Remember around this time a year ago? The NP3790 was brand new and a bunch of us had ordered quite a number of them from about three different stores, including the best, PCTorque. Then there were was that crazy weather situation over in the far East where our lappies were supposed to be shipped from, causing a pretty bad delay of a few weeks. While we waited, we gathered around here to talk about how we couldn't wait getting our NP3790's, how the delays were being a pain in the ass even though nobody could have done anything to improve the situation, (t'was the weather, after all), and then cases started popping up where certain people had received their NP3790's and were posting pictures of them on here to rub it in the faces of all the other poor waiting souls... I was part of the latter group.
Anyway, almost a year has passed and I thought here's a good idea for a thread: for those who've had their NP3790's for close to a year now, are you still happy with it? Has anything changed? Are you still satisfied with the hardware? Did anything break? Did you have to send it in for repair? Have your initial opinions of certain things changed?
I'll start.
I'm still very happy with my NP3790. That doesn't mean everything is perfect, however. I definitely have some criticism to get rid off, but the system is running as nicely as ever, after countless reformats and Windows reinstalls and now as a dual-boot system with WinXP and Ubuntu Linux installed. If my NP3790 is anything, it' reliable. Granted, I've had some bluescreens due to memory read errors or something of the sort, but it never caused any major trouble and I haven't seen one of those in months.
One major drawback of this laptop are its speakers. I noticed that when I first got it, and my opinion in that regard has gotten even harsher. The speakers of the NP3790 simply suck. It's about as good as my cheap alarm clock with integrated radio, and that's when the reception of the radio signal is rather poor...
Compared to most Dells and the brand new Powerbook G4 my apartment mate got last week, it's downright embarrassing how bad the speakers are. Especially with the pricetag... having that said, it's a problem I don't mind much because I use a great headset: the Sennheiser PC165. The speakers are so bad I actually deny their existence.
Next up: the display. If you got the WUXGA display, the one with 1920x1200 resolution, you were likely one of the people who couldn't stop staring at it, and much less raving about it here on the forums about a year ago. It's quite stunning to be able to fit so much in a 15" display. I still love it, but one thing I had to realize over time: it's not very bright. I noticed this over time when I saw my laptop compared directly to others around me, like when I'm at lecture and see all the Dells shining bright all around me. The whites on a Dell screen compared to the whites on an NP3790 are worlds apart. In direct comparison, the NP's white is almost light greyish compared to Dell's powerful, bright screens. If there is one thing I would change about my NP, I'd get a WUXGA screen with twice the brightness
The front three-button group. At first I thought it was a great idea, and useful, but after a while it got rather annoying. I stopped counting the times when all of a sudden I'd lose my connection and wonder why, I'd find that somehow I had pressed the wireless button in the front. The other two buttons I never use, maybe I should find a use for them.
One thing I can't say I'm very happy about is Sager post-sale support. I'm not saying they don't answer calls, make you wait too long, or are a pain to deal with, (I never even had to call them about anything), but something I would have expect is to be able to go to their site, find my NP, and then be able to download the latest drivers and software that came with the laptop. There is no such thing at Sager as far as I've seen, and me and other NP3790 owners found that the best way to keep up with such updates is to subscribe to this thread. Doesn't that seem a bit poor, if users have to resort to having to find their updates on their own? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm advanced user and I can find all the software and drivers I need on my own without problems, but it's about the principle. I've come across this instance too many times: "Please get drivers from your laptop manufacturer". Well.. as far as I know, the drivers listed for the NP3790 on Sager's site have not been updated since the release of the NP3790. Am I missing something? Is my criticism displaced? I realy don't mean to sound like a dick, and if I'm missing something here, I beg you to enlighten me.
That's all I can think of right now. Should be enough too
Here's the thread I posted when I had just received my new NP3790 if you're curious
EDIT:
Dammit.. I just realized I posted this in the tech support forum. Mods, please move if necessary, and sorry.
Anyway, almost a year has passed and I thought here's a good idea for a thread: for those who've had their NP3790's for close to a year now, are you still happy with it? Has anything changed? Are you still satisfied with the hardware? Did anything break? Did you have to send it in for repair? Have your initial opinions of certain things changed?
I'll start.
I'm still very happy with my NP3790. That doesn't mean everything is perfect, however. I definitely have some criticism to get rid off, but the system is running as nicely as ever, after countless reformats and Windows reinstalls and now as a dual-boot system with WinXP and Ubuntu Linux installed. If my NP3790 is anything, it' reliable. Granted, I've had some bluescreens due to memory read errors or something of the sort, but it never caused any major trouble and I haven't seen one of those in months.
One major drawback of this laptop are its speakers. I noticed that when I first got it, and my opinion in that regard has gotten even harsher. The speakers of the NP3790 simply suck. It's about as good as my cheap alarm clock with integrated radio, and that's when the reception of the radio signal is rather poor...
Compared to most Dells and the brand new Powerbook G4 my apartment mate got last week, it's downright embarrassing how bad the speakers are. Especially with the pricetag... having that said, it's a problem I don't mind much because I use a great headset: the Sennheiser PC165. The speakers are so bad I actually deny their existence.
Next up: the display. If you got the WUXGA display, the one with 1920x1200 resolution, you were likely one of the people who couldn't stop staring at it, and much less raving about it here on the forums about a year ago. It's quite stunning to be able to fit so much in a 15" display. I still love it, but one thing I had to realize over time: it's not very bright. I noticed this over time when I saw my laptop compared directly to others around me, like when I'm at lecture and see all the Dells shining bright all around me. The whites on a Dell screen compared to the whites on an NP3790 are worlds apart. In direct comparison, the NP's white is almost light greyish compared to Dell's powerful, bright screens. If there is one thing I would change about my NP, I'd get a WUXGA screen with twice the brightness
The front three-button group. At first I thought it was a great idea, and useful, but after a while it got rather annoying. I stopped counting the times when all of a sudden I'd lose my connection and wonder why, I'd find that somehow I had pressed the wireless button in the front. The other two buttons I never use, maybe I should find a use for them
.One thing I can't say I'm very happy about is Sager post-sale support. I'm not saying they don't answer calls, make you wait too long, or are a pain to deal with, (I never even had to call them about anything), but something I would have expect is to be able to go to their site, find my NP, and then be able to download the latest drivers and software that came with the laptop. There is no such thing at Sager as far as I've seen, and me and other NP3790 owners found that the best way to keep up with such updates is to subscribe to this thread. Doesn't that seem a bit poor, if users have to resort to having to find their updates on their own? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm advanced user and I can find all the software and drivers I need on my own without problems, but it's about the principle. I've come across this instance too many times: "Please get drivers from your laptop manufacturer". Well.. as far as I know, the drivers listed for the NP3790 on Sager's site have not been updated since the release of the NP3790. Am I missing something? Is my criticism displaced? I realy don't mean to sound like a dick, and if I'm missing something here, I beg you to enlighten me.
That's all I can think of right now. Should be enough too
Here's the thread I posted when I had just received my new NP3790 if you're curious EDIT:
Dammit.. I just realized I posted this in the tech support forum. Mods, please move if necessary, and sorry.
, and with a decent speaker system... I can't complain too much.
...
. That's really a terrible experience. I've had some problems here and there, but aside from the slight discolored spots on the screen, no bad permanent and hardware-related thing has happened to my Sager. It's been rock-solid and reliable in that regard. I am having wireless problems now, but it's my router, not the Sager.. and I'm about to restore an earlier backup right now because I took Windows tweaking and registry fixing a bit too far it seems.
