When I review products, I try to be as optimistic as possible. Usually there is something good about a product. Right? Well, I will let you be the judge.
On Black Friday I purchased the 7″ Sylvania Netbook for 94.88 from CVS. I thought it would be a cute little “wanna be” laptop for my daughter. She doesn’t need anything special and has been asking for a laptop FOREVER! I thought maybe if I bought her this little thing that could connect to the internet she would be happy. I was not expecting this to be a powerhouse laptop. Just something my daughter could play with.
After purchasing the Sylvania Netbook, I took it home and tried to set up the internet connection. But the first thing I noticed was that is was running off of the “CE” Operating system..WHOA..talk about old technology. But, I let it go because, like I said, it was for my daughter who did not need it for much real work anyway.
I followed the sheet of instructions in order to connect to the internet, but yet, it never connected. I am not the most technically savvy person in the world so I figured I would ask my Dad and sister when they came over Christmas Day. Well, they both tried to get on the internet and couldn’t do it.
Should it really be that difficult?
I called Customer Service 5 times and left 5 messages. On their recording, it said because of the inclement weather they were very backed up. Now, I don’t know about you, but I have never heard such a message before from a “big” company. They also recommended we email them. After waiting 5 days for a return phone call, I decided to email them.
I sent the email and you know what their response was? They sent me the same directions as what was printed on the original document I received. They were no help at all. Needless to say I quickly returned the 7″ Sylvania Netbook to CVS – and that was a fiasco in itself. Click here to see my experience with CVS Customer Service.
My Thoughts
Cons
- You had to practically punch the touchpad to get it to select something.
- Difficult to Connect to Internet (if you can at all).
- Customer Service will not help you.
Pros
- Wait…I am thinking..there must be one nice feature right? Ummmm….it was small?
Final Thoughts
Skip this purchase all together and maybe skip purchasing Sylvania Technology if the customer service is always as bad as I received.
Katie
Latest posts by Katie (Posts)
- Asheville’s Economic Progress is a Shining Beacon in NC - May 17, 2013
- Things To Do Memorial Day Weekend in Charlotte 2013 - May 17, 2013
- What You Missed at the Beach, Blues, & BBQ Festival in Monroe, NC - May 15, 2013
Thanks for the review on this. I was wondering how these things worked..Had seen them at CVS and thought wow what a great deal..,I guess not~ lol..Thanks for the heads up
http://dreasblog8685.blogspot.com/
Andrea
Andrea – If either one of the situations was better – being able to connect to the internet or their customer service, I would say it was an “OK” buy. But what is the point of having a little netbook if it won’t connect to internet? I thought I was getting a great deal….well…so much for that!
Yes it needs better automated networking software. I was able to get it on after much fiddling about.
It works well on simple websites. It is slow on comlpex sites. And on really fancy sites with lots of animation the device can lock up completely. It can play videos off you tube but the pictures aren’t great.
What I think could be the greatest use for the device is downloading e-books and flash videos to an SD card then read and watch on the go. It is halh the weight of most netbooks and I have an OLPC. I can hold this with one hand and type with the other. The OLPC at 3.2 pounds is too heavy to do that for long.
There is plenty of stuff worth reading in electronic form if there is a good device to do it with.
http://ebooks.ebookmall.com/title/eight-keys-to-eden-clifton-ebooks.htm
Some of it can be gotten at much lower prices though.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30334/30334-h/30334-h.html
Neither the Sylvania nor the OLPC will download the pictures with the HTML e-books though. So Internet access with a better machine and simply transferring data to the tiny light weight Sylvania makes it a usable tool.
.
I got this same laptop, and within a month, the programs were not loading at all! I couldn’t return it because it was online and the site would not let me return it for some reason.