Advent 5421 now £293.60 – read our concise Review

Posted on Nov 15 2008 - 6:30pm by Richard Sharp

Most of the nation are on a budget at the moment and it is becoming increasingly important to find the best possible item for your money – this is exactly the same when it comes to buying large items such as laptops.  This Advent could be the answer to many peoples problem. The Advent 5421 is an all-purpose laptop that won’t break the bank.

It includes features that usually only grace more expensive laptops, this includes a powerful Dual Core performance from an Intel Celeron Processor T1500 is perfectly accompanied by Geniune Windows Vista Home Basic compatibility.

The 5421 includes 1GB memory which is good enough to run vista basic (included) and 160GB hard drive, all your multimedia files will run effortlessly and be stored efficiently using vistas innovative features.

A large 15.4” widescreen display facilitates the easy viewing of photos, while a DVD re-writer optical drive enables movies to be transferred from one source to another. An in-built webcam allows you to chat face-to-face with friends and family all over the world. Additionally, the 5421 is wireless enabled for your convenience.

The Advent 5421 is a stylish, affordable laptop that is finished in high gloss silver with imprint design.

Here is the specification:

  • Intel Celeron Dual Core Processor T1500
  • (2 GHz, 533 MHz, 1 MB cache)
  • Genuine Windows Vista (R) Home Basic
  • 1 GB memory
  • 160 GB hard drive
  • 15.4″ Widescreen display
  • DVD ReWriter Drive
  • Wireless enabled
  • High gloss finish with imprint design
  • Built-in webcam

Buy the Advent 5421 for an amazing £293.60

pc world

12 Comments so far. Feel free to join this conversation.

  1. Mary-Anne Andrews February 7, 2009 at 10:07 am - Reply

    I recently was given one of these for Christmas. The battery only had a life of 40mins. I took it back to PC world who said it would have to go to their tech guys to be assessed and replaced. All I wanted was for them to replace the battery but they said that they did not sell replacement batteries for it. I demanded my money back as the item was faulty when purchased. After 2 visits and 4 hours of wrangling they offered to sell me a more expensive one for the difference in price. I was told that the 1Gb of memory was only just enough to run Vista and would not be able to cope with running any programmes properly. I asked why sell it with only 1 Gb of Ram and they said it was designed for a 9 year old!!!!!! I should have known better than to go to PC World!!!!!!!! I only wanted a portable office in a laptop, No game playing or photo manipluation and I was perfectly happy with the performance of this machine. I would have paid extra to have more memory installed but the atrocious behavior of all involved made me vow never to go into their shop or visit their website again.

  2. Richard February 7, 2009 at 5:21 pm - Reply

    Its a shame the battery let you down, the laptop as you said is a good machine. I would also be dissapointed with the service you received, the laptop certainly is not designed for a 9 year old! It is ideal for office and general usage, how old was the assistant at pc world? It sounds like they were just gunning for extra sales to me. If it is just a battery you need I am sure acer would help directly if you contacted them

  3. Matthew Wingett February 12, 2009 at 2:40 pm - Reply

    I bought one of these in the New Year, and the processor speed and general handling is good. It isn’t a top notch computer – but works well with Microsoft Office and standard quality software, with a reasonable response time.

    Windows Vista was a surprise when I first bought it. It ran very smoothly and seemed to be a real improvement on W2K which I had on my previous laptop. I was please to find that the wireless worked without dropping out – on my previous laptop this had been a real problem.

    There are a few things I’d like to say about the sales service. PC World salesmen are extremely underinformed. My salesman told me that my version of Office 2000 wouldn’t work on this machine, and tried to get me to buy a new version. I decided to try out my old version of Office first. It works fine.

    I was also told by the salesman (his name is Richard and he works in the Portsmouth outlet) that there were no expansion slots for memory. This is incorrect, as I have now discovered to my pleasure.

    However, on the plus side, he also told me that the USB flash card will act as an expanded memory – which it does, and it enhances performance.

    So, a good computer thus far, despite mixed service from the staff. I really hate it when people bulls**t me – it undermines my confidence in the entire store for employing such a wideboy.

    Now for the real downside. The Realtek Wireless has now failed. I get occasional connectivity for a few minutes, and then nothing. The Ethernet card is working fine, and I know my router is working okay because my partner is able to connect to it whilst mine is failing. So, a really disappointing wireless card.

    I didn’t buy the optional tech support package with PC World because I have always been able to sort out my own problems in the past. But this one has me stumped. I suspect a dodgy component, but am loth to hand over the laptop to the TechGuys because I will have no machine to work from – and my laptop is my livelihood.

    So, overall, a good machine, poor service – and a possibly faulty component. I am looking for a cure for this at the moment. All suggestions gratefully received. In all – a mixed bag, although the machine does the basic work I need it to do.

    See you,

    Matt

  4. jim March 26, 2009 at 10:32 am - Reply

    not a bad machine for the price but kept freezing so upgraded my ram to try and solve the problem and it still keeps freezing annoying yes buy it if you only will use one application at a time

  5. Matthew Wingett June 17, 2009 at 6:29 pm - Reply

    Okay, here is an update on my previous review. Actually the wireless card works fine. It does overheat and drop out if used for prolonged periods with restricted venting – but I can live with that. In all, this is a good laptop. The great advantage it has over the others I tried in the shop is that it has an old-fashioned “non-shiny” screen, which means I can use it in bright light conditions without horrible reflections making it impossible to see the screen. It was the only machine in the shop with an old style screen. Why on Earth they think the shiny ones are better, I don’t know!

  6. christopher miller September 6, 2009 at 4:28 pm - Reply

    can anybody tell me what graphic card this computer has as i have one but games dont seem to run properly

  7. Damien October 16, 2009 at 11:42 pm - Reply

    i have tried all i could just to make my graphic card effective but all efforts proved abortive. I never had it in mind to purchase this laptop anyway, my sister bought for me as a Christmas gift and i have been having difficulties playing high resolution games on it, even after i updated all the outdated drivers, including the Sis Mirage Graphic driver, it still doesn’t make sense. It pisses me off at times when i see other laptops playing those games and mine can’t execute them.

  8. Luis Morera December 2, 2009 at 11:12 pm - Reply

    Well overall a good laptop!

    I got the laptop for Christmas 2008 and it still works like a dream. The battery life needs help but I don’t take it far from a main :D. The RAM is ok you may need an upgrade to 2 GB if you want it to run at the best possible.

    The screen is a real dust magnet and is very delicate and hard to clean, and unfortunately the laptop is built with a very bad ventilation system so it has a tendecy to overheat and turn itself off (but its very rare).

    The large keyboard is terrific and easy to use and type, the mouse is slightly too sensitive for my liking as I may begin typing and finish realizing it has umped to another part of the page. Many say the mouse button ‘bar/rod’ is too hard to press however I find it very easy and clean.

    The design is awesome and very sleek. It could do with some extra features like better stereos or lights for when CAPS Lck is on and the volume but that may just be me being picky.

    Overall a great laptop and useful for the office and home. You might want to rethink it if your looking for a GAMES laptop as the graphics card isn’t very good. If you do intend on buying it maybe choose to have a small fun running on it and place it on a hard-top surface just to keep it cool and running at its best.

    7/10 from me. I LOVE it!

  9. Luis Morera December 2, 2009 at 11:15 pm - Reply

    On what I said before I forgot to mention you must remember this laptop is only £300 and is extremely good value for money considering its size, built in web cam & microphone.

  10. Matthew Wingett December 24, 2009 at 8:01 pm - Reply

    Okay, so this is my final update on the laptop.

    It was stolen. And you know what? Good riddance to it! I’ve got an Acer now. A hundred quid more – and well worth it. It plays video, it’s responsive and it boots in no time. I am toasting the little Indian boy who ran away with it!

    Merry Christmas all.

    Matt Wingett

  11. bradley February 17, 2011 at 3:04 pm - Reply

    i think the laptop is brilliant, works fine for me and I've got Photoshop CS4 and a lot of other demanding programs, its never over heated on me and has run perfectly for the last 3/4year with the occasional virus (of my own doing), needed a new screen for it once because i sat on it, maybe it could be improved on the start up, if it is running really slow i recommended rebooting it (full destructive recovery), most of the times its been slow for me I've done that and its run perfectly, most of the time it runs slow because its clogged up with programs that you dont use and are running in the background, hence the slow loading ect, also if your having problems running video's download VLC Media Player its brilliant (it plays nearly all video formats (HD, AVI, MP4 Ect…)and can even play corrupted files).

    over all a fantastic computer for me as im 13 and use all of the potential features of the laptop, 9/10 and would recommended to anyone who wants a reliable computer.

    Bradley

  12. bradley February 17, 2011 at 3:04 pm - Reply

    thanks

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