I was buying a Kingston 4 GB microSDHC Class 4 Flash Memory Card SDC4/4GB from amazon.com, which seemed a good deal at $8.99 with zero-marginal-cost-shipping (Amazon prime, cough), when I noticed something pretty funny.
It seems Amazon also offers the same product in “Amazon Frustration-Free™ Packaging,” for just $10.56 — only $1.57 extra.
Pay more, get less packaging — something you can actually open. I guess it's a business model.
Marcello, who knows his away around this stuff, put me on to this $800 notebook, Acer Aspire Timeline AS3810T-6775 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 13.3” 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 80GB SSD HDD Intel GMA 4500MHD.
Half the price of the Samsung. 0.7 lbs heavier, but still only 3.5 lbs. A little slower — PC Mark Vantage of 2678, compared to the Samsung's 3158 and X301's 3157. But the Acer's battery life is even better than the Samsung's.
Three caveats (nothing's ever perfect):
While the temperatures ranged from cool to warm toward the beginning of this test, they rose from warm to hot by its end. The keyboard, touchpad, and bottom of the notebook were all 88 degrees to start (the bottom of the notebook got as cool as 82 degrees). Any temperature below 90 degrees is fine. But as time went on, the temperature in these three places rose to between 92 and 93 degrees (the bottom of the notebook even got as hot as 100 degrees). Despite these temperatures, though, both the keyboard and bottom felt more warm than hot.
Hands down, our least favorite feature is the 3810T’s stiff single mouse button. We would have preferred two separate buttons.
Even so, it looks like a steal.
Update: One other small disadvantage of the Acer: Max screen resolution 1366 × 768 of compared to the Samsung's 1280 × 800 and the X301's awesome 1440×900. (On the whole, for document work, the vertical is the key statistic.)
I'm leaning currently to biting the bullet and ordering a new Samsung X360 34P (see The Hunt for A New Laptop Continues).
It's slightly cheaper than the comparable new Lenovos, but a little more expensive than some versions of their referbs. I have faith in the Lenovo referb, but not the third parties offering referbed Samsungs, so it would have to be a new one.
The reasoning behind this decision is that the Samsung wins on weight and battery life, has a 128G SSD, and at least ties on almost everything else I care about, except processing power where it lags a bit but still seems adequate. The reviews suggest the build is good; not as good as the tank-like Lenovos, but good enough.
There are just three things I need to get over:
1. The Samsung isn't as Ubuntu-friendly as the Lenovos (which are champs in this department) and won't have anywhere near the installed base if issues come up. (I'm thinking of dual-booting.)
2. The Samsung doesn't offer an XP downgrade, and the do-it-yourself version sounds like real work. So I may be using Vista Business pending Windows 7, which itself sounds like no great prize for a laptop. I have not used Vista yet and had hoped to avoid it.
3. This latest trip made it clear to me how crippled my Dell 300m has become; it's barely usable. I really can't afford to wait much longer to do something. Trouble is, it seems that Samsung was dumping the X360s with huge rebates a few months ago, so that they ended costing about half the current stratospheric price. Not only does it gall me to pay so much more than the old price, but I can't help thinking that maybe if I wait a bit the price will come down again?
Update: Then again J&R has the Lenovo 301 on sale for less than the Samsung. Good config except for the battery. Light weight — almost as light as the Samsung with the 301's three-cell battery. Solid. Three year warranty of some sort. Horrible battery life, especially with the tiny 3-cell battery, but even with the six cell (which I'd have to buy extra).
So, with the help of a colleague's email, I figured out which Dells I should be looking at: the E4200 and E4300. The reviews of the E4300 don't make it look that good; the E4200 gets a better press, although most of it in more general circulation magazines than in the sort of fanatic's web page I tend to trust.
The E4200 with most of the trimmings — said to have many internal components in common with the Lenovo X200 (not X200s), although a somewhat inferior casing — is a 12” laptop with decent battery life, a 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo ULV SU9400. Despite the low-power chip, the Dell has a better benchmark (PCMark Vantage 3582) than the Lenovo X301 (1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, PCMark Vantage is 3157) although I worry the test may have been affected by using a new SSD. The Dell apparently weighs under 3lbs even with a six-cell battery (2.2 lbs with the 4-cell; Dell is annoyingly coy about about the weight with the six-cell version.) There are fewer ports than the Lenovos, but probably enough for my needs.
Prices for new ones are outrageous — I just configured one for $2335 which is more than the better, if heavier, Lenovo. A similar E4200 is available refurbed for just over $1300 with external DVD, which is notably less than the Lenovos.
This is probably the closest thing to a modernized Inspiron 300m. Is that what I want? The refurbs are mostly black, but there's also a red one.
I wrote “previously” that my laptop search is now in the decision phase.
Make that “the indecision phase.”
I will certainly delay until I get home next week.
My laptop search is now in the decision phase. It's fairly clear that I've not only passed the point of diminishing returns on the scouring of the online reviews and benchmarks, but that it is fast becoming a distant memory.
I've more or less narrowed the choices to the Lenovo X301 (refurb) or the Samsung X360 34P (do they do refurbs?), with the Lenovo T400s (refurb) an outside contender — although it has a bit more weight, its processor benchmarks are about double the other two.
As between the X301 and X360, the Samsung weighs less and seems to have a much better battery life; despite a slower clock speed the Lenovo may be a little faster (although the T400s blows them both out of the water). The other benchmarks I can find are broadly comparable. The Lenovo has an unparalleled reputation for standing up to mistreatment; it is hard to get a sense for how sturdy the Samsung is, other than it's not flimsy.
The Lenovo X301 has a slightly smaller screen than the Samsung (and the T400s has the biggest); the Samsung comes with a bigger SSD for the money (not that I really need it). The Lenovos have optical drives; the Samsung doesn't. The X301 lacks the media card reader and Express Card slot found on the Samsung. (The absence of a docking bay for the Lenovo is not something I care about, as I don't use those.)
Here's a table with more details:
| Lenovo X301 | Samsung X360 34P | Lenovo T400s |
| Core 2 Duo SU9400/1.4 GH /800 mhz bus | Core 2 Duo SU9400/ 1.6 GH /800mhz bus | Core 2 Duo SP9600 / 2.53GHz, 6MB Cache / 1066MHz FSB |
| 12.1” 1440×900 |
13.3” TFT 1280 × 800 (WXGA ) 300 nits | 14” WXGA+ 1440×900 LED backlit LCD 200 nits |
| Intel GMA 4500 MHD | Intel GMA 4500 MHD | Intel GMA 4500 MHD |
| 3.3 lbs (w/ six cell) | 2.9 lbs | 3.91 lbs |
| 64 GG SSD | 128 GB SSD | 80/128 GB SSD |
| DVD Burner | none | CD/DVD comobo or DVD Burner |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth | Bluetooth option |
| 3 USB ports | 3 USB ports | 3 USB (1 powered when off) |
| None | 7 in 1 card reader & Express Card | 1 ESATA (doubles w/ USB) & Expresscard (or 5 in 1 ) |
| VGA & Displayport | VGA & HDMI | VGA & Displayport |
| c. 3.5 – 4 hours real world battery | 5.5 – 6 hours real world battery | c 4 hours real world |
| PCMark05 4457 | PCMark05 3061 | PCMark05 7590 |
| PCMark Vantage 3157 | PCMark Vantage 3158 (for 1.4 GHz version, 1.6 should be better) | PCMark Vantage 5251 |
| 3D Mark06 712 | 3D Mark06 996 | |
| Build and keyboard are known to be high quality (FN/Ctrl keys reversed) | Build looks ok, keyboard looks at least ok, maybe quite good | Build and keyboard are known to be high quality Redesigned “crumbproof” keyboard looks great (FN/Ctrl keys reversed) |
| Retail price: $2630 – 2969 | Retail price: $1826 – 1998 | Retail 2BG, RAM, 128GB SDD, Vista Biz $1814.65 |
| Refurb w/out DVD, 3gb, 64 SDD c. $1476 | $1638.30 (w/ 128 GB w/out DVD) | Not available yet? |
| Refurb w/ DVD (rare) 128 SSD : $1930 | Not available yet? |
Now how do I decide? Not to mention that given the existence of substantially cheaper and adequate — but not as light or as powerful — alternatives it seems a lot of money, even for something I'll probably use frequently over the next several years.
I wish I could see them before buying…
Jotwell Blenderlaw