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VPR Matrix 200A5 Reviewed 258

Posted by michael from the pretty-but-lacking dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The hard to find VPR Matrix 200A5 laptop has been reviewed. Never heard of it? It's a laptop that's designed by F.A. Porsche and sold exclusively by...Best Buy! It seems there is starting to be a rather large following of the VPR line of laptops, but that they are getting tougher to find at Best Buy (not sure if they are discontinuing or if they are selling out stock before releasing a new version.)"
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VPR Matrix 200A5 Reviewed More

VPR Matrix 200A5 Reviewed

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  • In case you're wondering (Score:5, Informative)

    by Lxy ( 80823 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @12:34PM (#5835726) Journal
    Slashdot had the story when these things were announced here [slashdot.org]. And no, it's not a dupe, this is a review.

    • Here's my review.... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by terradyn ( 242947 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @01:42PM (#5836472)
      Ok... I bought the 200A5 a while back and I have found it to be a great laptop functionally. I run windows 2003 Server on it and haven't had any problems. The major qualm I had about buying it initially was the keyboard. As I've seen the keyboard fall apart on the display models in bestbuy I was really worried about that. I have found however that it holds up quite well under regular use. I only had one incident when I poped a key out but it simply snaps back into place.

      The integrated wireless is nice but lacks signal strength. I'd say it has about half the signal strength/distance of a standard orinoco/wavelan card. The battery life is decent. I get about 2 and a half hours on it after 6 months of use. The performance initially is limited by the harddrive that is in it. The Go420 video card is good for most things but driver support sucks. They haven't updated since the original version and nvidias drivers bluescreen the system given the nonstandard display. I'm not sure how this translates on the linux driver side.

      I got so pissed at the harddrive I decided to open the system and add a 5400rpm travelstar to replace the 4200rpm drive in it. It took quite a bit of work to get the casing off (lots of screws - needless to say you can't replace the harddrive easily on this thing) and of course the thing has to support only the 9.5mm drives... There is a sleeve that holds the harddrive in place. I took a dremel to the sucker and was able to hack off the top of it so that a 12.5mm drive would fit.

      All is well not... the drive fits inside the casing although the left palm rest runs a little warmer than usual now =P. Performance is much better now though. If you decide to mod your 200A5 be careful after you open it because the molding that covers the cdrw/dvd drive is very thin so the bottom part of the slot can snap off easily (nothing a little epoxy can't repair though)

      Last thing of note is that I've been experimenting with using it as a peer to peer bridge between my Toshiba e750 and work lan. It works great. Activesync through 802.11b is so much faster and I can now browse the web/rdp into boxes from my pda.

      Don't you dare mod me down for running windows. I work closely with my linux engineering friends and we all have a much more tempered view of both operating systems. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Can't we all just get along?
      • Two things I found:

        1. Like you said, the wireless sucks. First thing I ended up buying was a wireless card (kinda annoying, as being WiFi-enabled was one reason I bought it)

        2. It doesn't have any serial ports. I want to use my GPS on it, so have had to buy a cable to convert a USB to a COM port (which works really well, but the Belk converter is big and annoying).

  • It's nice... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by grahamtriggs ( 572707 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @12:34PM (#5835732)
    ...but can't any old monkey design the PowerBook, once Apple have already done it?

    • Re:It's nice... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Shenkerian ( 577120 )
      Actually, there are technical limitations from using a P4-M vs. a G4 CPU that make it difficult for a PC laptop to just rip off the Powerbook's design.

      The P4-M consumes more power than a full-speed G4, requiring a larger capacity (and thus physically larger) battery for similar battery life, which constrains weight (the 15" Powerbook weigs 5.4 lbs, the vpr's 6.4 lbs). Also, the greater amount of heat P4-M dissipates needs more ways to dissipate, generally meaning a larger heatsink and fan, which constrain

  • Coming next.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Neologic ( 48268 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @12:35PM (#5835744)
    The new BMW line of desktop computers, each with an inline six processor engine and delivering 500 megaflops of power at 3 GHz. AND 4 wheel drive!
    • The new BMW line of desktop computers, each with an inline six processor engine and delivering 500 megaflops of power at 3 GHz. AND 4 wheel drive!

      6 processors delivering a staggering 500 megaflops?!? Are they using 486s?

  • Is BestBuy still selling vprMatrix? (Score:5, Informative)

    by BonrHanzon ( 411856 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @12:35PM (#5835746)
    I read somewhere that WorstBuy is dropping the whole vprMatrix line. Probably explains why I was able to get the 17" LCD monitor for $300 after rebate. I've been trying to buy another LCD for the past two months and can't find them. In fact, the store doesn't seem to have much vprMatrix stuff at all.

  • The Porsche of laptops... (Score:5, Funny)

    by MmmmAqua ( 613624 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @12:36PM (#5835763)
    ...website served by Yugo.

    Another innocent server Slashdotted...

  • Call me lower class... (Score:4, Funny)

    by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @12:36PM (#5835767) Homepage Journal
    "Never heard of it? It's a laptop that's designed by F.A. Porsche (the guys who designed the 911 and some Samsung LCD monitors)"

    I'd prefer a laptop designed by the guys who did the Firebird. They could put a red light ping-pong'ing back and forth and going 'whoosh whoosh...'. That'd be much cooler than this Ferrari laptop that probably can't even Turbo Boost.

    • I bet you'd also like a picture of David Hasselhoff in jeans and a black jacket (at most) as your desktop background, eh? C'mon, I know you would. He's big in Germany, after all. :)

  • I thought that the Porsche 911 looked like a whale trying to surf.
    Not impressed with this laptop either.

  • Linux Support? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Brians256 ( 562930 ) * on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @12:37PM (#5835776) Homepage
    The laptop looks like a good set of compromises that all laptop manufacturers have to make. I don't see what all the negative comments are based upon! Now, the question that should have been asked and answered by the review is: DOES IT RUN LINUX WELL? Who wants to buy a computer only to be stuck with Windows? Do all the components have Linux drivers or at least have freely available documentation for those of us who can write drivers?

  • They're not so hot because they're so hot. (Score:5, Informative)

    by ejaytee ( 186527 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @12:37PM (#5835781)

    These look nice and have nice spec/feature sheets, but have had some trouble with reliability. The Best Buy computer guy told me that genuine failure returns are running around 10%. They run _very_ hot, even for a laptop, to the point where I think it would be uncomfortable to have it on your lap for an extended period of time.

    • > The Best Buy computer guy told me that genuine failure returns are running around 10%.

      Did he tell you this while he was trying to sell you a service plan with your brand new laptop? I used lines like that all the time when I used to work at Best Buy, not because I believed them, but because I would get SERIOUSLY HASSLED if a machine went out the door without service. *sigh* That's 3 months of my life I will never get back. Sometimes it was so bad that if a customer was hard-pressed against buyi

    • Of course it runs hot. It's a Porsche.
    • I have to disagree and an owner of one of these I've been able to use it comfortably as a "lap top" for hours without having it get painfully hot. This contrasts with the latest PowerBooks and my previous laptop a Sony Vaio (ain't it cute) which both got up to scorching temperatures within minutes of lap top use.

      Maybe I just got a lucky cool one...

  • Market Cross-Over (Score:5, Funny)

    by fobbman ( 131816 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @12:40PM (#5835812) Homepage
    As the market for the Porsche 911 is filled with short, pudgy, balding men, it seemed only natural that the designers of the 911 also produce a product that caters to the short, pudgy, balding men of the IT market.

  • great product, bad support (Score:5, Informative)

    by carambola5 ( 456983 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @12:42PM (#5835832) Homepage
    I got the 185A5 a few months back and immediately wiped the hard drive in favor of a real operating system. When I called tech support to ask what type of sound card the model had (their website has nothing), the conversation was something to the effect of:

    Tech support: "Uh, lemme check on that."
    [4 minutes later]
    TS: "Let's see, I believe it's a Soundblaster Live!"
    Me: "Ok... do you know which model of Soundblaster Live!? Is it the 5.1 or gamers edition or..."
    TS: "It doesn't say. Sorry."

    Then after 8 hours of hair pulling and cursing, it turns out it has an ALi chipset. Not Soundblaster Live! Oh, but that's not all folks. A few days later, I call asking for motherboard info.

    Me: "Hi. What type of motherboard is in my 185A5?"
    TS: "I really don't know. Did you check the website?"
    Me: "Yes, your website has nothing of substance on this machine. I called you guys a while back and you told me the wrong sound card. Is there any chance you could find out what type of motherboard, or even chipset, is in this thing?"
    TS: "I'm sorry, we don't have that kind of information here. Only the factory could tell you that.
    Me: "Ok... can you connect me to the factory?"
    TS: "We don't have their number."
    Me: "Is there any way you could get their number and just ask them about the motherboard?"
    TS: "No, not really."
    Me: "So no one there knows anything technically specific about the product you sell."
    TS: "I'm sorry sir."

    Frustrating. Really frustrating. The machine itself is quite nice though. Beautiful widescreen, fast RAM, and very stylish. If there is this supposed following of vprMatrix users, I wonder if they would be of better use than tech support.
    • I got one of the 17" LCD's $300 after rebate. Problem with this is there are no useful specs anywhere for the thing. The best buy people opened one of the boxes to see if anything useful was in it, nope. Website had no real details, best buy people were clueless. It's been a good monitor though for $300.

    • Re:great product, bad support (Score:5, Insightful)

      by hobbesx ( 259250 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @01:14PM (#5836167)
      ...and immediately wiped the hard drive in favor of a real operating system...

      Even if you don't consider a Microsoft OS a real operating system; I certainly consider it good enough to gather a bit of hardware information before I wipe a drive and try an install on unfamiliar hardware.

      That could've been eight extra hours bitching on Slashdot :)

    • Re:great product, bad support (Score:5, Informative)

      by Zak3056 ( 69287 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @01:18PM (#5836207) Journal
      When I called tech support to ask what type of sound card the model had

      [snip]

      Then after 8 hours of hair pulling and cursing, it turns out it has an ALi chipset. Not Soundblaster Live!

      By "Real Operating System" I'm assuming you mean something other than windows, and since this is slashdot, I'm going to assume you mean Linux.

      If that's the case, /proc is your friend.

      "cat /proc/pci" or "cat /proc/bus/pci/devices" would have gone a long way to avoiding your encounter with the tech support drone.
      • If anyone would mind, mod the parent up. That was exactly the breakthrough that got me on the right track. Whether it's a little known fact or something that everyone but me knew, it's important nevertheless.

        And yes, it was Linux.
        • Please try to take this with the least offense as possible, but if you aren't familiar with the /proc filesystem and the enumerating of devices that it is capable, how can you effectively judge its superiority over Windows?

          I'm not saying that Linux is better or worse, instead my point is that before installing an operating system in unknown hardware, understand how to -find out- how to identify said hardware in the preferred OS. I just find it very zealous for someone to complain about "dumb tech support"

    • Great product, dumb user (Score:4, Insightful)

      by sczimme ( 603413 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @01:30PM (#5836347)

      I got the 185A5 a few months back and immediately wiped the hard drive in favor of a real operating system.

      So in your haste to be Ub3r-1337, you nuked what was probably the best method of finding out what hardware is in there. Brilliant. Booting into Windows Whatever for five minutes would have saved you eight hours of banging your head against the wall, but at least you preserved your geek/anorak/H@x0r status, didn't you? You even got to complain about it on /.

      You know, when you drink the $OS_OF_CHOICE Kool-aid to the point where you do something dumb like this, you really should take up a different hobby.
    • Yeah, I find this to be a troubling occurance. I was suprised on the last Dell we bought, I set it up, and went through all the paperwork to file it away...was looking through it to try to find all the specs on what was in it. I was suprised to find NOTHING!!

      Why do computers you buy these days contain virtually nothing about the brand/model components in them? Why does the monitor documentation often not tell you the specs like the Horiz. and Vert refresh rates?

      It does make it a bitch to put Linux on a

    • I ran into a similar experience. The 200A5 specs on the website (which is relevant since it was only available online at the time) listed one SPDIF port on the laptop. When I received mine and didn't notice the port I called tech support... (hope abbreviations are clear)

      Me: it says on your site there is an SPDIF port could you tell me how to find it.

      VPR: oh it does? let me check the site. oh i guess it does. let me ask a product expert.

      VPR: they say there isn't one. there is an s-video port is that
    • Interesting. Did you call Best Buy support or VPRMatrix support? BestBuy was worse than useless, but I found the VPR Matrix guys were on top of it.

      I picked up a 175B4 a few weeks ago, and like you I called their support line to check on the specs (one difference--I called customer support rather than technical support).

      I had a number of questions:
      1. What kind of memory does it use?
      2. Are there any slots free as delivered?
      3. Is the video adapter on the backplane or in a Micro-AGP slot?
      4. Is the video

  • Dunno about those... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Gropo ( 445879 ) <groopoNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @12:42PM (#5835842) Homepage Journal
    Every time I drop by the local Best Buy (Woodside, Queens, NYC) the VPR laptops are missing more-and-more keys from the keyboard. Doesn't say much for the quality of the components on the things.

    The speakers are also pretty deplorable (after demoing the Beethoven sample that comes with XP on various display laptops)
    • Maybe this is the equivalent of getting the hood ornament stolen? It IS a Porche, after all.

  • Its no Powerbook (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ad0gg ( 594412 )
    Personally for that price range, buy a power book and run virtual pc on it. For laptops, Apple rules the market in style and quality. Unless you play games on your laptop, i couldn't find a reason to buy any other laptop.

    A lot of people at my work have powerbooks, ms office for mac is actually better product then it is on the pc, go figure. Only problem people at work have experienced with the powerbook is that suspends when you close the screen.

    • Re:Its no Powerbook (Score:2, Informative)

      by Mike Bruce ( 1286 )
      The powerbooks have mediocre screens, horrible pointing devices, and average keyboards. They are far slower than comparably priced x86 models. Plus they're ugly; that silver that looks so cool now is going to look cheap and tacky in a few years. I suppose this is slightly better than the VPR Matrix thing, which looks cheap and tacky right now.

      The ThinkPads are the only notebooks worth looking at.
      • To start my reply, I own a Thinkpad A21p and I love it. But your assertion that Thinkpads are the end-all be-all needs a little more substantiating.

        First of all, selection of pointing devices is highly subjective. I can easily use the trackpoint and appreciate that I don't have to remove my hands from the home keys to use it (among other things). Many of my coworkers cannot seem to get the hang of it and are adroit at using a touchpad. IBM would do better if they followed Toshiba and Dell's example and
      • nice troll!

  • As mentioned last time (Score:3, Informative)

    by lowmagnet ( 646428 ) <<moc.liamg> <ta> <revras.ile>> on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @12:42PM (#5835847) Homepage
    This Porsche [porsche-design.com] and the other Porsche [porsche.com] are from the same family, but completely different companies.

  • not the same Porsche company (Score:5, Informative)

    by Darth Maul ( 19860 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @12:48PM (#5835901)
    Dr.Ing.h.c.F.Porsche AG is the German car manufacturer that has been designing and producing sports cars for over 55 years. link [porsche.de].

    Porsche Design is a different company that does all sorts of design work, from radios to sunglasses to pens. It was split off of the car company back in the 80's, I believe.

    So, Porsche Design really didn't design the 911 (the body of the car was designed by Ferdinand "Butzi" Porsche (Ferry's son) while the engine was designed by Ferdinand Piech (Dr. Porsche's nephew) in 1963).
  • F.A. Porsche might have the same name as the car manufacturer, but AFAIK he has absolutly nothing to do with the design of the cars.

  • Other FA Porsche designs to die for... (Score:5, Informative)

    by WIAKywbfatw ( 307557 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @12:48PM (#5835907) Journal
    Don't laugh, but their [porsche-design.at] kettle, toaster, coffee maker and citrus press are all worthy of drooling over too.

    Oh, and so is the Data Bank [lacie.com], a FireWire external hard disk drive that they designed for LaCie, that's styled to look like a silver ingot.

    I'd link directly to their kitchen accessories but their flash-based site is annoying. If you're interested in viewing them, look at them here [amazon.co.uk], courtesy of Amazon.co.uk.

  • Matrix this, Matrix that... (Score:5, Funny)

    by AyeRoxor! ( 471669 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @12:50PM (#5835917) Journal
    http://www.vprmatrix.com/ (video card)
    http://www.matrixnetsystems.com/ (networks)
    http://www.matrix.com/ (hair salon)
    http://www.matrix-orbital.com/ (serial interface displays)
    http://www.matrixgames.com/ (video games)
    http://www.alfa-matrix.com/ (connecting "hearts and brains) (?)
    http://www.dakotamatrix.com/ (mineral sales) (!)
    and on
    and on
    and on

    Is it just me, or has the Matrix buzzword been beaten to f****ng death?

  • "For those wanting an Apple Powerbook feel with Windows OS and functionality, the 200A5 is about as close as you can get."

    So, the Apple Powerbook doesn't have functionality? Windows OS does?

    On a more serious note, this machine's main claim to fame seems to be an Apple-esque look and feel, including a slot loading DVD. Slot loading drives are cute, until you have a business-card-sized CD to read. Most slot loading drives don't handle them.

    I think that if appearances mattered that much to me, I might

    • Most Apple support turnaround is less than four days, in my experience. That and they'll often fix things that they notice but are not on the work order.
    • "For those wanting an Apple Powerbook feel with Windows OS and functionality, the 200A5 is about as close as you can get."

      So, the Apple Powerbook doesn't have functionality? Windows OS does?

      I think the word 'Windows' distributes over both 'OS' and 'functionality'. So the sentence equates to "For those wanting an Apple Powerbook feel with Windows OS and Windows functionality...' Whether that's better or worse than a Mac OS and Mac functionality, well, I won't comment.

      As for the tech support issue, I h
      • I think the word 'Windows' distributes over both 'OS' and 'functionality'. So the sentence equates to "For those wanting an Apple Powerbook feel with Windows OS and Windows functionality...'

        That's what I thought, too, after I thought about it. If it had been clearly written, we wouldn't have had to think about the meaning. Thus, the feeble joke.

        Whether that's better or worse than a Mac OS and Mac functionality, well, I won't comment.

        Me, either.

        As I recall, there is a Windows emulator for Macs,

  • This site got slashdotted in LESS TIME than the designer's 911 can do 0-60 ...

  • Get the facts straight (Score:5, Informative)

    by pfankus ( 535004 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @12:55PM (#5835969) Homepage
    F.A. Porsche (the guys who designed the 911 and some Samsung LCD monitors)

    Actually, no. If you read the previous posting [slashdot.org] you would discover that this is Porsche Designs GmbH [porsche-design.at], *not* the same as the car company, nor the designers of the 911. These folks started out in 1972 (when was the 911 first on the market?) and design everything from LCDs to kitchen sinks to scooters. But sorry, no 911 [porsche.com].

    And by reading into their website a little further, they have 12-14 employees. Makes you wonder why this laptop is so shoddy...
  • ... I'll just post a little something. I think the first Porsche laptop was pretty much a PC laptop in a near-perfect ripoff of the original TiBook--15.4" widescreen, titanium shell, thin, etc. I remember seeing it online when it came out and glanced at it at Best Buy once when I was I there. Can't tell right now--the official site is loading really slow and seems to have precious little actual info--click 'notebook' and you just get this dumb flash thing in a tiny window.

  • My Review: Three months,been able to use it 5 Days (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ratajik ( 57826 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @12:58PM (#5836006) Homepage Journal
    While the machine looks very nice, and performs well when it's running, I've had mine 3 months now, and out of that time, it's been working 5 days (so up and running for 5 days, down for around 85 and counting).

    It died 3 days after I bought it (I really was liking it was working; light, fast, looks nice). Just dead (wouldn't turn on, no lights, etc.)

    Called in to their tech support, and they sent me a box to sent it in. Took about 2 weeks total, then I had it back. They said the mother board and CPU had to be replaced.

    When it came back, it was making a "thumping" noise. Two days later, the LCD died. Called tech support again, and they sent another box out.

    About 2 weeks later, I got a call saying they were waiting on parts. Once I week I now get a call saying they're waiting on parts... *sigh*

    So, I've spent around $2k on a laptop, and, excluding the first three days and 2 days a couple of weeks later, I haven't been able to use it.

    So, my review:

    1. Nice looking machine. OK performance for the money.
    2. Their tech support is very good about getting the machine in for repairs (always helpful and polite, lets you know when they are having trouble and can't get it back).
    3. Based on my own experience, these things break very easy.
    4. They don't appear to be able to get replacement mother boards (what I'm waiting on), so if you're vpr dies, you are SOL.

    I personal regret buying this laptop. I really need to have a laptop now, so I'm now in the position of having to buy another one, if I can't get Best Buy to either fix it, send me some other comparable laptop, or my money back (haven't been able to do any of these three at this point).

    Any suggestions on getting them to send me some other laptop or my money? I've been trying, but they've refused to this point. Not sure what I can do, as any legal action I take against Best Buy is likely to exceed the cost of a new laptop....
  • Hey wait a minute... I thought Best Buy was evil [slashdot.org]? Does anyone know how any of that got resolved, or if it did?

  • Not sure about their laptops (Score:3, Informative)

    by afidel ( 530433 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @01:00PM (#5836026)
    But I have recomended their desktops to quite a few people now that I am no longer in the whitebox business. They seem to actually get it. They balance HDD, graphics and ram nicely (unlike many OEM's that will STILL include 128MB or ram on a system with a 64MB video card and then charge you an arm and a leg to upgrade it.) So far no complaints from any of the people who bought em. In fact if I couldn't beat their prices using newegg and a free OS I would probably buy my next pc from them.
  • You can have the prettiest, fastest laptop out there but, as soon as the fragile hard drive dies.... You have the prettiest anchor.

  • VPR Laptops (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @01:06PM (#5836083)
    I currently work for BB, as the lead tech at a best buy in the northern Chicago area (i'm actually typeing this while on the clock). At the moment, and from what i've been told, yes, the current line of VPR laptops are being closed out. We have carried them since before christmas, if i recall, and it the 200a5 was reviewed in Maximum PC mag. They keep saying that they are comeing out with a new line, which i hope they do, but i haven't seen nor heard anything.

    It's too bad, becasue they are some REALLY nice laptops, arguably the best we carry. I haven't seen nor felt any heat issues, nor had any reliability issues with them (Sony, in my experiance, is the worst of the bunch in that catagory). I've worked with them extensivly, and i can't report any high heat issues. My only complaint was that the Northbridge, made by Ali, has absolutly horrid preformance, and in testing scored around half the memory bandwith of other comparable laptops. Also, the graphics chipset is only 32mb.

    BTW, the price that a lot of places are quoteing at, and the price on the VPR website, is way off. When we still actually had an active stock, they were selling for $1600 after rebates, and when we were trying to clear them out, they went for $1350 after rebates. Good luck finding them now, though. If you can, the 180b5 was also great, pretty much the exact same thing as the 200a5, only with a 1.8 GHz proc and a 30gb hard drive, vs. the 200a5's 2GHz and 40gb.

    I'm not too sure what is going on with the whole VPR thing though. I hope they are continued, they were wildy sucessful, our stores could almost never keep them in stock, desktops or laptops. We are getting a new high-end desktop in, as of 4-29-03. To my knowlage, it's the 9150, a 3GHz P4 with dual 120gb hard drives in RAID 0, and a GF4 Ti4200. So they VPRs arn't dead, i hope they are continued, but i don't know. It is nice, though, to actually carrey a quality computer, insted of selling e-machines and compaqs all day. I don't know why they would be closed out, they were wildly profitable, and customers and employees both love them.
  • My brother bought a VPRMatrix after insisting it was cheaper than a Dell. (It's not by any stretch of the imagination). The internal 802.11b internal antenna does not work, the laptop is flimsy, and it runs extremely hot. And who knows what kind of support he'll be able to get?

  • It says they are Wholly Owned [vprmatrix.com]. I don't know if "owned" is a word I want associated with any computer I buy. ;P

  • I own one... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by OhRock ( 617808 )
    and I'm very happy with the performance. Everybody ask about it..of course they get confuse and then you have to explain too much (is a clone...is sold by Best Buy) I run Mandrake 9.1 and it works like a charm. The only two things that did not run out of the box was resolution, but it took little time to fix it, and ACPI stuff. I still have to try this: http://linux.brasileiro.net/misc/vprmatrix/ The screen is a samsung (same as Apple) and it is very nice. I purchased it at $2K with $300 in rebates and
  • Althought they do look pretty damn cool, it appears that Best Buy just isn't up to par as far as maintaining/servicing these notebooks. A mere 2 months after the release of a lesser, 1.8 Ghz model, they started removing them from thier site. Even their own VPR Matrix website refered back to the Best Buy site for purchase a couple of months ago after the review. As told to me buy a Best Buy employee (which I always take with a great salt lake after overhearing one say "Wi-Fi will always be faster than ether

  • Personal thoughts... (Score:5, Informative)

    by boola-boola ( 586978 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @01:33PM (#5836387)
    Well, the link is down (thank you Slashdot), so I figure I'd go ahead and give some of my personal opinions on it, since I bought one about two months ago... Overall, I'm mostly satisfied with it. I've got GNU/Debian running on it perfectly (other than the damn Battery Charge Monitor, ugh). And at the time, I thought the cost was very nice ($2000 with a $300 mail in rebate). They had the rebate because yes, they ARE discontinuing the product (I doubt you can find one in stores now) so they can review the line to see if they want to put out more laptops from vpr Matrix. It runs fast and smooth, and with great hardware and Linux support, I shouldn't complain. I also like how you can disable Speedstep in the BIOS, although since I am unfamiliar with modern laptops, that might be a common option. Finally, I have to admit, it is _VERY_ stylish for an x86 laptop (my original plan was to get a TiBook, and I regret not doing so), and for the most part, I guess it's lighter than most other laptops with similar features.

    HOWEVER, there are _quite_ a few issues with it. For one, the damn built-in NIC doesn't work 99% of the time. I have resorted to using my external PCMCIA NIC (or wireless, when it is available). Seems pretty bad to me, but mine could just be defective (or I could have just fsck'd it up testing out all those Linux drivers, heh). Also, the keyboard is VERY fragile, ugh. Keys pop off all the time -- there are 4 posts, one in each corner under every key... the bottom 2 hinge onto the board and the top two snap on... those top two break very easily. What I find questionable is the fact that Best Buy salesmen were trying to tell me the keyboard is very fragile and really used that to try to get me to buy the warranty (I didn't, but I might go back to get it, ugh). Also... (and I should've done my research on this ahead of time) it uses an Ali chipset, which I'm _not_ very fond of. Getting apm working properly is a B*TCH. (I haven't succeeded thus far)

    Overall, I made a decision, and I'm stuck with it, so I guess I better be happy with the vpr Matrix 200A5. Since hindsight is 20/20, looking back, I should have waited, for pretty much all other laptop manufacturers have put out better stuff out there (though not as light or stylish) for considerably cheaper since I bought it. My original plan was to buy the 15" PowerBook, which I didn't for various reasons, so I bought the 200A5 instead. I regret it. I would've boughten the 17" PowerBook, but cost is an issue for me. My suggestion to other people? Stay away from it (if you can even find one), and get either a PowerBook instead, or if you like x86, get a Toshiba or a Compaq/HQ or whatnot. There are some very nice laptops out on the market with better hardware specs and cheaper prices. Just my $.02.

  • Especially if you remember the Porsche advertising "Kills Bugs Fast" campaign.

    You can see the poster at http://www.autotrend.com/9536.html

  • don't buy this (Score:3, Informative)

    by webperf ( 560195 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @01:57PM (#5836618)
    they have a shitty returns policy, and they Quality control really sux. I've had mine in 4 times. spend the extra $$ and buy a named-clone
  • You know, I was about to write up a feature-by-feature comparison of the Apple Powerbook and the vpr Matrix laptops, until I realized that people [slashdot.org] don't [slashdot.org] really [slashdot.org] like [slashdot.org] the [slashdot.org] Matrix [slashdot.org] laptop [slashdot.org].

    (ducks and covers)

  • The entire VPR line is being dropped by BestBuy. (Score:3, Informative)

    by cowmix ( 10566 ) <mmarchNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @02:46PM (#5837118) Homepage
    I had a ton of issues with this laptop. In the process or dealing with the highest of the high ranking ppl in customers service, they told me this line was being dropped anyway, thus the huge rebates.
  • And I always thought the VPR in "VPR Matrix" meant "vapor".
  • Predictably, no employee of Best Buy can tell you what the Matrix is.
  • About a month ago I bought a vpr Matrix 175b4 laptop and the thing is great. The only two thing it's missing is USB 2.0.

    At $800 AR it was the best bang for the buck that you could buy at the time.

    I wouldn't have minded having a 2nd PCMCIA slot, but the truth of the matter is that all of the PCMCIA cards I use except a CF to PCMCIA converter take up too much room anyway.

  • not my experience at all (Score:3, Informative)

    by bikerboy ( 669598 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2003 @05:00PM (#5838172)
    I have the same laptop and have had terrible problems with mine. Actually, most of the problems have been with Best Buy support, but still...

    Upon opening the packaging, I discovered no power supply. Back to the store I went. Several days later, keys were falling off the keyboard, and I couldn't get them to stay on. Back to the store yet again (and remember, this is Best Buy. A trip to get service necessitates at least 1 hour in line, waiting for the one guy in the service department to get around to you). Finally, a week later, I discovered that more than half of the screws had fallen out of the case. Once again, back to the store for replacements. When I got home from that service trip, I plugged in the laptop at home, only to see a curl of smoke rising lazily from the power supply connector. Needless to say, the laptop would no longer boot.

    That is when the fun began. I took it back to Best Buy (4th time in 2.5 weeks!!!!) and was told that it would be fixed in 14 days. 14 days came and went. Phone calls revealed that the 'service center' had not even opened the package until the day before it was due to be back in my hands. Once service did finally open the box, they discovered, not surprisingly, a burnt out motherboard. Oops, that part has to be shipped in from overseas. Imagine that, a laptop service center that doesn't have a single spare motherboard in stock! Once again, this is Best Buy, so don't forget that each of my phone calls required at least 40 minutes of time on Hold, occasional accidental hang ups, circular redirections to multiple departments, the works.

    Finally, nearly 2 full months after I had sent it in (well over 30 business days), I gave up and sent my story to the technical editor of every relevant magazine in the industry, and filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. The very next day, I got a call from the Best Buy service tech with tnews that the laptop was shipped that day. I imagine they just ripped teh motherboard out of a new model to avoid bad publicity.

    I finally received the laptop, which I had delivered to Best Buy on 2/12, on 4/4. Meanwhile, I had been accused of taking the laptop apart myself, since it had mismatched screws in the bottom, and was told that the missing soundcard (huh? Turned out, the parts sheet the service tech was looking at was incorrect) would have to be replaced by me at a cost of about $500. THat was resolved after a bit of yelling and screaming on my part, but not before I was hung up on by one tech. I won't say I wasn't being rude, but still...

    The thing is still working now, in late April, but I have still not owned it for even half as long as it has spent in service (no, I didn't do the math).

    The good news is that Linux works really well on it, except for ACPI support. The nvidia drivers for the video card seem well supported in Linux with at least one update since I purchased the hunk of junk. The sound card works fine, but doesn't have ALSA drivers. The wireless card was a no brainer, but has terrible range. It can't find the linksys access point in my kitchen from my bedroom, 30 feet away, through open doors. Actually, I suspect that the tech neglected to reconnect an antennae or something. I just shove in my old wavelan card and don't worry about it for now. The wavelan ahs excellent signal strength at the same distance. I am not about to relinquish the thing for another 2 months in order to have them look at it.

    Win2K support was terrible. I dumped XP both because my work required Win 2K and because I couldn't stand the way M$ took such an active interest in my registration status. Getting drivers and such to work was a royal PITA. Downloading the latest drivers from the VPR website resulted in malfunctioning everything. Reverting to the drivers from the support CD did eventually get most things up an running , and selectively applying some of the updated drivers fixed the rest.

    The widescreen is great, and the slot load DVD/CD-R would be nice if it

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