Canuck looking to purchase

Hi all, well the wait seems to be over, and the new Sager line up is out. I'd like to put in an order tomorrow, and would like everyone's opinions on a couple things:

1. This was the price received from Malibal. In terms of pricing is this reasonable? I read some places may be a better choice for shipping to Canada for saving taxes, would Malibal not be one of them?

2. For someone buying from Canada is Malibal a good choice? If something were to break down today, how long would it take to send in the laptop, have it repaired, and receive it back? Are there places with a speedier turn around?

3. Is the $100 upgrade on the video card from the 670 to 675 worth it? And is the 675 enabled for Optimus switching?



Lotus P150EM-SE (P150EM-SE)
$1,319.00

Customizations:

Display: 15.6" 1920 x 1080 FHD LED AUO B156HW01 V.4 95% NTSC Matte Display $95.00

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM, 6MB L3 Cache, 2.2-3.1GHz

Memory: (8GB) 8192MB, PC3-12800/1600MHz DDR3 - 2 SO-DIMM

Graphics Card: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 675M (Fermi) 2GB GDDR5 $100.00

Hard Drive: 240GB Intel® (520) SATA III 6Gb/s SSD2 Drive $295.00

Optical Drive Bay: 750GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA 300 Hybrid w/ 8GB NAND Flash $195.00

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium; 64-bit $80.00

Wireless: Intel® 6230 Advanced-N 802.11A/B/G/N LAN and Bluetooth Card $25.00

Cooling: IC Diamond 7 Thermal Compound, CPU & GPU $35.00

Keyboard: English: US & Canada

Power Cord: US & Canada

Branding: None

Build Time: 5-7 Business Days (Estimated Time)

Warranty: LIFETIME Ltd. Labor and 2 Year Parts Warranty with 24/7 Support (CA) $79.00

Extras: Standard Black Carrying Case

Product Subtotal:

$2,223.00

Much appreciated everyone

Looking forward to having my first high powered laptop!

 

It may be better to contact a couple of the other resellers to see what they offer in terms of shipping to Canada.

I'm not sure how Malibal shipping works, so I can't comment on it.

Also, some resellers may not be authorized to ship to Canada either.

 

Get the bigfoots card, throw out the bag option unless it is free and get a better bag like from Slappa for such a nice laptop. Your spec is basically similar to mine but I am getting a 170EM and still waiting on a response from Malibal.........
...............
Malibal where are you guys!

 

Have bought 3 laptop from Malibal and they are very good to deal with. repair turn around is around 1 week to 10 days from my experience.

$100 for 675 is definitely worth it, it's at least 30% faster card and should be good for a while.

 

1. This was the price received from Malibal. In terms of pricing is this reasonable? I read some places may be a better choice for shipping to Canada for saving taxes, would Malibal not be one of them?

Price is Reasonable. You will still have to pay brokerage fees if you choose standard shipping or brokerage fees will be included if you choose expedited shipping. Either way it will still be pretty expensive. An alternative might be to order directly from a Canadian company such as Reflex Notebook
as with them you will get free shipping to all the major shipping areas in Canada and no brokerage fees. There will be a slight difference in the price as their website converts to CDN dollars but it will still be cheaper than Malibal just on the basis of the shipping/brokerage let alone the conversion rate.

2. For someone buying from Canada is Malibal a good choice? If something were to break down today, how long would it take to send in the laptop, have it repaired, and receive it back? Are there places with a speedier turn around?

Malibal does have a service center in Canada so in that sense they will probably be faster than some of the other US based retailers. If it is a minor repair, I remember reading somewhere that Reflex can handle certain repairs onsite but I am not 100% sure on this. As far as turnaround time goes, I cannot yet comment on that as I have not personally dealt with that.

3. Is the $100 upgrade on the video card from the 670 to 675 worth it? And is the 675 enabled for Optimus switching?

I believe so, the 675 is a rebadged 580m at a significantly reduced cost that for an extra $100 makes sense if you do not wish to wait for the new line which should be coming out in the next month(s). Of course it also all depends on what your needs are (now and in the future) and whether they justify the increased cost.



For more information on buying a Sager/Clevo in Canada check out these guides:

Canadians Looking To Buy SAGER/CLEVO (Credit to paramehdic)
(Note that the pricing and specs will now be outdated but the shipping and warranty information should remain the same)

Guide to buying a Laptop in Canada (Credit to NovaH)

Good luck,

Michael

 

Hi, as others have mentioned - we can service your laptop in Canada (we pay shipping both ways) and the average time it takes for a repair is 3 business days after receiving the laptop back. Also, the most your brokerage should be is around $10 with the current shipping options we offer. On top of this, the only other fees you will have to pay are your GST/PST/HST taxes, which are the same taxes you would pay if you purchased a laptop locally.

SevenK, I'm looking for your PM right now and will reply to it shortly.

 

Keep in mind - you aren't going to save anything on taxes buying from the US - you'll have to pay GST (and PST if applicable) when you take delivery. I bought from Malibal and sprung for the fast UPS shipping which covered brokerage, but I still had to pay 5% GST on the purchase price.

 

Things may have changed but I remember reading from another thread about Canadian shipping options where if we can go with USPS (just regular US post I believe?), it's cheaper shipping and no brokerage too.

Is that still true? And does Malibal offer USPS as a shipping option? I know they used to. You could potentially save a lot Skorpi0 if this is still the case.

I'd love to know since I'm considering buying as well but will probably wait for a bit for Ivy, 660M and hopefully lower prices after the initial rush for new machines.

 

Yes, we offer USPS shipping to Canada. It takes a bit longer than UPS, but it is considerably cheaper and the brokerage is $10 or less, I believe.

 

Cool, I thought so. Thanks for the reply, this will come in handy when I look to purchase

 

incoming buyers' hesitation.. I get the feeling a lot of potential buyers are still waiting to purchase.. would now not be the best time to buy?

Also can anyone confirm if the 675 is enabled with Optimus? And will it have better then 2 hrs battery life, or is that the new version of cards just around the corner?

 

ivy bridge cpu suppose to come in end of month and higher end gpu (nvidia 680m and ati 7970) in a couple of months.

 

will the current Sager based systems be upgradeable to the new ivy bridge cpus?

 

The new models (EM's) are upgrade capable, as the motherboard supports both. The older models (HM's) are not.

 

Anthony, would you mind confirming whether the 675 is optimus enabled?

And whether when sending to Canada you charge the local province's PST and GST or just GST?

thank you

 

Sorry for all the questions.

the 675 draws 25 more watts of power than the 670 - would this make any noticeable difference on heat output and in turn fan noise?

I was thinking that if it does, to get the 670 now, and upgrade the GPU with the new line of cards. Or will it practically be unnoticeable and foolish though process?

 

You won't notice a heat difference, unless you have a digital thermometer pointed towards your laptop. The heat won't cause you any physical discomfort like the Pentium 4 laptop days