Getting a New Computer

As I probably mentioned, I'm looking into getting a new laptop. My current laptop is an Acer Aspire 1691WLMi, which is several years old, and it hasn't aged well--but then, computers (and laptops in particular) rarely do. It's in very good condition, with the exception that serious use quickly sets off the fan, which has become quite noisy. However, the single-core 1.6MHz Pentium M processor is no longer anything to write home about, and the 512MB memory is a serious bottleneck.

So, essentially, I'm looking at two alternatives. Either I get a replacement laptop, in which case I'm looking for something in the 800-1,000€ neighborhood. I'd really like it to come with maxed out RAM, so I don't have to worry about that later. It's ridiculous how much laptop memory costs (relatively speaking, in particular for budget models) if you have to buy it separately. Luckily, most models come either maxed out nowadays, or at least pretty close to it (3GB of max 4GB max since 32-bit Windows can't use the extra memory anyway). So I guess Vista has at least brought some good with it. Other details are not that important, but I of course intend to get fair value for my money. An nVidia graphics card would be preferable, since I will be installing Linux on the laptop anyway and am somewhat unimpressed with the open source ATI drivers, but even that can be discussed. The other alternative is a netbook, meaning a small computer that is easy to carry about and... well, apart from price, that's pretty much the only upside. I'm pretty much unwilling to pay more than half of what I would for a decent laptop. (I'm seriously considering a 12" laptop rather than something similar to the 15.4" I have now, so a new laptop would be pretty portable anyway.) Some netbooks are sold with Linux installed, which is always a plus when you consider compatibility issues--even if I'd get a Windows version, it seems safe to assume that there would be a working Linux distro readily available.

My Current Laptop: A Retrospective

Now, fairly or not, I've been rather unimpressed with my Acer. Pricewise, it was somewhere between a budget and business computer when I bought it, so I expected it to not be complete crap. And it wasn't. But there have been issues.

The built-in wireless has been a problem at times. At first, I didn't realize what was the cause of the problems--Windows would sometimes simply totally freeze, and the hard disk park. The screen was on and showed what it had at the time of the freeze, but the computer was entirely unresponsive. It took keeping the power button pressed for a few seconds to actually turn it off. There was no mention of anything in the various Windows logs. I deducted the issue from the fact that there seemed to happen when other wireless systems came online (the neighbors turned on their laptop, I suppose). I called Acer support and was told that I could send in my computer, but if the issue wasn't happening consistently, there was probably nothing they could do about it. The extended warranty had seemed like a good idea at the time, but it really did not do me much good.

In hope of at least alleviating the issue of the computer freezing and possibly corrupting my files in doing so, I run the what's-its-name program that turns a FAT32 partition into NTFS. It may have secured my files (or not), but either way it turned out to be a bad idea, as it seriously slowed down everything. Another call to Acer support and I was told that my laptop was optimized for FAT32, whatever that meant. In any case, it was a bit too late to go back now.

I finally fixed the freezing problem myself, by changing the frequency my base station uses. Of course, I'm still not sure that that was what eventually helped, or that it was the wireless that caused the problem, but since my computer now freezes very occasionally if at all rather than almost daily, evidence strongly suggests so. (Incidentally, much later, I once got the same freeze under Linux, except that I got some info about the wireless in the logs. So I guess it wasn't a Windows OS issue or an Acer driver issue, but actually a hardware problem.)

At some point, Windows was starting to act up. Rather than wiping my hard disk clean (taking all the data and configuration files with it), I was hoping to use the Windows CDs to repair the OS. Except that there were no Windows CDs included; all there was was a set of system restore disks, and you probably know that they wipe your system. Not having any practical alternatives for backup at that time, I yet again called Acer support, and ultimately gets told what amounts to no, I'm not getting any Windows CDs, and would I kindly hang up already as I am screwing up the support guy's average response time? I kindly thanked the guy for his patience and hang up, and lived with Windows' kinks. (I later solved this issue as well, by installing Linux and mirroring the entire Windows partition to a file on an external USB drive and then performing the system restore. It was not ideal, but I still have a copy of my entire previous Windows installation (and not only the files Windows would let me copy) available should I need it, and I find myself spending more and more time running Linux anyway.)

Then there was that Acer issue with an Active-X component that allowed remote execution of arbitrary code. I have no idea of whether this issue has been explicitly fixed by Acer or not, but it has supposedly been present on some laptops as early as 1998. (You can disable it yourself, though, which is what I did.) I honestly feel like this can't be described as anything but sloppy. There has been other peculiarities as well: I removed the D partition to install Linux and one of the essential components that Acer had installed freaked out if a second partition wasn't available, resulting in it eating all CPU cycles, until I disabled the component entirely.

So all in all, I haven't been terribly impressed by my Acer experience. Apart from the (probable) wireless issue, I can't complain much about the laptop itself, but in general it felt very clear that Acer could not really care less about me as a customer once they had got my money. Well, vote with your wallet as they say, and I am still determined that my next laptop will not be an Acer. In the future? Who knows, but not my next one.

The Netbook Route

I have had an opportunity to play around with three different brands of netbooks (there aren't that many available here yet): An Asus, an Acer and an HP. The very quick verdict is that I can't stand the Asus' keyboard at all; it feels like mashing Lego pieces with oversized fingers. So that one is right out. The HP, on the other hand, has a great keyboard (for a netbook at least), but underperforms on battery life and effective CPU speed in all reviews I've read, and especially the high-end versions cost as much as a budget laptop. HP also has a new model coming out that supposedly has the same great keyboard, but if previews are to believed it again fails on other aspects, such as worse connectors than the current model and using a seriously underperforming hard disk. That leaves the Acer, which is reasonably cheap, uses the same 1.6MHz Atom processor as most other models, and has a keyboard that, while undersized and nowhere near as good as the one of HP's model, at least has a decent feel to it. Fujitsu-Siemens has also released a version that seems interesting as it is reasonably cheap and comes with Bluetooth, but I had not had a chance to try it out yet. I have yet to see the MSI Wind anywhere, or the higher-end Asus netbooks (although I feel the actual value of a netbook becomes more dubious as the price and size increase; might as well buy a laptop, then), and I'm not aware of any other brands (Dell, for instance) being sold anywhere.

So I'm a bit divided, here. On the one hand, I am unimpressed with Acer's performance as a company. But on the other hand, I have little faith that other manufacturers are actually any better. Still, it feels like I should at least give others a chance to prove me wrong. Yet again, if I buy the cheapest Acer (512MB, 8GB Flash Memory) and boost it with a 8GB SDHC and 1GB extra RAM, I think I'd get a pretty cheap solution that I can afford just to try things out, and a comparatively strong one at that. I fully understand that it is not meant to replace a real laptop, but then I'm not at all convinced that I need one at the moment, either. After all, my current laptop mostly rests unused on my table at home, only seeing use when I am traveling, and even then I can't really say I use it very extensively. A netbook might easily suffice, and if it doesn't, well, in the worst case scenario I have just paid some 330€ for the netbook, and I'm pretty sure I could think of some use for it. I could also go with a 1GB/120GB HDD version for effectively just 10€ more (as I can then skip the SDHC and at least temporarily also the extra RAM), or 20€ more if I want the Windows XP version. If the Acer had slightly bigger keys, there would probably be no contest at all.

The Laptop Route

The laptop route is much more open-ended at this time. After all, there's a multitude of models out there that aren't manufactured by Acer. Having said that, there is one model that I find myself returning to regularly. I've been pretty satisfied with my budget HP desktop computer, so I've paid particular attention to HP's offerings. The Pavilion tx2590 is a 12" laptop with a touch screen, so you can use a pen instead of a mouse (and presumably, also draw on the screen). It seems like a reasonably solid model (except that there's a slightly faster version seemingly around the corner). It goes for about 1,000€, and the only significant drawback I've seen is that it ships with 3GB memory rather than the maxed out 4GB and has an ATI card. Of course, it would be awesome if it had better than 1280x800 resolution, but the current trend seems to be 1280x800 and it's questionable if a higher resolution would be useful for a screen that size. I must admit that I'm quite excited about this model, and if I was sure I needed a laptop, it would be very high on my list of alternatives... which isn't that long anyway, if I limit myself to 12" models and an 800-1,000€ price range. HP also flashed a tx2690 on their website for a while (with slightly better CPU specs) and right now a tx2670 that comes with 4GB memory, but those models seem to be in flux, with the latter not being available in shops(?) and the latter not even having price information yet.

Currently...

Currently though, I'm quite satisfied to sit and wait. I'm not in immediate need for a new laptop, and I'm kind of hoping that Christmas will bring some offers and possibly also new models, such as the F-S netbook and the tx2670. I'll make a new post once some sort of purchase is in the near future, rather than in the distant future.