8. An Adequately Sized Power Supply With A Long Recharge Time

The 65 watt power supply is quite compact.

Like the laptop itself, the power supply brick is also very compact. With dimensions of 4.5 x 1.75 x 1.1" (11.9 x 4.5 x 2.8 cm) and featuring a relatively short 27.5" (70 cm) power cable, the whole shooting match doesn't take up much room at all. The charger offers adequate power, but fully charging the battery took more than four hours - even with the laptop turned off! By way of comparison, the 53 Wh battery in the Averatec AV1050 value laptop took less than three hours to charge fully, even running under heavy load.

Keyboard With Orange Number Keys

The dark silver keyboard is 10"wide.

The keys on the keyboard have a comfortable feel and adequate travel. The keyboard gives only slightly when you type on it; this makes fast typing no problem, even for those who pound the keyboard, folks who might otherwise suffer from keybounce. We puzzled somewhat over the orange color for the number keys, which were harder to make out against the grey background of the keys themselves, or the blue used to label other keys on the keyboard. In low ambient light conditions, the orange numbers and symbols are nearly impossible to decipher.

The orange key labels are nearly unrecognizable.

A Touchpad With A Comfortable Feel

The real estate devoted to the touchpad was a little too cramped for our taste. It was too easy for a finger to stray unnoticed outside its boundaries a little - sometimes a lot - and either inadvertently press the space bar or wander off onto the handrest area.

Comfortable feel: the TX series touchpad.

Otherwise, the touchpad's sensitivity and precision cursor steering capabilities are impressive. The surface of the touchpad is quite comfortable; both of its buttons are very smooth and easy to find and use, without being too stiff or unyielding.