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2008 Shopping Guide - Laptop
2007 is almost gone. There were so many products caught our eyes in the year. But 2008 is coming! Anything we buy now will be used in 2008 mostly. So let's recap some of the hottest products of 2007 and look forward to 2008! We'll start with some laptop products because it's always on the top of the Christmas tech shopping list. In 2007, we don't really have any killer laptop products. Most notebooks are still using Core 2 Duo processors (not quad-core yet), so we do have a lot of good products. One of my personal favourite is the Dell XPS M1330. It's one of the world's thinnest laptops with 13.3" screen and relatively powerful performance. By only spending NZ$2,499, you can get an Intel Core 2 Duo processor T7500 (2.2GHz/800 FSB/4MB Cache), Windows Vista Home Premium operating system, 3GB DDR2 RAM, 250GB SATA hard drive, 13.3" UltraSharp widescreen TFT display (1280x800) with webcam, 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS, 8x DVD double layer writer, 802.11 a/g wireless card and 2 year XPS Premier Service. If you're a gamer and want to play games anywhere you want (say, on the top of Sky Tower for instance), or looking for a desktop replacement laptop, you may want to check out the Dell XPS M1730. It's the world's first notebook with an optional AGEIA PhysX processor and available in 4 colours (Blue, Red, Gray & White). If you have NZ$4,099 in your pocket, you can get a Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 (2.4GHz/800 FSB/4 MB Cache) processor, Windows Vista Ultimate operating system, 4GB dual-channel DDR2 RAM, 400GB 7200RPM SATA RAID 0 hard drive (2x200GB), 17" UltraSharp widescreen TFT display (1920x1200), dual 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT graphics with SLI Technology, 8x DVD double layer writer, 802.11a/g wireless card and 2 year XPS Premier Service. Don't get me wrong, I'm not from Dell. I like Dell is because of the value it delivers for each dollar you have. But my favourite laptop brand is still - Sony VAIO! Unfortunately, Sony doesn't really have any very exciting products this year, although it does have lots of good products. For example, the Sony VGNSZ58GNC SZ Series Notebook is the one I'd consider. But again, comparing with Dell, you'll get much less for the same money. In return, Sony offers you the build quality, great looking and the brand power. I have talked about Dell and Sony (my personal favourites). But none of them are really the market winner of 2007. So who is….? HP is now the biggest PC manufacturer in the world and also the best seller in NZ. There must be a reason for that. HP really has some good models with solid performance and sharp pricing. For example, the HP Compaq Presario B1201TU offers a Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 (1.67GHz), 2GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, 12.1" WXGA widescreen display, Windows Vista Business operating system, DVD writer, webcam, 802.11 a/b/g wireless card, Bluetooth and 1 year international warranty, all at the price of NZ$2,000. When it comes to value, no one can really beat Acer. Acer also made itself the world's third largest PC manufacturer recently by purchasing the US PC maker Gateway in a US$1 billion deal in September 07. Acer's Aspire and TravelMate series have many value-for-money models. The Ferrari models from Acer are also very appealing. While we're talking about Acer Ferrari, let’s not forget ASUS's Lamborghini VX2 as well. That's the most affordable "Lamborghini" in the world and of course, with very good performance. Oh, did I say that there was no ice breaking technology for laptops this year? I'm wrong. The Solid State Drive (SSD) is definitely one. It uses Flash drive technology and largely eliminates seek time, latency and other electro-mechanical delays and failures associated with a conventional hard drive. In other words, SSD brings laptops with better performance, taking less room, with a lower failure rate and most importantly, with much less power consumption than a conventional hard drive. In short, SSD makes laptops smaller, lighter, faster and safer. But it's still expensive (like most new technologies when they first come out) and isn’t yet as big as traditional hard drives in terms of capacity. Although it's not about to replace current hard drives, some laptop makers have already rolled out new models with SSD. Toshiba is one of those to have made a very good SSD model already! As we know, Toshiba is always a pioneer when it comes to laptop products, like the Tablet PCs. This time, it came out with the super slim Portege R500. The flagship model at the moment is the Portege R500 (SP105C). By throwing NZ$5,000, you'll get a stunningly light notebook which is a world first in many ways. It has a Intel Core 2 Duo processor ULV U7600 (1.2GHz), Windows Vista Business operating system, 1GB DDR2, 12.1" WXGA (1280x800) display, DVD double layer writer, 64GB Solid State Drive, 801.11a/g/n wireless, Bluetooth and 3 year international warranty. And can you believe the battery life? Up to 12.5 hours! Apple fan? Don't worry, I didn't forget Mac. Although I'm not a Mac user yet, I do like Apple products a lot. However, Apple hasn’t had any brand new laptop products in the year of 2007. It did update MacBook twice in May and November of 2007 respectively. Plus one MacBook Pro upgrade in June 2007. If you want to buy a MacBook, now may be a good time. Thanks to the November 07 update, we can now get a Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz CPU, 1GB memory, 120GB hard drive, double layer SuperDrive and Leopard at the price of NZ$2,199! But if you want to buy a MacBook Pro, you may want to wait for next year. According to some rumours, Apple are releasing a new slim MacBook Pro early next year with a 13.3" screen that may use SSD as well. BTW, if you're a business shopper, Lenovo, HP and Toshiba may be the best options. Cheers Allen 
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