Got a new laptop!

[dustrho]

Tonight my wife and I went shopping for new laptops, and I came home the proud father of a Sony Vaio PCG-Z1VA laptop computer.  It is totally sweet!  Here are the specs on it...

- Intel Centrino mobile technology
- Intel Pentium M Processor 1.6ghz
- 512mb memory
- 60gb hard drive
- 14.1" SXGA TFT display
- DVD/CD-RW drive

It weights about 4 or 5 pounds and it is gorgeous!  I'll have to tell more about it later, because it's almost 2am and I'm tired as hell!

[dustrho]

Dammit... after playing with it all night I had noticed there is one dead pixel on this absolutely gorgeous display.    Now I had asked the Circuit City sales rep if there happened to be one dead pixel on this, that I could return it for a different one.  I'm sure I'm going to do that since this wasn't a cheap laptop, but how many people here just tolerate dead pixels on your displays?  I really don't think I can tolerate it myself.  The worse thing is that I spent about 3 hours installing software and customizing it to my liking on it last night, so that's just a bit frustrating to me.  Maybe they can just swap the hard drive out with another laptop.

I know this happens to a lot of laptops, but it shouldn't happen to mine.  

[DSJ™]

Yuck! A dead pixel. Call them up or take it back. Paying big $$$ for something, you would think there should be no problems. Very frustrating.

[Boba Binks]

Actually I hate to say this but I have heard the first Sony Vaio laptops that came out around a year / two years ago are know for screen problems such a dead pixels, color burns, and fading. I would hope that this type of problem has been fixed by Sony.

When I was looking into a laptop last year the guy at Best Buys told me not to buy the Sony at the time. He told me something about the heat they generate causes problems.

If I were you I would take it back and exchange it for a new one.

[dustrho]

I'm going to give Circuit City a call later this morning after they open up.  I just hope they can at least swap out the hard drive with a different laptop, because I don't want to have to invest 3 more hours into setting the damn thing up again.

[dustrho]

I went back to Circuit City this morning and returned the laptop.  I'm either going to end up buying an IBM Thinkpad or a Dell (not sure which models though).  I currently own an IBM Thinkpad 600X, and it's an awesome laptop.  It's just a little bit on the slow side.

 

[Chris]

I would never purchase a Sony, they are known for problems, just like Gateway.

IBM and Dell are good choices.

[jadesfire]

Both my daughter and my hubby have IBM thinkpads...they love 'em!!

[dustrho]

Well, I went out again today with my wife looking at laptops, and we ended up buying an HP Pavilion zd7010us model.   I must say this is definitely the coolest laptop out there.  It's fast as hell, nice widescreen display, huge hard drive, and the keyboard has a great feel to it.  I was initially hesitant about going with HP for a laptop, but with the specs this thing had I couldn't pass it up.  Very happy with it so far.

Here are the specs on this...

• Pentium 4 2.8ghz processor
• 512mb DDR memory 333mhz (upgradable to 2gb)
• 80gb hard drive
• 17" WXGA (1400x900) display
• 64mb video memory by NVIDIA
• DVD+R/RW and CD-RW Combo drive
• 4 USB 2.0 slots
• 9.3 pounds (doesn't matter because it won't be traveling much)
• for more detailed specs click here