Notebook Reviews

On January 31, 2004, I purchased a Toshiba Satellite laptop A15-S129 at my local Microcenter store here in Houston, Texas. From the start, the battery always died within 90 minutes, sometimes with 45. Since I had purchased a laptop for its portability and deliberately chose a model with a battery life >2 hours, this was a problem for me! Leaving it plugged in all the time effectively transformed it to a desktop, which is not what I had wanted.. I also noticed that it always got very very hot, whether it was plugged in or running off battery -- and I mean MUCH hotter than normal. Then, it started shutting itself off -- just instantly going to a black screen. No saving work, no warning, just instant off.
So I immediately contacted the Tech Support line at Toshiba, and got very friendly with a number of the techs there. I spent several hours trying to work out the problems with them, but they finally admitted defeat and suggested I take it to a repair center. There was a registered Toshiba repair center just 15 minutes from my home, so on April 7, 2003, I took it to the repair shop.
I'm writing this on June 9th, and I still don't have my laptop back.
After the service center had replaced the system board and the power supply and it was still not working, I called Toshiba. By then it was mid-May (the power supply had been on back order). After going through the usual 8 people and being disconnected twice, I finally got to a service person (Alisha) who listened to my tale of woe.
I explained that I felt that four months of attempted repairs was a reasonable length of time to give the company to fix the thing and asked what I needed to do to have a replacement sent to me. She informed me that no replacement would be sent as Toshiba had not yet determined that there was a problem with the laptop. I pointed out to her that it was Toshiba who worked with me on the problems for weeks then finally told me to take it to the service center, and that it was the Toshiba-approved service center who told me they were having major problems fixing it. Her reply was, essentially, "Tough." Until they declare it unfixable, no replacement would be forthcoming. Furthermore, she explained, they had no time limit under which they had to declare something unfixable. I asked if this meant that they could just put it on the shelf and wait 5 years to see if someone then could fix it, and she said that was pretty much the case. In the meantime, I was just out of luck and out of a computer, and out of the money that I had spent on their LEMON.
She said she would talk with "the corporate office in California" about my case as they were the ones who needed to decide about replacing an unfixable computer anyway.
I thanked her but said that while I understood she did not have the authority to send me a new computer, I'd like to plead my own case with the "corporate office" and asked for their phone number.
Nope. She wouldn't give me that. I was "not allowed" to call them.
Okay, I said, may I please speak with your supervisor?
No, she replied. I am the supervisor. There is no one else to speak with.
I asked if that meant that she reported directly to the head of Toshiba, and she said yes. (Wow! They sure have important people manning phone trees at Toshiba, don't they?)
Okay, I said (hanging onto my temper with an effort). So what you're telling me is that there is no one with whom I can speak, and I just continue to not have a computer.
Right, she said. See if the service center can fix it.
How much longer am I supposed to wait? I asked.
As long as it takes, she replied, sounding as if she were surprised I was so dumb I had to ask.
She swore she would contact the "corporate office" within the next 2 days and would contact me with the results. That was 3 weeks ago, and my good buddy Alisha has -- gasp! -- never called back. Alisha was extremely rude in that supercilious, "I am doing you a favor and you're too stupid to know it", passive-aggressive way. I hate being told that "you can't talk to anyone but me and I refuse to help you in any way at all".
The service center is STILL in possession of the laptop. I spoke with them today, and they have called Toshiba to declare the laptop a lemon, only to be told that just because nothing they do (by now they have also replaced the battery) can cause the thing to keep its charge over 90 minutes doesn't make it a lemon. The service center people are not happy with Toshiba either. They are now going to send my laptop to the Toshiba "Depot", where more Toshiba people can look at my laptop.
So, here I sit. It's been almost 5 months since I bought the computer. It's been at the repair shop (continuously) since April 7th.
Why would you want to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars, as I did, on a laptop that won't run on battery, that is too hot to hold in your lap, that suddenly turns off and loses all your data, and THEN, on TOP of that, after you have been patient and been without your new laptop for MONTHS, get all sorts of rude crap from their Customer Service (ha! what an oxymoron that is!)?

I bought mine at CompUSA for $599 after rebates w/ a free printer before Christmas. It has seen a lot of use since. Great for watching DVDs on road trips (although you'll need a DC adapter, the battery won't last for a full movie). Battery life is pretty good though, if you're using programs resident on the hard drive. The only problems I've had have been OS related (but we all know MS sux). Burns CDs fast & reliable. As fast as I expected for a Celeron. Display is not the best I've seen, but is large and bright. The only problem I see going forward is that the display hinge seems flimsy .. close it with 2 hands on the sides... On physical construction, probably not the most solid laptop. Daily laptop users may want to consider different units. All in all much much better than I expected for the price.

... It has seen a lot of use ... . Great for watching DVDs on road trips (although you'll need a DC adapter, the battery won't last for a full movie). Battery life is pretty good though, if you're using programs resident on the hard drive. The only problems I've had have been OS related (but we all know MS sux). Burns CDs fast & reliable. As fast as I expected for a Celeron. Display is not the best I've seen, but is large and bright. The only problem I see going forward is that the display hinge seems flimsy .. close it with 2 hands on the sides... On physical construction, probably not the most solid laptop. Daily laptop users may want to consider different units. All in all much much better than I expected for the price.

I bought this cover to protect the screen of my Palm Vx. It does that just fine and is pretty sturdy. This means it's also fairly thick -- the device with the cover on is nearly twice as thick as the device without the cover on.

Another disappointment was the leather clasp. While it does keep the cover shut, the tongue part of the clasp is quite stiff and holds its same position even when the cover is open, blocking the screen, unless I force it out of the way with my pinky as I use device. This is annoying and awkward.

Also, the clamshell nature of the cover means that I cannot place the Palm on its charger without removing the case, stashing it somewhere nearby and adding to the clutter on my desk.

In short, I would recommend getting a flat, flap-style screen cover instead of a clamshell case, if all you're doing is carrying your Palm around in your pocket or purse, unless what I described above actually appeals to you.

Decent value for the money. Construction appears a little weak. I can foresee the leather bindings coming apart pretty easily, especially with repeated use, but time will tell. The credit card slots are barely wide enough to fit in a card - very difficult to get in and out of the slots at first. Hopefully this will loosen up with time. And don't plan on putting more than 1 card in each slot if you want to get it out easily - it's a very tight fit. Also, the slots extend clear to the bottom of the wallet which means it is easy for the top of the cards to slide below the top of the slot, making it even more difficult to get them out.

Would recommend, as another reviewer did, to insert the Palm the opposite way of that shown in the photo in order to avoid scratches on the Palm screen from credit cards in the pockets.

Overall - Worth the $7.50 I paid for it, but not more. Functions ok to combine my cards and cash with my Palm in one package, which is what I wanted it for.

I have put away my old wallet and converted to this Palm leather case. My old wallet size is about the same as my Palm Vx in this leather case (but without a lot of junk I used to keep in my old wallet). The rubber spine that holds the Palm Vx in place seems like it could tear if you frequently remove the unit from the case. I just leave it in the case and fold the flaps back for hot-syncing.

TIP: I find that it's best to slide the Palm Vx in the case so that the screen faces the flap without the card holders. If you put it in the way shown in the picture, your screen may get scratched from any credit cards you might have in the holders.

I wish they put a transparent ID card holder in this case. That's one thing I miss. It would also be nice if they had sewn in a spring-loaded mechanism that snaps the covers shut or open so that you wouldn't need the leather strip and loop to keep it closed.

Overall, it's a nice slim design that keeps the bulge if your pocket to a minimum.

Frankly, I love this keyboard, and enjoy using it.
I think the complaints about the 4-row limitations
are of no real importance in general use
(accountants and programmers may disagree!)
and find it generally to be a sweet little contraption.

My only complaint / concern is its fragility.
I'm generally extremely careful about such things,
but it slipped from my hand (folded and latched)
and fell to the carpeted floor once; it has been
reluctant to close ever since.

It still works just fine - it just no longer wants to close,
and every time I do so, I wonder if *this* is going to be
the time I break it.

I find that very annoying, and my joy in it is dimmed:
tools one must fuss over are counter-productive.

It's a rough-&-tumble world, and products must be
rugged enough to survive actual use in the real world;
this accident was as mild and moderate as they come,
& a productivity tool aimed at busy people on the move
should provide greater dependability than this.

Size, weight, and Palm connection are great. The lack of dedicated number keys, and awkward character key fingering have become a real problem for this computer science student.

Despite all warnings I did buy the keyboard, because I needed it. It works super om my Tungsten T. Really great.
Before this I owned a Palm V with the stowaway keyboard which I already rated high. But the ultraslim types just a little bit better. And I make my money typing .. so I'm a real hardcore user (also on graffiti).

pro's
First: it is stable. You can use it on your knees and in bed. Quite an improvement over the older keyboard I used... although the Mrs might think different about that :)
Second: key-quality is better. You have better control over your typing. I now know when I miss a letter (like I know it on my notebook) and that was a feeling I lacked using my older keyboard.
Third: it is fixed and firm. You can actually move the whole shebang while shifting locations without having to fold it. That alone saves me a lot of time.
Fourth: it is so much smaller im comparission with my older keyboard, while having the same functionality.

On the other side, the slim size comes with one 'problem': It has only 4 rows of keys. Although everything is present with green or blue FN keys, it forces me to look at my keyboard more than I would like to and it makes me hit air, while I'm looking for backspace ... something I still have to got used to.

In all a great piece of work, small and firm. Definately a must have.

As with all Sony products, memory sticks are more expensive than they should be. Lexar does a good job of getting the price at par with other media like CF and xD cards. Its transparent body is nice looking, but useless because you can either look at it or use it. The green led looks nice when its being read on my Clie... except that also has no real use either because there's already a red led on my Clie next to the slot which glows when it reads the media. The alternating red and green looks cool though.
This is a 128x2 MB stick. So you will either love or hate that you have to flick a switch. This also means that the 2 modules are a little less than 128MB, so overall, you would get more storage if you took a Sony or Sandisk 256MB memory stick. The switching becomes a pain when you are shooting MPEG movies with your CyberShot camera. That apart, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't buy it.

I have this Lexar stick and the SanDisk SDMSP-256-822 256 MB Memory Stick Pro. Unless you have an older camera that is not compatible with the Pro technology I highly recommend buying a Pro stick instead. The Pro stick does not have an a-b switch and it writes faster than the older memory sticks.

It is important however to make sure your camera (as well as any card reader) is compatible with the pro stick.

I bought one of the 256's at a local store for 870 some bucks. Works excellent but I never formatted it in the camera. Be sure you do that before taking pictures.

This product overheats, gives a lot of noise, and keeps shutting down unexpectedly.

Even before 1 year has passed from the "manufacture date", they refused to fix it without proof of sales, saying the only way I can validate my 1 year warranty is throug providing the original packing slip (they did not ask for this when I registered the product, and I thought I did not need it anymore).

Basically, Sony, with their tech support and my experience with them so far have proved to be a mere joke, and non-funny one.

Any lawyers want to file a class-action lawsuit on behalf of us all?

The laptop over-heated, and as a result, its motherboard died while the unit was on after 3 months of light usage. The warranty also doesn't cover if you don't have the original receipt according to the rep I spoke with. (while Toshiba doesn't require you to have the original receipt for the warranty.) It was a nice laptop, but I'm very unsatisfied about this very incident. And their phone tech support is not too good. They've hired bunch of reps that don't have clue what they're doing. They just read what it says on the screen. Also I had time understanding their English.

Edit: I just received the laptop back from Sony, and many other problems started happening. My Fn fuction keys are not working anymore, which means I cannot change the brightness and contrast of my LCD, volume, and video out. Plus, my fan rattles excessively. I was on the phone with rep for 3 hours and no help. I explained the problem and what might have caused this to the rep, but he just ignored me and kept reading what was on his screen. I am looking forward to sending this laptop in for another repair!!

I have had my Sony GRZ630 for about 1 month now. I am more and more pleased and impressed with it every day. This laptop's power and speed is certainly comparable to most of today's desktops.
I was debating between a Dell Laptop and a Sony Vaio. I wanted desktop performance since portability is not that big of an issue for me. This laptop weighs in at 7.5 lbs not including the large power adapter. I think the total weight with all my accessories (power adapter, trackball mouse, portable surge portector, and wireless pc card) and the laptop combined is about 10 lbs. Yes, that's pretty heavy to carry around on foot. BUT I don't mind carrying the weight from my house to my car, from my car to work. I do carry my laptop to work everyday. The weight has yet to bother me. I would not recommend this laptop for people who go to work on foot. However, if you commute to work via a car, carrying this for 20 feet at a time is certainly not bad at all.
The little touches that Sony added for the laptop make this machine that much more superior than others. I compared the GRZ630 to my friend's Dell.
1. Sony has added flaps on the PCMCIA slots. When no cards are inserted, the flap protects the ports. Dell left the PCMCIA slots wide open.
2. Sony has a cover for the monitor and parallel ports while Dell again left those ports wide open for dust and what have you.
3. This laptop has 3 USB ports instead of the normal 2 USB ports for most laptops.
4. Memory stick and iLink abilities are awesome. If you have a Sony digital camera, you will fall in love with the memory slot on the laptop. Not only can you transfer your photos from your camera to laptop quickly without wires, you can also use your existing memory sticks as extra storage.
5. the pegs to raise the laptop for better cooling. not many laptops include this much needed feature.
This machine's processing speed and included memeory more than serves the needs of having multiple resource hungry applications opened at once. I am a web designer. I can have my Photoshop, Flash MX, Dreamweaver, FTP manager, messengers, and outlook express all opened at once without any decrease in performance. Now that is power! The 32 mb video card is great. I often hook up my 19 inch Trinitron monitor to the laptop for duel monitor usage. I can display both screens at 1024 by 768 at 32 bit color at the same time without any problems what so ever.
In short, if you are looking for a desktop replacement, this is the laptop for you. At 7.5 lbs, it is not truly mobile, but it is portable. But hey, this one has the DVD/CD-Burner combo drive, P-4 2.4 ghz processor, 512 mb of ram, 32 mb radeon video card and a 15 inch screen. I doubt you can find this spec in any laptop weighing under 4.7 lbs (which qualifies as mobile in my view) at this price.

The only complaint I have for the laptop is that the USB ports are 1.1 instead of 2.0. But the firewire port makes up for the lack of 2.0 USB ports.

I got this product hoping that I could store 24 cd's. When you put all 24 (or a little less amount) in the case, it becomes VERY hard to close and very bulky.

It also has the pages which come out. Once you put the cd's in, once you turn the pages, they fall out!

Even worse... I cannot fit this product in a case that holds a CD player and Cd's!!

Think twice before buying this product.

Holds CDs well.
Very vibrant color.
Sort of hard to put things in the pouch. I still like it.
Hard to use strap. Broke of in a week.
Haven't used warranty yet.
Good cost.

CD Case - 3.6/5

This is a nifty thrifty little bit of equipment. Its super duper colors have real feel. It holds a big numbers of CDs too, twice nice! I'd try 'n buy if I were you.

I got this product hoping that I could store 24 cd's. When you put all 24 (or a little less amount) in the case, it becomes VERY hard to close and very bulky.

It also has the pages which come out. Once you put the cd's in, once you turn the pages, they fall out!

Even worse... I cannot fit this product in a case that holds a CD player and Cd's!!

Think twice before buying this product.

Holds CDs well.
Very vibrant color.
Sort of hard to put things in the pouch. I still like it.
Hard to use strap. Broke of in a week.
Haven't used warranty yet.
Good cost.

CD Case - 3.6/5

This is a nifty thrifty little bit of equipment. Its super duper colors have real feel. It holds a big numbers of CDs too, twice nice! I'd try 'n buy if I were you.

I got this product hoping that I could store 24 cd's. When you put all 24 (or a little less amount) in the case, it becomes VERY hard to close and very bulky.

It also has the pages which come out. Once you put the cd's in, once you turn the pages, they fall out!

Even worse... I cannot fit this product in a case that holds a CD player and Cd's!!

Think twice before buying this product.

Holds CDs well.
Very vibrant color.
Sort of hard to put things in the pouch. I still like it.
Hard to use strap. Broke of in a week.
Haven't used warranty yet.
Good cost.

CD Case - 3.6/5

This is a nifty thrifty little bit of equipment. Its super duper colors have real feel. It holds a big numbers of CDs too, twice nice! I'd try 'n buy if I were you.

BEWARE of Sony VAIO Laptops, you can never upgrade them to newer operating systems that MicroSoft releases every year. If you try upgrading them, the laptops lose out on functionality and SONY recommends you buy a newer laptop!!! Here is what they had to say in one of their emails -
NOTE: SONY does not recommend or support an upgrade path to Microsoft's Windows XP Professional operating system for VAIO PCs originally shipped with the Windows 95/98/98SE or ME environment. Currently Windows XP Professional upgrades are only supported for systems pre-installed with Windows 2000 Professional or XP Home Editions. Both Microsoft and SONY do not support an upgrade from Windows 2000 Professional to Windows XP Home Edition.

Sony has always made quirky computers, not bad mind you but their products remind me of Saabs. Anyway, this one is certainly a powerhouse, with a bigger processor than most home systems today, coupled with a mediocre sized hard drive (especially when one considers this PC is designed to be a media center, with its very good graphics and CD & DVD player) and a very crisp display.
The drawbacks here are important:
1) The 2.8 P4 processor is not ideal for mobile use. It throws off a lot of heat and it uses batteries recklessly.
2) The addition of another battery is a pretty steep investment, and in true Sony style, it's proprietary, so make that check out to S O N Y.
3) The weight of this machine is a killer if you're traveling, especially through huge airports where your flight is almost guaranteed to land at the gate farthest from civilization.
4) The absence of an integrated wireless modem these days is unforgivable. Wireless is commonplace, especially for travelers & students (airports, hotels, convention centers, schools, libraries, etc.), and in the next few years it will be virtually ubiquitous.
Anyway, it's not a bad computer, but I think it firmly meets the needs of no particular market segment. I have no doubt that today's buyer can do better at Dell or Gateway, or, for the traveler on a budget, at Averatec.

this laptop is great except for a few things-
Good: The 512mb allows you to run many things at once.
2.8ghz is really fast
very bright screen..and clear
and many more things
Bad: no integrated wireless internet
battery life is very low; not very portable
kinda heavy

but there are definetly more good things than bad things about this laptop, and if it is mostly going to be used at home or around the house..its a very smart buy...but if your going to be mobile..going from place to place, the weight and the battery will keep you from doing what you want..
but overall..a very good laptop..and the price is amazing.

Without a picture I can't be sure we are all talking about the same thing. I have a Belkin USB Bluetooth Adapter (Model #F8T001). I've used the adapter on both my laptop and PC with good results. The laptop went much more smoothly because I ran the installation CD first before inserting the USB. If you plug and play, Windows recongnizes something, but cannot find the drivers easily. The 100m range seems optimistic, but I have been able to access my Sony Ericsson t68i phone while it is sitting in my bag, in the corner of the office.

i picked this up for the same reason several other readers did: i wanted to be able to move pictures, sound, and my phonebook from my phone to my laptop and back. i use a thinkpad x31 using windows xp for this task.

use the supplid drivers from the cd, they're much better than anything windows will attempt to do. and it will just work, unlike what windows may create.

browsing with the supplied belkin software is clunky and ackward, not nearly as fluid as it could be. it's most definitely not as smooth as it is under Mac OS X, but hey, that's what you get. it works, i get to move pictures around on my phone and my contact list without a cable. but it's prone to fits of delays and ackwardness.

i'm wishing there was better integration with windows xp right now, xp sp2 supposedly has smoother bluetooth software and browsing. i wish the belkin sofware worked as nicely. as it stands, this isn't the convenient device i hoped it would be, but i'll keep using it.

I was an early adapter of the version-1 of this product which was unstable and lacked many of the bluetooth functionality, but was adequate to sync my T68i. However, when I upgraded my phone to T610, along with a bluetooth headset, I realized I am missing a lot of functionality with the old adapter and learned that the V1 model can't be even upgraded to Bluetooth 1.1. So, instead of throwing it away, I just thought of checking with their customer service about a possible exchange, and they were very kind to agree immediately (I should say I am impressed with the customer service). So I got a free upgrade to the version-2 of this model and I am glad I did that. So far the product has been very stable and installation and setting up was a breeze. I was able to successfully synchronize T610 (I use an old verion of PDASync for that as the built-in sync doesn't support PalmDT), copy images from and to the phone, dial-up to ISP through it, and even used it as a headset for the phone (could occassionally substitute the the missing speaker phone functionality in T610). I could also successfully use the Jabra BT200 headset with this adapter, very useful to do voice chats at home.

The range seemed good, however I couldn't verify the claimed 100m, as I need another device which gives that much range. Over all I am impressed and recommend it. However, I have no knowledge of other adapters so I am not really comparing with other adapters (except the V1 of itself). To comment about the size, I would say it is average (a little longer but slimmer than V1). The DLink adapter does seem smaller, but the highly rated Linksys adapter seemed much fattier than this one. If size is important, I recommend checking it out and compare with others in a local store.

PS: I am pretty sure that all the -ve comments about this product actually belong to the version-1 of this product. Since Amazon didn't put up any image for some time, many must have mistaken this for the version-1 and must have rated it based on that. You should really ignore all the old reviews.