Buying/Customizing a 6214W (Germany)

A few questions (and maybe some suggestions for Zepto - if any representatives are reading this). But first... my (short but rather amusing - I hope) story.

So, I just found out about this new company called Zepto yesterday... Imagine my surprise... after reading all the possible threads around here as well as some reviews, I decided to take a closer look at 6214W. I must say, I'm impressed!

I'm currently shopping for a new laptop to replace my Fujitsu-Siemens E8010D. Reasons? Fujitsu-Siemens sucks (very bad personal experiences), I need to switch from ATI to Nvidia soon, otherwise I will go crazy (I'm a 100% Linux/FreeBSD user, and ATI's proprietary drivers have been sucking b*lls since like...ever), and I could use a lighter 14" laptop (after using laptops for 5 years I found out that 15" just doesn't do it for me anymore ), and well these new Core 2 Duos seem to be just what I'm searching for... useful in my university research work.

Before E8010D, I had a (L)A(p)sus A2550H (or something) series... entry level, quite ****ty (plastic cracking and stuff) and before that an ECS (hehe, Desknote... external battery - very cool.... NOT!).

Anyway, needless to say, this time I am searching for something of a better quality... regarding the notebook itself, but also the support and or customizability options.

Now, how did I end up on this forum ... Obviously, I was looking at 13-14" models, with NVidia. To my surprise, the market is rather "limited" in this area... Besides Sony (SZ) and Asus (W7J) I couldn't find anything that has what I need and doesn't look like a cheap stereo-casette-player from a russian market. (no offence meant to the .ru guys). I mean the Dell M1210 screams like "bleah" for me. Please don't judge personal preferences... I'm just expressing my opinion here. And yes, I'm the kind of guy that thinks like "IBM Thinkpads are probably the best looking laptops out there". I just *hate* all this silverish crap on laptops... the minute it gets scratched it looks awefull (anyone wants any pictures with the lid of my E8010D? ? )

Comming back to the subject... Lenovo doesn't have any Thinkpads with NVidia, the Asus VX1 is 15" and only Core Duo (not 2), etc... so... Sony SZ and Asus W7J.

Taking it one step further, and trying to shorten this as much as possible... I want to customize my laptop! Yes, is that too much to ask for 2000€? I think not. Unfortunately, we live in the almighty European Union (Germany in my case), where it's almost impossible to have such things. Just look and compare the dell.com vs dell.de or sony.com vs. sony.de web sites. On the american side, you can customize everything, hell Sony will even engrave your name on the laptop if you want to, on the german side, I cannot even choose between a QWERTY or a QWERTZ keyboard online! And so on...

I don't like Asus because they don't have a proper online shop. I am sick of calling companies and paying 1.5€ / minute (yeah, that happens quite a lot here in Munich) for buying a product. I want a nice, clean web site... where I go click-click... I pay and then I get my product at home.

I am also not a big fan of the following:
- "yes we can change the german keyboard with an english one, but you have to pay 70€ extra".
- "yes we can install 1.5GB RAM, but you have to buy a 1GB module, we put it in but then we don't take the 512MB back, so you have to hang it on your wall or use it somewhere else" (Asus W7J)

I mean, sure, I can understand them to a certain extent, but I am not prepared to spend extra money and be left with a german keyboard and an additional 512M memory module framed on my bathroom wall. I am paying a ****load of money for that product, the least they can do is offer me some ALTERNATIVES. I am also not prepared to spend my time on ebay selling the stuff, and so on... Anyway, I don't want to start a discussion about this, since my thread is about something else.

So, Asus A7J is out of the picture for me, simply because I cannot customize it the way I want... ONLINE. (well, there was the story of being able to install more than 1.5GB of RAM too, which you cannot).

Sony SZ... I went to MediaMarkt (big electronics&stuff supermarket here in Germany) to see it... It's nice, but again... Germany... I cannot get a Core 2 Duo 2Ghz with english keyboard and without all that WAN/EDGE crap I don't need. I e-mailed Sony, they were nice and replied back... I told them that I want an english keyboard and that it's impossible to choose that from their web site... they told me to call some phone number, but they also mentioned that the laptop is not customizable (meaning that I either get the one with Core2Duo 2Ghz and WAN at 2500€ or the Core2Duo 1.8Ghz without WAN at 1900€ - or something). I'll probably call them later today (or Monday) just to see what they say.

Call me crazy, but as a customer, I *want* to feel like I am spending that amount of money on a good "package", which comprises of the notebook unit itself, but also on the "support" I have before/when/and after I buy the notebook, as well as my personal preferences on the unit. Yes, if I want 160GB with Core2Duo 2Ghz, with 2GB of RAM, but without Bluetooth or WAN... I think I should be able to get that, without so much of a hassle. Click-click...done.

So to make a long story short, I find the Sony SZ overpriced and without the ability to choose *exactly* what I want, packed with the "nasty" keyboard that they have as well as other things.... out.

Thus... 6214W. And now onto the questions:
- how do I choose a QWERTY keyboard from the de.zepto.com web site ? I contacted both de.zepto and rj@zepto, but no reply so far (well it has been less than 12h since I e-mailed ).
- is it possible to get personalized covers in Germany too? I find the option of being able to do that VERY cool. Again, my rant about... paying 2000€ but at least I can customize the hell out of it.
- what's the story with the 12-cell batteries ? Are they going to be black ? Are they going to be available anytime soon ?
- what's the minimum - maximum battery life with the 6-cell one ? 1.5-2.5h ?
- any nice pictures somewhere to show the black and the white version of 6214W and 6314W near each other ? I want the 6214W so far, but I haven't seen any big pictures of the 6314W yet to judge it (see my "Zepto suggestions" below).

Zepto suggestions:
- the "show big image click" on a small picture doesn't work with Iceweasel/Firefox/Mozilla under Linux would be great if someone could fix the js script so that it's not only M$ compliant
- mouse over the yellow dots/circles ("On the way. Hold the mouse over the button to see more information about delivery") also doesn't work for the above mentioned configurations
- add the possibility to choose any keyboard layout from any country in Europe...

That's it for now. I think i redefined the notion of "short" with my post. Hope nobody minds and I also hope that if you read so far you enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to hear some opinions/comments, but more importantly, answers to my questions.

All in all, if we could get the personalized covers here in Germany directly (without going through UK or other countries - thus avoiding customs and so on), I would really consider of buying a notebook for my gf too (probably the 6014 )!

Thanks a lot!

Cheers from Munich,
Radu.

 

The keyboard. I got mine, though, a Finnish one (QWERTY + åäö by writing in to the "notes" field on the order specifications that I'd like a Finnish keyboard layout. Some people have horror stories of not getting they layouts they want here, but I had no problem at all.

I was under the impression the personalized covers are for the 6314W series. The Danish site gives 31 days until 12-cell batteries are around. It looks like this. My 6-Cell 6615WD (it's probably a bit more hungry as with 15,4" screen) goes around 1 hour 55 minutes on light loads (office, winamp, eviews), but goes down in around one hour if you push your limits (plug on wireless, clamp the processor up, run heavy gaming). I was personally thinking of just ordering one of the 12-cell batteries once they come available, but then again I spent so little time unplugged - even trains here have plugs for laptop users, if you know to ask for a laptop seat.

I didn't even know there's a 6213W, I'm sure you are talking about the 6314W, which is the white laptop series with design covers. To be honest, reading the specifications they appear very similar spite the color and design options included in 6314W, that come with a bit higher price subsequently. I didn't check through the datasheets, but anything interesting probably reads there, or can be found out through just checking the configuration options.


What comes to the Zepto site, it's good suggestions, but... I would just be happy if the Zepto kids would translate the danish site (which is by far superior in design, quality, and content) into major languages, it'd be far more representative and would definately attract more customers. The shabby looking foreign websites are probably just something quickly built up for the vital/necessary tasks. If I knew danish better, I could just translate the site to Finnish, the Finnish and German sites are just horrible in compared to the native Danish site.

 

Ah, that is very cool. Hmm, maybe I should try ordering one today then, while they still have this -116€ rebate. Btw, does anyone know if "JETZT 116 € SPAREN! Kein Studentenrabatt ! BIS 10.12.2006 -116,00 €" means 10.12 included ? Or is the last day 09.12 ?

I see nothing on de.zepto, but on uk.zepto they have this offer for the 6214W (so it seems?). Anyway, would be awesome if we could order this from Germany as well.

Yup, I agree with that... all the ICEs are the same in Germany. I am also using the notebook mostly plugged in, but just in case... it's nice to know that the 12-cell battery will be there soon! But since it's going to take one more month, I'll probably go ahead and order it now with a 6-cell.

Wowie, you are right. I just checked the Danish one and it looks much much better. Well, let's just hope that our suggestions will reach some of the company's "power" employees so they can do something about it.

Cheers,
Radu.

 

I'd expect "Bis 10.12" means 10.12 is the last day to order, but I wouldn't know for sure. Hope it goes well for you too, I've had my Zepto for a month now, and it's absolutely smooth.

 

Oook.. I called the DE zepto guys. The person that I talked to was very friendly and explained me how to write the fact that I want an american english keyboard (US QWERTY) under "Anmerkungen" (en. Notes). He couldn't talk to me in english, so I tried with my (bad) german to tell him what I want. All-in-all, it went well.

I just placed an order for a (fully packed) 6214W with a 6-cell (with the "desire" to get the 12-cell sometime next year in January ) battery. I really hope I didn't make a big mistake, since this is all really new for me ... 24h ago I knew nothing about Zepto.

I would still want to know if people have been able to get personalized covers in other countries outside UK (I forgot to ask him about this on the phone, and now I have to wait until Monday).

 

From what I gather, they international keyboard mixups happen a lot, and it's not only a Zepto problem. I guess we here in the US have it easier with just one version--so there's nothing for us to screw up.

I'm glad you got your order placed. Did they say anything about the custom lids' availability in Germany? When I first heard about it I thought it was a pretty cool feature.

Anyway, welcome to the forums and enjoy your new notebook!

 

Hehe, I felt exactly the same, except that I didn't make the descision over 24 hours. So far so good, I wouldn't panic. Whenever you buy a computer anywhere, there's a bound risk of some design flaws, but if the local importer you talked to was friendly and helpful, I reckon you're going to be off for a nice road. Let us know how it is once you get it!

 

Thanks for your replies guys. I am going to try to make the wire transfer to Zepto DE tomorrow morning. The date for "ready for shipping" on their website was something like the 13th. Does anyone know when they actually start processing the order (eg. when the money enters into their account)?

 

I paid with the Finnish system that allows you to pay for it when the post delivers the package, so at least mine got processed before I paid. The delivery time was rather volatile though, the website gave some two weeks, which was instantly blown to five weeks by the importer (it didn't come directly from Zepto, but it came through DigiComp, ie. the firm that imports Zepto computers in Finland).

In the end, I got mine in a day less than three weeks.

 

I guess it was about time to come back with a conclusion regarding my Zepto decision and purchase from last month/year.

First of all, thanks a lot to everyone who replied to my posts and encouraged me to go ahead with the decision, or, on the other hand, cleared some of the positive, or negative, aspects that they had with their ZNotes.

So, I have been using the Znote 6214W for about 2-3 weeks now, which I think entitles me to a brief review. I just hope that none of Murphy's laws will apply, and the minute I click Submit here, will be the minute when I will start having problems with my laptop.

The followings are, of course *my* opinions and thoughts on the Znote 6214W and the Zepto company (of which I must admit, I never heard prior to December/2006). This is not a review per se, but more like a list of the chapters which were important to me at the time of the purchase (and still are), and the way Zepto, in my opinion, "handled" them.... Thus, the (unusual) order.

1) Public relations

I was very pleased with the way the Znote representatives from both Germany and Denmark (I guess almost everyone here knows Roelof-Jan) treated me as a customer, and their answers to my questions via e-mail was both prompt (I remember waiting for days for HP, Fujitsu-Siemens and Sony to reply) and professional.

I guess the only minor problem that I had was that the laptop did not arrive in time for Christmas (mostly due to the fact that postal services have holidays too - at least here in Germany - so the package was with them for quite a few days), but since it was a gift from me to me, it didn't matter that much.

So 9.5/10 for public relations and the way they handled things so far.

2) The right to choose what you buy

Being a hardcore Linux/FreeBSD user, I was never happy with the fact that, whenever I bought a new laptop, I had to pay for the operating system, be it XP Home or Professional, Vista, or the oldies Win9x or 2k. I mean, why should I pay even 10euros for that, when I am not even going to use it ? Even more, maybe I already have a license, which I haven't used, and I am just looking for the hardware. I don't have anything against Microsoft or Bill Gates, I would react the exact same way if the money would go to IBM, Siemens, or McDonalds.. or any other company that sells me something which I will just throw away the minute I get home, but for which, I am forced to pay.

Needless to say, Zepto's configuration web page (as "problematic" as it is - not the .dk one) was a dream come true. Sure, other manufacturers have similar things, but they are way way poorer in letting you decide your laptop's hardware. My only complaint is that the keyboard option was not there at the time of my purchase, meaning that even though it said "UK/FR/DE/DK/etc options available", you could only choose DE for the time being, and then specify it under "notes" that you want the qwerty UK one.

All in all, I give 10/10 for Zepto (bravo!) for the way they allow their customers to configure their notebooks, from OS to CPU, RAM, and so on.

3) The hardware itself

We all know the catching phrase "you get what you paid for". I will argue that this doesn't apply in Zepto's case. Meaning that, for the amount of money I spent (~1400euros) I got much more than I could have gotten with a lot of other brands out there.

The case is marvelous (I'm an "all-black thinkpad" kind of fan), and even though it's made out of plastic, there is almost no flex, which, comming from a line of Fujitsu-Siemens *professional* notebooks (E80x series), I was very used with.

Edit: After re-reading the above phrase, it occurred to me that maybe someone could misunderstand it. What I meant, is that the Fujitsu-Siemens has a lot of flex on the keyboard and case as well (except the lid - as stated below), in comparison to Zepto which has none.

My only complaint about the case itself is the lid, which could clearly need some stronger materials. This is one department where the Fujitsu-Siemens wins hands down, by using magnesium alloy to protect the screen.

I guess there is no point in saying anything about the hardware components, since they can be found in many other notebooks (or even desktops). All in all, everything works fine for my needs in Debian Linux sid/Kernel 2.6.19. Ah, I don't know why the web site says that the display maximum resolution is "1280x768", while it seems to me that it is in fact "1280x800".

Advice for those coming from higher resolutions (like me - 1400x1050 on 15") to the 6214W's one: after 2 days, you won't feel the difference anymore, and you will dislike the previously higher used one. 1280x800 feels very natural to me on a 14" display. Whenever you need more, hook up your 17-21" external LCD and work there.

Weight is amazing! My backpack is 1.3kgs lighter now, and compared to the 2.2Kg of the Macbooks, I think you get a bit more with a Znote 6214W.

I didn't test battery life properly, but I intend to believe that the 1:25-2:45 claims on the Zepto web site are true, for which I give Zepto another ribbon. I mean, how many other companies and notebook manufacturers put honest data like that on their web site ? I remember Fujitsu-Siemens saying like 4h battery life, when in fact it's 3:45 and down to 2:30 if you actually USE it. I know that they have a text written somewhere as a disclaimer (with font size =4, that only ants can read), where they actually say that those numbers represent some test they made with some benchmark software and so on. I mean just be honest and say that in "full load" your system won't last longer than 2h on batery life, and then I'm okay with that. Because at least I know what I am buying ahead and will not be disappointed afterwards!

Why am I fine with the 1:25-2:45? Because I work on my laptop either at home or at the university, where we have power outlets. Besides that, it takes me about 40 minutes by subway.. so no problems there, and most of the trains here in Germany have power outlets as well, so traveling and working between cities can also be solved.

Speakers... amazing (for a laptop that is). Makes the Fujitsu-Siemens and the Macbook look like old russian mono tape players.

I am happy with the keyboard and the touchpad as they are. Linux users know the meaning of syndaemon -t -d so no problems while typing on the keyboard and accidentally "touching the touchpad".

9/10 for the hardware

4) Improvements

Not sure... I would like a better lid and better battery life, but I realize that this will probably make the laptop heavier. Besides, I can always just buy the 9-cell (whenever that becomes available).

Audio volume dial/control knob? Perhaps... this could be a nice thing to have. Almost all the new Asus laptops have it, so I assume it's not a big deal to put one.

Battery life led changed! It would be great to get like 4 different colors or levels or whatever, that indicate how much battery life you have left..

Personalized paintings on the case? I know they have it in the UK, and we would certainly welcome this in Germany as well! Not efficient, but adds something to the cool factor.

---

So that's about it. I am very happy with my decision of purchasing the Znote 6214W, and hopefully it will not break too soon. But if it does, I just hope that the Zepto's customer/technical support team is as good as I imagine them to be right now.

Cheers,
Radu.

 

It whas fun to read your conclution, I'm happy you liked the 6214W and the way we work.

I was thinking that I shuld give an awnser to some of the things you mentions.

If some things is missing on any countrys website (like the QWERTY keyboards in this case) there's normaly no problem getting it anyway. since all the laptops is assembled in either Denmark ore Sweden all parts are located on the same to places, and if someting are missing on one, there is no problem getting it from the other.

The personaized paintings are all done by a finnish company who have had some small problems resently. We hope to get the production working again in the end of this month.

Some of the homepages are under reconstruction and are soon going to look like Zepto.dk. When the new ones are online there will hopefully be no "explorer only" features. Rene is probably working his ass of with this right now.

About the 12-cell bettery, we are still waiting for them to arrive from oure chineese producers which have taken longer than expekted.

Good luck with the 6214W! and sorry for my bad english

 

Thanks for posting your experiences, veedee! It is always helpful for others considering a purchase of their own to get input like this--from somebody who has just gone through what they are about to.

@tofen--Your english is fine, and I hope to see you around the forums in the future! It's always great having those "in the know" participate.