Comments on: Where are the user-ranked laptop reviews?

Question: Where are the user-ranked laptop reviews?

lukemeister — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:47:59 -0800

I'm thinking of buying a laptop, and find that at sites like CNET, the editors and users often disagree wildly. I haven't found a place that reviews laptops that can sort reviews by the users' rankings. I tried amazon, but their "sort by average customer review" doesn't work. Which sites do you like?

I was all set to buy an MSI Wind, but since they've delayed the model with the 6-cell battery, I'm looking again, and haven't decided whether to go with cheap and light or cheap and heavy.

By: 14580

14580 — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:01:42 -0800

I relied heavily on the customer reviews at newegg.com when I bought my laptop.

By: Susurration

Susurration — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:40:00 -0800

This really depends on the level of detail that you want. If you want a straight comparison, Amazon or Newegg will tell you the basics. Personally, I like http://www.notebookforums.com/ as the reviews (and advice, and how-tos) are relatively unbiased and techy. If you search on specific machines, they have excellent benchmarks and short summaries for each. Forum members post reviews based on their own experience: these are more informed and detailed than the average CNET review. But they only review models that people already have, so the MSI Wind is not yet up there ... :-(

By: pants tent

pants tent — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:42:15 -0800

Newegg.com is great for customer reviews.

NotebookReview.com's homepage ranks the most popular laptops on its site by click count, for what its worth. Also, the reviews seem more aware of the market, though I only care for their gratuitous close-ups.

By: wfrgms

wfrgms — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:10:43 -0800

I think laptop reviews are only useful in terms of gauging a product's reliability or some glaring shortcoming. Everything else is just anecdotal noise.

What should guide your purchasing process is a short list of needs and wants followed by your budget.

I needed a very light weight laptop, so that limited to me to 12.1" ultra portables. I didn't want to spend more than $400 so that limited me to buying used. I'm a windows person so that excluded any Apple products...

I found the laptop I wanted on eBay from a reputable seller. I generally DO NOT suggest buying used laptops unless you have an IT background and are comfortable diagnosing and fixing potentially serious problems. The point is, I designed a game plan around my needs and went from there. Reviews only helped initially identify the makes and models I was interested in...

By: chrisamiller

chrisamiller — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:16:02 -0800

SavvyGraph makes searching amazon a little bit more sane.

By: lukemeister

lukemeister — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:25:37 -0800

wfrgms,

Right, but the user reviews are more likely to touch on reliability than the editorial reviews (at least those in PC Mag, PC World, etc.). The editorial reviews are more like 'OMG it's such a vibrant shade of red!"

By: le morte de bea arthur

le morte de bea arthur — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:28:20 -0800

ebuyer.com features user reviews of the products they sell, and you can sort by user rating.

They no longer sell in the US, but maybe you'd find some of the user comments/ratings useful.

By: wfrgms

wfrgms — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:52:35 -0800

but the user reviews are more likely to touch on reliability than the editorial reviews

Which is why I wrote specifically, "laptop reviews are only useful in terms of gauging a product's reliability or some glaring shortcoming..."

I wasn't delineating between user reviews and critical reviews. Neither are useful unless yo have some rough outline for what you're needs are...

By: lukemeister

lukemeister — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:24:40 -0800

wfrgms,

Fair enough ... I read something that you didn't write. I guess my point is that very few of the reviews, especially the editorial reviews (which I'd hope would be more professional than the user reviews) tough on reliability, which is the most important issue.

By: lukemeister

lukemeister — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:29:54 -0800

um, *touch* on reliability.

By: assoctw

assoctw — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:40:12 -0800

Most reviews that I've read are written when a new model is launched. There's no way to tell how reliable that model is, because it just hit the street. In a year, instead of updating old reviews, editors and users alike are reviewing the next generation of newly launched machines. Also, don't forget that editorial reviews are highly skewed by advertising dollars.

I think your best bet is to develop the criteria for what you need, then put your top three up here and ask for suggestions on which is best.

By: lukemeister

lukemeister — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:36:31 -0800

assoctw,

Well, since you asked ... I don't absolutely need a new laptop. I have a 3.5-year-old Inspiron 9200, 17" screen, made of osmium, or so it feels when I pick it up. My job will probably give me a new 'desktop replacement' laptop in a few months. The current laptop runs XP Pro and Fedora 9, and it runs fairly slowly with both. The fan tends to run a lot, and I get tired of hearing it. I'm not running crazy numbers of programs at the same time.

I would like to have something for home use, preferably something lighter. I got a Nokia 800 early this year, and soon concluded that it's far too small for web surfing. I've thought of something like a Thinkpad X61, but I've never been able to convince myself that the price premium for a light laptop is worth it. For instance, I could get a loaded HP for $900, and it's hard to get an X61 for that price.

The only home computers I've ever bought were two Macs long ago, and two HP desktops, both of which have worked fine.

By: gjc

gjc — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:04:09 -0800

Two different concepts are plagueing online reviews: astroturfing/fanboys, and idiot users. Normal, satisfied users are just not going to go on the internet and say so unprovoked. It's a skill, perhaps futile and imaginary, to be able to weed this stuff out.