Frustration
Jan. 17th, 2003 11:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ciphergothTrying to choose a laptop to buy online is an extremely frustrating experience. All of the websites suck. It's just that I know any other source of information will be even worse.
Right now I'm running a recursive wget against Sony's Vaio website so I can look at the specs without having to navigate their insane frame system.
Right now I'm running a recursive wget against Sony's Vaio website so I can look at the specs without having to navigate their insane frame system.
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no subject
Date: 2003-01-17 03:11 pm (UTC)Well, maybe.
no subject
Date: 2003-01-17 03:15 pm (UTC)they're fragile, and getting them fixed is, i hear, a nightmare. (os nightmare, to be specific; wipe the hard disk and reinstall sony-windows, or they won't touch the machine).
mine's worked for 15 months as my main machine, and i'll be amazed if it lasts the 36 months i expected when i bought it. to be honest, i'm amazed it's still working now, given the build quality.
-m-
no subject
Date: 2003-01-17 03:46 pm (UTC)frustration
Date: 2003-01-17 05:38 pm (UTC)Have you thought about talking to Malc about this - when it comes to hardware he really is the man who knows...
Soph xxx
Gaah!
Date: 2003-01-18 05:17 am (UTC)(If you want the grisly details, buttonhole me at the pub and I'll tell you all about my experiences with two of 'em in succession. Let's just say, Sony's warranty coverage is pure shit -- they refuse to obey the Sale of Goods Act statutory terms and conditions -- and the model number on the machine is no guarantee that the motherboard components are the same from one machine to the next.
I don't like Dell's approach to design -- they build clunky boxes -- but they work pretty well (except when their batteries explode). I have had *good* experiences with Toshiba laptops, although I wouldn't touch one of their lowest end consumer ones. And I have never heard a bad word about an IBM Thinkpad. If I had to buy a new PC laptop tomorrow it would probably be a Toshiba Satellite Pro model. (Of course I'm biased towards being able to run Linux or BSD on the machine and have access to all the hardware bits'n'pieces ...)
Re: Gaah!
Date: 2003-01-20 08:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-18 06:36 am (UTC)A friend of mine recommends Dell laptops for sheer high spec goodness, but they do tend to be fairly heavy, which as I recall was one of the things you were trying to avoid. They do generally come with higher res screens than equivalently priced offerings from other manufacturers though, which I would find useful.
no subject
Date: 2003-01-18 06:48 am (UTC)And CNet's review section is actually pretty good.
no subject
Date: 2003-01-20 05:22 am (UTC)