Notebook Reviews

Do your homework before buying. Make sure it will work with your computer. I received a reply two weeks later from SimpleTech after contacting them twice that it would not work and to return for a refund. It is not that simple.

One must do his or her homework before buying or installing additional memory into a computer.
1) Consult your PC/motherboard manual and make sure that what you are buying is in fact right type of memory for your PC.
Things to watch for are memory type, bus clock speed, and max size of memory supported by the slot. Don't buy a 512Mb memory for slot that supports only 256.
2) Before you install memory into computer ground yourself! Don't go rubbing your feet on that polyester rug of yours so that there's a little ark emitted everytime you touch something.

Should you follow these 2 rules there will be no problems with upgrading memory, otherwise, blame no one but yourself.

No complaints about this purchase. I upgraded a 256MB Dell desktop to 512MB for very little money.

I've noticed improved performance with little effect on my wallet.

A great product!

I wish I had bought a Toshiba instead of the Vaio. That's what I was planning to do. But at the last minute I was lured by Sony's DVD burner. As it turns out, I bought the Vaio in the USA, but many features are rendered useless in Europe, where I live most of the year. Plug and play drivers don't work for simple accesories like a USB mouse !?! The Vaio can't find the drivers even for a SONY digital camcorder. So I'm not using the DVD burner. Nor can it find the drivers for my HP printer. The Sony technical support tried to help, but couldn't resolve my problems. They told me that the machine was designed to work in the USA, but not in Europe. How bogus an excuse is that? Also, the warranty is only good in the USA. Pretty lame for a supposedly global brand.

Lack of Wi-Fi is a major drawback, and Sony recognized that and apparently tried to remedy this by offering free PCMCIA Wi-Fi cards for a limited time. Unfortunately, I bought my Vaio ONE DAY after this offer expired. I sent Sony a note asking them to send me the card even though I missed the date by one day. Did they? No. Hard to understand why you would recognize that you have a major design flaw... but recognize it for only a limited time...

The Vaio is fast and works very well for other basic applications. Also, I did get a Bluetooth USB adapter to work (after having to return a PCMCIA Bluetooth adapter which did NOT work) almost to my surprise. However, the people at Sony really blew it with this customer. Don't expect me to buy another Vaio. I think I'll go with Toshiba.

Awesome machine. It has a huge, clear, bright display, good resolution, a comfortable keyboard, decent sound output, a powerful processor, plenty of RAM and HD space, one of the best ethernet cards around. Definitely recommend it.

I have yet to try to install Linux on it. Seems like there's not much information about it's compatibility, and some devices are unlikely to work, like the modem and power management, but driver support for Sony is coming along nicely.

Weight and battery life are issues to consider: if you're looking for a laptop you can use comfortably on a long flight, forget it unless you buy a power port adapter - on mine, batteries last for around an hour and a half with normal use.

This thing is fast, its Gigantic, its Hot, its a desktop processor with a laptop fan, Its loudish, and its not super portable.
Why is this good? Because it acts like a desktop too. If you have it plugged in and want all of the performance, youll have it. If you want to bring it somewhere, and plug it in, youll have it. If you want to roam in the park, unfettered by worldly concerns, specifically wifi and plugs, you dont got it.
The software package is interesting, but weird, all sony all the time, but you can change that, from all that software left on your desktop.
If you have any question about the desktop replacement computer, see this machine, it defines the genre.

I have a sony pcg-fx300p, I have had problems with this laptop since the first day I opened the box. You should also know that I have previously bought two (2) other computers from sony. Well my experience with Sony is that their products are only and nothing else but complete fluff. They brake, they malfunction, the support is terrible, yes they are nice on the telephone and will send you a box just like IBM, but their tech department will return the machine to you with no corrections but a mere reinstalation of the OS.

Anyone reading this, don't buy sonY, it stucks.

My laptop is under warantee, I have had the product repaired twice, of course I have't been able to obtain an exchange machine.

Please don't buy Sony if you cherish your time and money.

I did my homework before I bought my first "lap top". I am very happy with the Sony R505EL. I bring and use it at the hospital everyday.

Pros:
-inexpensive (comparing it to other companies with equal specs)
-highly portable (do not need the 3.5 or CD-ROM drive everyday)
-beautiful screen
-hasn't crashed in 3 months (I've pushed it pretty hard- huge multimedia powerpoint presentations)
-always get looks from people
-all the ports I need
-Jog Dail
-feels sturdy
-great multimedia software

Cons:
-Only copies to CD-RW disks
-Battery life about 3 1/2 hours

I always read negatives about the Sony Tech Support. So far, fingers crossed, I don't have to deal with them.
For now, worth the money.

I have been using laptops for the best part of the past 5 years or so. I have owned 1 Gericom - a high quality German brand - and 2 Compaqs which I wouldn't really recommend because my experience has indicated very low reliability. I have been using on and off several other brands especially Toshiba, HP and IBMs. Apart from IBMs which seem very high quality but way overpriced for what you are getting Sony is by far the best.

Bear in mind that I owe the DL model which has a 1GHz processor instead of a 1.13GHz and a slower DVD/CDRW but everything else is the same with this one.

Here is what I (you) don't like

1. Although I knew it so I can't blame the laptop for that, the laptop is not the fastest of the bunch. If you want to play Quake3 or the rest of the 3D effect focused latest games this laptop most probably won't do. But playing Warcraft 3, Baldur's Gate 2, Red Alert 2 doing work like listening to music using word excel powerpoint and watching dvds as well as doing some light graphics processing is more than fine. In these tasks the laptop was speedy enough not to get you annoyed or anything

2. The memory can be upgraded only 384 - from 256, bare in mind that the graphics card consumes 32MB of it, and in order to install an extra 256 - to get to 384 - you have to "throw away" the preinstalled 128MB one

3. The laptop is missing a tilt, especially with the docking station on it has no tild whatsoever which can make it uncomfortable to type.

4. Removing or attaching the laptop demands to disconnect virtually all connections although you don't have to shut it down.

5. An IrDA and an SVideo ports are not there for anyone of you that might need them.

6. I don't know if it is a technical characteristic or poor design but one of the two USBs on the laptop is being hidden when you attach the Docking station.

7. The speakers are not what you would call HiFi actually they are weak and without good quality but if you plug an external pair or a pair of nice earphones the sound is very good.

8. The shift key is small. Actually is as small as the rest of the buttons so it is easy to miss before you get used to it.

9. Although it has a CDRW it doesn't come with a dedicated cdrw program - you can use the WinXP copying engine but I find it very underpowered, the SonicStage player that comes with it has the ability to create music and MP3 cds. Anyway I got me Nero and it is working fine with it.

10. I found the power supply large compared to the size of the laptop itself.

Now what I (you hopefully) love about it

1. It is very cool to look at especially without the docking station. Very slim and nice, you gonna get asked about it a lot.

2. It is light and again without the docking station VERY light. Therefore very portable.

3. The keyboard has a wonderful feel to it. Sturdy and deep.

4. It is VERY STABLE. In two months the laptop has never crashed. All my prevous laptops - even the latest compaq that was loaded with WinXP - was crashing constantly. This one can go days without restarting. Amazing for a windows machine.

5. The laptop has all essential ports: 2 USB, Firewire - iLink, VGA, line out and mic, 1 PCMCIA, Ethernet and modem...

6. With the docking you also get an extra 2 USB ( you lose one on the notebook thoug cause the docking station covers it) you also get one more iLink, a serial, a parallel and of course you get the CDRW and floppy.

7. It comes with magic gate which is really small and for me is the fine way to back up essential data. No need for special software or problems with limited floppy capacity you can get one of them wuth up to 128MB and the com sees it an extra drive that you can transfer data to with simple drags and drops.

8. The DVD/CDRW speed is really fast the EL model I bet will be even better.

9. If you have time to customise the Jog Dial can be a really handy tool. You can also use its alarm timer to bring the laptop automatically off stand by or hibernation and launch a program on the same time - it has been waking me up playing my favourite music ever since i got it.

10. The screen is perfect. No matter how much sunlight has where you are working it is perfectly visible

11. The battery life is long. With the brightness to the lowest it is around 4 - 4 1/2 hours in light work. With brightness at highest it can see you through a 2 - 2 1/2 hour dvd movie just fine or a bit more than 3 hours of light work

12. It comes with loads of programs. You may never use them but they are there if you need them. The best of them is the Photoshop Elements that is bundled and that is a cut down version of photoshop but for personal use is wonderful.

13. It is quiet - very quiet. If the little fan bothers you you can set it from the power panel to where the fan is off all the time - but bare in mind that if it gets hot then the processor speed drops automatically.

14. The 30GB although does not sound like very many given todays standards they are fine given that this is not a desktop replacement.

All in all this is the best laptop i have seen or used. If you are after a laptop that combines high portability, great looks, it is full featured and very very reliable then this has to be on the top of your list. Unless you are planning to spend double the money for an IBM with the same features this is the perfect laptop and with a more than attractive price. Congratulations to Sony for another great product.

I just received my Compaq 2585US and am very happy with it. I bought it refurbished from another online retailer and it seems pretty good. What I have noticed is that:

1) The fan is loud, as others have proclaimed

2) The DVD player freezes at the start of a movie -I've worked with Compaq support from their web site for a couple of days and found that I needed to download Softpaq SP23136 which updates the drivers. Their customer service is nice (online chat) but I have to contact them at least three times in three days to finally find the problem.

3) For a P4, it seems very slow compared to my home PC (which is four years old).

Overall, it was a good value for my money ... (as soon as I work out the bugs).

I'll keep this short. This notebook does everything I want it to and more. As far as the fan problem the others mentioned, you can go to Compaq's website and download the KH.F.19 version of the BIOS which addresses the fan noise.

... What a deal! I am very pleased with its performance and it's capabilities. I have nothing bad to say about this laptop except for the loud fan, but that doesn't bother me. For a 2.8 P4, DVDRW, beautiful screen, wireless G, this is it. ... I think it is well made and extremely user friendly. The only problem I had was when connecting to my wireless home network for the first time. No TCPIP settings had been installed, but with a quick call to HP Help, I was up and running in no time. The sevice was really great and fast. I have only had this one for a week, but up to this point, I give it 5 out of 5. Are there better ones? Of course, but not at this price

Even though this unit has a great display it is a terrible buy if your a business user. It will not support any other operating system than Windows XP Home, Sony does not offer an upgrade path(even to XP Professional), there are no drivers available for the hardware configuration. Buyer's beware, this unit is not for business use. Sony does not support this product!

Overall the NV170 is a great laptop. I did quite a bit of research and have been very happy with my purchase. 2 major issues for me: Customer Support & Sonicstage (Sony's music manager). From the get go the customer support - even customer service when I ordered over the phone was just atrocious. I have spent at least 5 hours being transferred from one 800 number to the next by rude service technicians just to try to resolve some issues that were "no brainers" to me. Only recently did I find one that went that extra mile to at least try to take care of me. My second complaint is the software that Sony has chosen to use to manage music. If you just want to listen to songs that you've downloaded from an external source (not including the internet) on your computer, then you should be fine. However, like most I like to burn CD's & Sonicstage has nearly made me sick, physically, a couple of times with sheer frustration! They have created a new format that mp3's are converted to when using Sonicstage (.omg). It is supposed to keep track of copyright information, number of times a song has been downloaded, etc. The problem is that there is something that doesn't jive between the software and songs dowloaded from the net. So, sometimes they'll burn, sometimes they won't, sometimes I feel like dropping the machine off my 3rd story balcony...... Anyway, other than these two issues the speed & capabilities of the NV170 accomodate my needs well.

I've had the NV170 for 3 months and its been great.
Like some of the other reviews regarding this laptop, it is a BRICK. Definitely not for a business traveler.
But if you need a fast and powerful computer you can take with you on occasions, this is perfect. Some of the programs loaded are a little difficult to get working but once I got around it and downloaded my own programs, it does all I need. The screen is large and crisp compared to other laptops I've looked at. Also sounds great with the changeable woofer.

There are many features of this laptop that I like. However, it appears to have some serious reliability problems. In the four months that I've owned it, it has already had to be sent in for repairs twice, once for problems with the wireless card and once for a dead LCD monitor. Although it is covered under warranty, this still means being without it for over a week each time and paying almost $50 each time for the special shipping to send it to Dallas.

I would not buy this laptop again.

For the price, this is a well loaded machine and an excellent desktop replacement.

I got an M350 about 6 months ago and I haven't had any problems at all. It has great speed, memory, and all around performance. I would recommend this laptop to anyone.

I got this backpack after my old one broke and I have not had any trouble with this one. The straps are well sewn onto the backpack. The straps are adjustable and very wide for maximum weight distribution and comfort. The backpack has a very good design. The only problem is that the clips broke on one of the clips.
Otherwise a great product!

This is the backpack equivalent of the free lunch...It has the utility and durability you can expect from the Targus name. It has a lot of pockets and nets and latches that are not gimmicky, just useful.

The extra cushion on back is really comfortable.

The Targus Defcon fingerprint security device itself is works fine. However, the SecureSuite 3.1 software that comes with it suffers from a number of bugs and inconveniences:

1) It does not work with Windows XP
2) It hangs the MS Internet Explorer when accessesing a page with two password fields.
3) It does not support network user accounts, only local logons.
4) It makes attaching to network file and print shares troublesome.

These problems make the device unusable in many typical workplace or home networking environments.

Supposedly there is a software package available free from Targus to provide security for Windows XP. However, the version of SecureSuite (3.5) that reportedly resolves the above problems for Windows 2000 users is not yet available from Targus.

My advice: Don't buy this device until it comes with software that works in real-world computing environments.

this is officially one of the coolest things i've seen in a while, but my obscure mind begs a question...

what if you had a twin? identical, same fingerprints? i know, odds are against it, but think about it! sensitive data and an evil twin... this worries me.

On a direct comparison of Biometric Capture Devices for finger prints this is the best that I have used, and I use many.

The advantages of this device are:
1. Faster than the older/larger chipset.
2. Convienient USB hub so that you don't loose a port for a device you use only to logon and unlock.
3. Easier to get used to than other finger print devices (print placement).
4. easer to use on any of your ten fingers, as with a bio enabled mouse you may find that you can only easily use your right thumb.

My recomendation though is not to use the software bundled with the device, but to get SAFsolution Enterprise Eddition SAFlink Co. (OTC:BB-SFLK) and use that, as it works for local and network accounts, and can be centrally deployed for domain wide security.

You live in a cold area like Canada or Arctic? You might then love this as it can also double up as room heater. After an hr of demanding use like a movie and you may as boil you eggs on it. No seriously, I am yet to see a laptop running hotter than this one. And all this with supposedly PowerNow! technology from AMD.

Well I guess I should have realized that if desktop Athlons run so hot then mobile ones can't be very dfferent. HPpaq makes pathetic laptops to say the least. They couldn't even get proper cooling solution for the processor, chipset & memory.

Now back to the laptop under review.

The keyboard was certainly designed by morons. 10 keys on bottom row, out of which only 4 were really needed. and that to mostly wrongly placed. space bar is tiny, tons of junk Windows buttons around, Fn button in place of Ctrl, Caps lock too big size, a repeated | button the bottom row, and delete button at the farthest/obscurest corner of the laptop. To top it all off the whole thing shakes when typing & looks like some buttons would surely break off. Never seen a more pathetic keyboard.

The scroll pad and touchpad buttons again are designed to looks good but have no usability. The up/down keys are easier to use than the junk ovalpad.

Only one PCMCIA card slot, not 2 as in most laptops. HPpaq phone support is worst in industry, try calling them. HP doesn't even have a toll free phone number for consumer laptops.

All HPpaq 9xxus models have a shared memory ATI integrated graphics will max 3DMark2001 score of 1500 (no matter how faster athlon is or how much RAM you put in). Very poor performance. Get a laptop based on Intel chipset.

The colors are also not good, even with the latest ATI drivers and on A/C power. Although screen is bright enough.

The case looks very clunky and thick. More than 1.6" I expected.

HPpaq cheats you by not even including a full copy of WinXP to reinstall XP later on. Only a restore Cd to erase everything & put all nasty programs back. Yes that true, they bundled 12+ nasty promotional programs for which no one has any use. Like Disney Online.

Finally all useful ports are at the back and covered by clumsy cover. What a pain to connect anythign to it.

Two stars because it costs under 850 after rebates in some local stores and because it runs.

Shame on HPpaq for building such a laptop. I suggest you look at Toshiba/Dell laptops around. You (roughly) get what you pay for.

Its 1.79 inches thick NOT 1.5 inches. And it probably weighs more than 6.5lbs they claim...

Runs too hot and display is very grainy compared to other budget laptops. not to mention noisy hard disk from fujitsu and badly designed keyboard & useless ovalpad...

Compaq support is above average though.

Very good value for the price--AMD beats Intel any day of the week for tasks other than video editing. It's great for all that's there--a CD/RW combo drive, generous amounts of memory and hard drive storage space, but be warned that this latest incarnation of the Compaq Presario series comes without a 3.5" floppy drive. Fine if you've moved past it for things like CD-RWs and network-based storage, but if you still use floppies, consider either an external drive or contact HP to see if they have a swappable floppy drive that can go in the CD-RW drive's place when you need to use it.

The speakers have a rating of 5 watts RMS, not ten as stated above. The sound is decent only at the lowest of levels - at least on my computer. They can't play loudly without considerable distortion.

The speakers are pretty decent for the money.
I just picked them up because I just wanted a cheap pair to hold me over for a little while. The sound quality is decent. Not a lot of bass obviously, but decent.
However, if you turn the volume up more than halfway, you start hearing a constant buzzing sound which gets louder as you increase volume. A bit annoying.

But again, fo the money they aren't terrible.

I purchased these speaker at walmart for 20$ they sound decent depending on what you want you want to use them for. There not made to be loud although they can sound fairly loud when playing music or dvds, or even games. When you turn the speakers up all the way they tend to make a type of rattling sound/buzzing sound. So if your wanting loud speakers dont buy these. Although they do sound good for instant messgaing music,things that dont require alot of bass or really high pitch. But these speakers are worht the 20$ for your tipical computer uses.