I bought this about two weeks ago when it was on sale for under three hundred bucks. I have been using a Macbook Pro for the last 4 years, which is great but which is also my wife's computer. With the kids and I also trying to use her computer I figured it was time to pony up for a second laptop.Pluses:
1. Price
2. functions just fine for internet, watching DVDs, You Tube, Itunes, etc. no noticable difference in quality of images or streaming from my high end Mac.
3. Costs less than a netbook, has a dvd player/recorder.
4. Battery life is actually very good 4+ hours so far for regular surfing. video knows it down to about 3 hours.
Fairly solid feel to it for being a hunk of plastic
Back has all sorts of access panels for people that want to change out the hard drive or add more RAM
My Age of Mythology game works just fine on it.
Minuses:
#1 gripe no HDMI port. Bummer. HAs some cheesy aavi port but I haven't bothered to figure out if I can convert that to HDMI. Whoops on their part, but then agin, this thing cost me less than most netbooks.
Speakers are lousy. If you mess with the EQ and SRS Wow you can get it to an aceptable level, but out of the box they sound like they are tin cans. Fine with headphones.
Keyboard is okay does not have a high quality feel to it. easier to type mistakes than on my Mac.
Windows 7 is...... nothing more than XP with a couple of the bugs fixed and an interface that makes it harder to find things if you are used to XP or 2000.
Boot of programs is a bit slow. I think this could be a WIndows issue more than a hardware issue.
Ovberall works just fine for a cheap laptop. don't need to pay twice as much if all you do is surf the net and watch TV on it.
As others have said, the display is excellent very bright. The keyboard is OK not great, a bit "spongy" but not bad. The speakers are awful, perhaps the worst I've ever heard; attaching a pair of cheap USB-powered speakers makes a big difference when you use it at home.
The CPU is a standard 2.2GHZ Pentium (Dual Core) T4400, which is a sweet budget CPU (a budget version of the now-being-phased-out Core 2 Duo CPU). It's actually quite a fast CPU for basic stuff. The thing DOES NOT get hot (compare that to the AMD-based laptops) beyond a little warm on the bottom.
The two biggest downsides (beyond the speakers): only two USB ports and no webcam (even the Acer version of this laptop that has a webcam curiously has no built-in microphone). So as I said, for the price I paid, I can put up with it.
One little annoyance I've noticed lately: The touchpad is a bit wider than I'm used to, and I seem to rub the left side of the touchpad with my left hand too often, causing the mouse pointer to jump. This seems like a curious design feature of this particular model; when typing on other 15.6" laptops of this same era, I don't have this problem.
RAM is DDR3 despite what official specs say. Easy to upgrade. The wireless card is easy to upgrade as well you can upgrade it to an Intel 5100 "Draft-N" card that is an excellent wireless card for $10-$15 on ebay, very worth doing. You can use either a half-height or full-height mini-PCI wireless card in the slot, I've used both. SATA hard drive is easy to swap as well I've already done that.
You can run XP on this thing too if you really want to but you must first upgrade the BIOS to at least 3.06 (so you have to boot up Windows 7 for that most likely). Then you have to set the BIOS SATA option to "IDE" not "AHCI" and then XP can boot easily (you'll need drivers from Acer on the Emachines support page for this laptop). I did have trouble with Acer's supplied XP driver for the included Broadcom wireless card it froze the laptop every time I enabled the card, but as I have since replaced the Broadcom card with an Intel card, I have no problems with wireless in either Windows 7 or XP.
Buy eMachines E725-4520 Laptop Win7 Pentium T4400 2.2G 15.6″ 3GB Ram 250GB WiFi 6-cell battery D Now
inexpensive for its power and speed. good looking. large brilliant screen with wonderful colors.key board and internal speakers are an issue. poor speakers and a poor keyboard.
buyers may wish to experiment with external speakers and external keyboard if you are going to be using the keyboard a lot for text entry.
the computer itself is quite powerful for its cost, no heat, no noise, no processor or fan noise or vibration.
looks to be solid build. not the lightest laptop, but solidly built.also WIN 7 does have some glitches related to compatibility and proprietary issues with other Microsoft software,
Microsoft and WIN 7 does not like Google Chrome, for example, some issues with MS software downloads with Chrome, with Win 7. however,
XP computers are hard to get now unfortunately.
if you need to do serious text entry and require a really good keyboard, I would suggest that you spend some time with this keyboard before buying this computer. make sure it will work for you.
do not buy it sight unseen and untested. if the keyboard and internal speakers are not important to you, this laptop might work for you.
despite this laptops high processor power for the price, and other good points, IF you require an excellent keyboard and/or speakers with normal volume, I would not recommend this laptop.I like the computer but when it comes to warranty be prepared to get screwed they want you to buy a box bubble wrap ship it fed ex or ups cant use orignal box because you will lose it. I am now in the process of having the computer replaced with a new one under louisiana lemon law. emachines was gateway now is owned by acer i hate companies that dont want honor warrantys and screw over consumersI love this laptop!! I am self employed and i am able to use it for work and play.. it has never failed me.. it is durable and has even survived a couple of fumbles.. (accidental drops)
it has great speed and graphics.. its a great buy!! my only complaint is that the speakers worked great at first and then a few months later they were not as loud but thats not a major issue for me because i have mini speakers that i use when im not traveling.. Im not sure if thats an issue that others have experienced or if its just mine. i recommend this laptop to students and small business owners especially, but its great for anyone who wants quality without spending a fortune...
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