Why shouldn't I buy a W3V?

I am in the market for a new laptop, largely because my Dell 600m (Pentium M 1.5, 512MB, 32 MB Radeon 9000, 60 GB, CD-RW/DVD, XGA) appears to be giving up the ghost after about 2 1/2 years. I am fed up with the flimsiness of it, though I am not really unhappy with its raw performance.

I actually bought a T60 WS and had a bad experience with it - it was defective and the Lenovo tech support was awful. I also felt the 15.4" form factor was just too big for me, and the WSXGA+ screen led to too-small text.

I am basically looking for a 14.1" WXGA lappy with excellent build quality and reliability, and like the idea of a metal, CF, or CFRP case. I want a relatively modern CPU, 1 GB of RAM with a spare slot, a 100GB+ HD, DVD burner, integrated wireless (duh!), Bluetooth, XP Pro, and a really nice screen, preferably glossy. It is important to me that the speakers be adequately loud (the Thinkpad was marginal in this respect). I like the idea of discrete video that is capable of playing SOME games, though I never really had a problem with my Dell's 32MB Radeon 9000 video). I want to spend as much under $2K as possible.

It seems to me the W3V is a killer deal now at $1K, and I am having a hard time seeing why I shouldn't buy one - am I missing something?

My understanding is the W3V carries a one-year warranty, but it looks like the W3J has two years - is that right? Does the W3V still qualify for a free upgrade to Vista?

Thanks!

 

The W3V is still an older machine, using 2 generation behind technology, nothing wrong with this technology, and at a decent price too. This comes with 1 year warranty.

The W3J with core duo would also suit your needs, but only comes with 1 year warranty.

The W3J(P) comes with Core 2 Duo, which is the latest technology, and it is only slightly more expensive over the W3J and in my opinion it is worth purchasing the W3J(P). Mainly because of the newer technology, and you may want to consider 64 bit processing in the future. And yes this model coems with 2 years warranty, which is a big plus.

 

The Centrino in the W3V comes under relatively modern, but only just. I use the same CPU, and the Core Duo/Core 2 Duo stuff kills it by a long ways.

Try an Asus that is in the A8J series, the A8Jm is being phased out and thus has some incentives, the A8Jp is dirt cheap at newegg ($1300) but out of stock, the A8Js is very similar to the A8Jp but is more expensive at $1600. If you can go smaller, there is the W7J 13.3" at $1500, which is also very good.