Looking for alternatives to Mac since Arrandale won't come out thread

[JoeG4]

Apparently the slice weighs over 2lbs

I dunno man. I'm probably going to return my Sony. It has all sorts of little annoyances - like if you charge the battery to 100%, turn the machine off and leave it sit overnight? Turn it on in the morning and you have 80-85% left.

Sony says it's normal "due to the power button being ready to use". That's one insane power button, to go through 15% of a 5000mAh battery in 10 hours.

Then there's the cheap-ish build quality (the blu-ray drive cover rattles, the case has a little bit of flexing in some places, mine has a sharp mold line on the front, and the power supply's light flickers during use).

On top of all that, if you're in a quiet room they make a lot of noise. First, there's the fan that moans. *mooaaaannnn**WHISTLE* *moaaaaaaaan**whistle*

it's like a bad porno video.

 

[kny3twalker]

Apparently the slice weighs over 2lbs

Well if the op dropped the quad core idea, he would not need the battery slice. Together he could save about $500 or more and have a potentially lighter weight machine with potentially better battery life.

Then there is the fact that if the op would consider a dual core, he could possibly open up his options to other notebooks.

Example: Upgraded i5 with Anti Glare 1080p display

Your ENVY 15 series
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-520M Dual Core processor (2.40GHz, 3MB L2 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.93GHz
4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
320GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5830 Graphics
15.6" diagonal Full High Definition LED HP Anti-glare Widescreen Display (1920x1080)
Webcam Only
Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth
6 Cell Lithium Ion Polymer Battery
$1,174.99 after coupon before tax

Versus: base i7 Quad Core with Anti Glare 1080p display and 9 cell slice

Your ENVY 15 series
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM Quad Core processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.8 GHz
4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
320GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5830 Graphics
15.6" diagonal Full High Definition LED HP Anti-glare Widescreen Display (1920x1080)
Webcam Only
Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth
One 6 Cell Lithium Ion Polymer Battery + One 9 Cell HP Envy Slim Fit Extended-Life Notebook Battery
$1599 after coupon before tax

Add $50 to either for external DVD drive, Add $10 for OS Media, and Add $150 for external Blu Ray drive

Price difference $425 + tax in this situation, easily could be more depending on processor choice

 

[JoeG4]

Yep, and unlike the Sony & Dell, the optical drive is external.

Spec & Price wise the Sony and Dell come awfully close - you can spec both out for about $1400 before tax with a quadcore, bluray, etc. The battery life of the Sony i7 compares favorably to the Envy 15 + i5. This, I still don't understand!

(Some have said ~3 hours for the Envy 15 i5, the sony gets 2.5 quite easily).

The envy's battery is twice as big, if not more. I have no idea what HP did there, lol. Well.. it is a lot thinner though I guess *shrug*

If I take my Sony back I have no idea what I'm going to do either :| The Dell looks tempting, but it's a Dell! I still equate those with the bargain basement PCs that were poorly built.

I know HP has a no questions asked 21 day policy. I can't tell if Dell has this as well (Sony does, but not for CTO machines, those are not returnable)

 

[6-0 Prolene]

I'm going to laugh my *** off when everyone orders their HPs/Dells/etc and the Macs get released before they ship...

Are there ANY i7-based laptops that are actually in stock and shipping? None of the ones I've looked at online are. Kinda hard to say Apple is behind.

 

[kny3twalker]

The battery life of the Sony i7 compares favorably to the Envy 15 + i5. This, I still don't understand!

(Some have said ~3 hours for the Envy 15 i5, the sony gets 2.5 quite easily).

The envy's battery is twice as big, if not more. I have no idea what HP did there, lol. Well.. it is a lot thinner though I guess *shrug*

The Envy should do much better than 3 hours with the i5, but the envy runs the 5830 all the time (no switchable graphics). Hopefully they will fix this in the future. If you have the slice (6 cell + 9 cell), battery life should increase to 7 or 8 hours.

The i7 quad core gets under 2 hours with the 6 cell, so with the slice, it should get about 4 to 5 hours.

 

[kny3twalker]

I'm going to laugh my *** off when everyone orders their HPs/Dells/etc and the Macs get released before they ship...

Are there ANY i7-based laptops that are actually in stock and shipping? None of the ones I've looked at online are. Kinda hard to say Apple is behind.

I am not ordering anything. I love my mid 2009 MBP; its too new to even think about such things; and I bought on September 8th. But there are plently of laptops shipping with both i7 quad cores and i7 dual core arrendales. The i7 quad core clarksfields have been shipping since late 2009.

 

[thebeautyisfake]

The Dell looks tempting, but it's a Dell! I still equate those with the bargain basement PCs that were poorly built.

Well, they're not. I'm typing this on a Dell XPS M1530 and it's an amazing laptop. Great build quality and performance for a good price.
Dell are really upping their game on the design and performance of their laptops. Their support has improved tenfold lately, too.

 

[JoeG4]

That's if. The ship date for an HP envy 15 is around March 23rd, the day that half the arrandale thread swears the MBP will come out on, and steve jobs will take up tapdancing lol.

 

[entatlrg]

Well, they're not. I'm typing this on a Dell XPS M1530 and it's an amazing laptop. Great build quality and performance for a good price.
Dell are really upping their game on the design and performance of their laptops. Their support has improved tenfold lately, too.

Dell XPS M1530 is one of the most pathetic poorly built laptops I've ever seen.

 

[thebeautyisfake]

Dell XPS M1530 is one of the most pathetic poorly built laptops I've ever seen.

Dunno what you were looking at, then. Mine is perfect, except the trackpad is a little on the small side.
What were you doing with yours, throwing it out a window and hoping it didn't break apart? IF ONLY IT WERE UNIBODY LIKE A MACBOOK PRO, EH?

 

[gadgetfreaky]

You guys have gotta be CRAZY looking at a dell. The graphics card --even on the alienware is a 4800 series. Get the Envy 15. Better looking and lighter machine too.

 

[JoeG4]

Um O_O NO!

Don't you know what a unibody is? That's where the structure and the body are one, thus the term.

If you threw a unibody MBP out a 2nd floor window it'd probably incur more damage than a non-unibody MBP. I mean both would be totaled cosmetically, but the non-unibody would probably still power on.

 

[thebeautyisfake]

Um O_O NO!

Don't you know what a unibody is? That's where the structure and the body are one, thus the term.

If you threw a unibody MBP out a 2nd floor window it'd probably incur more damage than a non-unibody MBP. I mean both would be totaled cosmetically, but the non-unibody would probably still power on.

Sorry, I haven't actually been sad enough to test this theory to give an accurate response. I'll make sure to keep my mouth shut because I know nothing about the topic at hand.

Silly me. I may as well be female and make sandwiches for the rest of my life.

 

[JoeG4]

oh come on lol I was having fun with the subject.

*throws a dell M1530 out the window for lawls*

If they had an unconditional return policy I'd get one to see how I liked it. The XPS 16 looks pretty hot in white.

\

But the envy is quite nice too.

 

[kny3twalker]

Um O_O NO!

Don't you know what a unibody is? That's where the structure and the body are one, thus the term.

If you threw a unibody MBP out a 2nd floor window it'd probably incur more damage than a non-unibody MBP. I mean both would be totaled cosmetically, but the non-unibody would probably still power on.

I am pretty sure you have it backwards. The reason they make a unibody is for strength, costs, and weight.
And a solid piece of machined billet aluminum is going to be stronger and/or lighter than pieced together aluminum.

 

[clindner]

OK, I've been around for years, but I still can't figure out why some things happen.

Why is "Z" in time out or whatever? When this thread was started, I expected it to be locked and banished to the Wasteland, but here it is still open.

And he is in time out or whatever? I didn't see where he said anything inflammatory, but maybe it was deleted?

And on a related note, the shark guy gets banned for exposing the fake 9to5 guy, even though he didn't do it in the forum, but on the guys website?

 

[kny3twalker]

OK, I've been around for years, but I still can't figure out why some things happen.

Why is "Z" in time out or whatever? When this thread was started, I expected it to be locked and banished to the Wasteland, but here it is still open.

And he is in time out or whatever? I didn't see where he said anything inflammatory, but maybe it was deleted?

Probably from spamming people's inbox. And the whole you have been told to try another forum, but you continue to ask for assistance for searching for your new laptop in the apple forum.

 

[clindner]

And the whole you have been told to try another forum, but you continue to ask for assistance for searching for your new laptop in the apple forum.

That's why I thought this thread should have been closed right away. I mean, there's lots of places to go and read about other manufacturer's machines...

 

[longball11]

How come I don't see sony vaio z unboxing or anything like that on youtube? Is it a new type of computer for sony?

 

[HLdan]

Well, they're not. I'm typing this on a Dell XPS M1530 and it's an amazing laptop. Great build quality and performance for a good price.
Dell are really upping their game on the design and performance of their laptops. Their support has improved tenfold lately, too.

Completely disagree. In my experience the XPS M1530's keyboard is cheap, the palm rest is cheap, the lid is cheap, it's all cheap crap junk from Dell.

Dell XPS M1530 is one of the most pathetic poorly built laptops I've ever seen.

Complete agree. Here here!

 

[JoeG4]

That's why I thought this thread should have been closed right away. I mean, there's lots of places to go and read about other manufacturer's machines...

Are you so narrow minded that the discussion of anything not Mac related pisses you off enough to report and/or ask for threads like this to be removed?

Nice man. That's why we Mac users have such a bad rep as being snobby elitists that make blanket statements and refuse to use anything except the holy machines.



The dude asked (primarily) Mac users their opinion, and he mostly got it. The "Ech! It's not a Mac!" responses, and a few other more technical responses that were appropriate for the topic.

Why don't you go back to your "praying for o steve the holy one to give us what we want" thread (aka waiting for arrandale). Last I checked it wasn't against the rules to discuss non-apple products, and he posted it in a more appropriate spot (machines in the class of the macbook pro).

I'm trying alternatives myself, and may end up waiting like the rest of you at this rate. At least, I'll have an informed decision at the end of it. You on the other hand, will have about 6 or 7 1000+ page threads of "experience" .lol.

 

[The Final Cut]

Personally I would never use windows, but if I absolutely had too. Alienware m11x / VooDoo MBP clone/ Falcon Northwest is the only laptop I would consider. Im not even a big gamer but they are the only companies which share some of apple's design concepts and principals.

 

[JoeG4]

1. The m11x is a core 2 powered laptop with an 11" screen.
2. Voodoo doesn't technically exist anymore. So you must be referring to the HP Envy.
3. Falcon NW makes fine desktops, if they still make laptops those are probably rebranded Clevos (mentioned earlier in this thread).

Actually, all of the above have been mentioned

 

[macgeek18]

Hey guys... wondering what you are thinking of getting if MBP Arrandale doesn't come out on Tuesday....

I'm thinking probably a Sony Vaio F for gaming...
I still want some battery life and some portability otherwise I'd get an alienware...
I know a lot of you are checking out the Vaio Z....

Let me know...

If your not going to wait just get a current MBP,there still great hardware,unless you do graphic and video editing 27/7 seriously what do you need more than a current 2.66 or 2.8 MBP for??I have a new 2.26 MB and I confess I can't use all it's power and I'm a heavy multi-tasker,and if it's games you want a Windows partition will still work great with a 2.66 and 4GB DDR3,that is still high end for laptops these days,and games don't and can't use quad cores.Just my little opinion.

 

[JoeG4]

Let's see, what could I do with an i7 Windows laptop I can't with a MacBook Pro:

1. Watch 1080P Youtube (in 2 years)
2. Play games at full resolution without lag
3. Crunch huge files faster than a core 2 duo..