The best notebook review is the one
you get from a friend or colleague whom
you trust has similar needs, tastes,
and responses to what works well for
a laptop. I consult my friend who is
a computer genius—a program and
software developer—as he knows
all the functions I expect in a laptop
that I use for writing. I also check
in with my roommate, who is a devotee
of the same brand as I have a fondness
for. But I also check out the notebook
reviews on at least three or four reliable
sites, as well.
I call these sites reliable because
they are not stocked with pre-scripted
reviews written by employees of the
computer sales company, but rather
are candid articles contributed by
people like you and me—people
who bought a particular model and
are honestly speaking their minds
on the computer. They are the ones
who have nothing to lose by writing
a scathing notebook review and are
the same who have nothing to gain
by writing an elevated review. They
get no kick-backs, no discounts, and
no perks. They just get the satisfaction
of knowing other consumers will benefit
from their notebook reviews. Period.
Two sources I trust for the most
part (trusting the reviews aren’t
written by “fake” customers,
that is) are Amazon.com and Epinions.com.
Each uses a five-star rating system,
for criteria such as ease of use,
appeal of style, affordability, and
performance/durability, and each makes
space for written text to be submitted
in the form of—in this case—a
notebook review.
For example, here are a couple of
descriptions of reviews of late, for
the Compaq notebook:
The Hewlett Packard Compaq Presario
M2010US (PX392UA) PC Notebook gets
four stars at Epinions.com by one
reviewer and five stars from another.
Both consumers report that it is easy
to use, and of the two who contributed
notebook reviews, comments about this
Compaq model point to its “great
price,” its “long battery
life,” its “decent”
upgradeability,” and its easy
to access Ethernet capabilities.
The Compaq Presario V2405US 14"
Notebook PC (with Mobile AMD Sempron
3000+ processor, 256 MB RAM, 40 GB
Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive)
gets four stars from a consumer at
Amazon.com. The notebook review is
short, but does note ease of use as
a positive at the same time it includes
advice to buy more memory for the
insufficient amount of 256MB.
As you can see from just three reviews
of two models/one make of notebook,
the fine points are covered, the important
points are made, and the truth is
told…at least as far as we can
see.
