What should I be doing on this blog?
This is good stuff from ENN -- a live laptop destruction demo. Kudos to Lenovo for being good sports about providing the kit.
Asus's follow-up to its massively successful Eee PC 701, the cheap 7 inch Linux laptop with few frills, is the 900 model. Interestingly, it can't resist adding more features (see below). Which brings it much closer to a normal laptop price. Will this dilute its appeal? Here are the specs available on the laptopsdirect.ie model (€417 plus delivery):
Ever wondered how much a Dell laptop would cost if you took all of its accessories? €7,694. That's based on picking its Inspiron XPS M1710 model, which, unadorned, costs €880. Throw in the warranties, protection plans, security software, memory upgrades, external doohdahs (printer, keyboard, mouse, speakers etc) and you increase the price by 850 per cent.
Is it crap? Does it breakdown? Or is it damn reliable?
I'm writing a piece about 'home' (consumer) laptops this week...
Harvey Norman has reduced the price of its Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Li7105 (Intel Celeron M440 1.8GHz, 512MB Ram, 80GB hard disk, DVD re-writer, Vista Home Basic) to €497. (Or you can get a 1GB version of the same laptop from Dabs.ie for €545 including delivery.)
Did I say sub-€500 laptops? And how! Check out this decent Lenovo 3000 C200 for an astonishing €455 (including delivery). Is this the cheapest mainstream laptop on the Irish market? Are we nearing the €400 laptop?
This Toshiba Satellite L30 for €509 (including delivery) is also pretty decent, though it only has a 60GB hard drive.
One of the predictions I humbly made at the beginning of the year (in Computers In Business magazine, link unavailable) was that a standard laptop would cost no more than €500 by the end of 2007.
Looks like this has now happened, with Dell's latest Inspiron pricing. Note that this machine is no slouch on performance either, with Vista, 1GB of Ram and an 120GB hard drive. So what do you get for the extra €275 you're likely to spend in a shop for, say, a HP Pavilion? Is it worth spending the extra money? The main difference seems to be the presence of a dual core chip (the Inspiron has a single-core chip), slightly better graphics card and a 1 year service guarantee (versus Dell's 90 days service warranty). The screen, too, is probably a little better on the HP model (I haven't actually seen Dell's Inspiron yet).
But another €50 gets a dual core chip on Dell. So are the remaining extras worth a 50 per cent extra outlay? It's up to you.
The Laptop Shop is to open two new Dublin-based outlets in the next four weeks. The first will be in Drogheda's Lawrencetown shopping centre while it will also open a store in Santry's Omni Park shopping centre. It currently has outlets in the Stephens Green Centre and the Dundrum Town Centre. Robert Brennan, the company's founder, also said that its website is (finally) due to go live in the coming weeks.
Speaking of Sony, what's with its latest colour schemes for laptops and PSP consoles? Pink is the new black, apparently.
Looking for an elegant new Sony Vaio laptop? Do NOT buy one until you've checked prices online: the difference is staggering. The current Vaio VGN-N11M/W model retails at €1,090 in Sony Centres, Peats and other Irish shops. On Play.com, however, it costs €900 (including delivery). Unbelievable.
Lenovo has launched its first Thinkpad laptop with a Linux operating system. The Thinkpad T60 uses Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 on top of an Intel Centrino Duo chip. No Irish price has been announced yet, though the Windows version starts at €1,270.
4.1 million laptop batteries are being recalled by Dell. The batteries could catch fire, apparently. "It is possible for these batteries to overheat, which could cause a risk of fire," said a statement from Dell Ireland today.
The laptops affected were sold between April 2004 and July 2006 and include: Dell Latitude D410, D500, D505, D510, D520, D600, D610, D620, D800, D810; Inspiron 6000, 8500, 8600, 9100, 9200, 9300, 500m, 510m, 600m, 6400, E1505, 700m, 710m, 9400, E1705 and Dell Precision M20, M60, M70 and M90 'mobile workstations'. It also relates to XPS, XPS Gen2, XPS M170 and XPS M1710.
I'm generally a fan of Sony Vaios -- they look great and handle beautifully. Just released on the Irish market is the new TX3. It's slim and light (1.25kg) and has an 11 inch widescreen. It has a claimed battery life of seven hours and built-in cameras and microphones. It also has a few new security features, such as a fingerprint reader (which, in my opinion, is overhyped as a feature). It's priced at €2,350 and €2,660, depending on the model spec.
