Sunday, March 7, 2010

Emachines E725-4520 Notebook Review


I guess sometimes it doesn't pay to shop. I as a rule of thumb don't shop when I go into a store. Or did it? I usually go down get what I need and leave the store because I usually end up spending money I don't want to spend. This was the case on Monday of this past week. I found my self with a day off and had stop at Walmart for some groceries. I had been wishing that I could get a new laptop comptuer for my self so I thought I might get one after I accomplished my financial goals for this year. Kind of a reward for doing what I need to do.

Now, I like Dell computers. I have owned about 3 or 4 of these Dell machines and they all have worked well. Matter of fact my old Dell D400 laptop still works, it is just starting to fall apart. It is six years old and the battery in it doesn't hold a charge any more. It is missing the backspace keep and it runs really slow. I have a hard time getting the computer to connect to the internet anymore. My son with his new laptop doesn't seem to have any problems. I bought this Dell Used over three years ago. At this point and I really didn't want to spend any money, but I was looking at laptops at Walmart just trying to figure out if I would buy from a store or order one from Dell when the time came. The nice thing about ordering from Dell is I could customize the machine anyway I wanted it. The down to that is it ends up in one spending more money on it because I would add a faster CPU (Processor), more memory, and more hard drive. I probrably wouldn't add much else in the way of frills.

I was at Walmart looking at the laptops when I came across this laptop the Emachines E725-4520. Walmart had this for $298 plus tax. There was a lady in front of me who was telling me she was going to buy two of them. One for her son who was going way to college and one to upgrade her old one. Hers was about six years old. I stood there staring at this machine trying to decide if I should buy one or not. The fact that it was an Emacines computer bothered me, but the price was a great deal. The macine is built by Acer corporation. I have had a two Acer computers over the years and both were good machines. So when I discovered that it was build buy Acer I was a little more statified with my purchase. They two I owned still worked when I sold them. This laptop has a Intel Pentium T4400 2,2GHz dual core processor. The sign said it has 3GB of DDR2 memory, but everything I have read about it says it actually has 3GB of DDR3 memory (even better). It has a 250GB HD and DVD Super Milti 8X drive, 802.11b/g WLAN, Windows 7 home, 15.6 inch 720p HD screen, and a built in memory card reader. Walmart sold two of these to the lady I was talking with, sold one to me, and sold another one just as I was leaving. So they sold four of the forteen they had in about five minutes. By thursday of last week they had sold them all. Even the display model was gone.

The only thing I am slightly disappointed with this new laptop is the sound from the speakers leaves a little to be desired. I, however, am not a big play movie clips or audio clips via my laptop. I basically want this for portaible computing power. In the event I get laid off at somepoint I will need a decent laptop to connect to the interent at say Mc Donalds, Wendy's, or Taco Bell to search for work. I do have a buch of exteral speakrs that I can plug directly into it if needed. Plus it would be rude to be jamming at one of those places when someone is trying to eat. It might have been nice had they added an HDMI port on the computer so I could connect it directly to my 720P HD big screen TV. I am a big syfy fan and there are shows available that at places like Hulu I could stream from the internet to my big screen TV from the laptop. All in all I am happy with my purchase. The good news is I didn't spend a thousand dollars for it. Heck, I spent just a little more than you can get one of those small Netbooks for.

17 comments:

ida said...

i'm so behind the times........lol the 298.00 computer at walmart would serve me well if this one ever dies or disappears.

you and sheila are stuck in your winter photos.....lol

Ritchie said...

Seems to be serving me well at the moment. I have it sitting on the kitchen table and have spongbob square pants playing via the wireless internet. The kids love it.

Yea, I need to try to update my website and blog. I thought I might go to Mc Donalds some night and sit and work on both. Check out the next post for more on the new laptop.

These are still available on the net, but I don't think anyone will beat $298 plus tax.

Anonymous said...

Sound improvement from a post at Slickdeals:

Go to Control Panel, Hardware and Sound, click Sound, double click Speaker Icon, click Enhancement tab, put a check next to Equalizer, highlight Equalizer, go to Setting towards bottom and click on down arrow, click on LIVE, click Apply, then OK.

Sheila said...

Congrats on the new computer.. Yep, Still winter out.. will change the photo as the weather changes.

Ritchie said...

To the person who posted the comment about how to improve the sound thank you! The only thing I did different was clicked "Environment" then click the down arrow and set it to "Living Room" and clicked apply. Much better. Sounds great plugged into my external speakers and as for the video there is a converter on EBAY I may get to get the video to my big screen TV. The computer has a port for an external monitor. Where there is a will there is a way!

Anonymous said...

I also bought this computer last week at walmart, i love it! for the price you cant beat it or even come close. I am interested in the HDMI tv converter you were looking at on Ebay, what is the name? Thanks

Ritchie said...

Here is a link to the one I like the looks of. There was another one available last week as well:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350230072001&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Ebay item 350230072001

This would require the purchase of three cables. I don't think the cables are included with this auction.

Tom B said...

Any of you get the weight? Bought one home from from Walmart on 3/1 and left the next day on a trip. Figured there would be more about it when I got back like weight & battery performance. Didn't want to break the seal. These are the first review type comments I've seen.

Ritchie said...

The battery is a 6-cell lithim-ion and is supposed to last about 2 1/2
hours. I have used it very little on battery power, but my guess is it would last about that. I haven't checked to see if a 9-cell battery is available for this, but those usually give a little more time on battery power.

The computer weights about 6 pounds.

Unknown said...

My family just bought me an E725 notebook from walmart as well. I'm just trying to figure out if the bluetooth or web camera even works. There is an indication that their was one sappossed to be installed. Although I think emachines website doesnt have a driver for windows 7 to work correctly. Anyways its a wonderful machine and I'm glad I have it. No complaints yet, and this should be the 3 week!

Ritchie said...

Mine doesn't have the web camera. That was one of the things the lady who I was talking with about it said she wished it had. They are fairly cheep to buy. It does have the blue tooth, but I haven't had the opportunity to try it out. I probably won't as I wouldn't have anything to communicate with the computer via blue tooth anyway.

WoundedKnees said...

Will a VGA to HDMI adapter work, or does the need to be separate cables for sound?

WoundedKnees said...

Would a VGA to HDMI cable do the trick on this one, or would additional sound cables be necessary?

Ritchie said...

You will need a separate cable for the sound.

Unknown said...

They have them for under 200 on black friday!

Hass said...

I got one of these at Walmart last year. I was a little worried about the brand quality but, for less than $300 I won't worry about it if it breaks after few months.I had a 64GB Solid state Drive sitting at home so I installed it instead of the original HDD. The laptop is pretty fast for what I needed. The speakers' sound quality is poor so I usually hook up a couple of external speakers at home when I watch movies or videos. I've used the laptop for more than year without any problems and finally gave it away to my niece.

Ritchie said...

You were luckier than I was. There are two updates on this machine in two other posts. My hard drive went out with less than a year's use. I replaced it with a 500 gig. This drive always pops loose so I have a mini screw driver set I carry so I can reconnect it so it will work. The computer works, but it is really frustrating to have to reconnect the hard drive so you can use it again. I also have a dead pixel or two in the screen. Other than that it works. Not the best computer I have ever owned, it is faster than anything else I have because of the Windows 7 operating system and the dual core processor.