Samsung X20-XVM 1600-V

[Oliver Fromme]

Rainer Duffner <rainer at ultra-secure.de> wrote:
 > Oliver Fromme wrote:
 > > Rainer Duffner <rainer at ultra-secure.de> wrote:
 > > > They don't say how long it takes to "pick" it up
 > > 
 > > Yes, they do:  Next workday.
 > > 
 > > > and you don't know how long it takes until you get it back.
 > > 
 > > 5 to 7 days, including pick-up and return.
 > 
 > That's good.
 >  From FSC, I'd get a replacement notebook meanwhile (at least, my 
 > colleague was offered one, when he went to Sinitec's service-point with 
 > his E7010).

That's nice indeed.  That's something Samsung doesn't do
(at least it's not mentioned in their terms and conditions).

However, privately it's not a big problem for me to life
without a notebook for a week (or even two).  If necessary
I can use my GF's computer, or drag an old miditower from
the basement.

 > You pay twice the price basically for that fact that:
 > - you've got extended warranty (3 years)

You can get that optionally at Samsung, too (i.e. 3 years
instead of two).  Costs a bit more, of course.

 > - replacement-parts will be available for 3 or 5 years (at a price, 
 > possibly)
 > - the notebooks are generally less susceptible to breakage

I'm not convinced that's not a prejudice.  It might be true
for specific vendors, though ...  For example, I've had
several Gericom notebooks in my hands, and they all looked
and felt cheap and fragile (rickety plastic etc.).  However,
even that might be a prejudice of mine.

I've also seen IBM notebooks that looked like they would
break if you just stared at them.  :-)

 > - for a Dell, your support-calls are not routed to India ;-)

Samsung has a German service hotline.

 > I can say that compared to the Samsungs I've seen in store, my Lifebook 
 > feels much more robust, though this comes at the price of higher weight.
 > If you have the samsung in front of you, open the lid and close it 
 > several times and ask yourself: "Can I do that 1500 times?"
 > ;-)

I've seen the predecessor of the notebook in question (the
X20 1600-III model) at a store.  It made quite a robust
impression, the case is made of a magnesium alloy, and the
weight is 2400g, which is pretty OK.  Yes, that's including
batteries.

 > The saying in de.comp.sys.notebooks goes like this: "Buy too cheap and 
 > you're going to buy twice".

"Cheap" and "too cheap" aren't necessarily the same thing.

I guess the people to which the saying applies are those
"consumers" who look at the price only, but not at details
like the vendor warranty, the robustness of the case, or
even the difference between Pentium-M and Celeron-M.
All of those are important points for me, but that does
_not_ meant that the price is completely meaningless to
me.

 > They'll also recommend you HP, IBM, Dell and FSC there, together with 
 > Acer-laptops (yuk).

If they recommend me a handful of vendors, based on past
reputation of those vendors (which might be prejudice
or just personal preference), without knowing my needs
and requirements (which is, first and foremost, FreeBSD
support, and not being overpriced), then my opinion is
that that recommendation is just worthless bullshit.

(Sorry for the strong language.)

 > Dell is also quite good (I hear), and the hardware is pretty "standard" 
 > for a notebook.

Yes, that's what I've heard, too.

 > Too bad you can't go to a shop and try-before-you buy.

That's the problem.  I'm not going to buy a notebook that
I haven't tried myself before.  For that reason, my choice
of notebooks is limited to those models that are available
from local shops.

Best regards
   Oliver

-- 
Oliver Fromme, secnetix GmbH & Co KG, Oettingenstr. 2, 80538 München
Any opinions expressed in this message may be personal to the author
and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of secnetix in any way.

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