Sager NP8130 versus NP8150

I know this has been discussed personally, however I'm interested in hearing from the few people who received one of these laptops before shipments stopped as I'm quite torn between the two. It would be easier if I could see the two live but alas that cannot be.

- Matte screen versus Glossy. Toss up for me as I don't have a strong preference either way. The Xotic review of these makes it sound like the matte on the NP8130 is actually the superior screen, is this correct?

- If you plan on sticking with the 460 GTX is there any benefit to the 8150 over the 8130? I see some threads talk about better cooling on the 8150 whereas others say they are identical. I know the PSU has more wattage on the 8150 but does it really matter if you never upgrade the GPU?

- The rubber coating on the NP8150 sounds interesting, I like the rubber coating on the Asus G53 I played with but I'm not sure I'd pay the $200 difference between the 8130 and 8150 if the only thing I'd like better on the 8150 is this. How is the quality of plastic on the 8130 in terms of look and feel, I have a Dell 6400 right now which is plastic is the 8130 comparable to that?

- Is it worth getting an extra year of Sager warranty?

- Is the hybrid seagate driver worth it, seems like there are a lot of reports of issues with it. I do plan on using Linux as my primary OS with this laptop if that makes a difference.

- My primary use for the laptop is software development, however I do plan on gaming with it occasionally as I travel as a software consultant. I will likely dual boot Linux (Ubuntu or OpenSUSE) and Windows 7.

 

Personal preference, period. I don't find the glossy screen offensive at all on my NP8170, assuming it's similar on NP8150. If you're into proper color representation, then you'd want to opt for the glossy, and more than likely one of the upgraded glossy screens.

I'd save the money then if you never care to update the GPU. Even then there will most likely be a GPU that the NP8130 can handle just fine, just not the 100W ones. I don't know if the cooling is better or not, that has never been confirmed, but we do know the PSU delivers less power in the NP8130 than the NP8150.

People seem to like it except on the trackpad. All comments seem to state that it's hard to drag your finger on the surface.

I think so, obviously depends on how long you plan on keeping it. In my case with the GTX 485m, I think the cost is more than justified. But for a base NP8130, I guess that'd be up to you.

What issues? There are no issues that I know of. Some people got noisy drives, but an RMA with a new drive corrected that. I have/had one in my previous Sager (NP8662) and it ran like a dream. Don't expect a 500GB SSD though. You will get faster boots, and relatively quick launch of a couple of your most common apps.

GTX 460m is adequate for gaming. Drop the details a bit for newer games, or drop resolution to 1280x720 (720p) if you really want good FPS.

In your case, if it were me, I would opt for the NP8130.

 

Thinking about switch from my NP5135 to NP8130.

Don't know how those matte Screen will affect photo editing since I'm doing a lot of those.

 

I don't know if anyone else knows this, but if you pay with an American Express card (and I'm sure other companies do this too) you get double manufacturers warranty up to 1 year. So basically, I got the standard one year parts, three years labor warranty. If my screen died after 1 year and 6 months, I'd contact my reseller who would tell me it would cost x amount. I'd then contact AmEx who would either 1) refund me the purchase price (not common big things) OR 2) give me up to the purchase price amount to pay for repairs.

If my reseller said that screen was a $300 fix, AmEx would credit back to my card the amount the reseller quote me, and I could use that credit to pay for the repair.

I used this program to get my money back 100% on a router I had die just outside the 1 year warranty, they were awesome about it.

Check out the program Here


Sure, you don't get the cash discount, but I get enough perks to make up for it. They basically end up giving me the $70 Sager warranty for free and I get 2% cash back on my American Express Blue card. (Granted, not only are they giving me that warranty, they'll even just refund the full purchase price if something were to happen and the resellers couldn't even repair it).

I have no idea how they pay for this, whether they go after the reseller for the money or not, but on the consumer end, the perks are great. I use my AmEx Blue card any time I purchase electronics just because of this warranty extension.

 

I feel the need to correct this statement. A properly calibrated matte screen will give you more accurate colors compared to a glossy screen, and are easier to calibrate. In fact, if you're a photographer and/or graphic designer looking into these laptops, I'd recommend getting the V.4 matte screen, as it covers the full Adobe RGB color gamut, which is essential for printing. Mythlogic will allow you to upgrade to this screen for $150, which is more than worth it for me. As far as I know they're the only retailer that will do this.

As a photographer proper color representation and monitor calibration are essential to me, so I've been researching these screens extensively the last little while. As soon as they become available (again) I'm ordering an NP8150 with the upgraded matte screen from Mythlogic

I'm a long time lurker, so please forgive the low post count

 

Wait for mythlogic to get back to you on that. I took my NP8170 in there today so they could do a calibration and comparison with the matte and glossy screens they offer.

My screen was only 42% and only something like 95:1 contrast. I'll let mythlogic detail it all out though since I'm not even an amateur when it comes to this stuff.

And post count doesn't really matter all that much. Just because you haven't posted doesn't mean you don't know anything. Thanks for taking the time!

 

You've got a PM, look forward to hearing from you.

 

Yup this is true, the glossy screen makes colors look more vibrant, but the matte screen will give you more accurate colors.

Its really your preference though. Neither type of screen is "better" per say.

At least thats what I've discovered through my research