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Though the Averatec 4200's performance is below average, it offers a good mix of features at a bargain price.
Designed for highly mobile students and cost-conscious business travelers, the $1,199 (as of August 2005) Averatec 4200 thin-and-light laptop is priced low and offers plenty of features, including a DVD burner. While the system demonstrated great battery life, if you have your heart set on a machine with screaming performance, you'll be sorely disappointed.
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
At first glance, the Averatec 4200's white interior looks uncannily like that of an iBook. The lid of the Averatec 4200, however, is a solid shade of navy blue; the company will soon offer buyers their choice of four exterior colors. Measuring 12.5 inches wide, 8.8 inches deep, and 1.3 inches thick, the notebook is a bit smaller than the thin-and-light Gateway M210X. Weighing a manageable 4.7 pounds, the Averatec 4200 isn't as portable as the similarly priced, 3.6-pound Acer TravelMate 3002WTCi. Even so, the Averatec 4200 will slide easily into most bags, and even with its 0.7-pound AC adapter, it won't cause undue shoulder strain.
An unusual size for a thin-and-light, the Averatec 4200's 13.3-inch wide-aspect display features a sharp 1,200x800 native resolution, but it is not as bright as we would like, even at the highest setting. The laptop doesn't have much in the way of multimedia controls: a lone button above the keyboard launches Windows Media Player; it cannot be programmed to open the application of your choice. The keyboard itself is a decent size and has surprisingly deep key travel, though it gives a little too much under heavy finger pressure. The wide touch pad and long, slim corresponding mouse buttons are difficult to control and take a little time to get used to.
As far as connections go, the Averatec 4200 is adequately equipped for a thin-and-light. You'll find VGA, four-pin FireWire, S-Video-out, and three USB 2.0 ports, as well as headphone and microphone jacks. The laptop also includes a Type II PC Card slot and a four-in-one flash memory slot that supports Secure Digital, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, and MultiMediaCard formats. The Averatec 4200 gets online via Ethernet, modem, or 802.11b/g Wi-Fi. Our test unit also included a multiformat DVD burner--a nice touch for such an inexpensive laptop. The system comes preloaded with Windows XP Home Edition, in addition to the Microsoft Works 8.0 mini productivity suite, CyberLink PowerDVD 5.0 for disc playback, and CyberLink Power2Go 4.0 for burning CDs and DVDs.
For an extremely reasonable $1,199 (as of August 2005), our Averatec 4200 test unit came packed with some pretty nice components. Equipped with a 1.6GHz Pentium M 730 processor, it also has 512MB of moderately slow 333MHz DDR RAM; an 80GB hard drive that spins at a swift 5,400rpm; and an Intel integrated graphics chip that steals 64MB of memory from the main system RAM. Despite being configured with a healthy array of parts, the Averatec 4200 delivered disappointingly slow application performance in CNET Labs' benchmarks. The small system trailed 38 percent behind the Gateway M210X, which costs $200 more than the Averatec 4200 and has a slower, 4,200rpm hard drive but otherwise identical specs. Likewise, the ultraportable Acer TravelMate TM3002WTCi, which has a smaller screen but costs just $100 more for a faster processor and RAM, outran the Averatec 4200 by 46 percent. The Averatec 4200's performance should prove adequate for basic productivity work, but avid multitaskers and other power users can get better performance for just a little more money.
Making up for its unimpressive performance was the Averatec 4200's stamina. In our battery-drain tests, the portable lasted for a solid 3 hours, 33 minutes, a bit above the average for its category, and time enough to get a decent amount of work done away from a power outlet. While this can't match the 4 hours, 49 minutes recorded for the TravelMate TM3002WTCi's much larger battery, it did last 45 minutes longer than the similar-size battery on the Gateway M210X.
The Averatec 4200 is covered by a standard one-year warranty that includes 24/7 toll-free phone tech support and parts-and-labor coverage. The notebook's battery, however, is backed for only six months--a lame hedge, in our book. As of August 2005, the company Web site lacks any downloads or FAQs for the Averatec 4200. Nor does the site have user forums or the opportunity for a real-time chat with a support rep, but you can e-mail a technician for help.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
 | BAPCo MobileMark 2002 performance rating |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
| BAPCo MobileMark 2002 battery life in minutes |
Find out more about how we test Windows notebooks.
System configurations:
Averatec 4200
Windows XP Home; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M 730; 512MB PC3200 DDR2 SDRAM 400MHz; Intel 915GM/GMS, 910GML Express 64MB; WDScorpio WD800UE 75GB 5,400rpm
Acer TravelMate TM3002WTCi
Windows XP Professional; 1.73GHz Intel Pentium M 740; 512MB PC3200 DDR2 SDRAM 400MHz; Intel 915GM/GMS, 910GML Express 128MB; Hitachi Travelstar 60GB 4,200rpm
Gateway M210X
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M 725; 512MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM 333MHz; Intel Extreme Graphics 2 for Mobile 64MB; Fujitsu MHT2060AT 60GB 4,200rpm