I guess this falls into the same class…sorta…and is an alternative to the TR if you like the Dell thing.

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspn_700m?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

It has reasonably good specs although the battery life sucks. It’s not the most attractive notebook either but at least it’s a possibility. It’s really not that much cheaper once you configure it to be closer to the TR’s specs (midlevel config).

Dell and all its spawn are a pox upon the earth… with the notable exception of their high-end LCD monitors. The steady decline of Dell’s equipment has pushed my company away over to HP. On of the high-level finance guys at out sister company had a brand new machine that took Dell no less than 3 on-site repair visits (not counting the appointments where the guy didn’t show up) to decide that the machine should be replaced. Before that, 2 of the last 5 machines we got in needed parts replacements of some kind within the first month of use.

Yeah, it’s nice to see Dell put out a system in this class but I wouldn’t ever buy one. It’s a shame that Dell doesn’t actually put in any time to actually design a notebook. They need to stop buying these OEM notebooks and then just rebranding them.

I’ll give that 0 for it’s looks (doesn’t look much different from an IBM). They should have given it the looks of the inspiron 300m which looks much more classy.

At least IBM actually designs their notebooks and they’re generally very good performers and have great features…for business people. I like the fact that they still invent stuff…unlike a lot of these “me too” companies.

I have one question for you…you say that dell buys oem notebooks and just gives them their own name and sells them…I thought they buy all parts, assemble together according to a customers needs and then sells them :?

To HP :shock:  :shock:  :shock:

And you haven’t had any problems with HP?  I can’t deicde whether to trust them again after getting 3 lemons IN A ROW.  :evil: 
They do have some great designs… but IMO horrible overall quality in laptops specifically. Yet their desktops don’t seem to have as consistent of manufactering defects as the laptops.  I would still love to get another zt3000…it…was…sooo…beautiful… :cry:  :cry:  :cry:  and powerful.
And HP does make…again IMO…some of the best printers.

They do configure the parts but the overall design is not theirs to begin with. A Taiwanese manufacturer will build a prototype and companies like Compaq/HP, Dell, etc. will bid on the designs to use in their product lines. So, the internal layout and the “barebones” laptop is what they use. It’s up to them to decide what the case should be like. It’s cheaper for them to use the generic case design than it is to make something really cool so they typically use the OEM design but just change the colors and add their logo to it.

These notebooks will never be refined because they’re are too generic. There’s not though behind making a refined system to begin with. They are typically designed with exchangeable parts (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it limits creativity).

[quote author=“OnMyWayUp”]To HP :shock:  :shock:  :shock:

And you haven’t had any problems with HP?  I can’t deicde whether to trust them again after getting 3 lemons IN A ROW.  :evil: 
They do have some great designs… but IMO horrible overall quality in laptops specifically. Yet their desktops don’t seem to have as consistent of manufactering defects as the laptops.  I would still love to get another zt3000…it…was…sooo…beautiful… :cry:  :cry:  :cry:  and powerful.
And HP does make…again IMO…some of the best printers.

No laptops. we’re phasing them out in favor of Blackberries. We’ve gone through some 30 desktops (can’t remember the model - I wasn’t the one who ordered them) but we haven’t had any hardware problems with them.

I think it’s relative to what you consider by “much cheaper”. I was basing it on the typical TR3A configuration which is $2199 (though typically found for less online at around $1879 @ NewEgg.com).

If you configure a similarly spec’d 700m then you should get around $1827. Granted there’s a $200 instant rebate that drops the price to $1627. Of course, to get the same amount of battery life of the TR, you’d have to buy the $129 extended battery which pushes the price up to $1756 after rebate.

So, at 512MB (1 DIMM for future upgrades), 40GB hard disk, stock DVD/CDRW, Intel 802.11g, XP Home Edition…

$1879 vs. $1627

The difference is only $252 which I still maintain isn’t that “much”. You do have to take into account that the battery won’t last as long as the TR’s stock battery. In that case, you need to at least purchase the extended battery for $129.

$1879 vs. $1756.

A difference of $123 which is still not “much cheaper”. You could save a little money if Dell didn’t force you to buy the stock battery which is essentially useless.

I wasn’t trying to start any bashing. Just stating facts. If you want to evaluate other aspects then you start your checklists. When the difference is that close you can’t but help to look at other aspects.

Vastly superior screen: Sony
Faster system: Dell
Lighter Weight: Sony (1 lb. lighter)
Smaller Form Factor: Sony
Built-in Webcam: Sony
Built-in Microphone: Sony
Memory Slot: Tie (Depends on your camera)

At any rate, it’s not a fair apples-to-apples comparison since I view these notebooks in different classes. A fairer comparison would be with the V505 model which is around the same/size/weight/specs. In that case, the Dell is still only ok as the V505 stock configurations are around $1899-1999 (MSRP) or $1779 at NewEgg.com.

Ok, my mistake. However, it’s then a tie because it depends entirely on what kind devices you have that support either format. A person who uses Compact Flash wouldn’t care less about either.

Again, I’m not saying the better choice is Sony….that decision is entirely up to the buyer. My main point was that if you were really trying to compare the TR to the 700m then the price difference really isn’t that drastic if you look at a specific configurations that are relatively close to each other.

If you load up the 700m to compare with the TR5AP then it’s a different story and the 700m is much cheaper.

I remember this guy who had bought an inspiron 300m and had probably got the best config available (40 gb, 1 gig ram, i think normal battery only, 4x DVD+RW) and I think he paid 2700 for it. The RAM was probably the most expensive at around $1000. Anyway’s I spent just 145 bucks extra and got a better deal (in my opinion) due to the inbuilt drive, screen, looks, etc.

i agree w/groovy… if you spec a dell to sony, the price is about the same minus maybe a hundred dollars aminus any decent design. 

although you mention about the rebates, blah blah blah…  dell has a neat marketing trick that i followed for about 3 months (i was going to get the 300m over the TR because it was supposedly cheaper).  but the 100 bucks off works by taking off a hardware that’s worth a bucks more.  seriously you get what you pay for.

I own a TR1 and A Dell D800.

Dell’s customer service is very very good.(great support forums at delltalk)

This new laptop looks very good.

But the Dell’s are not as sturdy as the Sony as Dell keeps costs down by using plastic. This at first may seem to be a problem, but I’ve found that is preferable to me as it keeps the cost way down and as long as it’s sturdy -who cares.

I would take the Dell over the Sony in a heartbeat.
As a matter of fact I just might. My D800 is wonderful but a tad heavy in the lap.

Some really cool thing about the D800:

I have a bootable 7200 hitachi in the media bay (DVD)
that clocks at the same specs as the main drive(handy).Its in a swappable hardrive enclosure that also houses optical drives. I also got a couple main drive enclosures that pop in and out like swappable drives (they cost about 10 bucks). So right now I have a backup that I can just pop in.( not to mention that I don’t even need to as the hitachi boots ).You can boot off USB hard drives, and just about anything (why not?)

IT has two fans. The main fan is swappable. There’s two apps called (fan and speedswitch) that let you customise everything about these machines (adjust every aspect of both fans and speedstep)

The list goes on and on.

I also had a M600 for a while. It was perfect and it cost 1.2K after everything. I returned it to Dell as I didn’t need it after all.

You can keep cost way down and upgrade later easily.

Dell sells parts for very resonable prices and you can talk them down usually. Get ram at crucial.
You can also get most parts cheaper on Ebay as there’s quite a few bulk suppliers that unload there.