Curious about this small and light weight laptop

[JCitron]

It will without a doubt be suitable for Trainz , the only point of contention -IMHO - is whether a larger lappy at the same price would be more suitable.
On the plus side I have just restored my desktop back to working order by replacing the hideously expensive Corsair AX860i with a slightly lower spec one by XFX which actually works! So my lovely lappy is relegated to the subs bench.
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/pinzac55/27322665

My biggest complaint about the sub-sized machines is the display. Text usually ends up being the size of ant footprints, making the display useless for many applications. With Surveyor and its multitude of lists of light green text on a blue background, the larger display is surely needed, besides the larger display is also better anyway for navigating around and of course for driver.

John

 

[lewisner]

"My biggest complaint about the sub-sized machines is the display."

That too.

 

[cascaderailroad]

You can always hook up a big desktop monitor to any small screen laptop (but then it would be a desk/laptop) :hehe:

 

[JCitron]

You can always hook up a big desktop monitor to any small screen laptop (but then it would be a desk/laptop) :hehe:

For some machines this is useable and doable, but other not due to the performance of the built-in video circuitry. The video chip can easily drive the built-in LCD fine, but when it comes to driving a monitor this takes more power and usually there is a performance hit. The external display is fine for browsing the web, but for full performance, I have found the built-in display to be the best. The only way to get full performance out of an external display is to use a docking station. This now brings the laptop into a different category where we pay the premium and it is no longer a gaming machine as we'd envision. Yup. They become desk/laptops and end up being tethered to the dock more than being taken on the road.

Recently Razor came out with a portable gaming machine that is a tablet as well as a laptop-type device. It has a docking station that supports a mouse and
keyboard, but the price is well beyond what I would consider reasonable for a small laptop. These are referred to as RMTs or Rich Man Toys.
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&ke...=aps&hvadid=1680898647&ref=pd_sl_6ufjaxtm6e_b

http://www.razerzone.com/

 

[rjhowie]

Interesting point there lewisner. I have travelled much across here in Scotland and in N. Ireland, England (sorry Wales) been over the pond a couple of times and 3 countries in Europe so a train hop from Glasgow to Kilmarnock will be nice. Been all over the place but never to Kilmarnock! Does no harm for me to have a look at that machine without committing myself. Utopia tends to build from scratch but said they have one they can show.

 

[lewisner]

For some machines this is useable and doable, but other not due to the performance of the built-in video circuitry. The video chip can easily drive the built-in LCD fine, but when it comes to driving a monitor this takes more power and usually there is a performance hit. The external display is fine for browsing the web, but for full performance, I have found the built-in display to be the best. The only way to get full performance out of an external display is to use a docking station. This now brings the laptop into a different category where we pay the premium and it is no longer a gaming machine as we'd envision. Yup. They become desk/laptops and end up being tethered to the dock more than being taken on the road.



Recently Razor came out with a portable gaming machine that is a tablet as well as a laptop-type device. It has a docking station that supports a mouse and
keyboard, but the price is well beyond what I would consider reasonable for a small laptop. These are referred to as RMTs or Rich Man Toys.
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&ke...=aps&hvadid=1680898647&ref=pd_sl_6ufjaxtm6e_b

http://www.razerzone.com/

The thing with those Razer laptops is, as far as I can see, that like (no offence) Alienware a large part of what you are paying for is the name. I looked at the most expensive one http://www.amazon.com/Razer-Blade-I...ords=razer+blade+gaming+laptop#productDetails and when you distill it down you are getting a really good CPU , GPU, 8GB RAM and a 256GB Msata HDD. My own lappy has space for an Msata but it didn't make sense to buy one when I had an SSD available. In the case of the Razer the value of the components doesn't add up to the price tag. This is partly sour grapes of course since I had that kind of cash to splash I would buy one without a moments hesitation!

 

[JCitron]

The thing with those Razer laptops is, as far as I can see, that like (no offence) Alienware a large part of what you are paying for is the name. I looked at the most expensive one http://www.amazon.com/Razer-Blade-I...ords=razer+blade+gaming+laptop#productDetails and when you distill it down you are getting a really good CPU , GPU, 8GB RAM and a 256GB Msata HDD. My own lappy has space for an Msata but it didn't make sense to buy one when I had an SSD available. In the case of the Razer the value of the components doesn't add up to the price tag. This is partly sour grapes of course since I had that kind of cash to splash I would buy one without a moments hesitation!

I agree too regarding the price of the Razer machines and a lot of it is name. They are over priced for the machine, although really nice too. I can say that the Alienware laptop I have is made well with their aluminum case and solid build. At the time, when I got my Alienware laptop, SSDs way too expensive so I opted for 2 680GB hard drives as a RAID which I back up diligently.

Now if a little company can come up with a quality machine made like an Alienware laptop, priced more than competitively then they'll have it made.

John