Notebook Reviews

I've banged the heck out of my case in just 5 months and it looks like it's been to the moon and back--but I just really seem to like this case. It's rugged, it's solid, and I feel confident having hard protection for the screen. My only gripe is the cheezy plastic belt clip. To use it, you have to screw a threaded knob into the back of the unit--and then attach the plastic clip to that. That's fine and dandy, but because that metal knob is a screw, it's prone to coming out. I've had my case take a few tumbles from my belt because the screw/knob had become unthreaded. I e-mailed customer support at Saunders and was told that's normal and to just use a pair of pliers to super-tighten the knob. Strange. Anyway--I used superglue on the screw threads to hold it tight--and haven't had any problems since--until today, where the entire plastic belt clip broke into 5 pieces and the case slid off my belt. I'm in the process of contacting customer support again to see if I'm in any position to get a replacement. Great case, but awkward/cheap belt clip design.

This case is special made for the zire 71. It is made of durable aluminum and is very light in color. kinda like tin foil except much much harder.

The flap opens to the right... for some people this is counter-intuitive but i'm left-handed and had no problems. For right handed folks it may be a little awkward to open the cover and actually use it while holding it with the left hand.

The padding inside covers every area of the zire. The expose sections are for the IR, stylus, headphone jack and palm universal adapter. Yes, it does not charge in the cradle that it came with so i bought the boxwave mini-sync which is great for travelling. I recommend it if you buy this case. I can charge and sync while the pda is in the case.

it does get a lot of attention unlike a low-key leather case but then again, i can't put a leather case in my jeans pocket. this one i can w/o any worries.

warning, be careful when stuffing your hand into your pocket with this case in it... you might cut your finger on the edges. it's not because the edges are sharp... but they are made of metal... and don't take kindly to any force applied to it...

enjoy.

I'm sure my palm will be well protected now if it gets run over by a truck. The case offers great protection, but there are a couple of draw backs. The case makes the overall mass of the unit pretty large. If you carry this in your pocket, it really sticks out. It does come with a belt clip, but who wants to carry something that big on they're belt? Why not switch to a PDA phone then? Watch your fingers too! This thing clamps shut pretty good and can pinch your fingers! It will not fit on a Palm cradle for charging.
It is the best protection out there for the Zire 71. It's nice to be able to slide the camera out of the case, but you have to watch out not to slid the whole Palm out of the case. It is well secured in the protective case, but it can be pushed out when flipping up the camera part.
In the long run, I would recommend this case over all the other's because of it's sturdiness. It's the best protection for your Zire 71! :-)

i loved the bag it has alot of room it was great buy and if i had to get another bag i would get the same one!!! it holds everything and it looks really good too. bye this bag if u want to take good care of your portable DVD player.

I was looking for a case for my portable DVD player, but so many of them were big and bulky. I wanted to be able to stash it in my tote bag that I carry onto the plane. I finally found this one. It is the perfect size. My 9 inch Panasonic fits perfectly in it and is held securely by a velcro strap. Another compartment has room for several DVDs. I'm going to get another one for my daughter's portable player.

We bought the 9" Toshiba portable DVD player for the car and needed a case. This one is ideal with plenty of room for cords, DVD's, player, etc. Very sturdy with a built-in velcro strap to secure it. It is probably too large for 6" and under players.

i loved the bag it has alot of room it was great buy and if i had to get another bag i would get the same one!!! it holds everything and it looks really good too. bye this bag if u want to take good care of your portable DVD player.

I was looking for a case for my portable DVD player, but so many of them were big and bulky. I wanted to be able to stash it in my tote bag that I carry onto the plane. I finally found this one. It is the perfect size. My 9 inch Panasonic fits perfectly in it and is held securely by a velcro strap. Another compartment has room for several DVDs. I'm going to get another one for my daughter's portable player.

We bought the 9" Toshiba portable DVD player for the car and needed a case. This one is ideal with plenty of room for cords, DVD's, player, etc. Very sturdy with a built-in velcro strap to secure it. It is probably too large for 6" and under players.

i loved the bag it has alot of room it was great buy and if i had to get another bag i would get the same one!!! it holds everything and it looks really good too. bye this bag if u want to take good care of your portable DVD player.

I was looking for a case for my portable DVD player, but so many of them were big and bulky. I wanted to be able to stash it in my tote bag that I carry onto the plane. I finally found this one. It is the perfect size. My 9 inch Panasonic fits perfectly in it and is held securely by a velcro strap. Another compartment has room for several DVDs. I'm going to get another one for my daughter's portable player.

We bought the 9" Toshiba portable DVD player for the car and needed a case. This one is ideal with plenty of room for cords, DVD's, player, etc. Very sturdy with a built-in velcro strap to secure it. It is probably too large for 6" and under players.

I bought a Gateway 200E (200 ARC series) 2 days ago from another online store (I'm still posting it here, so that other potential buyers may find out about this before making a buying decision). The quality, features and speed are good. The reason I'm giving 1 star is because Gateway doesnt accept responsibility for their bugs, and doesn't want to fix them.

If I put the computer into standby and then wake it up, and use the volume control by pressing Fn + left or right arrow keys, the system crashes. It freezes completely. Even ctrl + alt + del doesn't work.

I called Gateway, and this is what they said:

"It's an already documented problem with this model.

Gateway doesn't have a solution for this problem, they only have two workarounds:

1. Don't use the Fn + key combo for volume control, use the volume control icon on the system tray with your mouse.

2. Don't use the Fn + key combo for a while after waking up from
stand by"

My reply to #1, I dont want to look for the icon and click it, I want a shortcut whenever I want to control the volume. That's what it is there for. Besides, I press ctrl + arrow to tab through my text documents. It's very easy to press Fn instead of ctrl, and this is more possible in this model especially since Fn is the outermost key on the left side, and ctrl is to the right side of it, unlike most other laptop keyboards where ctrl is the outermost key. I dont want my laptop to crash when I'm browsing through my text documents or writing code.

#2. I even tried doing this after an hour, and it still crashes.

I have the latest BIOS (v 42.01.02), and Gateway doesnt have a newer BIOS update of fix for this. I use Win XP Pro, by the way. This crash is reproducible every single time I do what I described above (use volume control after waking up from standby).

Gateway said they just wont fix it or replace this laptop. If I send it for service, they won't give me a time estimate of how long it will take to fix it. They are just trying to deter me from sending it for service I guess.

The tech who answered my second call was so rude and yelling on the phone telling me not to use the key combo, rather than focusing on how to fix it. He even said he won't let me talk to Level 2 tech people when I asked. I had to give him a piece of my mind before he would let me talk to Level 2.

The level 2 guy was even more ridiculous. He suggested that I use the screensaver instead of standby. Moron, he doesnt even know the difference between the use of a screensaver and a standby mode.

Perhaps, he thinks people who buy their laptops are starfishes who they can push around and deny service for their defective product.

How many of you have had this problem replicable with the Gateway 200 ARC series? Can you try this on your laptop and see if it happens?

Does anyone know a fix for it? I badly need it. If you have the same problem, or know how to fix it, please email me at sen@stanmed.net

If there are enough number of people with this problem, without
proper service being provided by Gateway, I think a class action
lawsuit would be feasible.

Thanks.

Sen.

I've had this computer for 3 months now, taking advantage of all of its many features. I spent a long time looking for the right model, with the requirements being: wireless, good portability, computing power, good connectability (variety of outputs/inputs for interfacing with accessories, other computers, etc.), XP Pro, etc. This one has all that and more -- I love it! Even better, I had originally looked into getting it directly from Gateway, but delivery would have taken a relatively long time. I looked into Amazon to see if they had the same model, and coincidentally they did -- except no DVD burner, but $400 less! ($500 less with the $100 rebate!) Perfect for me -- I don't need a DVD burner, and if I did, I'd be reluctant to pay an extra $400 or $500 for it!

So why 4 stars instead of 5? The battery it comes with is simply unacceptable. You'll get 90 minutes if you're lucky; probably closer to 1 hour. I knew this ahead of time and purchased the bigger battery from Gateway. (Amazon should have it but they don't!) It took well over 1 month to receive it. In the end, the battery life with the new battery is acceptable, but not great. It's double the other, so if you're using it for low-consuming tasks, maybe you'll get 3 hours. If you're playing a DVD, you *may* just squeak out the full DVD with 1 charge. That is, if the DVD is <2 hours.

I would say that this is really the only criticism, and for me, this ain't bad. (Well, that and the fact that Prince of Persia wouldn't work on it. But in all fairness, you need a gaming computer for that app. Still ... with a brand new computer, you expect that it should be able to run virtually any app that you can pick up at Costco... The game wouldn't work on my friend's new Toshiba either. If you want a laptop for gaming, you'll need something very special. But i digress.) The computer works perfectly on my home wireless network, and has worked perfectly on other wireless networks (airports, hotels, etc). It's fast. It has a firewire port, which I've used for transferring files between computers -- excellent! I use it for work: I do training courses, so I use the computer for Powerpoint presentations, and I also burn CDs for the participants at the end of the course. The keyboard is great, and the scrolling wheel is an excellent touch! AND it has a stylish look -- very chic! All in all, I'm very pleased with this product -- I'd recommend it to friends, and if I could do it all over again, I would definitely select it again.

I have had the computer for about 2 weeks. I especially like the speed, keyboard (like desktop) and wireless connection. My only problem would be that I can't adjust the contrast on the desktop. Since this is my first laptop, I don't know if I could do it with a different one. Very light to carry, especially since the CD/DVD is internal. Also like the scroll button near the touch pad.

I have the same experience as the above reviewer. I sent in all the required stuff for a $25 rebate but got rejected. I don't see this card faster than the one come with my Canon digital camera. (...)

I just received this card and popped it into my Nikon Coolpix 3100. It definitely takes pictures much faster, which was one of the few complaints I had with this camera, the lag between pushing the shutter and getting the shot. If this continues to work as well as it has today, it was worth the few extra dollars.

I just bought this so I don't have any performance feedback just yet, but...

They neglect to mention that a JumpShot media reader ships with this card. A nice surprise. Also included is card recovery/unerase/secure erase/test software (disk images on Card for MacOSX and for Windoze) called Image Rescue.

The FXA series suffers many problems that almost require a website to build some solidarity amongst users it has been burdened with. You may wonder how I know the things below. Well having had two models of the FXA series you can find the problems pretty quickly.

1. For starters this machine has trouble regulating its internal temperature causing it to seize. This problem comes and goes.

2. The docking mechanism for those who don't have one has a flaw in it. Sony didn't do a blanket recall. They want you to call them to get it fixed. It involves putting a new capacitor to regulate the video signal.

3. Sony will try and not fix it until your warranty runs out. We excecised our retailer warranty and upgraded to get rid of our FXA49 which had been in Four times.

4. The laptop has software compatibility issues for the power user. Virus scanners will almost certainly halt the machine. Including the one provided by Sony.

If you are looking for a super-fast laptop that's so hard to crash, and is cool enough to actually run on your laps, your search may be over.

Until I used this laptop, I was beginning to think that all the later laptops are slow, heat-emitting, energy-hogging machines with poor display, that crash every few months.
This Sony PCG-FXA36 totally made an exception in my perspective towards today's laptops.

It comes with a new generation of AMD's Athlon MPU with Powernow! technology that runs 75% more efficiently, and does more work at the same # of clock cycles than other processors with a similar speed rating. This means longer battery life, cooler computer, and faster performance. The 1GHz Athlon 4 (laptop ver. of Athlon XP) performs equally to a regular Athlon or Pentium III 1.2GHz. I thought it was just talk until I opened the new Microsoft Media Player 7, the heavy one, in just two seconds.

It also comes with a CDRW/DVD combo drive that can burn entire audio CDs in just about eight minutes, when using its really user friendly audio player/recorder. As user friendly as putting a blank CD and hitting the on-screen record button, after putting songs on its playlist.

In addition to the colorful new Windows XP OS from Microsoft, it comes with an alternative file manager exclusively from Sony that is sooo neat, where the icons float around, you just have try it yourself to appreciate it.

For the external display output, it has an RCA jack in addition to the standard 15-pin header. This feature allows users to use their home TV sets or projectors with RCA signal input jacks alternatively to the built-in LCD display. This lets its users watch DVDs or do presentations on a bigger screen, a feature I really like.

The LCD display that it has is as good as a Macintosh iBook's LCD display. Sharp, accurate colors, and has a very good viewing angle.

This little Sony laptop reminds me of a portable mono Sony cassette recorder that I owned when I was about four years old. I treated it rather roughly and played with it frequently, yet it did not break down on me even once. It was still in good condition when I turned twelve years old.

This Sony PCG-FXA36 is nothing but a product of pure quality craftsmanship!

I am using this laptop almost one year. Since this time I have naver had any problems with this computer. I am Professor of chemical physics and I use this computer for the theoretical modelling of the magnetic properties of molecules and solids. This computer just fits my needs in the complicated computational procedures and in the preparation of the the scientific papers. Computer is very fast, it seems to me -much more fast that the computers with the new advanced characteristics. This is surprisingly, but , beleive me, this is true. I am extensively using this computer also for the preparation and deonstration of my lectures for students and I am convinced that the possibilites of this Sony for these purposes are incredible. Finally, the computer is very friendly, time by time , I get imagination that "he is alive".In my opinion this laptop deserves the highest rate.
Professor Boris Tsukerblat,
Department of Chemistry,
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev,
Beer-Sheva, P.O.Box 653
84105 Israel

I've gone through 2 in 6 months. Optical drive failed on both. The good thing is is that the first one was swapped on the spot. Bad new is that the second will be gone for 4 weeks while they "fix it". Look elswhere....

I agree that a 7200 hard drive would make this machine smoke. It is pretty heavy to carry around but makes working a dream. This laptop has everything you need in a desktop with the ability to pack up and take it with you. Toshiba includes some real intuitive software. Configfree makes solving connectivity problems simple. The big screen makes everything so much nicer. Even editing boring spreadsheets is much nicer without having to scroll horizontally. I have always used IBM or Dell but IBM has been Jacking up prices and Dell's Quality has slipped. This machine is sturdy and runs great. No bugs yet knock on wood. Getting a 17" bag is no easy task and if you are replacing a desktop I fully recommend getting a USB optical Mouse. Don't bother with one of those little laptop ones this machine is already huge.

This laptop is big, 17" XGA screen. Bright and nice. Its kinda heavy if you want to carry it around (10punds) If you need a laptop to carry around then buy a 15" or a Centrino powered notebook.

The hardrive has only 5200rpm so this is the only thing I don't like about this laptop. I whish it was 7200rpm.

Battery does not last so long, but where would you go with this big and heavy laptop without a DC or AC adapter? So this not an issue for me.

I really like the power on button, turn it on and it turns red, then when windows boots up it turns blue, on standby mode it flashes slowly... it's beautiful!!

I only wish it weight less, kinda like the powerbook.

Yeah, this machine is fast, I currently have a Dual Athlon MP 1800+ as my desktop, at work I have a Pentium 4 HT 800 FSB at 2.4mhz and this Toshiba laptop can put up a nice fight between them. Of course when rendering, the dual athlon MP wins.

All the menus just "pop up" instantly, programs open up fastly. Boots up and turns of fastly. Windows XP PRo, great!

For all the specifications on this laptop just click on the link TECHNICAL DATA on the left side on this page.

Works with OS X 10.3 Panther without a hitch. Plugged it in and formated it as HFS+ and went right to work. None of the mount problems that other FireWire drives have had with Panther (I know, I returned two of another brand before I bought this one). So good, it's a little boring. Ships with a robust, good quality Firewire cable. No problems since I bought it in November 2003. I Daisy chained it with a LaCie to move some files and it behaved nicely.

Yes, it has a fan and you can hear it.

I still have my old Win98 system still kicking around. It has over 8000 photos I have taken over the years with my digital cameras. Well the PC has been acting cranky and I think it might die soon so I bought the Simpledrive to back everything up. Very easy set up, just install the USB drivers and plug the drive in. Done! Even my Mom could handle it (well, not really but a boy can dream). The nice thing is I have a WinXP laptop also. After I transferred all the files I wanted & tried plugging it in to the laptop. Presto! No drivers needed, it just recognizes the hard drive and I can see all my files. Couldn't be any easier with XP. I highly recommend this hard drive.

Couldn't be any more pleased... I now store all of my multimedia on this thing and it makes my computer hard drive so free and happy :-). Transfers go at lightning speed with USB 2.0 and the software (though it is not perfect) reminds me to back up my important files. Despite those who have said the Simplech drive is noisy, I can make no claim. I literally have the thing sitting right beside me on the desk and i rarely hear a whimper out of it. Excellent buy and an excellent price to boot.

The device works fine with my XP and W2000 machines. It does not work at all with W98SE. The tech help was useless via email. And you cannot contact them live in Parsippany. W98SE just cannot find the drivers that are supposedly installed during the setup program. Oh well, 2 out of 3 is fine I guess...

Remember that famous quote from Bill Gates? It's nice to know you can be wrong on occasion and still end up the richest man in the world. In any case, at roughly 200x his original prediction, these little devices are certain to replace floppy disks as the new method of portable storage.

This was an impulse purchase at a retail outlet, but even on sale Amazon beat the price. I'm not familiar enough with these things to compare one brand with the next, but I can tell you what I did and didn't like about this particular product.

The good:
Detection was painless using Windows XP. Just plug it in, wait a minute for it to install itself and voila! Instantly you have a new 128MB drive on your computer.

Transfer rates are nice and quick, especially if you have USB 2.0, but even USB 1.1 is fine.

The plastic case is sturdy enough to protect it from normal damage such as an accidental scrape or dropping it on the floor. Sit on it, though, and it's toast.

The bad:
It's a little large to be considered portable in my opinion. They designed it as if it would be something you would carry on your keychain. Too bulky for that, plus the hole on the cap is too small to fit on the majority of keyrings. Finally, I understand the reason for keeping the cap on the keyring so you can easily remove the device, but the cap doesn't hold it securely enough for me to feel safe carrying it this way.

Reliability is suspect according to the other reviewers here. I would have kept this item if it weren't for the bad reviews, but will probably return it in favor of something more portable.

The attache 128 MB USB 2.0 drive offered by PNY is a useful tool for those who work on more than one computer.

If you have Windows XP, setup is a snap - just plug it in and you will be able to treat it like it is any other disk drive.

The drive is small yet sturdy and can take some bumps. The device also has a lock feature (a la the old 1.44 MB diskettes) so that it would become write-protected.

Remember one thing though - the Attache is not really designed to be rewritten repeatedly. If the user repeatedly erases and rewrites the Attache drive, eventually parts or all of the drive will become unreadable. Therefore, one should only erase and rewrite when absolutely necessary. Also, one should always backup his or her files in a location other than the Attache.