10 Reasons Not to Buy a Sager Laptop

Sager Notebook has been around for quite a while. I first learned of this company and their computers years ago reading PC magazines when I was building computers in high school, back before Dell and the land of the $500 notebook. Now, I completely depend on my laptop to keep my business running and need one that is both powerful and dependable. In addition to these two characteristics, my laptop needs to be able to withstand the beatings all of my belongings take from multiple trips through airport security. While I think the TSA employees know what a laptop is, I don’t believe they own laptops. If they did, I think they would handle my laptops less like a boulder they’re trying to move from their backyard and more like aâÂ?¦ well, like a laptop. That’s neither here nor there. Let me get back on track.

My Sager Notebook has been extremely disappointing. I spent more than I had budgeted for my laptop so that I could have a true, battery-conserving desktop replacement. I’ll give you the top ten reasons why I don’t love this laptop or even like this laptop.

1. Keyboard Problems. Every once in a while, when my laptop comes out of “hibernate”, my keyboard is completely non-responsive. Sager has failed to diagnose this laptop’s malfunction.

2. Screen goes black. As with the keyboard problems, sometimes when my laptop comes out of “hibernate”, the back light on the screen does not turn on. I can still see the items on the screen if I get just the right angle and the right light, but I can never seem to find the pointer. After several reboots, the laptop resumes normal operation. Sager’s reply to this was to reinstall my video driver. Needless to say, that did not work.

3. Video Out. I work on the road and often need to plug my computer into an LCD projector to give presentations. Imagine my dismay when I find that this laptop has NO “monitor out” port?! Completely ridiculous!! I have tried using adapters and can’t find a solution.

4. Touchpad. The touchpad on this Sager laptop is completely non-responsive. I have to roll my finger instead of just sliding my finger and the built-in scroll function is severely lacking. The finger tap for mouse clicking is fine.

5. DVD Controls. Many new laptops have DVD controls on the outside front of the laptop. This one has all of your standard controls, fast forward, rewind, play, stop, eject, and so forth. While this looks cool and sounds great, they don’t work!

6. Volume Controls. Again, newer laptops typically have sound control hardware or you can press a Function key and another key to control the volume on your laptop that way. The Sager laptop has volume buttons on the front face of the laptop. Increasing and decreasing the volume is simple, but once the volume goes to minimum, you cannot use these buttons to control it until you open the volume control program in windows.

7. Noise. The fans on Sager’s laptop are extremely loud. I haven’t discussed this with Sager, but I’m sure they’ll tell me to reinstall my fan drivers

8. Heat. The laptop runs very hot for a Centrino. I would understand if it was an AMD, but it is not and it is very uncomfortable to use on your lap without some surface as a buffer.

9. Price. While I thought that the price was reasonable, given the difficulties I have had, I would certainly pay 10% more to get a laptop from a large, reputable company. I have heard great things about Toshiba.

10. Tech Support. While the tech support is available for “life”, it is difficult to get a service rep on the phone. The email tech support that I have experienced thus far consists of one-line answers that fail to offer much assistance.

Now, I have read laptop reviews that specifically look into the laptop that I have and am actually typing on right now. Almost all are extremely positive, and some are unrealistically positive, making the Sager laptop out to be some holy relic for gamers and business users alike. I, however, have not had a pleasant experience with this laptop and because my problems have yet to be resolve, I cannot sell it for fear that my problems would pass on to the purchaser.

If I were to replace this laptop, I would most likely get Toshiba’s new flagship that you can get at Staples for a paltry $1,200. It has some great features such as fingerprint scanning, 2GB RAM, and large hard drive capacity. The two things that I noticed right away that I didn’t care for in this laptop were the reflective screen and the slow (5,400RPM) hard drive. I hope you found this helpful! Choose your new laptop carefully and don’t neglect consistency of the company when choosing your new laptop.