Sager selling Compals

Hey all,

I was typing up a Clevo Resellers thread (hopefully Sticky quality), and ran into an interesting find.

Sager seems to not be exclusively selling Clevo models anymore. They are now carrying some Compal models... HEL80 and HGL30.

Its not too surprising since Clevo made somewhat of a mistake by not making gaming notebooks under 17"... which Sager probably decided to fill that gap by getting the "bank for the buck" Compal gaming notebooks.

The prices are very competitive with the current Compal sellers.

Now we got another Compal alternative seller to recommend to people.

Game On People,
-Gophn

 

Well, it was either Compal or Asus.

 

Wow...that HGL30 is hitting a pretty sweet price point. $1798 for an almost maxed out one (T7200 instead).

Is the Sager warranty and service good though? I'm not too familiar with them (I've always been an HP/Dell guy).

 

Cool. Thanks for sharing that. First, VooDooPC and now Sager. It's tough to argue with endorsements like that when it comes to Compal's quality and performance.

 

I'm glad to see Sager selling sub-17" gaming notebooks. Perhaps Donald can answer this - is this the first time Sager has sold notebooks other than Clevos?

Clevo definitely made a big mistake not making smaller gaming notebooks. I'll be looking forward to future releases from them in that size range. I think they realized that they made a huge mistake.

 

Wow, Sager sells a really attractive price for the HGL30.
I managed to get a medium configuration of:
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0ghz
1gb Dual Channel DDR2 RAM
80gb SATA 5400 RPM Hard drive
DVD+-RW Drive
Intel Pro + Bluetooth
Windows Home Edition
All for $1374.

Also, both HGL30 and HEL80 are similarly priced with similar specs.
That's about nearly a $100 cheaper than other resellers for the HGL30 and HEL80.

 

Keep in mind that the Sager warranty is only 1 year. Some resellers give up to a 3 year standard warranty with next business day air shipping covered both ways.

 

Yep, the with the 3 year warranty, it costs about the same.
However, for some people saving that extra $100 with just 1 year warranty would suit them better.

 

I've been a sager reseller in the past, and while I have nothing bad to say from about 2 years dealing with them, I also see them as a "major" vendor like dell, which can't compete with the service and personalization you can get from powernotebooks and (from what I hear secondhand) a few of the other vendors here on notebookreview.com.

 

I can see where you're coming from.

To me personally though...I would squeeze the extra $100 out of my budget for 2 additional years of coverage with shipping covered. The shipping alone is very expensive in my area.

It's always nice to have choices =).

 

Yep, I agree with that also. $100 for 2 years more is really cheap .
But this choice from sager would be nice for people who wants to get their Compal notebooks as cheap as possible. (eg. Me =D)

But since it's a somewhat like a main company like Dell, would it come preinstalled with bloatware or such? If it means paying $100 more for 2 years warranty and no bloatware, then that's a done deal instead.

 

I don't believe they come to consumers with bloat, our systems came without OS's installed from them, so I can't answer from a direct consumers perspective. Like I said, we were a reseller so we put own stuff on.

 

If I remember correctly, Sager systems do not come with any bloatware on them. And if you're going to get it from Powernotebooks, they will not put any bloatware on the system.

 

Best part about buying a system without an OS: No installed OS = no bloatware.

 

Well technically no because they used to sell another ODM that was then purchased by Clevo. I am having a brain cramp trying to remember the other ODM's name. The history of it is Clevo first bought them and made them a division of Clevo, and made the rather dumb decision to make a policy that an OEM like Sager could only sell Clevo or that other one but not both...and because of this Pro-Star was born to carry the other one. Then Clevo sold them, and then later bought them back and simply merged them into Clevo and dumped the stupid policy. (Somebody help me out here...what was the name of that other ODM?)

However other than that bit of somewhat ancient history, this is the first time Sager (in self defense since Clevo was not offering a gaming machine under 17") has OEM'd another ODM's laptops.

 

Would you be thinking of FOSA?

 

No, but I researched it this morning...it is Kapok

 

holy toledo, that's a horrible name for a company. Kapok..

back to the HEL 80.. anyone who has seen the glossy and matte version side by side.. which one had better vertical viewing angles? These days, Im starting to find glossy to strain my eyes after long periods

 

The best I can do for you is compare a 17" WUXGA on an e1705 to my matte HEL80 screen.

Better viewing angles and less eye strain on the HEL80 by far. I didn't realize the difference until using the matte after using the glossy for a month.

 

Will Sager be selling/branding any of the new Compal Santa Rosa models?

 

Sager seems to only fill in gaps in their lineup by using non-Clevo's. You can check around on the local good-guy resellers though to see. With the HEL80 they were missing a decent 15.4" gaming system.

www.powernotebooks.com
www.xoticpc.com
www.milestonepc.com

 

Also, if I'm remembering correctly, Clevo realized what a mistake they made by skipping the 15.4" gaming segment and are planning to bring something out this year. So most likely Sager will carry that one.

I'd check the Sager & Clevo forums for more up-to-date information on that.

 

You will not see a discrete video card in a Clevo laptop unless it is 17".

Sager will be carrying the new Compal models in the 15.4" and 14.1" classes again this year.

 

aww, why clevo why!?
anyways I guess this answers my question about Clevo's newest line up.

 

This because the new generation of onboard stuff has some pretty decent midrange performance now?

 

Actually, the US market is the only one that has high demand for the laptops with discrete video cards.

Asia and Europe are not nearly as concerned about them, so Clevo is going for the cheaper integrated video card for those markets, particularly now that the integrated Intel video solutions are so much better. Only the most avid gamer, or the power user that needs a workstation class video card need more than the new integrated video solution in the new Intel Crestline chipset.

 

Wow, that's surprising. But I guess it makes sense when you consider what you mentioned about Americans being the only ones who desire more GPU horsepower in their notebooks, V8's in their trucks, etc.

 

Wo0t go me! I take some of the credit for Intel's new goodies