I have owned a maxdata laptop since August 2000 and in that time I have found it pretty good actually.
For the purposes of comaprison I own a maxdata 650T, a P3 700MHz with DVD Drive 128Mb Ram with an 11Gb HDD. In addition I am sharing a house with 4 other guys all who own laptops so I feel that this is a fair comparison of its abilities
How easy is it to get started?
Very! I got that baby ticking away within 30 minutes. The Operating system needed to be installed which was done quickly via good company instructions and a fast processor. Being a laptop there wasn't a great deal to do after that except install all device drivers and get plugging away!
Speed
From my experience runs like a dream. Boots up fast shuts down fast and processes just generally very quickly. it should be noted that it appears to slow down more than perhaps it should as the HDD approaches maximum capacity but I am reliably informed that this is to be expected.
Construction
This is where the Maxdata falls down in my estimation. It has loads of little plastic flaps overy port and socket. This flaps are just not designed to be opened closed very much. They are a bit flimsy and have a tendancy not to shut after a while.
The screen which i often use for watching DVD films on is crystal clear in all respects both work and play. The laptop itself seems a little heavy but I believe that this has more to do with the fact it has a 15.1" screen that the way it has been designed
Value for MoneyOn comparison with prices paid by my friends the maxdata is one of the best value. For £1500 (August 2000 prices) I got all the features as noted before, 15.1" screen, inbuilt ethernet card (a must for me as I us it on the college nextwork), 2 USB ports, 2 PCMCIA type II/1 PCMCIA type III, 56k Modem and the usual touchpad and parallel ports etc..
Software was a bit bare but there were options to upgrade. For basics I got a Windows 98 OS, Mcafee virus checker and all necessary drivers. In addition I received a voucher enabling me to upgrade to Windows ME for £20 when it was released (whihc I did).
The crowning glory however was the included 3 year warranty which was a major sales point for me. This thing gets lugged to college and back most days and on the train to come home etc.. as you can see there is a high chance it's going to get a bit bashed from time to time.
Customer Service (What sort of fool drops his laptop on the train)
Yep that's me, forgot the laptop was in my bag and just chucked at the baggage storage on one of GNERs finest. Anyhow gave me an opportunity to test out the old warranty. Unfortunately as I was coming home for my Xmas term break I didn't have high hopes of a quick fix. How wrong was I?!
The Laptop undamaged, except for the fact that the DVD Rom drive would no loner read the discs anymore was picked up Monday morning (December 17th) by a courier and returned to me in full working order (same courier) by December 20th. Now this from my point of view, week before Xmas is nothing short of fantastic hence highest regard for their customer services!
Apart from that small incident I have had absolutely no problems with my Maxdata Laptop. From my point of view I would highly recommend them to anybody who is considering purchasing a laptop
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Aug 7th, 2001
(Sep 1st, 2001)
very helpful by (100%):
