3rd laptop
My first laptop, Dell Inspiron 15, lasted for more than 6 years. The second laptop, Alienware 14 (highest spec at that time) was already more than 8 years old:
Attempt #1 to get new laptop (2013)
Attempt #2 to get new laptop (2013)
Keyboard, bluetooth, mouse (2021)
There was problem(s) every year except for 2018. Furthermore, these were the ones I bothered to blog about. That power adapter I got from Shopee in 2020 (couldn't get one from Dell because they no longer sells that): it worked for quite a while before it burst with sparks! In the end, I used Ban's old Alienware 15 power adapater.
Lugging around a separate keyboard and microphone together with the already heavy laptop (nearly 3kg!) was tiresome. Later, Nvidia's GE Experience Shadowplay stopped working with the latest driver update because it no longer supports my laptop's GPU. Perhaps because of these, in recent years (?) I started considering getting a replacement in 2021.
I searched for reviews/recommendation for "best compact gaming laptop" and identified laptops that were recommended by most of the reviewers. In terms of size and specifications, Razer Blade Stealth was great but so was its price lol. In the end, I earmarked Asus ROG Zephyrus G14.
ASUS Malaysia, until recently, didn't have their own e-store and instead redirected to Shopee, Lazada and some specific retail stores. As always, prices on Shopee were cheaper than that in Lazada. After searching for reputable sellers, I settle on the cheapest version of the latop but I wasn't ready to buy yet because I could still use my Alienware laptop and I wasn't travelling any time soon because I was (still am) recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery.
It was fortunate that I delayed buying: I later learned more about the differences in CPU, GPU and RAM. I then aimed for Ryzen 9, RTX 3060 and 16 gb RAM but that version sold out in reputable shops and according to a friendly seller (One Tech Computer), it was unlikely it would be restocked because Malaysia was waiting for the 2022 version. The 2022 version is better in many ways but the ones that matter to me most are the CPU upgrade and better cooling system. The 16:10 display (vs the usual 16:9) is a nice bonus :) I'm indifferent to inclusion of webcam.
There was an option to purchase the 2021 version with the specifications (Ryzen 9, RTX 3060 and 16 GB RAM) from a couple of ordinary sellers but they had either no sales or poor response rate. So either that or just wait for the 2022 version to come out. It then became more urgent to purchase because I no longer could watch Twitch. No, it isn't important for me to do so but it was the effect that I was worried about: the screen went blank. I took it a sign that the laptop was going to fall apart soon.
I found out from some websites that the 2022 version supposedly had arrived in Malaysia in June and the bad news was that, due to tight supply of chip, only the Ryzen 7 6800HS version was made available here i.e. not Ryzen 9 6900HS. I further looked into this: although design-wise, Ryzen 9 is better, it's specification is overkill. Ryzen 7 is already amazing. There is also a version where the RAM is doubled from 16 GB to 32 GB and better GPU i.e. Radeon RX 68000S vs 6700S, for about RM 1,500 more @@ So, no thanks lol, since 16GB is already great and so is Radeon RX 6700S.
Problem was that nobody on Shopee was selling it. After some rather exhausting search, I found two sellers: one on Lazada and the other directly from a retail store (that was listed on ASUS official website) via their e-store (who strangely didn't list this product in their shop on Shopee).
I contacted the One Tech friendly personnel via Shopee chat, asking him when they would have stock of the 2022 version. I also wanted to know how would I know they would have stock, as I didn't want to hassle them daily 😅 They said they should have it if I started seeing other sellers have them (eh? what response was that? lol). I told them two sellers already were selling them, outside of Shopee. He then asked me for the models I was looking for. I gave him the model numbers of the 16GB version (two of them: one white and one grey). After some checking, it turned out that they received 1 unit (yes, only 1!) of the grey version. They would take a day or two for them to list them on Shopee as they needed sometime to survey prices on Shopee.
I was prepared to check their shop on Shopee everyday and purchase it asap lol, if the price was reasonable (recommended retail price was RM 8,499 and those two sellers were selling it around that price), when the personnel offered an alternative: buying directly from them, with him personally sending the laptop to me for a personal fee of RM 50. Naturally, the most important information I needed then was the price. Less than 2 hours later, they offered the laptop for RM 8,399, which was good enough for me.
Once I got the specifications from him to confirm it was the correct laptop, I paid RM 200 deposit (via online banking). Two days later, he delivered it and I paid the remainder on the spot via online banking, including RM 50 cash to him.
So now I'm using ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) GA402R-JL8173W :) So far, so good. It does feel hotter than my previous laptop but apparently that's not an issue, according to various reviewers who tested it. I hope it'll last long with hardly any problems, hopefully none!
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