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Chris Jacob
Duuuude, the ATI 4670 whoops GT 240M in terms of graphic card benchmarking (thats the option you get on the M15x 1500 bucks system). I do understand i7 really will make a diff, but I'm still leaning towards that cheap 1200 bucks option from dell on the xps16 with the 4670...
@David Mascarenhas Watkins: When I finished customizing mine it was $3,447. And that was just the laptop, the only software was Office and the rest was a Blu-ray and the 1080p screen and a couple of necessary hardware upgrades. I don't have that kind of money but I can alway wish can't I?
@qbrad: True. Much easier than a friend of mine carting his gaming desktop! lol
Since this Alienware lappy is HUGE, I am now waiting for Dell, ASUS, and Clevo/Sager to show what they have planned for the i7. Right now I'm loving the HP Envy 15, even though some reviews are saying it gets warm.
@diggtatorship: I was holding out but so far it's vaporware. Bought an Acer netbook last month, I couldn't wait I needed one for school. When and if it ever comes out I will sell it at a loss and get a Ion based netbook.
Nice article. I was checking out laptops yesterday and came to the same conclusion when I saw the relative lack of growth since the last time I bought.
The next two months will definitely be a bigger step in laptop quality than any two month stretch we've seen in a few years.
Nice article. I'm in the market for a new laptop, but I'm waiting for the reasons you've listed. And, you thought of a couple that I didn't think about -- namely SSDs and touch screens. But, I'm not going to get a new Cadillac (of laptops), just something more like a used Camry, if you will.
Just bought a Gigabook M1028X - don't regret it one bit. It got me through a two week trip to Europe and I love the touchscreen (yes - it's resistive - cope :).
When they come up with multitouch screens that are affordable on netbooks, call me. I can always buy another one and hand this one off to a needy friend or relative.
Hey, Giz - stop trying to be helpful and think of the poor starving stockholders that need us to buy things now. Waiting for a better product at a better price is so 2008 thinking, man.
For what it is worth (not much) you should never buy any technology before you absolutely have to. If you are doing that, the particular time of year you are buying it is somewhat irrelevant, but I am ignoring the fact that we might never buy a laptop if it was absolutely necessary. That said, the best time of year to buy a laptop (or desktop) is around February when the overstock from Christmas forces retailers to slash prices on the stuff that never sold. The "deals" for the holiday season have always been a bit of a joke since the prices never go "up" after the holiday is over, they only continue to go down, and rather rapidly in the new year.
I just bought a new lappy last week, and while it was done out of necessity more than anything, I don't think I made a horrible decision. Here's the counterpoint to arguments above;
1) Windows 7 is awesome, and it's worth waiting for, but you don't need to wait until it starts shipping. Getting the Release Candidate on a new PC running Vista is no sweat, and very easy to do on a clean PC. Probably better than an OEM copy, actually.
2) The new processors are going to be faster, cooler and use less power. But they're also going to be expensive. While their introduction will drive down prices on the older chips, given how many sales there are right now I don't know that they're going to be dramatically lower.
3) There are already some good, inexpensive thiin-and-light machines out, like the Dell 14z, and there will probably be some more released shortly. But there isn't any game-changing tech on the horizon that will dramatically change the things; we already have relatively inexpensive LED backlit screens, fast processors, Blu-Ray drives, cheap RAM, etc. You might save a half a pound, or .2", but the laptops around 2 months from now are not going to be so dramatically different from those available today.
4) Black Friday sales lead in to post-Christmas sales leads in to New Years sales lead in to Tax Rebate sales... you could go on forever. Between recession specials and back-toi-school deals, there are great deals available right now if you dig around.
5) All new technologies are going to take time to actually permeate the peripheral and software markets, so even if we're getting Bluetooth 3.0 and touchscreens and USB 3.0 and WiMax, we won't actually get to use them to their fullest capabilities for about 2 years.
In two months Windows 7 will be out, and if you wait for it, then slightly longer, the new and improved windows virii and malware will be released to complete your user experience.
This way, you won't feel anger that it used to fun fine, but stopped, as it'll be immediately infected and brought into the zombie collective waiting to strike /b/ or facebook when its masters beckon.
@Lite: killed Dumbledore: Much like the viruses themselves, the jokes about them never seem to die. Sure, they modify over time, but the core joke is always there waiting to pop out when we most expect it.
I am still leery of Windows 7 and would prefer a netbook with XP on it until 7 is shown to be reliable. Are they going to phase out the XP netbooks after 7 is launched?
@Bandit: win7 has been reliable since the beta. ive been running the rc on my vostro since i got it with zero issues. i run it on several other computers without problems and many have had the same experience. the final release can only be better.
09/23/09
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Since this Alienware lappy is HUGE, I am now waiting for Dell, ASUS, and Clevo/Sager to show what they have planned for the i7. Right now I'm loving the HP Envy 15, even though some reviews are saying it gets warm.
09/09/09
I'm trying to convince my in-laws to wait a couple months to get a netbook because of Ion. Show me some love Giz
09/09/09
09/08/09
09/08/09
The next two months will definitely be a bigger step in laptop quality than any two month stretch we've seen in a few years.
09/08/09
09/08/09
When they come up with multitouch screens that are affordable on netbooks, call me. I can always buy another one and hand this one off to a needy friend or relative.
Doing my part to restart the economy... :)
09/08/09
For what it is worth (not much) you should never buy any technology before you absolutely have to. If you are doing that, the particular time of year you are buying it is somewhat irrelevant, but I am ignoring the fact that we might never buy a laptop if it was absolutely necessary. That said, the best time of year to buy a laptop (or desktop) is around February when the overstock from Christmas forces retailers to slash prices on the stuff that never sold. The "deals" for the holiday season have always been a bit of a joke since the prices never go "up" after the holiday is over, they only continue to go down, and rather rapidly in the new year.
09/08/09
09/08/09
1) Windows 7 is awesome, and it's worth waiting for, but you don't need to wait until it starts shipping. Getting the Release Candidate on a new PC running Vista is no sweat, and very easy to do on a clean PC. Probably better than an OEM copy, actually.
2) The new processors are going to be faster, cooler and use less power. But they're also going to be expensive. While their introduction will drive down prices on the older chips, given how many sales there are right now I don't know that they're going to be dramatically lower.
3) There are already some good, inexpensive thiin-and-light machines out, like the Dell 14z, and there will probably be some more released shortly. But there isn't any game-changing tech on the horizon that will dramatically change the things; we already have relatively inexpensive LED backlit screens, fast processors, Blu-Ray drives, cheap RAM, etc. You might save a half a pound, or .2", but the laptops around 2 months from now are not going to be so dramatically different from those available today.
4) Black Friday sales lead in to post-Christmas sales leads in to New Years sales lead in to Tax Rebate sales... you could go on forever. Between recession specials and back-toi-school deals, there are great deals available right now if you dig around.
5) All new technologies are going to take time to actually permeate the peripheral and software markets, so even if we're getting Bluetooth 3.0 and touchscreens and USB 3.0 and WiMax, we won't actually get to use them to their fullest capabilities for about 2 years.
09/08/09
This way, you won't feel anger that it used to fun fine, but stopped, as it'll be immediately infected and brought into the zombie collective waiting to strike /b/ or facebook when its masters beckon.
09/08/09
09/08/09
09/08/09
09/08/09
09/08/09