Fry's bargain du jour was this eMachines full size notebook for $299
Although, it’s common now to find most electronics retail stores stocked with Intel Atom-based netbooks selling below $300 and sometimes below $200, it’s definitely unusual to see a full size notebook like the eMachines eMD625 for a mere $300.
So when Fry’s Electronics advertised it yesterday for $299 (plus tax and CA recycling fee) – a $70 off from its regular price – I rushed to its Sunnyvale, CA store location to pick up the bargain “du jour” to try it out!
The laptop – built by Taiwanese-maker Acer - specifications look quite good for the price:
- 15.6″ WXGA LCD screen, Wi-Fi, USB, 5-in-1 memory card reader but no webcam
- AMD Athlon 64 TF-20 1.6GHz (single core), 2GB Ram Memory, ATI Radeon Xpress 1200 Graphics
- 250GB SATA hard disk
- DVD player
- a full-size keyboard plus numerical pad
- and Windows Vista Home Basic
After taxes and the CA recycling fee, I end up paying $343 for the $299 laptop
Yet more powerful, larger (and heavier!) than the HP mini-note or Acer Aspire One that were placed next to it on Fry’s shelves, the eMachines eMD625 laptop is certainly not a powerhouse despite ATI’s integrated graphics chip: 2 videos running simultaneously (YouTube, ESPN360, Hulu, DVD) are un-watchable. Of course, you could question the need for that too. Although I haven’t tried watching an HD movie on it but my guess is that it won’t work well either.
But some of the overall slow performance could be caused by Windows Vista, which should be a thing of the past as soon as I install Xandros’ Presto on it and Windows 7 (keep fingers crossed).
All in all, the eMachines eMD625 is a decent full-size laptop for the price, good for office, Web and light multimedia (video, imaging, music/iTunes).
Of course, not everybody looking for a thin and light netbook will be happy with this 6 pounds notebook. But I’m sure my Mom wouldn’t mind swapping her old PC with this laptop 
Posted by TechPulse 360 
