SquareTrade Warranty Blog

Asus Eee 8GB laptop dated and tagged.

After a wee delay (due, we hear, to problems with the flash hard drive), the Asus Eee 8GB 7" ultra-portable laptop is now up for preorder on Amazon for $542.99.  That's 10% off bluebook. 

Assuming they got the kinks worked out of the flash drive, this should be a solid little budget computer.  The 7" screen is 800 x 480 resolution, with a gig of DDR2 and Linux preloaded, and it's all supposed to be so easy to learn and use that you won't need the instruction manual, all in Henry Ford's favorite color.  Also the only available color, just like Henry Ford. 

But you might want to put a SquareTrade laptop warranty with Accidental Damage coverage on this sucker, just in case.  Solid State hardware's usually more durable, but so is a concrete sidewalk.  No reason to pit the two against each other without a good backup plan. 

The ship date's listed as "3 to 6 weeks," and given that Asus chopped shipping estimates from a cool million to a not-so-cool 700K a few weeks ago, there's no guarantee it won't get knocked back further.  You know how the ever-changing Amazon can be.

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DVD Enters its Blu Period.

Hey, guys!  You can get an HD-DVD player at Circuit City for only $85!

But seriously, now that Toshiba has officially thrown in the towel and released a statement saying they will no longer develop, make or market HD-DVD players and recorders, the format war has been won by Sony's Blu-Ray.  Now it's time to start thinking about the future.

So what you really need is a Blu-Ray player that's in your budget range.  Hey, we found some of those, too.  There's the Samsung BD-P1200, which Circuit City has marked down $475 to sell for only $125... that seems like a good deal to us.  It's cousin, the Samsung BD-P1000 is down to $213 (though its 12-in-2 memory card reader is no match for the P1200's HQV video processing, which ups picture quality). 

Best Buy... well, their Sony Blu-Ray players start at about $400.  We think not.  And naturally, you can get a SquareTrade warranty on any DVD player you choose.  Check out the Instant Quote widget in the sidebar to find out how much less we'll charge you than Circuit City, for a far better warranty.  According to our reviews, anyway.

In the meantime, rejoice!  The war is over!  Now we must create the peace, for our children and our children's children.

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The Xbox 360 has a 16.4% failure rate.

Our analytics team just finished running a report on the reliability of the Microsoft Xbox 360, and discovered it has a 16.4% normal-use failure rate. 

That's roughly half the 33% failure rate once claimed by Best Buy, Gamestop and EB Games, but way above the standard 3-5% failure rate Microsoft announced a year ago... the only official numbers they've ever released.  By comparison, their main competition - Sony's PlayStation 3 - hovers in the 3% range for hardware failures.

Gamestop indefinitely suspended sales of  product replacement plans for all 360s last October. 

Not surprisingly, the dreaded "Red Ring of Death" played a heavy part in our report, factoring into 60% of all service calls.  Almost from day one, three flashing red LED lights on the power display (signaling a general hardware failure) has symbolized the 360's reputation as a machine with serious design flaws.  Damage caused from severe overheating soon reached epidemic proportions.  Peter Moore, Microsoft's then-Vice President of Interactive Entertainment Business, finally responded last July by retroactively extending all Xbox 360 warranties to three years at a cost of 1 billion dollars, but only for Three Red Lights issues.

The other 40% of the Xbox's hardware failures are limited to the standard one-year warranty.  Microsoft charges $99 to fix any non-Three Red Lights issue, with a reported turnaround time of 21 days. 

Disk read errors account for nearly half of all non-TRL claims.  Other problems we see crop up fairly often are fried video cards, hardware freezes, on/off failures and, interestingly, disc tray malfunctions that also tend to damage game discs.

Last June, Microsoft released modified hardware on all new and repaired 360s, adding a second GPU heatsink to fix the console's overheating problems.  It's highly unlikely any modified 360s were included in our report.

UPDATED: The full report, including numbers and methodology, has been released.

Further UPDATE (9/1/09): Exciting new data on game console failure rates. See the full study here.

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Nokia Remade concept turns soda cans into boss tech.

Okay, we admit getting rid of old cell phones is a problem.  There are a few good places that can recycle an old phone, and inoperable cells sent in on SquareTrade warranty claims are squeezed for all they're worth (after we pay out the customer in cash, naturally), but how about a phone made from recycled material?

That's the idea behind the Nokia Remade, a concept flip-phone making the rounds at the MWC this week.  Made entirely using pre-existing and "upcycled" material.  The guts are borrowed from other electronics, the case and buttons used to be Pepsi cans and plastic bottles, rubber pads are repurposed from car tires.  The screen and circuits even use printed electronics to keep it green.

It's thin to the point where it comes off as flimsy, and it doesn't actually work at the moment (maybe they couldn't find an eco-friendly battery to run it), but as a pure concept piece, the Remade is pretty damn spiffy.  Tough to say if this is going to become the prevailing manufacturing drive of tomorrow, but we won't be shocked if at least some of these ideas don't find their way into the next generation of electronics... and we don't just mean cell phones.

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Best Buy's Geek Squad is so good, you'll sue them for $54 million dollars.

 Holy Underwear!  We thought the FireDog expose was bad, but we just caught wind of the latest post on The Red Tape Chronicles, written by MSNBC consumer editor Bob Sullivan, and Circuit City's largely disinterested repair drones force suddenly look like Olympian heroes compared to Best Buy's Geek Squad.

Here's how it shakes out; nonprofit exec Raelyn Campbell bought herself a $1100 laptop from The Buy, and then got sweet-talked into adding a $300 extended warranty to it (feel free to use the sidebar widget to see how much less a SquareTrade warranty would've cost her).  Turns out that was a good idea, because it conked out on her.  She takes it in, and is told repairs will take 2-6 weeks (us: five days).  As estimates go, turns out that was waaaaaaaaaay low. 

Roughly four months later, Campbell returns from an extended business trip.  That's nearly three times as long as the Geek Squad's worst-case repair time, so it should be done, yes?  No.  And she spends the next few months getting the run-around from an interchangeable cast of Best Buy phone voices trying to find out how much longer it'll take.  Finally, the sixth person she talks to admits they didn't have any idea where her laptop was.  Best Buy lost it.  But that's okay, because they offered her a $900 Best Buy gift card to compensate. 

Campbell decided to sue them for $54 million dollars instead. 

Least you think she picked that number out of a hat, it's the same amount a judge sued a laundry last year for loosing a pair of pants.  Unlike the judge's situation, however, Campbell's loss opened her up to the very real threat of identity theft, since whoever has her laptop also now has all her personal information.  She says she's not expecting to actually get $54 million, but it did get BB to up their compensation offer to the high $2K range. 

Also interesting: the stories people commenting on Sullivan's post tell.  One is an ex-Geek Squader who quit because this is apparently Standard Operating Procedure.  Another claims their computer was resold by Best Buy with all their personal data still on the hard drive; they were contacted by the new owner, who confirmed the laptop had the exact same problem they'd originally taken it in for.

Did we mention our customers rate us very highly in terms of customer satisfaction?

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iPod Valentine's Sales Abound.

Ye Gods.  If we're to believe all the Valentine's sales going around, women apparently want crappy movies like Across the Universe and Failure to Launch, and lots of perfectly good electronics that are all painted pink.  If we pulled something like that, we'd end up sleeping on the couch.

However, there's a bunch of normally-colored stuff on sale all over.  Circuit City's fairly lame iPod sale prices from way, way back are still largely in place, though saving five bucks does equal five more songs off iTunes.  The biggest deal to be had at the moment, and it's live at Amazon and Circuit City and Best Buy, is a $25 off deal on the recently released 32 GB Apple iPod Touch.  Amazon's prices on all other iPod tends to be a few bucks better than CC and BB's, too.

We've heard the Apple iPod Touch isn't doing so well, sales-wise, and we're not terribly surprised.  C'mon now, it's basically an iPhone without the phone (or, admittedly, two unending years of constant AT&T hassle), but it still costs the same... or more, depending on how which model you're buying.  It's really just a matter of what you want out of your mobile devices, and if you want a top-end iPod to watch widescreen movies on while calling you buddies over Verison's network on a Nokia, then the iTouch really is your thing. 

And for a limited time, you can get 25% off your SquareTrade iPod warranty, with or without Accidental Damage coverage, just by using Coupon Code IPODLOVE25 on the checkout page.  Not sure it's the best deal for the best service?  Read our reviews and get an instant quote with our Quote Widget in the sidebar.

The coupon expires the Monday after Valentine's, and it's good for any model iPod, but but not iPhones.  Gotta save something for next time, after all.

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Valentine's Sale: 25% Off on All iPod Warranties.

Nothing says lovin' like handing your baby an Apple iPod Nano pre-loaded with Barry White's Greatest Hits.  Except maybe saving a few bucks behind her back on the deal.

We found a few iPod Sales going on - generally not big, but enough to cover the cost of You're the First, The Last, My Everything - and they're all really pushing pink this year, but we couldn't just sit back and not contribute to your love life.  From now until 2/17, you can get 25% Off on a SquareTrade iPod warranty for any iPod model, with or without Accidental Damage coverage. 

Just use Coupon Code IPODLOVE25 on the checkout page. 

Oh, and flowers might help, too.  No warranty available on those, more's the pity.

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The Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 makes all others look ugly.

Simply Wow.  We've been getting hints and peaks at the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 for a while now, but it got its coming-out party yesterday at MWC, and advance word is the beauty isn't just skin deep. 

If you're wondering where the Xperia X1 got its good looks from, turns out it's made by HTC.  That's a beveled "arc-slider" that considerably increases the ergonomics when using the QWERTY keyboard, with a Windows Mobile interface that appears miles ahead of... well, of your typical Windows Mobile interface.  There's only a 3.2 megapixel camera (with auto-focus) as opposed to the now-standard 5, and there's only 400 MB onboard memory, which seems to make its multimedia focus a little shallow without adding a microSD to the picture, but that 3" touchscreen is a 800 x 480 VGA, and it makes movie and television playbacks look gorgeous.  Web surfing, too... which should be a breeze, given quad-band GSM/EDGE support.

And it'll be eligible for a SquareTrade warranty with Accidental Damage coverage, too.

Seriously, this one's a contender.  The real disappointments?  Despite the fact that the X1 is all over the Sony Ericsson site, they're highly reticent about naming a price.  Oh, and it won't be out until Q2. 

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The Nokia N96 uber-phone is one hella-expensive iPhone.

So, the iPhone thinks it can stay on top just by adding a measly 8 GB, eh?  Anybody can do that!  Case in point, the Nokia N96 just dropped in Barcelona, essentially bumping the N95 up to an iPhone-comparable 16 GB of internal memory.  And they threw in a few extras into their top-end dual slider while they were at it.

Like, for example, a DVB-H receiver to pick up digital TV signals and a kickstand to prop it up on your desk for easy viewing.  That'll get us more excited when American TV goes fully digital in 2009,  but the all-new adaptable backlit touch controls are far more interesting to us.  Sure, the LG Venus and Samsung Soul already do that for music playback, but the N96's multimedia functions are squeezing more use out of adaptable touch controls; for one thing, it supports fully emulated N-Gage video games, and the control pads can change according to the game's needs.  A haptic feedback system might've been a nice addition here, but you can't expect everything.

Although it also hit the interwebs today that Apple's filing patents on new gaming hardware (the iGame?), and if it's touchscreenable, you can bet they'll haptic it up.

Naturally, all this coolness comes at a price.  Specifically, $800 is the number we're hearing.  That's a lot of dough for something you can easily drop on the cement ten times a day, so best consider getting a SquareTrade cell phone warranty, and then add Accidental Damage to your coverage.  You could go with cell phone insurance and pay a lot more for a lot less, but that assumes your carrier offers it on smart phones, which is not an assumption you should make. 

The N96 is targeted to ship in Q3 2008.

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Samsung G400 Dual Touch Chic doubles your touching.

What's better than a touchscreen phone?  Why, two touchscreen phones.  What's better than two touchscreen phones?  Why, one phone with two touchscreens.  That's the theory behind the Samsung G400 Dual Touch Chic, anyway, one of a gazillion new Samsung handsets debuting at the Mobile World Conference this week. 

Considering this is their first all-metal cased flip-phone, you have to say Samsung stepped the market up a notch, even if those touch controls are strictly MP3-related.  The fact that they put touch control on both sides of a very thin strip of metal (the closed phone is 0.6" thick) is fairly cool.  And it's nicely convenient to have easy access to those controls whether the phone's open or not.  Now let's see them make those controls cross over into a few more features... like, say, phone calls. 

Otherwise, the Dual Touch Chic is your fairly standard Samsung top-end cell phone... RDS-powered FM radio, 100 MB storage with microSD slot, and a 5 megapixel camera that's now officially the standard weight for top-end phones.  It'll also be eligible for a SquareTrade cell phone warranty, with optional Accidental Damage coverage.

Want it?  You'll have to wait until late April or early May, and save up some dollars... expect a price tag in the mid-$400 range.

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