Voodoo < $$$

Thx, I think I understood you well then in the first place. Thank you for confirming. Unfortunately the AMD and the Screen size made you spend more $2000. HP are you listening?

There is no question that the Envy 133 is a comparatively good ultra portable (good job to Voodoo for adopting and developing it). Just don't think the price is right in comparison to other options and so for me it has a extremely weak value proposition, aka very overpriced. Loyalties apart, especially when compared with other very own HP models.

Have fun

Trance
PS: Apple battery is not replaceable mostly becouse the ultra portable tech don't survive more then 3 years. I have a M200 Tablet PC that my wife still uses for Word and Internet (it is reliable as a rock). Basically it does not have enough power to run Vista as it is supposed to run just to give an idea, and this happened in a little less then 3 years (very nice on the first year with XP, second year ok, by the end of the tird year I needed a new one). In other words, it now drags for my needs (unbereable for a every day work 8 hours a day). Cost me $3000 back then, so never more ultra portables for me at those prices.

 

ha ha ha... go away for a weekend and this thread gets a shot of adrenaline... lol...

all good arguments... really...

"One man's garbage, another man's art..."

Trance says Picasso... i say WTF?!?!?
but all joke aside... it is very hard to argue for and against a "premium" or "luxury" or "boutique"...

my wife asked me why i need the car i purchased...
i cannot give her a clear and common sense reply... cars depreciate... and now, barely broken in with 700 miles, i hear it's worth 30k less than what i paid...

but in my book, i still am one ahead of her... see, she has yet to justify why a Burberry's bag costs $1300... ha ha ha... i know, i know, it's gonna bite me in the end... painfully... but lemme enjoy my little moments of victory...
/plays theme song of "married with children..."

why does luxury sell?
why does is it that luxury everything outlasts bad economy?

housing market is in a **** poor state everywhere... and yet, on my way home, i have the "joy" of driving through a multi million dollar complex that is going up... i heard that the land alone was $50 mil... and it's for one... yea, ONE house... prolly something ridiculous... 20k sq ft, and the numbers will scare ya...

Hermes bags cost 10k to 30k...
Chanel, pfft... dont even get me started...

and the list is endless...

yea, here's the thing tho... all of the items mentioned so far, can and most cases DO appreciate in value...

Lux Real Estate is really a great investment...
Hermes or Chanel vintage appreciates in value...
Ferrari's also appreciate in values...
Sadly Trance, AM does not... ha ha ha

but let's think... why Voodoo PC?

1)well, definitely NOT because it's the most bang for the buck, right?
2)definitely NOT because it is the best and the fastest of the fastest... yea, they do have great machines... but i appreciate the fact that they release a bit later than others... i'd like to think that it's because they do NOT release half baked products like the m15x and have a PR nightmare...
3)is it cus i like the folks? he he he... bunch of wacky and yet nice folks over at their forums... customers and such... got to know them real well, and also the voodoo staff as well... and we game together and such... real great... it had an influence in my decision... but not that either... yea, i still hold BMWROB accountable for sending me over to their forums...

so why then, did i pay a lot for this?

instead of a lot of hypotheticals and backing up with a one man's perspective into why folks buy into luxury... i'll give you MY reasons...

1) i wanted something different.
2) i valued the community (the voodoo forums, i was there a bit before making decision... and i appreciate the honesty... not at all a cesspool of fanboys...)
3) i saw some of the problems they've had... and i saw the responsiveness and i appreciated it... but others, like BMWROB had some negative experience... i cannot comment, as i do not know the full detail of this... but knowing that there were unresolved issues, overall, i was still impressed.
4) i liked the individuality that it offered... yea yea, i can go to Ace Hardware and get some cans of Krylon and make a Yaris look unique... and individual... but c'mon... Yaris? give me a break...
5) i valued ownership experience... good and the bad... and what it does for me...

and heck, AW was turning up plastic childish crap that melted at the time of purchase... so... meh...

but again, one man's garbage is another man's art... so i don't regret buying this...

not even after i saw the price of CLEVO's when i was in shanghai...
well, maybe... lol... but seriously, nah...

but we've all have to come to realize... we are all brand junkies... one way or another...

going to a specific store over another...
buying Bayer instead of the CVS version...

what's wrong with that?
as long as we get what we paid for, right? whether what we get in return is in monetary value or something as intangible as that feeling you get when you look at the ridiculously expensive laptop...

to each his own...

 

I'm all for luxury Luxury for me is something adding to pleasure or comfort but not absolutely necessary.

Talking about old VoodooPC models personally I would bring me disconfort in paying X for something when I could pay 60% of that on a system that is exactely the same except for a paint. This irrespectively the money or budget I could have. But that is just me and my own principles.

Talking about the new Envy 133 (which is an entirely different ball game from the old Voodoo), one thing that emazes me is that no one mentioned something that is all over the Envy 133 that could make a very strong point in favor of it. That is ERGONOMICS (Maybe the problem bluring this is the Art word that no one really knows what it is when one looks at it). The Envy 133 wins in beuty, weight and thickness (or lack of it).

Wether that is worh $2000 difference from the HP TX It does not IMHO, since they are so similar in terms of system speed and weight, even thought the TX as more features (touch screen, finger print reader, and better GFX card) except for thickness, but as you said to each their own comfort as different people are indeed reasured in different ways.

Trance
PS: HP just announce the Elite notebooks supporting Quad Cores. I wonder if the 17" or 15" will be based on the same tech and what will be their price in comparison.

 

if you dont buy the things that make you happy then what's the point of making excessive amounts of money? charity?

Hep! do you like going out with girls who get their clothes from wal-mart to parties??

if having something that most people can't afford makes them happy then what's the problem?? maybe you should be happy that there are less expensive alternatives? it's good to spoil yourself sometimes, at least it's better than dropping thousands in vegas.

if you were given a shopping spree gift card w/ unlimited funds and there were notebooks from every manufacturer which would you grab first? clevo? even if money wasn't an issue? why would someone who can afford boutique restrict themselves to something less desirable to them.

so everyone's arguing economical is > happiness
it's smarter to be economical than be happy?
are you going to argue and criticize on what makes a person happy?

people have different perspectives in life, why criticize when it makes them happy? what's worth it for you may not be worth it for others. dickies make be worth it for you but i think they're hideous and would not wear them even if they were given to me for free. so spending even $5 on dickies clothes would be considered overpriced to me because i PERSONALLY think they're worth $.50 see how value is subjective? so you're essentially spending 10 times more than i would ever pay!

oh and it actually costs money to maintain brand value, marketing, advertisements, design, custom paint job etc... so you're not essentially getting same notebook with different logo on top.

i hope you don't think frozen pizza are same as restaurant pizza cuz they fill up your stomach have same function!! and remember, taste is subjective!!

 

The best part of the "Voodoo experience" Kh, were the Mutthaboards, but even they never came close to working right!

About Voodoo not releasing half-baked products: you joined too late, I guess to remember the m460 and the m860, examples of exactly the opposite. Everything imaginable went wrong with the 460, yet Voodoo still to this day denies any problems. The last time I can recall discussion about the machine iMaxx popped in and said he was the proud owner of one. Pretty poor judgement on the part of a Voodoo employee, IMO, if he actually spent his own hard-earned cash on one of those. The 860, among other issues, had cracked hinges, in common with the ODM model, btw, which Voodoo repeatedly claimed only affected a few very early examples. The truth was that way too MANY machines were affected and not just Voodoo's, but the company line held for the duration of the model's life. My own 860 was among those repaired TWICE - the second time supposedly after the problem had been addressed. LOL

Nothing about Voodoo's machines or its service, IMO, lives up to a standard necessary to justify the ridiculous prices charged.

Edit: Just remembered what I think is the correct ODM model number for the 860, the Arima 700 - what a pile!

 

I totally agree. Its over-priced gloss box with old technology. Ugh.. had my hopes up for a few though..

 

Wonder when the 155 well come out.

 

And I still am.
Still humming along and working like a dream.

Not saying the problems we had with them in the beginning were nonexistent, but once all that was fixed up, they were solid machines.

 

Oh, of course it is. Who would doubt a Voodoo employee with the only working 460 on the planet! Solid machines . . . that's completely laughable and you know it. The probable reason that there are no longer any complaints on your boards about those sorry machines is because all the other 460s (and likely the 860s, as well) in the world fell apart and died years ago. Knowing Voodoo, you've probably buried all the complaints about these machines deep into whatever pit you've stuffed threads which show Voodoo for what it really is, like the Kimble threads. LOL Now, that was a Voodoo experience.

 

I'm going to turn this thread into a PSA about exchange rates.

Voodoo doesn't control exchange rates and my credit card company doesn't control exchange rates. Just make sure you are aware of exchange rates when purchasing a computer from Voodoo and definitely make sure you are aware of them if you decide to ask for a refund.

I lost over $530 on my Envy 133 when I asked for a refund, which I didn't realize until I looked at my credit card statement today. I guess that's what I get for trying to get it repaired first for a couple months before finally asking for a refund. I just wanted to make sure everyone knows that this can happen.

 

I am glad you finally got a refund from those guys. That really sucks about the whole exchange rate. $530 is quite a lot of money. You may be able to talk to your credit card company to see if they can do anything to waive that, since a refund should be exactly what you paid for, unless their are restocking fees.

K-TRON

 

hmmm the envy 133 is actually not that expensive if you dont look at the specs they're throwing in a free battery too.