Been surfing around a lot lately to check out good laptop buys, hoping to get one before school reopens. But there are just no good Tablet PCs around at the moment.

I was once fascinated with laptops in secondary school, where I got my first personal notebook in secondary two. It lasted with my till Junior college days, an old 333Mhz AMD Compaq Presario. Then it’s screen went “kaput”. Then till now I had always used my Dell Axim X50v as my personal net/email note taker when I am out. Thinking that I had “outgrown” laptops. But so as old habits are to stay, I think I am in need of another laptop again…

Then till I get to find out so many limitations a PDA can have, like not able to work out intensive programming/designing at Starbucks or MacDonalds which I always love freeing myself out of in comparison to slaving at my workstation at home or office. Moreover, when school reopens, it will definitely be a very good tool for studies.

Yes I may have out grown laptops & notebooks, that’s what I am getting a Tablet Pc this time – a perfect companion for lectures, school work, not to mention the ease of note taking. The thing is that with Windows Vista due to be released in Q1 2007 (yes its delayed). There are no good Tablets which can run windows vista currently except for those high end $4000+ ones, like the Toshiba Tecra M4 ($4222 SGD w/GST) & the newest Toshiba M400 ($4010 SGD w/GST), killer prices. I can get those dinky one year old tablets like the Acer C300 series or the Fujitsu T4020, but its not worth it considering that it will be 2 generations old in 6 months time.

I just hate this period where the new Intel Yonah chip being recently released, then it’s the “silent period” where we can only hope & pray that some new model just pop up in store one day. Even online review sites are all quiet on Tablet PCs now.

Till then just hope that Fujitsu/Asus/Acer refreshes their Tablet PC line in time for school reopens.

You might know the Alienware brand as an enthusiast gaming laptop manufacturer. They are largely and independent producer, who core line of business involve rebranding OEM gaming laptops tailored for extreme desktop and portable gaming. After some weeks of hiding in an out of the box, its official this time, Dell had acquired long time gaming rig OEM Alienware for an undisclosed price.

Well hopefully with the acquisition, maybe we can see Alienware products readily available to the Asia-pacific regions as opposed to currently.

Read more on the official article over here.

Show report! Visited the IT show (Held Suntec 9th-12th March 2006) yesterday evening on the opening day, Thurday to beat the weekend crowds & check out the good fresh deals. The so-claimed 4m wide walk ways are really really unbelievable. It was so clear I could even lie down flat on the exhitbiton floor & claim that I could did that in a crowded IT show! So as my friends were crazy suggesting that, but I really don’t mind doing that for a wager if they wanted haha.

Geared on Laptops
Anyway many people I know currently are looking for laptops, let be friends, relatives, acquaintances & even including my own sister (not to mention me) haha so I guess its time again to plunge into the show & update on prices & happenings, specifically on Laptops this time.

Best Deals
Generally, Dell & Acer stole the show for the best bargain PCs. Sadly Fujitsu, Toshiba, NEC & Sony are still selling 1-year old laptops, clearly what they are doing are clearing or old or current stocks, theres not my innovative products on the current Core Duo systems yet, & their prices are not competitive either, very much like everyday store prices with extra “freebies” like a cheap optical mouse, external harddisk, etc (worth $200 as they claim my ass) thrown in. Obviously people like me who know the market rates will seriously shun such ways of marketing. The IT show for these companies is just an informal gathering for them to sell their everyday products, no good deals at all.

On the contrary, Compaq/HP & LG did come out with newer month-old laptop models, but are just too expensive ($3,500++) , overal not a good bargain from my perspective.

Sales people
Furthermore, most of the sales persons I approached are just typical students starting the commissioned-based job on that very day, just for the $10/hr wages, but they all know nuts about PCs – Their knowledge of the product they are selling is as limited to the very flyer they are handing to you. I tested sales-reps from LG, Fujitsu, Toshiba & they heck don’t know anything about even current models of laptops their company is selling but not featured in the show, not to mention giving “blank looks” when you ask them about upcoming release dates of a particular laptop model featured on the company’s very own press releases & website!

I have quite a few friends working on the IT show (& past exhibitions as as comdex, comex), so I know how the system works. Sadly the PC makers choose to hire such incompetent sellers, obviously they don’t know what they are lacking (though its good money for us students to work there as a whole).

My Laptop picks
After my observations on, the best laptop deals are, tata can you believe it from Acer & Dell. Though Acer are one of the few brands I usually not patronise, but I definately have to commend on their ambitiousness to put in the best configurations into most of their laptops at a steal-away price (value for money), contrary to other brands like Fujitsu & NEC who take ages to release a new system & they prices are often fixed. Dell shines for the lack of the middleman & price. Heres a summary of the best for money, not to mention latest month old laptops running on the Intel Core Duo “Yonah” Platform.

My General advise to anyone intending to buy a laptop now is to go for AT LEAST an Intel CoreDuo or AMD Turon 64 (Try NOT to get the Dothan or Sonoma 700 series based laptops, this technology has it roots more than 2 years ago!). If not in 6 months time your laptop will: 1. Be 2 generations old with 64-bit laptops out September & 2. Unable to Run Windows Vista (aka windows longhorn) when it releases Q3 this year (at least Intel GMA950 required).

Best Laptop buys of the show

Misc Deals:
Samsung/Lite-on DVD-RW Dual Layer internal writer going fro $75 ($4 lower then lowest SLS price of $79) at the top floor exhibition hall, at the back.

Other than that, another thing which caught my eye are how flash media prices had become now, not to mention harddisk too, I remembered paying $280 SGD for a 250GB Hitachi Harddisk once, now a 300GB Maxor Harddisk retails at $179 in the show. 4GB SD card hit the below-$250 price for the first time, averaging $239 SGD, with the lowest going at $218 SGD at Best Bargain computers (yes the SimLim hardware store). Rates for their Transcend 4GB SD was $299 in January & is $218 now, dunno should I go for it, if they can bring the price so low & make a profit from it, a < $200 price may even be possible in a few months time Mmm decisions, decisions.

Yes prices do change alot now, & I still recalled paying $75 for a 4MB Sony Memory Stick back in 1999 before, OMG!

Apparently, Microsoft is coming up with a new line of UMPC (Ultra Mobile Personal Computer), code-named Origami. It will be a seemless blend between our current PDAs & tablet/notebook PCs. So far the closest we had seen embarking on the concept previously was fujitsu with their ultraportable & highly successful Lifebook P1510.

The only thing is that the UMPCs will run a rather new & unique software allowing a radical new way to input data, different from current Tablet PC/Personal Computer OS as well.

Lineup of Ultra Mobile PCs showcase at Cebit

Microsoft had launched their UMPC website up recently, spearheaded by the Ultra-Mobile PC team, you can check out the details on the following links:
Microsoft Press Release
channel9 1st looks