Frodo here.
I know this is an N6010 thread and I am seriously considering buying one based on what I have heard here on this forum. However, I just wanted to give an update on first hand impressioins of the other models I have been considering: the Qosmio G15 (WXGA), the HP zd8000 (WXGA) and the new Sony VGN A690 (WUXGA). This is not intended to bash them in any way, but these are just some of my impressions in my search.
I went to my local Circuit City and checked them all out first hand. The Sony screen looked great and images looked outstanding. However, the text while very sharp was painfully tiny and I just can't seeing using it for prolonged work sessions. Tweaking the display settings helped with font size in some (not all) cases, but fonts never looked as "normal" as they did in all their tininess at the 1900x1200 setting. Also, the build quality of the case seemed inferior to the other two and the keyboard seemed a little "mushier." The Qosmio screen looked fantastic when just doing work stuff and text in a spreadsheet looked very sharp for a WXGA screen. However, the touch pad seemed a little quirky and launched applications just because my cursor hovered slightly too long over an icon (before I clicked anything!). While I'm not particularly interested in TV tuners, I also had a chance to see the Qosmio's TV tuner in all of its multimedia "glory" and it was definitely not even normal TV quality, like a bad feed from CNN in IRAQ. I saw the same DVD played on the Qosmio and HP ZD8000 using WinDVD and the smoothness on the Qosmio was again totally unacceptable, especially for a $3000.00 "multimedia" machine. It wasn't choppy, but it was definitely not smooth in comparison to other laptops I've seen. Given the gorgeousness of the screen, I was somewhat surprised and disappointed. (If given the opportunity I would opt not to include the TV tuner, but with Qosmio that option doesn't exist.) The HP was MUCH smoother even though the screen was noticeably darker in comparison to the other two screens. Even the Circuit City rep also commented about how much smoother the HP was at playing the same DVD. (I am still a little open to a WSXGA version of the ZD8000 or Compaq X6000). Keyboards on both the Qosmio and HP seemed quiet and very responsive. The touch pad buttons on the Qosmio seemed a little too small compared to the HP. Of the three, I preferred the design and apparent sturdiness of the HP to the other two. Fan noise and heat was something I couldn't determine in a Circuit City environment.
With that said, I seem to be on the cusp of ordering the N6010. Whatever laptop I end up with, I am grateful to the folks in this forum for their helpful information and opinions (esecially Michael42 for his pics and review, and for Jack_L and Seememom for their responses to my questions). That is the kind of help most of us would never get from places like Circuit City, Best Buy or CompUSA. So, while we may not get our ideal laptop in the end, we are far less likely to make a regrettable mistake. I'll let you know what I get.
Thanks again, folks.
I know this is an N6010 thread and I am seriously considering buying one based on what I have heard here on this forum. However, I just wanted to give an update on first hand impressioins of the other models I have been considering: the Qosmio G15 (WXGA), the HP zd8000 (WXGA) and the new Sony VGN A690 (WUXGA). This is not intended to bash them in any way, but these are just some of my impressions in my search.
I went to my local Circuit City and checked them all out first hand. The Sony screen looked great and images looked outstanding. However, the text while very sharp was painfully tiny and I just can't seeing using it for prolonged work sessions. Tweaking the display settings helped with font size in some (not all) cases, but fonts never looked as "normal" as they did in all their tininess at the 1900x1200 setting. Also, the build quality of the case seemed inferior to the other two and the keyboard seemed a little "mushier." The Qosmio screen looked fantastic when just doing work stuff and text in a spreadsheet looked very sharp for a WXGA screen. However, the touch pad seemed a little quirky and launched applications just because my cursor hovered slightly too long over an icon (before I clicked anything!). While I'm not particularly interested in TV tuners, I also had a chance to see the Qosmio's TV tuner in all of its multimedia "glory" and it was definitely not even normal TV quality, like a bad feed from CNN in IRAQ. I saw the same DVD played on the Qosmio and HP ZD8000 using WinDVD and the smoothness on the Qosmio was again totally unacceptable, especially for a $3000.00 "multimedia" machine. It wasn't choppy, but it was definitely not smooth in comparison to other laptops I've seen. Given the gorgeousness of the screen, I was somewhat surprised and disappointed. (If given the opportunity I would opt not to include the TV tuner, but with Qosmio that option doesn't exist.) The HP was MUCH smoother even though the screen was noticeably darker in comparison to the other two screens. Even the Circuit City rep also commented about how much smoother the HP was at playing the same DVD. (I am still a little open to a WSXGA version of the ZD8000 or Compaq X6000). Keyboards on both the Qosmio and HP seemed quiet and very responsive. The touch pad buttons on the Qosmio seemed a little too small compared to the HP. Of the three, I preferred the design and apparent sturdiness of the HP to the other two. Fan noise and heat was something I couldn't determine in a Circuit City environment.
With that said, I seem to be on the cusp of ordering the N6010. Whatever laptop I end up with, I am grateful to the folks in this forum for their helpful information and opinions (esecially Michael42 for his pics and review, and for Jack_L and Seememom for their responses to my questions). That is the kind of help most of us would never get from places like Circuit City, Best Buy or CompUSA. So, while we may not get our ideal laptop in the end, we are far less likely to make a regrettable mistake. I'll let you know what I get.
Thanks again, folks.
also i think you might as well go for a seagate momentus 100GB HDD casue it benchmarks close to the 60Gb 7200Rpm harddisk and costs a little more with much more space ..anyways upto you 
)
It's still an awesome price though. The downside is you can't customize them at all - wysisyg.
