Hitachi - Model270 > Reviews > If you see one BUY IT

Author's product rating:   

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

Advantages:	Reasonable price, Solid and well made, excellent display, great service
Disadvantages:	On the heavy side .  cannot use Floppy and CDROM simultaaneously while on battery power

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I started in a mortgage business in January and had to buy a laptop. Despite the technology packed into the case, laptops are still very expensive. Money is hard to earn so I look for maximum bang-per-pound. After a long search of Tottenham Court Road, I found the prices much of a muchness often with none displayed to entice you in.. Sorry lads, that just turns me away. Happened upon a small shop Shayamtronics who had a decent display without the usual "Do Not Touch" signs in evidence. This was the end of January 2000 and after looking at the over priced and under-specified Toshibas and IBMs, I found the Hitachi 270, not one I`d heard of previously. Specs were PII-266, 32Mb RAM, 13.1" TFT, 4Gb drive, genuine ALPS GlidePoint, USB, Sound, 24x CDROM interchangeable with either LiION or floppy drive at the bargain price of £799 plus Very Aggravating Tax. Adding a PACE PCMCIA modem, a further 64Mb RAM and a carry case took it to £1149 INCLUDING VAT. OK, I know that we now have faster processors, but HEY, this is a laptop NOT a games machine. The HItachi is a quality laptop, nicely made with a great display and was supplied with Win98, not the lightest but solid enough to inspire confidence. In use it is a great machine with a decent keyboard. The genuine Glidepoint touch-pad is head and shoulders better than any of the clones on other maachines and the buttons are located at the edge of the casing , making them easy to use with the thumbs. If i have a moan, it is that you cannot use the CD and floppy at the same time when the machine is on the battery, but this is a minor quibble. Bootup is slow, but then we are talking Windows. Once running it is fast and easy and is easily useable in place of a desktop. The Pace modem that Shayam supplied and installed was top-notch and connected at over 46000 regularly. Sound is reasonable for a laptop. I have heard better, but again this is a LAPTOP. There was a tendency to slight distortion at high volumes. USB worked a treat and picked up my webcam and scanner with no fuss. Printer worked fine, both my Brother HL760 laser on parallel and Epson Stylus740 on parallel and USB. Charge time is quick and battery life reasonable. By the way just because the laptop is off, does not mean that the battery will not run down. Fortunately being a LiION there are no memory problems. Installed and ran Office with no glitches. Also the hard Drive is removable. Hitachi service in Uxbridge were extremely helpful and would supply spares if needed. All in all well worth a look. The PII-266 was more than adequate. Don`t get fooled ito parting with loadsa dosh just to have a fast processor, you will never notice the difference. Ther is nowt to touch it at the price anything above this is just icing on the cake.