I received just yesterday my Hypersonic GX6 (see signature), which is a Clevo D500P just like the Sager 5680. Photos and more updates will come later.
Good:
Hypersonic has a bad pixel policy that allows for zero in the center and one around it, but for $50 you can get guaranteed no bad pixels, which is what I did. And the screen is perfect -- not a single dead or stuck pixel, and there are 1600x1200 of them. The screen has very nice contrast too.
Also what's nice is the top of the laptop remains either lukewarm or actually cool even when lots of heat is being generated. The wristguard remains cool usually, and the keyboard gets a little warm, but you'd only notice it if you stopped typing and rested your hands on it.
The fans are surprisingly quiet. They go on often even when just idling, but they're not loud at all. My Inspiron 8100's fans were extremely loud, but they were nearly always off, so usually the laptop would be silent. I was worried about the GX6's fans but my fears were unfounded.
I got XP Pro with the notebook, partly because I don't have it and also because it seems like fundamental problems with these notebooks usually happen to people who get the no-OS package. Anyway Hypersonic installed only a few other utilities along with the OS, which is good -- Dell had all sorts of annoying crap that took up lots of disk space. Hypersonic just had WinDVD, Nero (the CD-burning software, very handy for them to include it), and a couple of other smaller things.
The colors of the case look nice. I got mine unpainted but it still looks cool... the gray is very sparkly and clean-looking. Photos cannot show this, but it's not at all a flat gray. The darker gray of the wristguard goes with it well.
Awesome e-mail feedback. When figuring out which company to buy from, Hypersonic's e-mails were very verbose, informative, and honest. I may post a couple of them here, later. All the other companies I e-mailed (Sager, Alienware, Voodoo, Velocity Micro) gave very brief e-mails and they sometimes took longer to reply. Sager's weren't even by anyone who knew English well, and part of it was sloppily copied&pasted from some manual. Of course they have a reseller program so they can be excused.
Speedy UPS tracking info. As soon as it shipped, I was e-mailed the UPS tracking number. This was a few hours before it even appeared on the UPS website -- it kept saying the number was invalid until later that night. It sounds like people ordering through PC Torque or Sager don't get the numbers until later... so that's a plus for Hypersonic.
UPDATE 12/24/2003: Wireless worked instantly. I got an Apple Airport router and set it up, then I fetched my laptop, turned it on, clicked the system tray icon for wireless networking, selected the network, and boom! Perfect wireless. It took 6 seconds to get it working.
UPDATE 12/25/2003: The black case it comes with is nice. The main compartment fits the laptop with little room to spare, but there's another zippered compartment that easily holds the transformer and mouse with room for a magazine or two and some candy. Very good for airports. Only problem with it is the shoulder strap is not very comfortable.
UPDATE 12/25/2003: I forgot to add before that changing resolutions is surprisingly fast -- takes maybe half a second, up to a full second. My older Inspiron 8100 took several seconds to do this -- as long as a CRT. It was really annoying.
Bad:
Keyboard flex. Yup, it flexes. But the flex is worst in the lower-right, by the arrow keys and Enter key. It's only really a problem when pressing the arrow keys because it causes them to make a sort of knocking noise. It's not loud but it's not as quiet as the other keys. The rest of the keyboard also flexes, but less so.
Strange key layout. Lots of people hate the swapped Fn+Ctrl keys, and yeah it's a nuisance, but I particularly dislike the home/end/pgup/pgdown/ins/del layout. Dell put them in the same 3x2 block you find on desktops, but Clevo does this ridiculous thing that will take some time to get used to.
Stiff keyboard. It sounds like lots of people consider this a plus, but I do not -- I prefer a crisp keyboard where a light tap presses the key. The Dell had that, but this one is softer. It's not too soft though... but it does make me press harder on the keyboard to type, and considering there's keyboard flex, that's sort of compounds the problem.
Lack of eraser-head pointer. Only IBM and Dell have this, but I miss it
Touchpads are annoying.
When turning the computer on or off, tapping the power button doesn't do it -- I have to keep it held down a moment. Not a biggie but it baffled me when I first came across it (I originally wrote here that I had to press the button down hard, but it turns out I misunderstood the problem).
Hidden power cord. The AC adapter was packaged with the notebook, but the power cord that goes from the transformer to the wall outlet was hidden in a compartment in the included carrying case. At first I thought they forgot to ship it.
Somewhat skimpy order status feedback. The day after I ordered, the e-mail form said the system was built (of course technically it was, but configured so soon?) and two days after it said that, it said the credit card was accepted. That was the last I heard for 14 days until I finally e-mailed them asking what the status was. (The ETA was 30 days after ordering, though I was assured that was very pessimistic and was based on the high volume during this season.) That day they apologized and said the system was ready and the shipped it out. Coincidence? I don't know. Anyway it arrived 16 days after I ordered it.
UPDATE 12/24/2003: On the bottom of the panel that houses the LCD, there are four rubber pads designed to prevent it from scraping against the bottom panel when the notebook is closed. One of them came out. Apparently there's nothing really holding them in except friction... it's a minor nuisance, but it's likely the others will fall out too at some point... I've only had the thing for about 5 days.
UPDATE 12/24/2003: The scroll buttons near the touchpad don't work initially -- apparently you have to download drivers to get them to work.
Photos:
Coming soon; I'll upload pics comparing this to my Inspiron 8100.
UPDATE 12/24/2003: The battery for my digital camera is out. Grrr. Apparently the switch got set in the On position so the battery got drained. The photos will have to wait until I get a new battery or a recharger.
Conclusion:
The notebook is excellent, with no significant flaws. In fact the only bits I'm displeased with are things I've never even heard anyone else complain about. I strongly recommend Hypersonic -- I'm certainly a satisfied customer. But I haven't yet needed their tech support service so if something goes wrong, I'll update detailing everything.
Good:
Hypersonic has a bad pixel policy that allows for zero in the center and one around it, but for $50 you can get guaranteed no bad pixels, which is what I did. And the screen is perfect -- not a single dead or stuck pixel, and there are 1600x1200 of them. The screen has very nice contrast too.
Also what's nice is the top of the laptop remains either lukewarm or actually cool even when lots of heat is being generated. The wristguard remains cool usually, and the keyboard gets a little warm, but you'd only notice it if you stopped typing and rested your hands on it.
The fans are surprisingly quiet. They go on often even when just idling, but they're not loud at all. My Inspiron 8100's fans were extremely loud, but they were nearly always off, so usually the laptop would be silent. I was worried about the GX6's fans but my fears were unfounded.
I got XP Pro with the notebook, partly because I don't have it and also because it seems like fundamental problems with these notebooks usually happen to people who get the no-OS package. Anyway Hypersonic installed only a few other utilities along with the OS, which is good -- Dell had all sorts of annoying crap that took up lots of disk space. Hypersonic just had WinDVD, Nero (the CD-burning software, very handy for them to include it), and a couple of other smaller things.
The colors of the case look nice. I got mine unpainted but it still looks cool... the gray is very sparkly and clean-looking. Photos cannot show this, but it's not at all a flat gray. The darker gray of the wristguard goes with it well.
Awesome e-mail feedback. When figuring out which company to buy from, Hypersonic's e-mails were very verbose, informative, and honest. I may post a couple of them here, later. All the other companies I e-mailed (Sager, Alienware, Voodoo, Velocity Micro) gave very brief e-mails and they sometimes took longer to reply. Sager's weren't even by anyone who knew English well, and part of it was sloppily copied&pasted from some manual. Of course they have a reseller program so they can be excused.
Speedy UPS tracking info. As soon as it shipped, I was e-mailed the UPS tracking number. This was a few hours before it even appeared on the UPS website -- it kept saying the number was invalid until later that night. It sounds like people ordering through PC Torque or Sager don't get the numbers until later... so that's a plus for Hypersonic.
UPDATE 12/24/2003: Wireless worked instantly. I got an Apple Airport router and set it up, then I fetched my laptop, turned it on, clicked the system tray icon for wireless networking, selected the network, and boom! Perfect wireless. It took 6 seconds to get it working.
UPDATE 12/25/2003: The black case it comes with is nice. The main compartment fits the laptop with little room to spare, but there's another zippered compartment that easily holds the transformer and mouse with room for a magazine or two and some candy. Very good for airports. Only problem with it is the shoulder strap is not very comfortable.
UPDATE 12/25/2003: I forgot to add before that changing resolutions is surprisingly fast -- takes maybe half a second, up to a full second. My older Inspiron 8100 took several seconds to do this -- as long as a CRT. It was really annoying.
Bad:
Keyboard flex. Yup, it flexes. But the flex is worst in the lower-right, by the arrow keys and Enter key. It's only really a problem when pressing the arrow keys because it causes them to make a sort of knocking noise. It's not loud but it's not as quiet as the other keys. The rest of the keyboard also flexes, but less so.
Strange key layout. Lots of people hate the swapped Fn+Ctrl keys, and yeah it's a nuisance, but I particularly dislike the home/end/pgup/pgdown/ins/del layout. Dell put them in the same 3x2 block you find on desktops, but Clevo does this ridiculous thing that will take some time to get used to.
Stiff keyboard. It sounds like lots of people consider this a plus, but I do not -- I prefer a crisp keyboard where a light tap presses the key. The Dell had that, but this one is softer. It's not too soft though... but it does make me press harder on the keyboard to type, and considering there's keyboard flex, that's sort of compounds the problem.
Lack of eraser-head pointer. Only IBM and Dell have this, but I miss it
Touchpads are annoying.When turning the computer on or off, tapping the power button doesn't do it -- I have to keep it held down a moment. Not a biggie but it baffled me when I first came across it (I originally wrote here that I had to press the button down hard, but it turns out I misunderstood the problem).
Hidden power cord. The AC adapter was packaged with the notebook, but the power cord that goes from the transformer to the wall outlet was hidden in a compartment in the included carrying case. At first I thought they forgot to ship it.
Somewhat skimpy order status feedback. The day after I ordered, the e-mail form said the system was built (of course technically it was, but configured so soon?) and two days after it said that, it said the credit card was accepted. That was the last I heard for 14 days until I finally e-mailed them asking what the status was. (The ETA was 30 days after ordering, though I was assured that was very pessimistic and was based on the high volume during this season.) That day they apologized and said the system was ready and the shipped it out. Coincidence? I don't know. Anyway it arrived 16 days after I ordered it.
UPDATE 12/24/2003: On the bottom of the panel that houses the LCD, there are four rubber pads designed to prevent it from scraping against the bottom panel when the notebook is closed. One of them came out. Apparently there's nothing really holding them in except friction... it's a minor nuisance, but it's likely the others will fall out too at some point... I've only had the thing for about 5 days.
UPDATE 12/24/2003: The scroll buttons near the touchpad don't work initially -- apparently you have to download drivers to get them to work.
Photos:
Coming soon; I'll upload pics comparing this to my Inspiron 8100.
UPDATE 12/24/2003: The battery for my digital camera is out. Grrr. Apparently the switch got set in the On position so the battery got drained. The photos will have to wait until I get a new battery or a recharger.
Conclusion:
The notebook is excellent, with no significant flaws. In fact the only bits I'm displeased with are things I've never even heard anyone else complain about. I strongly recommend Hypersonic -- I'm certainly a satisfied customer. But I haven't yet needed their tech support service so if something goes wrong, I'll update detailing everything.
