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Review: Eurocom 8500-V Notebook Computer

Toronto Star Fast Forward column for March 1, 2001

Copyright ©, Myles White, 2001

It's a safe bet that most Canadian consumers have never heard of Eurocom, an Ottawa-based company that is one of the country's best-kept secrets.

That's partially the company's own fault. Although it has been around for several years and has consistently placed in the top 10 notebook computer suppliers in the Canadian market for nearly as long, its primary target has been corporate, institutional and government markets.

And it's a shame, really, because if the 8500-V "SuperNotebook" is any gauge of Eurocom's products, it has really been missing a bet.

Feature-rich

Some of the 8500-V's most notable features are to drool over. For example, while most other notebooks use the mobile version of whatever processors they feature (translation: slower than whatever is the leading edge for desktops), the 8500-V uses Intel's "Socket 370" to allow it to utilize any Celeron or Pentium III processor currently available in the "Flip-Chip (370-) Pin Grid Array." 

It also boasts a 133 MHz front-side bus through VIA's Apollo 133 chipset. And that alone means it can sport a Pentium III at 1 GHz, while the best its competitors using mobile processors can manage is 850 MHz.

You're also going to drool over its screen - a 15-inch diagonal "SuperXGA+" active matrix (thin-film transistor) with a top resolution of (no, I'm not kidding) 1600 by 1200. That's a little too high for my eyes at that physical size, but its default setting of 1400 by 1050 is a little more comfortable without giving up much in the way of on-screen information.

We don't stop here. One of the perennial complaints from those who switch back and forth from desktop to notebook is that he tiny key layout and lack of numerical keypad slows their productivity. This keyboard uses the standard key sizes and distance between them, but it also includes a full numeric keypad as well as the standard alphanumeric keys and a separate cursor pad between them. 

The "mouse" is a built-in touchpad, located slightly off-centre to the case, to line up properly with the standard portion of the keyboard.

The Eurocom 8500-V's graphics engine is also nothing to sneeze at. It's powered by ATI's Rage 128 chipset and comes with 16 MB of Synchronous Graphics RAM (SGRAM).

Standard memory for the unit is 64 MB, but ours came with 128 MB of PC-133 SDRAM (limit is 512 MB).

When I looked at the back panel of the 8500-V my eyebrows really started to rise. There are the standard serial, parallel, PS/2 (mouse/keyboard), and VGA-out ports. But there's also a digital flat-panel out port, two USB ports, RCA video in and S-Video NTSC (television) out ports, FireWire in/out, and infrared port. There's also an optional port replicator and its connector is here, too.

The 8500-V also comes with built-in 10/100 Mbps Ethernet LAN card, 56K V.90 modem, a pair of 32-bit CardBus-compliant Type II/III PC-card slots, one ZoomVideo port and a Kensington lock-compatible slot.

A 24X CD-ROM drive is standard, along with a separate on-board 3.5" floppy drive, but DVD or CD-RW drives are options and so is a Zip drive. The CD bay can also be used for a second hard drive or second battery.

The standard battery is Lithium-Ion and the unit comes with an AC adapter with the transformer brick in the middle of the run.

It's becoming increasingly rare to find notebooks with adjustable feet to raise the back, but the 8500-V has those, too. It also comes standard with a padded nylon carrying case, thankfully devoid of any company logos or similar bright red "steal me" signs.

Bottom Line

Our test unit came with an 933 MHz Pentium III desktop processor, so performance with this unit was never an issue. Subsequently, Eurocom has also released its next model with 1 GHz Pentium III processor. Our testbed  also came with Windows 2000 Professional pre-installed. We got the English edition, but it could have been in French. Other choices include Windows 98SE (English or French), Millennium Edition (also in English or French), or Windows NT 4.0 (ditto).

One other little feature I liked a lot was that both memory and processor are upgradeable (although memory is user-replaceable, the processor replacement needs to visit to the shop).

As you might guess, this particular set of features is not what you'd find in an ultra-light notebook. This is a full-fledged "desktop replacement." Dimensions are 14" x 10.8" x 2.1" (357 x 275 x 50 mm) and the weight is a hefty 9.5 lbs (4.3 kg).

The standard model of the 8500-V with 866 MHz Pentium III, 64 MB of SDRAM, 10 GB hard drive, CD-ROM drive, and Windows 98SE or WinMe can be ordered through the Eurocom Web site at www.eurocom.ca for $3,474 Canadian. Our test unit, with 933 MHz Pentium III, 8X DVD drive, 128 MB of SDRAM, and Windows 2000 comes to $5,069.

The closest comparable units, Toshiba's Tecra 8100 with 750 MHz PIII and 14.1-inch screen lists for $5,999 at the Toshiba Canada Web site, www.toshiba.ca. 

Dell's Latitude C-800 with 850 MHz Pentium III mobile, 15.1-inch screen and similar memory, video and drive configurations sells for $5,117 at the Dell Canada site, www.dell.ca 

IBM's ThinkPad A21p with 850 MHz Pentium III, 32 GB hard drive, and CD-RW drive lists for $6,299 at the IBM Canada site www.ibm.ca 

None of these units has the full 104-key keyboard found on the Eurocom 8500-V.

By the way, Eurcom's site (it's www.eurocom.ca, not .com) lets you compare various models and rather thoroughly customize any model's configuration.

If we used such a rating system, I'd give the Eurocom 8500-V five stars.

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