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VPR Matrix 200A5 Reviewed
An anonymous reader writes "The hard to find VPR Matrix 200A5 laptop has been reviewed. Never heard of it? It's a laptop that's designed by F.A. Porsche and sold exclusively by...Best Buy! It seems there is starting to be a rather large following of the VPR line of laptops, but that they are getting tougher to find at Best Buy (not sure if they are discontinuing or if they are selling out stock before releasing a new version.)"
I think it looks like crap.
I dunno "Matrix Reloaded" sounds a lot cooler. They sure have a lot of these movies coming out don't they?
Slashdot had the story when these things were announced here. And no, it's not a dupe, this is a review.
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
When I first read the post I thought it was a review of some new part of the matrix.
The new BMW line of desktop computers, each with an inline six processor engine and delivering 500 megaflops of power at 3 GHz. AND 4 wheel drive!
"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
I read somewhere that WorstBuy is dropping the whole vprMatrix line. Probably explains why I was able to get the 17" LCD monitor for $300 after rebate. I've been trying to buy another LCD for the past two months and can't find them. In fact, the store doesn't seem to have much vprMatrix stuff at all.
...website served by Yugo.
Another innocent server Slashdotted...
Arr! The laws of physics be a harsh mistress!
"Never heard of it? It's a laptop that's designed by F.A. Porsche (the guys who designed the 911 and some Samsung LCD monitors)"
I'd prefer a laptop designed by the guys who did the Firebird. They could put a red light ping-pong'ing back and forth and going 'whoosh whoosh...'. That'd be much cooler than this Ferrari laptop that probably can't even Turbo Boost.
"Derp de derp."
I thought that the Porsche 911 looked like a whale trying to surf.
Not impressed with this laptop either.
The laptop looks like a good set of compromises that all laptop manufacturers have to make. I don't see what all the negative comments are based upon! Now, the question that should have been asked and answered by the review is: DOES IT RUN LINUX WELL? Who wants to buy a computer only to be stuck with Windows? Do all the components have Linux drivers or at least have freely available documentation for those of us who can write drivers?
These look nice and have nice spec/feature sheets, but have had some trouble with reliability. The Best Buy computer guy told me that genuine failure returns are running around 10%. They run _very_ hot, even for a laptop, to the point where I think it would be uncomfortable to have it on your lap for an extended period of time.
Does anybody know if NetBSD has been ported to this yet?
As the market for the Porsche 911 is filled with short, pudgy, balding men, it seemed only natural that the designers of the 911 also produce a product that caters to the short, pudgy, balding men of the IT market.
Then after 8 hours of hair pulling and cursing, it turns out it has an ALi chipset. Not Soundblaster Live! Oh, but that's not all folks. A few days later, I call asking for motherboard info.
Frustrating. Really frustrating. The machine itself is quite nice though. Beautiful widescreen, fast RAM, and very stylish. If there is this supposed following of vprMatrix users, I wonder if they would be of better use than tech support.
IWARS.
People, in general, disappoint me. Politicians even more so.
-Lucas
Every time I drop by the local Best Buy (Woodside, Queens, NYC) the VPR laptops are missing more-and-more keys from the keyboard. Doesn't say much for the quality of the components on the things.
The speakers are also pretty deplorable (after demoing the Beethoven sample that comes with XP on various display laptops)
I hate Grammar Nazi's
A lot of people at my work have powerbooks, ms office for mac is actually better product then it is on the pc, go figure. Only problem people at work have experienced with the powerbook is that suspends when you close the screen.
Have you ever been to a turkish prison?
This Porsche and the other Porsche are from the same family, but completely different companies.
Heute die Welt, morgen das Sonnensystem!
THis is yet another decent quantity production item that uses the proprietary slot load drive that Apple uses. Hopefully another manufacturer will pick it up and future iBooks will also have it. Faster optical drives won't come so few and far between anymore for Apple.
The availiblity of this laptop and its parts has also made the slot load DVD/CDRW and Slotload superdrive (as this new model has become availible) as a part for a much cheaper price.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
This is not the same Porsche that designed the 911. I believe he is a distant relative and is mooching off the name to generate marketing buzz.
Dr.Ing.h.c.F.Porsche AG is the German car manufacturer that has been designing and producing sports cars for over 55 years. link.
Porsche Design is a different company that does all sorts of design work, from radios to sunglasses to pens. It was split off of the car company back in the 80's, I believe.
So, Porsche Design really didn't design the 911 (the body of the car was designed by Ferdinand "Butzi" Porsche (Ferry's son) while the engine was designed by Ferdinand Piech (Dr. Porsche's nephew) in 1963).
--- witty signature
For years Slashdot has had an abundance of game related content. Unfortunately, we've also had limited space to post those stories. We strive to cover a wide range of tech news, and this often means passing on a good game story because something else is more important. But today I get to announce the creation of games.slashdot.org, where we'll finally have a home for all the gaming related content that might otherwise have been rejected. Keep reading to learn more.
F.A. Porsche might have the same name as the car manufacturer, but AFAIK he has absolutly nothing to do with the design of the cars.
If you want to e-mail me, use my PGP Key.
Don't laugh, but their kettle, toaster, coffee maker and citrus press are all worthy of drooling over too.
Oh, and so is the Data Bank, a FireWire external hard disk drive that they designed for LaCie, that's styled to look like a silver ingot.
I'd link directly to their kitchen accessories but their flash-based site is annoying. If you're interested in viewing them, look at them here, courtesy of Amazon.co.uk.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
http://www.vprmatrix.com/ (video card)
http://www.matrixnetsystems.com/ (networks)
http://www.matrix.com/ (hair salon)
http://www.matrix-orbital.com/ (serial interface displays)
http://www.matrixgames.com/ (video games)
http://www.alfa-matrix.com/ (connecting "hearts and brains) (?)
http://www.dakotamatrix.com/ (mineral sales) (!)
and on
and on
and on
Is it just me, or has the Matrix buzzword been beaten to f****ng death?
This isn't a good review. They didn't even crack open the case, show us the CPU and other internal components! They said they compared to two laptops, but where are the graphs and scores, man!?
So, the Apple Powerbook doesn't have functionality? Windows OS does?
On a more serious note, this machine's main claim to fame seems to be an Apple-esque look and feel, including a slot loading DVD. Slot loading drives are cute, until you have a business-card-sized CD to read. Most slot loading drives don't handle them.
I think that if appearances mattered that much to me, I might shell out the few extra bucks to get an Apple. Here's another reason to prefer Apple (again from the review, which seems to be /.'ed):
Is Apple really going to be worse that that?See what I've been reading.
This site got slashdotted in LESS TIME than the designer's 911 can do 0-60 ...
-- (Score:i, Imaginary)
Nice to have that kind of name recognition, though!
Personally, I'm boycotting Best Buy, but that discussion is for another time...
!Sig
Double Slashdot Effect Award.
Because you know that nobody can be *told* what the matrix is.
From CNET:
This is not the same company that designed the Porsche 911.
-- OpenVerse Visual Chat: http://openverse.com
F.A. Porsche (the guys who designed the 911 and some Samsung LCD monitors)
Actually, no. If you read the previous posting you would discover that this is Porsche Designs GmbH, *not* the same as the car company, nor the designers of the 911. These folks started out in 1972 (when was the 911 first on the market?) and design everything from LCDs to kitchen sinks to scooters. But sorry, no 911.
And by reading into their website a little further, they have 12-14 employees. Makes you wonder why this laptop is so shoddy...
... I'll just post a little something. I think the first Porsche laptop was pretty much a PC laptop in a near-perfect ripoff of the original TiBook--15.4" widescreen, titanium shell, thin, etc. I remember seeing it online when it came out and glanced at it at Best Buy once when I was I there. Can't tell right now--the official site is loading really slow and seems to have precious little actual info--click 'notebook' and you just get this dumb flash thing in a tiny window.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
While the machine looks very nice, and performs well when it's running, I've had mine 3 months now, and out of that time, it's been working 5 days (so up and running for 5 days, down for around 85 and counting).
It died 3 days after I bought it (I really was liking it was working; light, fast, looks nice). Just dead (wouldn't turn on, no lights, etc.)
Called in to their tech support, and they sent me a box to sent it in. Took about 2 weeks total, then I had it back. They said the mother board and CPU had to be replaced.
When it came back, it was making a "thumping" noise. Two days later, the LCD died. Called tech support again, and they sent another box out.
About 2 weeks later, I got a call saying they were waiting on parts. Once I week I now get a call saying they're waiting on parts... *sigh*
So, I've spent around $2k on a laptop, and, excluding the first three days and 2 days a couple of weeks later, I haven't been able to use it.
So, my review:
1. Nice looking machine. OK performance for the money.
2. Their tech support is very good about getting the machine in for repairs (always helpful and polite, lets you know when they are having trouble and can't get it back).
3. Based on my own experience, these things break very easy.
4. They don't appear to be able to get replacement mother boards (what I'm waiting on), so if you're vpr dies, you are SOL.
I personal regret buying this laptop. I really need to have a laptop now, so I'm now in the position of having to buy another one, if I can't get Best Buy to either fix it, send me some other comparable laptop, or my money back (haven't been able to do any of these three at this point).
Any suggestions on getting them to send me some other laptop or my money? I've been trying, but they've refused to this point. Not sure what I can do, as any legal action I take against Best Buy is likely to exceed the cost of a new laptop....
Hey wait a minute... I thought Best Buy was evil? Does anyone know how any of that got resolved, or if it did?
Do not read this sig.
But I have recomended their desktops to quite a few people now that I am no longer in the whitebox business. They seem to actually get it. They balance HDD, graphics and ram nicely (unlike many OEM's that will STILL include 128MB or ram on a system with a 64MB video card and then charge you an arm and a leg to upgrade it.) So far no complaints from any of the people who bought em. In fact if I couldn't beat their prices using newegg and a free OS I would probably buy my next pc from them.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
OK, that Amazon.co.uk link doesn't want to work any more (although it seemed fine when I previewed the post), so either follow the link and then search the kitchenware section for Porsche or try the following links for some visuals and specs:
Siemens Porsche Cordless Kettle
Siemens Porsche Coffe Maker
Siemens Porsche Cool Wall Toaster
Siemens Porsche Citrus Press
Siemens Porsche Blender
And for those of us with flowing locks:
Siemens Porsche Hair Dryer
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
I'm typing on one. It's missing some keys, and the keyboard doesn't seem to all that well anchored to the rest of the machine. It has several dead pixels. From time to time, it forgets about some of its RAM. It has recently taken to locking up, but I'm not ready to blame that on the hardware just yet. (It only seems to happen in Windows.)
Runs Linux well enough, though. (at least SuSE 8.whatever)
F. A. Porsche isn't "the guys who designed...." he is apparently the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche who originally founded porsche and is responsible for designs such as the 911 and Volkswagen Beetle. His son Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche apparently worked with him on the Beetle and was in charge of the company until he died in 1998. I think the FA Porsche we refer to these days is Ferdinand Alexander Porsche. I've also seen an espresso machine and a TFT monitor.
Not aliens!
.
After having worked at Best Buy, and seen the amount of returns on these things from overheating, I say run like the plague. I got myself a VPR Matrix though, their lower end line, that doesn't have heating problems, 3 months ago I got a 1.8ghz P4-M, 512mb DDR Pc 2100, built in wireless, killer 15" LCD(The laptop is a rebadged Samsung) and only 5.8lbs in weight, not to mention 999$ in price. The 175 looks intriguing too, its even lighter, but with a 14" screen. So avoid the widescreen laptops, they are junk, go for the lower end, that's good.
You can have the prettiest, fastest laptop out there but, as soon as the fragile hard drive dies.... You have the prettiest anchor.
UNIX/Linux Consulting
I currently work for BB, as the lead tech at a best buy in the northern Chicago area (i'm actually typeing this while on the clock). At the moment, and from what i've been told, yes, the current line of VPR laptops are being closed out. We have carried them since before christmas, if i recall, and it the 200a5 was reviewed in Maximum PC mag. They keep saying that they are comeing out with a new line, which i hope they do, but i haven't seen nor heard anything.
It's too bad, becasue they are some REALLY nice laptops, arguably the best we carry. I haven't seen nor felt any heat issues, nor had any reliability issues with them (Sony, in my experiance, is the worst of the bunch in that catagory). I've worked with them extensivly, and i can't report any high heat issues. My only complaint was that the Northbridge, made by Ali, has absolutly horrid preformance, and in testing scored around half the memory bandwith of other comparable laptops. Also, the graphics chipset is only 32mb.
BTW, the price that a lot of places are quoteing at, and the price on the VPR website, is way off. When we still actually had an active stock, they were selling for $1600 after rebates, and when we were trying to clear them out, they went for $1350 after rebates. Good luck finding them now, though. If you can, the 180b5 was also great, pretty much the exact same thing as the 200a5, only with a 1.8 GHz proc and a 30gb hard drive, vs. the 200a5's 2GHz and 40gb.
I'm not too sure what is going on with the whole VPR thing though. I hope they are continued, they were wildy sucessful, our stores could almost never keep them in stock, desktops or laptops. We are getting a new high-end desktop in, as of 4-29-03. To my knowlage, it's the 9150, a 3GHz P4 with dual 120gb hard drives in RAID 0, and a GF4 Ti4200. So they VPRs arn't dead, i hope they are continued, but i don't know. It is nice, though, to actually carrey a quality computer, insted of selling e-machines and compaqs all day. I don't know why they would be closed out, they were wildly profitable, and customers and employees both love them.
I got one of the 17" LCD's $300 after rebate. Problem with this is there are no useful specs anywhere for the thing. The best buy people opened one of the boxes to see if anything useful was in it, nope. Website had no real details, best buy people were clueless. It's been a good monitor though for $300.
"Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson
Introduction
Next time you are at your local Best Buy store, you may want to check out that sleek looking laptop with the unfamiliar name. VPR Matrix is Best Buy's own line of private label PC's found only at Best Buy stores. The 200A5 is the VPR Matrix flagship laptop designed by world renowned F.A. Porsche design house. F.A. Porsche is the grandson of the legendary car designer Ferdinand Porsche. In 1963 F.A. Porsche designed the body of the Porsche 911 car. Then in 1972 he began his own design firm, Porsche Design in GmbH Austria. You may recognize some of F.A. Porsche's design influences on many consumer electronics, including Samsung LCD monitors and the entire VPR Matrix computer line. The F.A. Porsche influence is immediately noticeable on the VPR Matrix line. The 200A5 is encased in a modernistic magnesium case with an emphasis on simplistic design and function. Buttons are easily laid out on the 200A5 with inputs and controls where you would expect them. But it is what's underneath the hood of this stylish laptop that really shines.
Features
The 200A5 uses some of the best brand name components available. Upon receiving the 200A5 the first thing to stand out other than the magnesium case, is the slot loading DVD/CD-RW combo drive. For Windows based systems, a slot loading drive is almost unheard of. Apple enthusiasts have long been enjoying the aesthetic pleasures of a slot loading drive. The 200A5's slot loading drive is manufactured and provided by Matsushita, Panasonic's parent company. The 200A5 features a 40GB 4,200 RPM IBM Travelstar hard drive and the graphics adapter is a 32MB Nvidia GeForce4 420 Go. Powering the 200A5 is Intel's 2.0GHz Mobile Pentium 4-M processor. The 200A5 also comes equipped with 512MB DRAM (2x256MB) 266MHz DDR SDRAM. WiFi 802.11b is integrated. There is one PCMCIA slot available on the 200A5, but that should be all you need since the system has most of what you need internally.
Audio and video enthusiasts will love the 15.2" widescreen display and Sonopur audio system. Rumor has it that the display on the 200A5 could possibly be manufactured by the same company that produces the displays for Apple's PowerBook line. VPR Matrix is proudly promoting the Sonopour sound system in the 200A5 as rivaling that of most home theater systems. What the Sonopur sound system does is up-sample the audio by interpolating between samples to effectively double the quality of sound. Although the Sonopur audio system sounds good in theory, you will need to use headphones for a noticeable difference in sound, the speakers on the 200A5 do it little justice. One cool feature the 200A5 has is the ability to play CD audio with the notebook side turned off giving you the same functionality as a portable CD player using the front controls.
The 200A5 features Microsoft's Windows XP Home Edition as well as Microsoft Works 6.0, and CyberLink's PowerDVD video player. Those that despise the hundreds of useless preinstalled software will enjoy the included necessities on the 200A5.
Use and testing
The first thing you will notice about the VPR Matrix 200A5 is the beautiful widescreen display. Our 200A5 came with no bad pixels and is very bright and easy to see from most viewing angles. Maximum resolution on the 200A5 is set at an unusual 1280x854 pixels, but is pulled off nicely. DVD playback is smooth and looks great on the widescreen LCD display. While the display is not a true 16:9 aspect ratio, the 200A5 does a great job of creating a widescreen feel. The slot loading DVD/CDRW drive works good, but is relatively loud compared to Apples' PowerBook line featuring their slot loading drive.
We tested the VPR Matrix against two other machines, a Dell C640 Latitude and a Toshiba Satellite 5205-S503. All three systems have very similar specs, the Dell only has 256MB of memory however and the Toshiba has a more powerful video card. Both the Toshiba and VPR Matrix systems have the same IBM Travelstar 40G 40GB hard drive. In our 3D benchmarking tes
My brother bought a VPRMatrix after insisting it was cheaper than a Dell. (It's not by any stretch of the imagination). The internal 802.11b internal antenna does not work, the laptop is flimsy, and it runs extremely hot. And who knows what kind of support he'll be able to get?
It says they are Wholly Owned. I don't know if "owned" is a word I want associated with any computer I buy. ;P
Un-news
Hey if you go to the website, check out the pipe!. Its pretty cool. Imagine loading a bowl in that thing and smoking with your buddies. They would be quite impressed to know it was designed by Porsche!
Would it be illegal to sell in the US? Or is that just water pipes?
and I'm very happy with the performance. Everybody ask about it..of course they get confuse and then you have to explain too much (is a clone...is sold by Best Buy) I run Mandrake 9.1 and it works like a charm. The only two things that did not run out of the box was resolution, but it took little time to fix it, and ACPI stuff. I still have to try this: http://linux.brasileiro.net/misc/vprmatrix/ The screen is a samsung (same as Apple) and it is very nice. I purchased it at $2K with $300 in rebates and I primatched twice getting it down to $1,300. If you can find a Titanium at that price let me know. This is by far the best compromise in performance/functionality/design, etc. I really like it and recomended for personal use. By all means this is not a corporate laptop. OhRock
Ummmm ... no Apple and VPR Matrix are the ONLY two companies at present that use an IDE slot load drive. Car Stereo drives are NOT IDE based and NOT as small a form factor as this drive.
[ed. note: in the following text, former FreeBSD developer Mike Smith gives his reasons for abandoning FreeBSD]
When I stood for election to the FreeBSD core team nearly two years ago, many of you will recall that it was after a long series of debates during which I maintained that too much organisation, too many rules and too much formality would be a bad thing for the project.
Today, as I read the latest discussions on the future of the FreeBSD project, I see the same problem; a few new faces and many of the old going over the same tired arguments and suggesting variations on the same worthless schemes. Frankly I'm sick of it.
FreeBSD used to be fun. It used to be about doing things the right way. It used to be something that you could sink your teeth into when the mundane chores of programming for a living got you down. It was something cool and exciting; a way to spend your spare time on an endeavour you loved that was at the same time wholesome and worthwhile.
It's not anymore. It's about bylaws and committees and reports and milestones, telling others what to do and doing what you're told. It's about who can rant the longest or shout the loudest or mislead the most people into a bloc in order to legitimise doing what they think is best. Individuals notwithstanding, the project as a whole has lost track of where it's going, and has instead become obsessed with process and mechanics.
So I'm leaving core. I don't want to feel like I should be "doing something" about a project that has lost interest in having something done for it. I don't have the energy to fight what has clearly become a losing battle; I have a life to live and a job to keep, and I won't achieve any of the goals I personally consider worthwhile if I remain obligated to care for the project.
Discussion
I'm sure that I've offended some people already; I'm sure that by the time I'm done here, I'll have offended more. If you feel a need to play to the crowd in your replies rather than make a sincere effort to address the problems I'm discussing here, please do us the courtesy of playing your politics openly.
From a technical perspective, the project faces a set of challenges that significantly outstrips our ability to deliver. Some of the resources that we need to address these challenges are tied up in the fruitless metadiscussions that have raged since we made the mistake of electing officers. Others have left in disgust, or been driven out by the culture of abuse and distraction that has grown up since then. More may well remain available to recruitment, but while the project is busy infighting our chances for successful outreach are sorely diminished.
There's no simple solution to this. For the project to move forward, one or the other of the warring philosophies must win out; either the project returns to its laid-back roots and gets on with the work, or it transforms into a super-organised engineering project and executes a brilliant plan to deliver what, ultimately, we all know we want.
Whatever path is chosen, whatever balance is struck, the choosing and the striking are the important parts. The current indecision and endless conflict are incompatible with any sort of progress.
Trying to dissect the above is far beyond the scope of any parting shot, no matter how distended. All I can really ask of you all is to let go of the minutiae for a moment and take a look at the big picture. What is the ultimate goal here? How can we get there with as little overhead as possible? How would you like to be treated by your fellow travellers?
Shouts
To the Slashdot "BSD is dying" crowd - big deal. Death is part of the cycle; take a look at your soft, pallid bodies and consider that right this very moment, parts of you are dying. See? It's not so bad.
To the bulk of the FreeBSD committerbase and the developer community at large - keep your eyes on the real goals. It'
And I've been fairly happy with it. I always avoided laptops, as the compromises made for portability always seemed a rip-off to me. However, my situation became such that the portability was needed, so laptop shopping I went.
I looked at many models, both online and at the local best buy. I decided on the Matrix basically because it hit the sweet spot the best in price/performance, especially considering it has integrated 802.11b. That was one less thing to buy after the major purchase. I paid $1400 (after $100 rebate), and got the following:
2 GHz pentium 4 processor
512 MB Ram
40 GB hard drive
I couldn't find anything that beat this for the price. There are some nice extras, like the aforementioned integrated 802.11b, plus widescreen 15" screen which is very crisp and bright, 2 firewire and 4 USB 2.0.
And I have one. It's a love/hate relationship - I love what I paid for it (great value) and hate how it breaks about once a week. Once again, you get what you pay for...
Eagles may fly, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
Althought they do look pretty damn cool, it appears that Best Buy just isn't up to par as far as maintaining/servicing these notebooks. A mere 2 months after the release of a lesser, 1.8 Ghz model, they started removing them from thier site. Even their own VPR Matrix website refered back to the Best Buy site for purchase a couple of months ago after the review. As told to me buy a Best Buy employee (which I always take with a great salt lake after overhearing one say "Wi-Fi will always be faster than ethernet cable becuase wire has resistance, and air has none...", they have been told for a couple of months now that new models are coming, but he had his doubts. He also said that they had a tremendous amount of returns. Somewhat dissapointing due to the fact that this was the notebook I wanted to buy. Although early critics compared it to a "x86 Powerbook", sadly, the design sorely lacks behind Apple's effort. It's heavier - the ergonomics just aren't there -and although IMHO it's probably the best looking PC notebook out there, the Powerbook still takes the cake as far as design. It's unfortunate Apple doesn't make it's great products for the masses.
Thinkpads are the ugliest clunks in the laptop world. And no, I'm not an Apple user. Just pointing out that you are a dolt!
unfortuantly the unavailability of replacement mobo's is not unique to this manufacturer. We had a couple hundred new IBM T-30's when they were very new and of course one died soon after arrival, I ordered the part and the first one they sent was the wrong part (no encryption chip) and then I had to wait 3 weeks for the correct board. This is just the way things go some of the time.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
I got the 185A5 a few months back and immediately wiped the hard drive in favor of a real operating system.
So in your haste to be Ub3r-1337, you nuked what was probably the best method of finding out what hardware is in there. Brilliant. Booting into Windows Whatever for five minutes would have saved you eight hours of banging your head against the wall, but at least you preserved your geek/anorak/H@x0r status, didn't you? You even got to complain about it on
You know, when you drink the $OS_OF_CHOICE Kool-aid to the point where you do something dumb like this, you really should take up a different hobby.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
i work for best buy and from what the inter company memos have said. all the VPR computers have been so popular they cannot keep up with production. They are also releasing a new line up soon but the are duing market surveys inorder to better meat the needs of their customers. or their just realy slow. but any way from the success of the past models i guess they don't want to ruin their name. but they have released a new desktop model which includes 2 120 Gb raid enabled hard drives. you can keep up with this at vprmatrix.com.
HOWEVER, there are _quite_ a few issues with it. For one, the damn built-in NIC doesn't work 99% of the time. I have resorted to using my external PCMCIA NIC (or wireless, when it is available). Seems pretty bad to me, but mine could just be defective (or I could have just fsck'd it up testing out all those Linux drivers, heh). Also, the keyboard is VERY fragile, ugh. Keys pop off all the time -- there are 4 posts, one in each corner under every key... the bottom 2 hinge onto the board and the top two snap on... those top two break very easily. What I find questionable is the fact that Best Buy salesmen were trying to tell me the keyboard is very fragile and really used that to try to get me to buy the warranty (I didn't, but I might go back to get it, ugh). Also... (and I should've done my research on this ahead of time) it uses an Ali chipset, which I'm _not_ very fond of. Getting apm working properly is a B*TCH. (I haven't succeeded thus far)
Overall, I made a decision, and I'm stuck with it, so I guess I better be happy with the vpr Matrix 200A5. Since hindsight is 20/20, looking back, I should have waited, for pretty much all other laptop manufacturers have put out better stuff out there (though not as light or stylish) for considerably cheaper since I bought it. My original plan was to buy the 15" PowerBook, which I didn't for various reasons, so I bought the 200A5 instead. I regret it. I would've boughten the 17" PowerBook, but cost is an issue for me. My suggestion to other people? Stay away from it (if you can even find one), and get either a PowerBook instead, or if you like x86, get a Toshiba or a Compaq/HQ or whatnot. There are some very nice laptops out on the market with better hardware specs and cheaper prices. Just my $.02.
Especially if you remember the Porsche advertising "Kills Bugs Fast" campaign.
You can see the poster at http://www.autotrend.com/9536.html
Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
www.fogbound.net
Well, it's died twice while I've had it. I guess "this is just the way thinks go some of the time" is correct, as is not being able to use a $2k purchase for 3 months.
Doesn't mean I'd recommend the machine to others. I really LIKE the machine, at least it's looks and what it has on-board. I really wish I'd been able to use it over the last few months, I think I would have enjoyed it.
To be honest, I'd be a lot more up on it if Best Buy had just given me a new one, or offered to refund my money. Waiting this amount of time on a purchase like this is unacceptable. I sympathize with their supply problems, but I'd recommend others stay away from the vpr.
Ok... I bought the 200A5 a while back and I have found it to be a great laptop functionally. I run windows 2003 Server on it and haven't had any problems. The major qualm I had about buying it initially was the keyboard. As I've seen the keyboard fall apart on the display models in bestbuy I was really worried about that. I have found however that it holds up quite well under regular use. I only had one incident when I poped a key out but it simply snaps back into place.
The integrated wireless is nice but lacks signal strength. I'd say it has about half the signal strength/distance of a standard orinoco/wavelan card. The battery life is decent. I get about 2 and a half hours on it after 6 months of use. The performance initially is limited by the harddrive that is in it. The Go420 video card is good for most things but driver support sucks. They haven't updated since the original version and nvidias drivers bluescreen the system given the nonstandard display. I'm not sure how this translates on the linux driver side.
I got so pissed at the harddrive I decided to open the system and add a 5400rpm travelstar to replace the 4200rpm drive in it. It took quite a bit of work to get the casing off (lots of screws - needless to say you can't replace the harddrive easily on this thing) and of course the thing has to support only the 9.5mm drives... There is a sleeve that holds the harddrive in place. I took a dremel to the sucker and was able to hack off the top of it so that a 12.5mm drive would fit.
All is well not... the drive fits inside the casing although the left palm rest runs a little warmer than usual now =P. Performance is much better now though. If you decide to mod your 200A5 be careful after you open it because the molding that covers the cdrw/dvd drive is very thin so the bottom part of the slot can snap off easily (nothing a little epoxy can't repair though)
Last thing of note is that I've been experimenting with using it as a peer to peer bridge between my Toshiba e750 and work lan. It works great. Activesync through 802.11b is so much faster and I can now browse the web/rdp into boxes from my pda.
Don't you dare mod me down for running windows. I work closely with my linux engineering friends and we all have a much more tempered view of both operating systems. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Can't we all just get along?
If you take the red pill, then you wake up in goo, and realize that you've been typing on a Tandy Model 100.
If you have the service plan then the manager's will probably more than willing to exchange it the next time it breaks down. Ask for the General Manager and also try more than one store. If you only have manufacture's warranty then you are going to have a VERY hard time getting a new one seeing as most manufactures have a no lemon policy of 6 repairs wheras the best buy service plan is 3 (then on the next one you get a new laptop unless the manager is anal and wants to send it in to have it looked at). As a general rule tho, you can get what you want if you have the service plan and its not your first or second repair in a short amount of time.
HPaq was threatening to pull their products from the shelves because the vprMatrix line was in direct competition with them. Therefore, they took the hit of dropping the vprMatrixes to continue selling more popular brand name items.
I have to disagree and an owner of one of these I've been able to use it comfortably as a "lap top" for hours without having it get painfully hot. This contrasts with the latest PowerBooks and my previous laptop a Sony Vaio (ain't it cute) which both got up to scorching temperatures within minutes of lap top use.
Maybe I just got a lucky cool one...
I ran into a similar experience. The 200A5 specs on the website (which is relevant since it was only available online at the time) listed one SPDIF port on the laptop. When I received mine and didn't notice the port I called tech support... (hope abbreviations are clear)
Me: it says on your site there is an SPDIF port could you tell me how to find it.
VPR: oh it does? let me check the site. oh i guess it does. let me ask a product expert.
VPR: they say there isn't one. there is an s-video port is that what you mean?
Me: it says SPDIF
VPR: they say you can buy our accessory cable (note: at $250!!!) to do it
Me: thanks please update your site
What's the point of reviewing the VPR Matrix? Don't we have to see it for ourselves? ...
Yeh, ok, it's like 2 weeks away now, give or take. The geek angst is killing me.
they have a shitty returns policy, and they Quality control really sux. I've had mine in 4 times. spend the extra $$ and buy a named-clone
And PowerBooks are too expensive right?
You are clearly insane.
I tried to purchase a 200A5 to replace my compal n20u for running Linux. Unfortunately, when I finally made my decision and went to BestBuy to actually purchase the thing, I was told that they don't carry them anymore. Perhaps new models in a few months. They did have one display model for sale. $300 dollars off. If you don't mind some keys missing from the keyboard.
So I went and bought a Mac Powerbook and never looked back. I know I'm more happy with this machine that I ever would have been with the 200A5. At least suspend works under OSX.
You know, I was about to write up a feature-by-feature comparison of the Apple Powerbook and the vpr Matrix laptops, until I realized that people don't really like the Matrix laptop.
(ducks and covers)
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
How interesting that everyone is saying that Best Buy is dropping the vpr line. However not many people know that vprMatrix is actually a subsidiary of BestBuy and the products are still available for purchase at BestBuy if not on display. I know cause I work there (paying off school loans) part time...
To me, it wouldn't make sense to drop your own product. But that's just me.
TANSTAAFL
I picked up mine open box for $1200 and I don't regret it at all. I use it in college for autocad work away from the dorm and the occational gaming during class :] I have the A200 if anyones interested. It's running windows XP home cuz i'm too lazy to put linux or windows 2003 on it as long as it's doing what i want. It dosn't get that hot and the battery lasts a long time compaired to most laptops I've used. The only complaint I have is the dvdrom/cdrw can't read my dvd+r disks. I've had no problems with the keyboard despite my ferrets doing little dances on it and the speakers sound fine to be but im not a dedicated audio freak. I'm quite happy with it given the price I paid.
Okay, now I believe this guy works for Best Buy.
I had a ton of issues with this laptop. In the process or dealing with the highest of the high ranking ppl in customers service, they told me this line was being dropped anyway, thus the huge rebates.
VPR Matrix is Best Buy's house brand. Don't let one of the "Product Specialists" try to claim it is a different company. The name is so dumb it had to have been thought up by the same internal geniuses that produce "Tag TV" for the employees. VPR stands for "Value" and "Price." They then threw in "Matrix" due to the popularity of the movie(s). Isn't it ironic they'd christen their own computer line with such a generic name yet then they hire Porsche to design their premiere laptop? Its like Walmart hiring Versace to design their signature *wife beater* under shirts...
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
A whole slew of fatwallet users got the 180B5 for less than a $1000 bucks. I was one of these lucky guys, and I have been extremely happy. These little updates really help...
Latest touchpad drivers: http://www.synaptics.com
Latest wireless drivers: http://www.agere.com/support/drivers/
I would also suggest updating the ATI drivers, although it is difficult because you have to find the notebook version instead of the generic ATI drivers.
The VPRmatrix listed drivers are useless.
Oh, IMHO the extended protection plan from Best Buy is actually worth it since batteries and nontraumatic LCD problems are both fully covered. Heck, everybody will need at least one new battery in 3 years time. Since VPRmatrix may not be around forever, you insure that you have protection for at least three years.
Anyway... I love my box. Good luck finding one!
Davak
--TRR
Sorry, had to say it :-).
"He's more machine now than man, twisted and evil."
Two things I found:
1. Like you said, the wireless sucks. First thing I ended up buying was a wireless card (kinda annoying, as being WiFi-enabled was one reason I bought it)
2. It doesn't have any serial ports. I want to use my GPS on it, so have had to buy a cable to convert a USB to a COM port (which works really well, but the Belk converter is big and annoying).
And I always thought the VPR in "VPR Matrix" meant "vapor".
My sister bought a VPR Matrix because she was on a short budget and then (December 2002) it was priced better than anything I could find for her from Dell or Compaq or anybody else.
After about 4 months of use the integrated ethernet card crapped out for no apparent reason and she sent it back to be fixed, but then again, I had to send in my IBM T20 a year ago when the machine wouldn't power on one morning. IBM had to replace the motherboard on that one. Oh well, I guess these things happen.
The VPR Matrix definately looks sweeter than my clunky IBM, I guess it's got that much going for it. Go Porsche...
Predictably, no employee of Best Buy can tell you what the Matrix is.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
there's something Atari 1200XL-ish about the notebook's styling
Actually, it's my boss who's asked me to find him a few good quotes on laptops. He needs a few things: 1) Lightweight (under 7lbs.) 2) Good quality/performance 3) Decent price (under $2300 would be great)
So far, the 14.1" iBook looks like the best bargain to me but he's a Windows guy by nature. And Centrinos are on the high end of the price tag. Suggestions? Puhlease! :o)
About a month ago I bought a vpr Matrix 175b4 laptop and the thing is great. The only two thing it's missing is USB 2.0.
At $800 AR it was the best bang for the buck that you could buy at the time.
I wouldn't have minded having a 2nd PCMCIA slot, but the truth of the matter is that all of the PCMCIA cards I use except a CF to PCMCIA converter take up too much room anyway.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
I have the same laptop and have had terrible problems with mine. Actually, most of the problems have been with Best Buy support, but still...
Upon opening the packaging, I discovered no power supply. Back to the store I went. Several days later, keys were falling off the keyboard, and I couldn't get them to stay on. Back to the store yet again (and remember, this is Best Buy. A trip to get service necessitates at least 1 hour in line, waiting for the one guy in the service department to get around to you). Finally, a week later, I discovered that more than half of the screws had fallen out of the case. Once again, back to the store for replacements. When I got home from that service trip, I plugged in the laptop at home, only to see a curl of smoke rising lazily from the power supply connector. Needless to say, the laptop would no longer boot.
That is when the fun began. I took it back to Best Buy (4th time in 2.5 weeks!!!!) and was told that it would be fixed in 14 days. 14 days came and went. Phone calls revealed that the 'service center' had not even opened the package until the day before it was due to be back in my hands. Once service did finally open the box, they discovered, not surprisingly, a burnt out motherboard. Oops, that part has to be shipped in from overseas. Imagine that, a laptop service center that doesn't have a single spare motherboard in stock! Once again, this is Best Buy, so don't forget that each of my phone calls required at least 40 minutes of time on Hold, occasional accidental hang ups, circular redirections to multiple departments, the works.
Finally, nearly 2 full months after I had sent it in (well over 30 business days), I gave up and sent my story to the technical editor of every relevant magazine in the industry, and filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. The very next day, I got a call from the Best Buy service tech with tnews that the laptop was shipped that day. I imagine they just ripped teh motherboard out of a new model to avoid bad publicity.
I finally received the laptop, which I had delivered to Best Buy on 2/12, on 4/4. Meanwhile, I had been accused of taking the laptop apart myself, since it had mismatched screws in the bottom, and was told that the missing soundcard (huh? Turned out, the parts sheet the service tech was looking at was incorrect) would have to be replaced by me at a cost of about $500. THat was resolved after a bit of yelling and screaming on my part, but not before I was hung up on by one tech. I won't say I wasn't being rude, but still...
The thing is still working now, in late April, but I have still not owned it for even half as long as it has spent in service (no, I didn't do the math).
The good news is that Linux works really well on it, except for ACPI support. The nvidia drivers for the video card seem well supported in Linux with at least one update since I purchased the hunk of junk. The sound card works fine, but doesn't have ALSA drivers. The wireless card was a no brainer, but has terrible range. It can't find the linksys access point in my kitchen from my bedroom, 30 feet away, through open doors. Actually, I suspect that the tech neglected to reconnect an antennae or something. I just shove in my old wavelan card and don't worry about it for now. The wavelan ahs excellent signal strength at the same distance. I am not about to relinquish the thing for another 2 months in order to have them look at it.
Win2K support was terrible. I dumped XP both because my work required Win 2K and because I couldn't stand the way M$ took such an active interest in my registration status. Getting drivers and such to work was a royal PITA. Downloading the latest drivers from the VPR website resulted in malfunctioning everything. Reverting to the drivers from the support CD did eventually get most things up an running , and selectively applying some of the updated drivers fixed the rest.
The widescreen is great, and the slot load DVD/CD-R would be nice if it
Sounds like they managed to recreate the Macintosh buying experience quite well. The only difference is that you payed $2000 for a 15.2" 1.8ghz and I payed $2400 for 12.1" 866mhz, but they both were POS.
I bought my 12" in January. Many parts of it were defective or broke within a few days: the keyboard, lid (warped), hard drive, RAM and motherboard were all faulty. After "waiting on some parts" for a month or so, they sent me a new one. And they best part about it: Apple's refund policy states that you can get a refund within 30 days after purchase. sounds fine, right? well I received my computer over 30 days after I purchased it, so no refunds for me, period. Gotta love the huge discrepancy between marketing and reality, while something may seem good on paper and as a demo technology, that does not guarantee its success once a product leaves the door.
if they come out with a newer model soon, or else an HP. Can get the HP Pavillion 5300 series with 80GB HD, 512MB RAM (one slot), 2.4 GHz P4, 15" SXGA+, 54G wireless, and a DVD+RW/R and CD-RW combo drive, for about $2000 US. Except for the weight and ATI video card, any reasons not to buy this from HP? I do a lot of number crunching, and lots of hard drive space and RAM is very important for my work, as is good screen resolution.
Hi!
A quote from the VPR Matrix website (from their "history" page, trumpeting the fact that they've been in business a whole year):
In other words, this is Best Buy's store brand.
It will analyse your system and tell you what's on it. You call yourself a tech?
vpr matrix isnt being discontinued, a new line is being developed. these computers sell like hotcakes...best buy won't be discontinuing anytime soon
As my current job is 1/2 developing windows applications, the cost of a PowerBook isn't really an issue.
OK, this is stylish, just as an Apple.
Now what I want is something RISC, silent and preferrably SCSI.
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
May I suggest adopting a new way of consumer shopping:
If it breaks within the return policy, return it, don't try to get it fixed.
Bummer -- This might be a long shot, but if you bought it with a credit card, the credit card issuer (bank) may offer some sort of consumer protection. Give them a call, explain your situation and see if there's anything they can do for you. It sounds like you took it back to Best Buy to coordinate the repair -- if so, that's definitely in your favour as it seems to me that the CC company can call Best Buy and tell them, either get it fixed, replaced, or you can consider it returned and we're reversing the charge. If they reverse the charge, BB pays a penalty to the CC company, so BB is likely to do whatever they can to prevent that. Like I said, it's a long shot, but it sounds like you could use any leads at this point. Good luck!
-"Zow"
Yeah, this might be an option. I'm going to leave it until the end of this week, then I guess I need to start looking at something other than begging for my machine back :)