Laptop shopping

Tek7 said:
Lenovo IdeaPad Z570 (1024DMU)
Intel i5-2450M
nVIDIA GeForce GT 630M
2-year warranty, 5-day turnaround
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Oop, make that a 2-year extended warranty (which starts after the 1-year manufacturer warranty ends) for a total of 3 years of warranty, but still with 5-day SLA (service level agreement).

Minor points: The Y570 has a 2.0MP webcam and 8GB RAM while the Z570 has a 0.3MP webcam and 6GB RAM. The higher resolution webcam would be nice for when we (my wife, the baby, and I) get on Skype with my parents.

EDIT: Also, the Y570 has 2 USB 3.0 ports; the Z570 does not. The Y570 has a gigabit ethernet port; the Z570 only has a 10/100Mb port.
 
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Is there an option for in-home support? 5 day turnaround sucks! You end up living with issues cause its way to big a pain to go without a laptop for a week. Plus if they don't fix it right, its another week. I would never buy a laptop again without in-home personally. In the end I always get Dell's because the price is so beyond unbeatable with the scratch n dents, and the in-home support is excellent, here in CA at least.
 
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The other one doesn't have the 5 day turnaround. Just Newegg.

Linky no worky. But I'll let Tek take that one.
 
And now I'm wondering if we should just wait for the Y580. Three different web sites estimate three different release dates: April, May, and June.

I loathe shopping for technology right now.
 
Okay, so my main (well, really the only) concern I have with the Y570 is the 1366x768 resolution. The screen on my wife's previous 15" laptop used a 1280x800 native resolution, so I wouldn't think the image quality would be that different.

/sigh

I think I'm fixating now. Well, again.

EDIT: Maybe there's no reason to be concerned. According to a DPI/PPI Calculator, the two displays (my wife's old HP Pavilin dv6768se and the Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 we're considering buying) have nearly the same pixel density:

1280x800 @ 15.4" = Display size: 13.06" × 8.16" (33.17cm × 20.73cm) = 98.02 PPI, 0.2591mm dot pitch, 9607 PPI²

1366x768 @ 15.6" = Display size: 13.6" × 7.65" (34.54cm × 19.42cm) = 100.45 PPI, 0.2529mm dot pitch, 10091 PPI²
 
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Tek7 said:
Okay, so my main (well, really the only) concern I have with the Y570 is the 1366x768 resolution. The screen on my wife's previous 15" laptop used a 1280x800 native resolution, so I wouldn't think the image quality would be that different.

/sigh

I think I'm fixating now. Well, again.

EDIT: Maybe there's no reason to be concerned. According to a DPI/PPI Calculator, the two displays (my wife's old HP Pavilin dv6768se and the Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 we're considering buying) have nearly the same pixel density:

1280x800 @ 15.4" = Display size: 13.06" × 8.16" (33.17cm × 20.73cm) = 98.02 PPI, 0.2591mm dot pitch, 9607 PPI²

1366x768 @ 15.6" = Display size: 13.6" × 7.65" (34.54cm × 19.42cm) = 100.45 PPI, 0.2529mm dot pitch, 10091 PPI²
Click to expand...

1279052383758.jpg
 
Well, we (finally) decided on the Lenovo IdeaPad Y570, thanks to the better CPU and GPU, the better warranty, finding an even better coupon code ($450 savings instead of $420), and finding a 10% Cash Back deal through FatWallet (which may or may not work; it's my first time using FatWallet).

/dance
 
Now for the most important part of technology shopping: Burying my head in the sand and not looking at any other laptops for at least 6 months.
 
So after all that research, we've had headache after headache trying to order the laptop.

The first mistake was mine: I entered the wrong billing information on the first try. Still, we weren't too pleased when the order came back as canceled two days later with no notice or opportunity to correct the billing info.

I then tried to place the order again, but the web site threw an error saying the transaction couldn't be authorized. So we call the sales team and an agent entered the billing info for me. He got everything right...EXCEPT THE BILLING ADDRESS STATE. (Side note: Tax in Mississippi is higher than in Missouri.)

Fortunately, we caught it later the same day and called to fix or cancel the order. Unfortunately, Lenovo (allegedly) couldn't fix it and canceling it before the laptop was shipped (according to the rep) wasn't guaranteed, but we could always ship it back to them at their expense.

/facepalm

So after I don't know how many phone calls, hours spent on the phone with Lenovo sales, Lenovo's credit card department, and our bank, and high blood pressure, we're waiting for a pending transaction to be removed from our bank account.

The good news is that another Lenovo sales rep created a quote which locked in the coupon code price and is good until May 2.

Our first interaction with Lenovo has certainly not inspired any confidence. Here's hoping that if and when we actually manage to buy the laptop, their tech support has their act together.

Oh, and before we ever ordered the laptop the first time, the extended warranty options disappeared from the Lenovo site for an entire day. Oy.
 
The shipping address was Mississippi too, so let's hope it gets here if it ships. But I would think the shipping company would have a problem with Mississippi as the state but a Missouri zip code.
 
Odale said:
Any luck?
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All pending transactions have been canceled and removed from our bank accounts, but now we're looking at buying a SUV or minivan soon, so the laptop (and my desktop gaming rig) may have to wait.

EDIT: We have until May 2 to take advantage of the coupon code thanks to the quote, but the FatWallet 10% cash back deal (which may or may not work with a pre-existing laptop quote) expires today. The funny thing (not funny-haha, but funny-"It makes you think") is that Lenovo would have had the sale if they had been willing to reverse the authorization immediately or not blundered the billing address.
 
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Update: I ordered the laptop last week. Had to use Paypal because I STILL got errors when trying to use a Visa debit card. The order status shows it's scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Ember is very excited!

And I bought her a copy of Portal 2 ($6.79 right now) to celebrate!

EDIT: I ended up not using the quote because it had expired, but was pleased to find that the updated model had a faster hard drive (7200 RPM instead of 5400 RPM) for the same price. Yay for patience!
 
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