Considering z96j. A Few questions

I'm looking into getting a laptop soon and have been looking around at what I can get for a budget of around 1.5k. I came across the z96j and am really diggin it, but have a couple of questions that I'm hoping some of you owners can answer.

1. For those of you who have had it for a while now, how is it holding up? Any problems with the monitor, latches, keyboard, etc. after a few months of use?

2. Has anyone installed Vista on it? Are there any compatibility issues?

3. Is anyone running any OSs other than Windows? How is everything working?

4. Geared2Play.com has the z96j with an available matte screen option. Has anyone bought from Geared2Play and got this option or is it just better to get the HEL80.

5. I will travel with my laptop from time to time. For those of you who have traveled with it, how portable is it. I currently have a 15" powerbook which I travel with w/o any problems and realize the z96j will be a tad larger and heavier, I just don't know how much.

Thanks.

 

I have S96j, almost the same notebook.

1. Holding up great. I have had mine 7 months.

2. I'm running on RC2 on second partition and everything runs great.

3. I'm running only XP Pro and Vista (RC2).

4. I imagine that G2P has a nice screen, Eddie does quality work. I would take the Z96j over the HEL80 but that is obviously my opinion.

5. I think it is very portable. There are tradeoffs for having the larger screen, the powerful graphics, and the very efficient cooling. If you do not plan on doing any gaming there may be better choices.

Good luck!

 

Why didn't you consider a G1?

 

Thanks FlipTwister for the response. I'm with you, I like the way the z96j looks over the HEL80.

Equinox, are you asking me? I haven't considered it much because it's outside my budget of 1.5k and I wasn't a fan of the green accents on parts of the laptop. It was too gamerish for me.