Laptops to Avoid

[siq]

We wish every laptop that passes through our hands could land a perfect 10. However, this is real life, and there are winners and losers. While bona fide lemons are relatively few and far between, there's no shortage of systems that underwhelm us. Take a look at some of our recent reviews to learn what makes for a middling laptop. (And don't forget to visit CNET's top laptops list and buying guide for help locating a superior alternative.)

Very nice short article to look at on which laptops to avoid.

Find it here (http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3121_7-5511165-1.html?tag=cnetfd.ld).

[Caj Darkmoon]

Interesting, but even those weren't rated too badly. I wonder if CNet slams any laptops. You know that really bad ones exist, so it brings into question CNet's objectivity and worry about backlash from the manufacturer.

[siq]

Good point. I was actually looking at it and seeing that there wasn't really any harmfulthings said about them. With that said, I hate gateway

[Caj Darkmoon]

Heh, I'd have to agree with you there. The reason I mention it is that the makers of... oh, what was it... 3Dmark mabye. Crap, can't remember now. The big benchmark that just came out w/ an '05 version. Anyways, the makers of that are possibly pursuing legal action because a site owner made a bad comment (also rude, but thats beside the point) about their benchmark. He refused to back down because he has every right to avoid that. It makes me think that CNet is a little to politically correct when this is the best (worst) they can come up with.

[KryoNexus]

sadly, most companies/websites tha review stuff are that way. everyone is scared to really say what they think of a product for fear that:

1. someone might try to pursue legal action.
2. the company may no longer support them financially or with review products.
3. readers/visitors/the company will argue with them saying they weren't objective enough or their testing methodologies weren't good enough.

personally, i'm a bit sick of seeing every review give away a "Must Have" award to every product. let's face it, some products suck. there really is no way to get around it. if every product ever manufactured was awesome, then there wouldn't be a need for review sites because people wouldn't be worried about buyin a product. the whole point of this business is to be objective, detailed, and honest. i have to give it up to Kyle. he said what he really felt about the product. in the long run, this will gain him more respect not only amongst his peers, but amongst manufacturers as well (well he already has alot of that anyway, but you get my point)

anyway, you can't be scared to say something sucks. for instance, just in the past year, i know we've completely slammed two products that were very much deserving of it. one was the koolsolutions chillvent and the other was a heatsink that was supposed to be copper, but instead was just copper plated :-)

[Caj Darkmoon]

Just out of curiosity, how did you discover that it was copper plated? :)

At least when your reading reviews, you can usually tell how objective and realistic the reviewer is being by just looking closely at what is said. If there's blatant fanboyism, the review isn't as reliable. It's also a matter of finding places that give good reviews. I've been happy w/ the reviews I've found at bit-tech, and so far I've liked what I've seen here. I haven't really found a place that's entirely reliable for reviewing systems, but that's fine, because I don't buy systems, I build them. :)

It's actually the bad parts of reviews that led me to change my decision about 5.1 surround headphones from the widely known Zalmans to the Gainwards here: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=26-106-450&depa=0

[KryoNexus]

i think XPTB went to lap it or something, though i don't remember for sure now.

nice on the headphones, especially for that price.

[Caj Darkmoon]

Yeah, it is, especially considering what I've read about them. Now I'm just waiting for my debit card to arrive from my bank so that I can order them... gah...

[techniq]

Well.. surprisingly on this subject.. I just happen to have a bad experience with my first laptop purchase. Bought a Toshiba Satelite P25 (http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Toshiba-Satellite--Notebook-PC--P25S5262-/sem/rpsm/oid/95410/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do).. which I've been very pleased with till yesterday. Came home after a long day at work, grabbed the laptop, fired it up, only to notice the POST splash screen to have some weird discolorationn. I was then presented with a wonderful array of 0s in column format. Next, I tried booting Linux, which booted until X windows loaded, which it just sat.. so I tried my (neglected) windows xp only to get the ever popular BSOD.

After a few cycles of each I called there technical support to talk to 'Joseph', which if that is his name, mine is 'Amed'. Spending 30 minutes to following his exact instruction, which me repeating THE PROBLEM IS REPLICABLE OUTSIDE THE OS, AND IN MULTIPLE OS, I was then instructred to get out my system restoration disk, as this sounds like a software problem to him. I then proceeded to work my way up the escalation chain to then be told again to 'reinstall my OS'. After I gave them a verbal beating, I was then prompted to spend a wonderful 17 dollars for a box to send the month and a half old laptop to the service depot. There is a repair shop I could have taken it to, but is about 50 minutes away, and they pretty much guarenteed me they wouldn't have the part (aka, the video card).

Anyways, I have not sent it in yet as I had to get a laptop IDE to standard IDE (if you know the technical terms, if such, feel free to fill me in) so I could backup my data, as I also wasn't allowed to keep the HD.. as it too may be the problem ;) ;) ;). Oh, I also ran Memtest (which was ugly as heck, actually had many music notes for onscreen characters.. oh the humor) and it ran through fine. My guess is its the memory on the video card.

Ok, I'm tired of typing/ranting. Its been a great laptop so far, up until this.

[siq]

SUCK IT BLUE!!