WinBook is a computer manufacturer who usually release a cheap product but with a (rather) complete features. Maybe you still remember their W515 laptop? For less than a thousand dollar, you can get a 15.4-inch notebook with WXGA display, Intel Pentium M 725 (1.6GHz) processor, 512MB SDRAM, 80GB, a DVD±RW dual-layer burner, Intel PRO Wireless 2915 802.11 a/b/g wireless, and a 3-in-1 media card reader. Wow, quite a bargain, right?

And they just did it again, with their A210 laptop. This AMD-based notebook is powered by Sempron 2800+ (1.6GHz) processor, 256MB of RAM, DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive, and 40GB of hard drive. It offers 15-inch LCD screen that is supported by ATI Mobility Radeon XPress 200 graphics card. Can you guess the price is? Just $499!

But… (well, you’re not expected everything would run smoothly on a cheap device, right?).. there are several things you should know about this laptop before you decide to go with it. First, the graphics uses shared memory. And the worst thing, it takes 128MB of the system memory. What leave on (128MB if you can’t calculate it yourself) wouldn’t be enough for most todays Windows applications. This notebook uses Windows XP Home Edition OS btw, and I’m sure you know that 128MB of RAM is not enough, even for the operating system itself.

Then, the battery is poor. According to the PCMag’s review, the A210 laptop only lasts for about 2 hours, thus might causing some problem when you need to use it on a remote location for a rather long time.

One more thing, this notebook weighs 6.2 pounds. Not sure about you, but just knowing that this is a fat one already turn me off. For the same specs, I’d rather choose ECS’s G331 laptop. I’ll write about that tomorrow.

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