Lenovo Thinkpad SL500
* pros: free matte screen option, core2duo option, trackpoint, no rebates, quiet, low heat
* cons: $100+ more than the Y530, 1 gb RAM and only Vista Basic, no svideo out
* other: review, same coupon code for Y530 is only 10% off here
HP dv7t
* pros: 17" screen, free upgrade to 3 gb RAM
* cons: dubious 40% cashback, glossy screen, no svideo out
* other: specs, 40% cashback fatwallet deal
Highly considering getting an LCD protector film from photodon, which has received stellar reviews, especially regarding anti-glare properties.
Pet peeve; can we stick to one term? Having to search for both "laptop" and "notebook" is annoying. Subjectively, laptops are bigger/heavier than notebooks, but they're interchangeable now, which leads to unnecessary aggravation.
Well, your photodon suggestion was a complete failure. 45 minutes trying to install and the best I could do was five large bubbles, two wrinkles, and three loose corners. The pen no longer tracks and both touch and pen taps are rarely registered. It does have very impressive anti glare, but I think I'm going to have to just throw it away.
I feel like I just beat a kitten to death... with a bag of puppies.
Did you get the thinner one specifically for touch displays?
All MX non-glare films are now available in two thickness Standard .009" (229 um) or Thin/ touch screen .0055" (140 um) w/o protective liner, and have 2mm radius corners unless other wise specified. You will be asked to choose before adding to cart.
VLSmooth in e-mail to relative wrote:If you want a small ultraportable notebook (12.1"), this is a crazy deal.
Just discovered a few hours ago. Expires 2008-12-15 while supplies last.
With that much of a discount, it's actually worthwhile to get the upgrades directly from Lenovo, and they DO support Windows XP for ~+$80 (really +$40 due to coupon).
I quickly spec'd out the following for $638.50 (retail $1788). [upgrade] = paid extra, barebones is the low $500 range.
Ugh, I'm having problems finding benchmarks for the Intel T3200 vs the Intel L7500.
All I know is that the T3200 is a "dual core" @ 2 GHz with 1MB L2 and that the L7500 is a "core2duo" at 1.6 GHz with 4MB L2. I'm not sure if the "core2duo" adds anything performance-wise besides cache (I know it's less power, quieter, cooler, etc).
No optical drive for both the notebook and tablet pc (touchscreen). Can get around it with a network and virtual drive programs, but not for the novice (I do it all the time) or just get an external optical drive.
Lenovo doesn't provide retail OS disks (same for the recently purchased Y530), instead they provide a recovery partition. This makes it convenient to reinstall, but reduces flexibility. Constantly takes up hard drive space too. At least the Y530 has a one-touch recovery button.
Reviews for the tablet pc state that the screen is a little dim.
the 4% and this are mutually exclusive (to my knowledge).
"dude, your referral info is too obvious!" (fatwallet post)
Some sleuthing turns up this: (link)
“When you spread the word about Cashbaq, you earn 10% of your friends cash back rewards. They’ll get a $5 bonus just for signing up. And it doesn’t stop there. When your friends’ friends sign up, you get 5% of what they earn and 2% of what their friends earn every time they shop.”
"Different sites have different coupon codes" (fatwallet post)
The speakers suck, especially compared to the Y530's 4.1 Dolby setup (pretty good sound, and yes, it's a notebook with a subwoofer)
VLSmooth wrote:Ugh, I'm having problems finding benchmarks for the Intel T3200 vs the Intel L7500.
All I know is that the T3200 is a "dual core" @ 2 GHz with 1MB L2 and that the L7500 is a "core2duo" at 1.6 GHz with 4MB L2. I'm not sure if the "core2duo" adds anything performance-wise besides cache (I know it's less power, quieter, cooler, etc).
/me lights the Dwindlehop light.
Pow! Well, the T3200 appears to be a 65nm P4 with a cut-down cache for some reason and a 667MHz FSB. The L7500 is a low-voltage 65nm Conroe on an 800 MHz FSB. The rule of thumb for P4 is derate the clock frequency by 80% to compare to P6-style parts like the Pentium III or original Athlon (not Athlon 64). So you get a 1.6 GHz "effective" clock frequency on the T3200 compared to a 1.6 GHz actual on the L7500, so roughly the same clock frequency. Add on top of that the fact that the Conroe is 4 wide, the Pentium is 3 wide, and the cache size difference, and you're looking at a 33-50% perf advantage for the L7500. Also, since it is a low voltage Conroe the L7500 will have substantially better battery life. Basically, I'd get the L7500 unless the T3200 is a hell of a lot cheaper.
You can burn a set of recovery DVDs and then delete the recovery partition. You still need an original Vista install disc if you want to install without the crapware, but the license works fine that way.
I feel like I just beat a kitten to death... with a bag of puppies.
Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, supplies have already run out (I think ~3 PM EST). After reading both your comments, the deal was definitely exceptional.
Oh well, not like I "needed" a cheap awesome ultra-portable notebook...
