Ottawa-based Eurocom's D470V ImpressaV incorporates virtually all the capabilities of a high-end desktop PC in a compact, foldable slab. The D470V is too big to be a travel-friendly notebook but is still portable enough to haul back and forth between the office and your desk at home. The D470V that CNET tested costs a hefty $3,024 and weighs in at 9.4 pounds or a whopping 11.3 pounds with its oversize AC power adapter. The silver-and-gray shell spreads 15.5 inches wide and 10.75 inches deep, and it's almost 1.75 thick. If size and weight don't discourage you from taking the D470V on business trips, its 95-minute battery life might, especially since you need a screwdriver to change the cell. We think this notebook is a solid desktop-replacement notebook, but we recommend that you also consider the Sager NP4780, which offers more features at a lower price.
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
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| A hardware On/Off switch for the wireless LAN adapter helps with security and power conservation. | The minimalist, no-frills touchpad adds a little style to the D470V. |
The D470V's 17-inch (diagonal) screen displays a 1,440x900 resolution, a wide format that is ideal for watching movies but also provides plenty of pixels for spreadsheets and text documents. The screen is a pleasure to behold--bright and colorful with movies and sharp with text. The full-size keyboard has a separate numeric keypad and is comfortable and responsive. The three strong, wide hinges on the silver-and-gray shell feel solid and sturdy enough to protect the wide screen.
A very fast 3.2GHz desktop Pentium 4 with 512MB of memory and an ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 Pro 3D graphics controller with 128MB of dedicated memory make the system fast overall, and the 60GB hard drive spins at 7,200rpm like that of a desktop hard drive. Other nice features include Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 802.11b wireless networking, a fixed DVD-RW drive, a Type II PC Card slot, and a four-slot memory reader that reads six common flash card formats. The D470V also has a four-pin FireWire port and dual USB 2.0 ports; two sets of stereo speakers, with a subwoofer under the base; and a pinhole video camera built into the lid.
Eurocom includes a well-illustrated manual that thoroughly covers the notebook's features. The company's one-year warranty seems short for such an expensive purchase, but the company prices warranty-extension plans reasonably: an extra year costs $60, two extra years cost $107, and a three-year onsite policy runs $215. The company also provides lifetime free, toll-free phone support weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET.
Maximum application performance (Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Mobile application performance (Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Battery life (Longer bars indicate better performance)
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3D graphics performance (Longer bars indicate better performance)
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