Considering Sentia: advice/alternatives appreciated

It looks like the sentia meets your needs, but what exactley will this be used for? It says 4 hour battery life, but thats probably with the much slower celeron processor. Id definetly look into the sager 5560 too.

I have no idea of the quality but msi also makes a 12 inch laptop. You can find it either on their website or on xmeld.com. They come with either amd or intel processors.

Wow, you know the 700m specs out very similarly to the Sentia don't you? Same chipset, glossy display, video. size, the battery in the 700m lasts close to 5 hours with little effort. I'm certainly not knocking your choice but your point in this thread was to compare laptops with your requirements.

The 2.0 in my sig including three years of in home service was 1561.00 (with 750.00 coupon) with similar specs to your Sentia. I bought the two gigs of ram from Newegg and the Seagate 100gb 5400 on eBay, the ram and HDD are included in the 1561, I suppose I could sell the 60gb Toshiba I have leftover but I'm using it for back up in an external enclosure. I went with the 100gb 5400 hard drive rather than the 7200 60 gb because after researching it, the larger drive is about as fast but it's hard to argue with an extra 40gb of space!

As you can see, I have two 700m and over the weekend, the 1.6 developed what looked to be a small group of dead pixels. Dell service has several methods of contact and I used online "chat" to discuss my display with them. After approx 40 minutes discussion, they decided to replace my display.

The part was ordered, and shipped yesterday, this morning I got a call from a tech here in Dallas to set up a time to replace the display, we agree on two o'clock as that was as fast as I could get home, he was right on time and 20 minutes later he was gone and I have my new display. 29 hours from initial contact to fixed computer, all over a few dead pixels.

Here's a shot after the repair, the 1.6 is the one on the left.



Nose around the Dell Centrino forum for many, many reviews of the 700m. It's certainly worth a look for 1000 dollars!

Might I suggest the ASUS Z63?

Similar specs to those systems so far posted, and significantly less expensive than all except the dell.

i say go Uniwill 233II0 just if you want *fast* service DON'T do IBP (though if you are thinking AW, fast service doesn't matter for you).

Hi!

With your budget of $3000 you can buy any excellent subnotebook on the market including rigged Panasonics, or Sony. IBM is also good choice, though conservative and not cost/performace optimal.

Forget about Sentia. It is not worthy of the money. Also forget about its cheaper clones (uniwill 223ii0) like Winbook X.... They are for low budget people (like me, he he) and they are all really not very well built and too heavy (actually, 2.15 kg, whatever the adverts say)
for a good subnotebook.

Select a notebook with the magnesium alloy casing and light enough (if you want 12") to be enjoyed.

Ask your question also on www.notebookreview.com forum. You will be helped out there too.


Acer Travelmate 3000 series (3002 with 1.73GHz proc, 3004 with 2.0GHz) is a very reasonable choice for a half of your budget. Afaik, WLAN is included (moreover, they have a better designed antenna for better receiving). Surely, this choice is uncomparably better than Sentia, and TM3000-s are also exceptionally cheap in the US (I wish I could buy it there). I have opened a thread about Acer TM3000 on forum.notebookreview.com where you can read further opinions. The only negative point is a plastic casing
(while you could afford a notebook with more durable magnesium alloy casing for your budget), but the quality of the plastic seems to be OK (and much better than that of Sentia).

BTW, there exists a bigger extra battery for uniwill 223ii0 which is 6500mAh instead of
4400mAh. It will suit Sentia as well. Don't know how to get it in the US. Just ask around, if interested.

Okay, I know you don't want a 700m, but I will tell you this. With Alienware, you're only paying for the Alienware name. The best logical choice is the IBM. It's the best quality you can get, and it's cheaper. The hard drive can be easily upgraded, and the IBM will cost more than the Alienware after you do that, but still, it's an IBM. I mean, Alienware is nice, but for a non-gaming computer, I'd take IBM any day.

The Sentia isn't any good for gaming. It's using Intel Extreme 2 graphics. If Alienware wants to make a 12" notebook they should use the MSI S270. From what I can tell, it's the best 12" notebook graphics wise. And if you think you paid $500 less going through Alienware, well then you're an idiot. I just configured the 233II0 on EKM.com with 2.0 Ghz PM, 60 GB 7200 RPM HD, 1 GB Ram for only $1800.

Yes, Sentia will not work with the reasonably fresh games. MSI 270 and MSI 260 are better off regarding the games though, of course, not sufficient for real gaming profis. MSI 270 may be the best grafics wise in the given price segment (below 1500-1800$). For example, 12"-13" Sonys have better grafic cards. However, MSI 260/270 are probably the champions in performance and quality per cost (well, I was telling it before Acer TM3001-3004 appeared, now TM3000 seems to be a better choice on the US market, afaik) and they also have a magnesium casing (but they are heavier than TM3000).

Besides, FISHMANPET, not everyone who is not sufficiently informed deserves to be named an idiot. Market is trying to manipulate us. Even on this thread we have been witnessing a number of irresponsible (manipulative or not - I don't know that) "recommendations". Averybody was more or less absolutizing his own experience and his own choice instead of really trying to help a person who is obviously a newcommer on the notebook market.
I think someone has to be ashamed here.

@Zachariah,
if you have a 2 weeks of return right, I'd suggest to think seriously about it,
unless you just fall in love with Sentia in spite of its unreasonably blown up cost for a given relatively modest performance. The model is really outdated and not well suited for travels due to its built quality (I judge based on my own uniwill 223ii0 clone). Don't forget to check how well wireless will work on your unit. In fact, if I were you I'd just try to turn back the order, if possible. However, if you stay with what you get then .... welcome to the club (told with an element of cynicism) ... and Good Luck!