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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 read somewhere that WorstBuy
Ok, I really have to ask. When did putting in a word to something to insult it been so popular (ie - WorstBuy, MicroSloth, M$, etc...)?? Its a 12 year old's tactic that was cool when you are in the 4th grade. Honestly, everytime I see something like this, I pass it off as some 16 year old that just wants to be popular.
Give me valid arguments, not some childish wordplay, if you want to argue something.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
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?
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....
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
The funny thing is, people don't know what it means. I mean, they go out and buy cars called "Matrix". And then they get offended when they hear the phrase "Shaggin' Wagon". Silly Nutty People. (There are several meanings for the word Matrix, of course, but the common meaning is analogous to "womb")
> The Best Buy computer guy told me that genuine failure returns are running around 10%.
Did he tell you this while he was trying to sell you a service plan with your brand new laptop? I used lines like that all the time when I used to work at Best Buy, not because I believed them, but because I would get SERIOUSLY HASSLED if a machine went out the door without service. *sigh* That's 3 months of my life I will never get back. Sometimes it was so bad that if a customer was hard-pressed against buying service, I would try to disappear or lose them so they would either leave or someone else would get the "bad" sale, just to avoid getting yelled at.
First you tell them why the computer you're selling is so great, and once they're sold, you tell them why it's a piece of shit that requires an expensive service plan.
"When I make a mistake, I have 8 different people comin' by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that and the fear of loosing my job. But you know Bob that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired." --Peter Gibbons, Office Space
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?
That's what I thought, too, after I thought about it. If it had been clearly written, we wouldn't have had to think about the meaning. Thus, the feeble joke.
Whether that's better or worse than a Mac OS and Mac functionality, well, I won't comment.
Me, either.
As I recall, there is a Windows emulator for Macs, right? If so (and if not, there's always Wine!) Macs DO have some ``Windows functionality''.
As for the tech support issue, I have one comment: buy it on a decent credit card. You get the equivalent of Best Buy's protection plan (one year extension on the manufacturer's warranty) for free, as well as protection in the unlikely event that the thing doesn't show up.
Absolutely. This is a good idea, for all products and all vendors.
One of the few positives to buying Dell over VPR Matrix or a whitebox machine is Dell's protection plan ... if the machine gets damaged in any way other than intentionally, they'll fix it.
I've had fairly good experiences with Dell's laptop warrenty. Of course, there was the time the floppy on my Inspiron died ... the phone call to tech support went something like this:
A long, tedious interlude, in which the tech support guy read his script, and I told him what he would have seen if Windows had been installed. Finally, the script told him that the floppy was broken, and that I'd have to send the computer back for repair.
[tech support] Your floppy drive is broken. You'll have to send your machine in. We'll airfreight you a box in which to return it. ...
[me] Why don't you save your company a lot of money and send me another floppy by mail?
[tech support] You will need to remove all the parts from the machine before you return it.
[me] What parts?
[tech support] The RAM, the hard drive, the floppy drive
[me] THE FLOPPY DRIVE IS THE ONLY THING THAT"S BROKEN! HOW ARE YOU GOING TO FIX IT IF I DON'T SEND IT?
[tech support] I don't know. (Long silence)
[me] Maybe I should talk to your supervisor?
[tech support] (Obviously relieved) Yes!
The upshot, after quite a bit more time on hold, was that they airfreighted me another floppy, and we were all happy. If I hadn't known a bit more than his script, things wouldn't have turned out so well. I had two other, similar experiences. I think that if you don't know enough to fix the machine yourself, Dell's service may not be very smooth, though they seem to honestly try.
I picked up the low-end VPR Matrix laptop for $950 (plus a $150 rebate on top)...
Wow. My last laptop purchase was a 486 Latitude for $20 at a garage sale. That may seem high, but the guy threw in a working HP-65. That's cheap enough that I don't worry about carrying it around. I installed Woody, and it (the latitude) does email or some web browsing or text editing.
See what I've been reading.