My 2200T came with an Intel Celeron 1Ghz, 20Gb Hard Drive, DVD, 14.1"TFT, Windows XP Home Edition, Selectable Graphics upto 8/16/32/64Mb, 56k Modem, 2x USB Ports, IRDA, Firewire, External Monitor Connector, 1 PCMIA slot, Floppy Drive, External Keyboard / Mouse Connector. It has the AJP logo printed on the back of the screen.

I also was presented with a very pleasant surprise as regards to memory. On the website, I had ordered the laptop and it was stated that it would have 256Mb RAM, but when the machine arrived I was given a gift of an extra 256Mb - 512Mb in total. This was mentioned as a special offer on a sheet included in the box.

Windows XP took an age to boot the first time around as it had to configure settings etc. but once up and running, the AJP ran very slickly. Over the past few months, it has proved itself to be a very stable little machine and gives me less bother than my overstocked desktop machine (although I would still rather have the desktop, it is still quicker even with just 256Mb RAM on board and a 900Mhz Duron).

The battery life on the 2200T is nothing remarkable. Expect to get maybe 2 hours from it if you be careful and dont use the CD ROM Drive or make it work too hard. While on its not soo rosey points, I will point out that Windows XP seems to take its toal on the machine as I get the impression it is a very heavy load on it.

DVD playback is fine, its not the best available but its certainly far from the worst and is on par with any other laptop I have ever seen. The laptop is however stuck in 1024x768 resolution as the TFT screen wont display the other resolutions too clearly, although I have found this to be the case with most TFT / LCD displays.

I dont play many games on it but it supports Open GL and Direct 3D without a problem. The speakers are simply standard laptop speakers! There is nothing special about them and other laptops there is no bass of them but they are still perfectably useable. I dont like the way they are mounted beside the mousepad though as dust tends to fall down the little holes leaving me now way of cleaning it.

The keyboard is easy to use with the keys being fairly large and well spaced and have a positive response which is vital when typing if you want to enjoy using it.

What sold the 2200T to me was its price. £1134 proved excellent value in November last year and it build quality is second to none. I have no complaints whatsover about this little gem. It is serving me faithfully, and while it may not be the fastest or best laptop available by a long way, it is simply unbeatable for the money. Well done this time AJP. I'll become a loyal customer yet.