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awaiting the new P1 MX
It seemed like we were about due for a new thread under Portable One, and hopefully traffic will be picking up as P1 begins to ship the new MX and people get a chance to put it through the paces.
I placed my order on 7/27 and am still waiting for it to ship (as are we all), but my feeling is that I'd rather they hold them back and get the design right rather than ship something that is going to make people unhappy. So far, I have been just feeding my enthusiasm by reading the ASUS threads and wondering at those W3V users with heat problems!
I would normally have done exhaustive research on a purchase such as this (my first new laptop in 6 years) but I relied this time on the research done by others. I have complete comfort with the specs. and schematics of the MX. My biggest concern in making a purchase is the relationship with and support provided by the vendor, and I believe that Portable One provides this. I haven't spoken with them beyond asking them one quick question, but they seem to be dependable and personable.
I look forward to hearing from others and comparing notes as we begin to take delivery of the MX (soon!) Doug
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Re: awaiting the new P1 MX
Seems like it should be a very solid machine...good luck with it when it shows!
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Re: awaiting the new P1 MX
I'm waiting for one too. I hope they get them out next week.
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Re: awaiting the new P1 MX
Same boat here...only a few more days to go
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Re: awaiting the new P1 MX
According to ProPortable over in the Asus section, Asus apparently just dropped the pricing on their W3V by 200 dollars to 1699. New pricing supposed to take effect 8/22. I'm curious if PortableOne will do anything in response to that? Now that I've ordered my notebook for a couple of weeks and have nothing to show for it, I'm feeling kinda jipped, even though I totally understand the process of prototyping and evaluating the graphite thermal foils you guys have designed.
Also, do you plan on carrying the Seagate 7200rpm 100gb drives when they come out? Do you know how their power consumption compares to the current 7200rpm 60gb drives that you guys have? Maybe I could even stand waiting another couple of months just to have that hard drive installed instead of the 60 if you have an ETA on that...
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Re: awaiting the new P1 MX
According to ProPortable over in the Asus section, Asus apparently just dropped the pricing on their W3V by 200 dollars to 1699. New pricing supposed to take effect 8/22. I'm curious if PortableOne will do anything in response to that? Now that I've ordered my notebook for a couple of weeks and have nothing to show for it, I'm feeling kinda jipped, even though I totally understand the process of prototyping and evaluating the graphite thermal foils you guys have designed...
I feel your pain, Jerry. I practically choked when I read the message that the W3V prices were coming down. It sounds as though the vendors were as caught by surprise by this as consumers. I have gotten used to the experience of prices changing right after I have made a purchase, especially in this industry, so I'll live with it. In my mind, the P1 MX was worth $1899 yesterday, and it still is today. It does have me curious though about what is going to be changed/upgraded in a newer model (should I have ordered a faster chipset?).
I think thoughts of receiving something of lesser value ("jipped") are understandable, and I felt a twinge of that myself. However, the next thought in my mind was how this is going to affect Portable One. After all, they bought hundreds of W3Vs and obviously worked out their margins based on the modifications they were making, the numbers they could sell, and the price of the competing W3V. This announcement could change everything. I don't want P1 to take a bath on this - I want them to be around a long time (and continue to provide the level of customer service they are known for). Even if ASUS changes their level of support, I'll still bet on P1 to be there, and "fight the battles" on my behalf with ASUS if it comes to that.
Having said that, I'd be very surprised if P1 offers anything to compensate for the delay - they must be more impacted by this price change than we are, and delays come with the territory when having a "made to order computer" built for you. I say, let's be thankful for graphite foils, the Arctic Silver, other modifications, and the great personal customer service, and wish P1 well. Doug
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Re: awaiting the new P1 MX
I think thoughts of receiving something of lesser value ("jipped") are understandable, and I felt a twinge of that myself. However, the next thought in my mind was how this is going to affect Portable One. After all, they bought hundreds of W3Vs and obviously worked out their margins based on the modifications they were making, the numbers they could sell, and the price of the competing W3V. This announcement could change everything. I don't want P1 to take a bath on this - I want them to be around a long time (and continue to provide the level of customer service they are known for).
I'm not so sure about this. In the vendor-retailer relationship, retailers usually have a price protection agreement. When there's a price drop, the retailer will get a rebate from the vendor to cover the price change for the retailer's unsold inventory. I used to sell computers for a rather unscrupulous guy who would continue to charge customers the pre-drop price as long as he could get away with it, pocketing the difference provided by the price protection.
I'm not sure if the same sort of price protection exists in the manufacturer-vendor relationship, but I don't see why it wouldn't. I would think that vendors are even more exposed than the retailers.
This being said, I would be interested to hear from Portable One on the subject.
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Re: awaiting the new P1 MX
I'm not sure if the same sort of price protection exists in the manufacturer-vendor relationship, but I don't see why it wouldn't. I would think that vendors are even more exposed than the retailers.
Having now read ProPortable's most recent post, it appears that Asus has, in fact, lowered the price without offering any sort of price matching. That's really lousy. As far as I can tell, this really could be trouble for Portable One.
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Re: awaiting the new P1 MX
It really is, no fair warning whatsoever our CFO has been fuming all day, and since we order special custom unit sku's no protection, but luckilly we include enough upgrades already to warrant the additional price, but sure caught us all off guard and will have to negotiate with them on the furture revs and :( protection..
Have received a few messages asking why they are worth $200 additional...just the 7200RPM drives alone are worth more than $200 currently, if you can even find them, they are extremely allocated and have been for months, another reason why vendors have been going with Seagate drives lately. We include 1 x 512MB instead of 2 x 256MB modules, most integration centers charge anywhere from $50 to $100 to apply Artic Silver 5, the hard drive graphite mods (have no clue how to price those out) and now Asus is going to warrant the 2 year global warranty on top of our P1 warranty automatically on all the units we have, so I think our customers still have a terrific value.
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Re: awaiting the new P1 MX
Yeah, I know it's not your guys' fault Ivan, and I agree that it's still worth 1899 today, especially because of the engineering you guys put into cooling the hdd. Frankly before the price change I thought the MX was a steal because of the added thermal dissipation for the same price as the W3V, plus reasonable costs for upgrading the various components. So what about the hdd options? Any 7200 rpm 100gb drives for us in the near future?