Quanta MW1

That's an amazing deal. I wonder why powernotebooks does not have the offer as standard..
Waiting for your review !!!

Hey silverbyte, you're going to be getting a good deal: two separate reviews of a new laptop from two different vendors! Talk about making an informed purchase. It's cool that there are more people getting/interested in this model and that they're sharing, because when I was first interested in the KN1 I was only able to find like one review. Yay for community!

LOL. Yeah, but that's not really why I'm waiting. I mean considering that reputed resellers like powernotebooks are carrying, and their opinions mean that the laptop is basically good.
It is just a question of do I need it urgently now, or can I wait for some more time. I have a laptop which is, shall we say huffin' and puffin' quite well till now!

I was waiting for the KN1 PM, but couldn't wait so went with the Z71V. kinda disappointed because of the underclocked card, so I'll be really interested in your review as the MW1 performance should be close to the widescreen one. I see that this one also has SPDIF. Very nice, hopefully I won't regret my purhcase lol.

Hey all, just want to let you know that I also bought the Quanta MW1 from PowerNotebooks.com. I got almost exactly the same configuration as bhead and I also got free Arctic Silver 5 and upgraded shipping. I'll try to post a review when I get it!

Damn, too bad I didn't know that Donald offered such incredible discounts over the phone before I ordered. I would definitely have been willing to pay $100 more for such a more reputable company and an included three-year warranty and carry bag, but I just couldn't afford $200-300 more. Still waiting for my lappy to ship from MGE.. It's been five business days, but they say it takes 5-7 to build, so technically they have through Tuesday. =\

ISTNC also has it up on their site - with a surprising "out of stock" notice

http://istnc.com/store/proddetail.php?prod=MW1

Great prices too...

Jeez, it's about time! They've been a little slow on this one.. I don't see the "out of stock" notice, so they must have fixed it. And yeah, prices are pretty close to MGEPC/AVAdirect.

Speaking of whom, they still haven't shipped my order, according to their site. =\ How long do other places (i.e. powernotebooks, istnc) usually take to build a system and get it out the door? Have you guys that ordered from Donald had yours shipped yet? I'm anxious to get mine, and I'm a little edgy about these guys that I ordered from, of course, so I'm keeping a close eye on the posted status of my order and will be calling if it's not shipped out by the end of the day tomorrow..

Just an update on my MW1 order:
Called MGE today and they said there was a "delay with my model" but that I would receive it within a week and they would contact me with an update. If I get it within a week that's still well within their stated timeframe, so I guess that's fine. The guy on the phone was friendly and straightforward, too, so that was comforting.

Info on MW1 availability at the end, if you're not interested in the vendor info.

Wow, I am INFURIATED! MGE PC called me this afternoon (a WEEK AND A HALF after placing my order!) to tell me that the MW1 was on backorder and wouldn't hit the States for another two weeks and then would have to clear customs. I don't even know how that is possible, considering they had it listed on their site before anyone else and I ordered pretty quickly! Anyway, as soon as they told me that, I called up PowerNotebooks, but they told me that they only had one left and it was an eval model and after they priced it somehow it came out like $100 more expensive than bhead's and hologram's orders, in spite of the configuration being virtually the same (+2ghz processor, but no DVD burner). Anyway, I couldn't afford to pay that much more, so I had to let it go. Luckily, I called up ISTNC and they said they had three left! Not only that, but their pricing is great, they're getting more units in tomorrow anyway, and they usually ship within 72 hours.

I wound up ordering an MW1 with P-M 2.0 gHz, Arctic Silver 5, and standard combo drive from ISTNC for $1096.46 shipped, plus an 80gb 5400 rpm Toshiba HDD, 1gb DDR2 Kingston RAM, and Intel 802.11a/b/g card from NewEgg for $248.27 shipped, which saved me about $100 from ordering the full configuration from ISTNC. Total: $1344.73. I'm saving $60 from MGE and getting it from a more reputable company! Although I'll have to do some assembly, of course.

If you're not interested in all the vendor info, you may be interested in MW1 availability: MGE/AVA are out of stock, PowerNotebooks had one eval model left that is probably sold by now, and the next shipment doesn't hit customs for another two weeks. ISTNC had three left when I called but they said that they are getting more tomorrow, so it sounds like they are the only ones with any in stock. Both PN and ISTNC told me that they were selling like hotcakes and had turned out to be extremely popular.

Not bad, but only a 2 hour battery?! And it takes longer to charge than to use. Yikes!

Er, everywhere says it's a 3-hour battery. And I don't know off-hand, but i think the recharge time is less.

yep. i too ordered a mw1 from Rick of ISTNC..
its on its way..
ISTNC has good price and so far, very excellent customer service..
much excited..
i love how you can order a semi-barebone system from them, that saves money for people on a budget as you can recycle spare parts you've already got or purchase them 2nd hand yourself..
mrtorrent, thats wacked someone would sell you a system that never had a confirmed existence..

I current have the MW1, battery life is less than 2 hours - i have inquired about this, and was told a 9cell battery will be availabe in 2 weeks or so, SO if you're going to buy i'd wait (so you can just get the battery instead of having to buy the 9 cell)

If you have any questions on this lappy please feel free to ask

Damn, not cool.. I won't be using the battery a ton, but when I do, the three hours would be a good period - less than two hours isn't very respectable at all.

Although, hologram says 2:47 with light use: http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?p=1194997

What are you doing with yours when battery life is less than two hours?

not really doing much at all, browsing some sites, some IMing. Nothing 3d or CPU intensive, and I can tell you right now you can absolutely NOT watch a full dvd on it on battery with the 6 cell battery.

This notebook is a performer, runs well, better than my CL 56 obviously (faster cpu, better gpu). Build quality is decent, but what's getting on my nerves is the screen.

Now mind you i'm obsessive with screens, so take my comments lightly for most people would probably not notice these things. First off as mentioned by someone else on the forums, on solid colors you have these 'weird sparkles', they're hard to explain but once pointed out, you will see it (sorry!).

Second, the viewing angles on this guy is DECENT . If you're looking directly at the screen, the bottom and the top of the screen are relatively different, and if you you're looking at a fully black screen (ie windows xp boot up logo) you'll notice it right then and there (it’s interesting the different shades of black ;p) . Under normal usage you wont notice this, but, earlier i was looking at a site with a black background and it was instantly noticeable.


Last pet peeve here is the location of the touchpad. For some reason when typing on the MW1 i ALWAYS (multiple times while writing this post) hit it with the palm of my hand, clicking at random crap on the screen, and deviating from what I’m typing. I didn't have this problem with my last lappy, the CL56. Maybe i'm just a retard, but it's happening to alot.


I'm still considering if I'm going to keep this laptop. The 9 cell battery, that i have been assured will be available in a week or so, should be a HUGE plus to any perspective buyers. In this day and age, I swear I can't believe I'm still seeing pentium M based laptops that can't play a full dvd on battery... that's --****ing- insane, and I use '****ing' not to insult anyone, but to put the much needed 'emphasis' on this issue. I assure you it pisses me off now on top of the 1500 tag i gota spend another 80-100 on a larger battery.

In the end, if I could find a lappy that has this video card, with a better screen and longer battery life for the price, you bet your ass I'd be on that sucker like white on rice. We'll see how it goes, but I have to re-iterate that I do like this laptop a lot, but it has it's flaws (in my eyes)

If i have time i'll put together a review with pictures and such tommorow

Hey, Raph, I'm sorry for doubting, you were right on with the battery. I just played a movie from my hard disk and with automatic CPU frequency scaling (was down at 1gHz most of the time) under Linux and got only 1:12 from a full charge. I'm going to run another test under Windows and see if it makes any difference, but so far this is ridiculous. I mean, I'm not going to be using it on battery much, so it doesn't bother me a lot a lot, but it is disappointing. The manufacturer's claim is 3 hours - 1:12 is FAR off of that.

Funny you should mention the touchpad as well - I have the SAME complaint! Agree on viewing angles as well, although it's funny - if you look at the screen from a higher vertical angle, the horizontal viewing angles are much better than if you're at a more level vertical angle. I have not noticed the sparkles that you refer to on the LCD, but now that I think about it, I might know what you're talking about - it's just that this has always seemed to me what a notebook screen looks like!

In general, though, I'm very happy with it - I'll be writing up a review with pics in the next few days - been too busy playing with it, breaking it in, and migrating from my desktop to finish it yet.

Thanks guys fro sharing ur opinions. Could you please put up a review with pictures - that would be really cool.