Just bought the X54 love it. Only problem is the speakers seem very quiet. Is this normal with this machine ?

Hey guys keep this topic alive its very useful indead!
Im very close to buying the philips x54. Very good spec for the price and judging by the comments made here i think its going to be pretty good.

However i was wondering if the 256MB of graphics memory was shared or dedicated, because a pc with 256MB at this price is goldust.
Also, anyone else using an X54 can they please say if there are any problems with using it (eg: touch pad). I'll tell you my experience with the pad. I went into PC world the other day and i was blown away with the specs, however when i used the touchpad my finger wasnt gliding smoothly enuf and the mouse didnt seem to move very well. Having said that my hands were sweaty and the pad was probably very greasy due to all the people using it throughout the day.

So if someone can tell me if they have any problems with the X54's touchpad, it would be very helpful. Because it is the only thing thats holding me back. Thanks!

I've got X53 and earlier comment about USB ports being upside down is right, I couldn't work out why that was either. I can't really see its a problem, and that apart its a really great machine. I bought mine as result of having THREE disasters with Advent laptops in FIVE MONTHS (first one packed up within week, second wouldn't work when I got it home, third developed serious fault at bootup after 3mths. Philips X53 cost more, but so far worth it, guess moral is don't skimp on cost, but as only wanted laptop for basic needs (I'm a writer), didn't want to spend fortune on anything flash! Very interesting to read everyone elses posts. Thanks.

i've just bought the x53 as well and am glad to find these reviews as there seems to be nothing at all about it on the internet, which is a bit alarming! 24 hours into my ownership of it it seems great - well, except for the fact that the USB ports are definitely upside down and the speakers are on the bottom of the machine. These seem like two quite embarrasing design flaws to me so I hope someone at philips is red in the face and feels compelled to sort it out for future models. Despite this i'm really pleased with it - especially with its speed and portability and the fact that pricewise seems reasonable (if you can call £800 reasonable) for its sleek and dinky proportions.

on the freevents x53 is the hard drive locked ? or can someone confirm it's possible to replace the XP Home and install XP Professional. Even if it may invalidate the support waranty etc. I would like to get an X53 but work only allows XP Professional on their network

I've spent the last 3 weeks trying to find information on the Philips X range.... I finally landed up here. I was 20 mins off going out this afternoon and buying an X53.

Until I read about the "Express Card" slot... I have a PCMCIA 3G data card, will this not be compatible.. Please assist so I can go and give PCWorld some of my hard earned cash!

You can install XP Pro ON TOP of XP Home without problems - tho' make sure you've got an XP Pro install disk with SP2 preapplied. But I couldn't install to a new partition - the XP Pro install (boot to CD) wouldn't recognise the HD. I presume because it's SATA - and this means giving the XP installer the disk driver early on in installation - but the XP installer only seems to recognise drivers on floppies - & there's no floppy drive! (I might be quite wrong here tho' - perhaps the XP installer just doesn't like the hidden recovery partition. Acronis boot CDs can see the HD O.K. without any special driver disk.)

Hi there! For those thinking of buying but still undecided, I researched the Philips X range for quite some time before I bought one, to such an extent that I seemed to know more about them than the PC World sales staff. Regardless, I eventually bought the X-52 as it has a better (more expensive) chip than its X-53 replacement but everything else is virtually the same. Also, as it is being discontinued (which means it can be hard to find in a store - I had to travel to get mine) it is priced lower than the X-53; I got one for £729. I have now had mine for five weeks (two of them travelling with it in France where the built in WiFi came in very useful) and I can honestly say that, apart from the battery performance being a litle less than advertised, it is a great sub-notebook; in my opinion, far better value for money than units like the Sony Vaio at twice the price.

I am considering getting x51for my school work since they outclass everything in the price range (£400) at PC world. As a first time laptop buyer is there anything i should know about the laptop, for instance "battery calibration"

Also is it possible to upgrade the graphics card(or put one in) if so what socket etc should i look for???

There really isnt any way to install a graphics card after the laptop has been bought. If you want to play games on the laptop, the only way to increase performance is to increase the amount of RAM. This you can do by yourself, but I highly recommend you know what your doing before you open up your brand new laptop.

Oh... make sure you have the updated drivers for the graphics card. That should make the laptop work better too ;)