161–167 of 167 posts
In the early 2000's Japan was way ahead in the Sub-notebook market. As subnotebooks and tablets have come into popularity and wide availability worldwide, this arbitrage opportunity has narrowed significantly. In 2007, I picked up a Panasonic R6 (10" LetsNote/toughbook). It was a great little machine, and I ran both Windows and Debian on it. The keyboard was a bit cramped, and the circular trackpad was pretty lame, b…
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> The keyboard is both english and Japanese So, Japanese, then? Or does it have English labels on the modifier keys?
It's QWERTY with Kana. You can see a couple images here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BAqh-TUpLh3/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BGGFILmpLsn/
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As others have said, Apple has a very strong presence in Japan. If I go to an electronics store, usually half the models on display are Apple. Panasonic and Fujitsu pretty much rule the desktop with bizarre television/computer fusions. Imagine a TV about the thickness of one of the old plasma TVs. It usually has a stand, but I think you can also wall mount it. You can watch and record TV on them, so they are basicall…
I'd like to add NEC to your list (surprised no one is mentioning them). They completely dominated the Japanese PC market during the 80's and 90's, and even though the've been declining heavily since, it's still a strong brand in Japan holding about a fifth of the market share.
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I had Fujitsu laptops from beginning of the 2000s until around 2009; the quality and support were amazing. You paid for it but man these things were good. Panasonic makes great laptops as well but these days it really does not warrent the high pricetag...
I'd buy another Fujitsu if they had any current models with displays that are up to date. Seems someone there thinks that anyone who is using a portable doesn't need a display taller than 768 (or some other absurdly low number of) pixels.
My current laptop is a toshiba, and I bought it in the US. I've had good luck with the brand over the years.
I have a Japanese Toshiba KIRA V63 (only sold in Japan, for some stupid reason). It's a great machine and quite cheap for it's specs. I bought it for battery life (I can do a whole day of programming on a single charge in Linux), but it has good performance as well. I've been very pleasantly surprised at how well the Intel 5200U has performed. Also at only 1.2 kg, I can easily stick it in my bag and carry it with me…
My little Toshiba has been very reliable, runs Linux perfectly.
I would never buy anything else so I hope they manage to restructure so their talent survives. It is increasingly difficult to get quality products these days. More and more it is a choice between constantly breaking crap and unaffordable. It's in cars, houses, everything.
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I'd like to add NEC to your list (surprised no one is mentioning them). They completely dominated the Japanese PC market during the 80's and 90's, and even though the've been declining heavily since, it's still a strong brand in Japan holding about a fifth of the market share.
That's really interesting. You are right. As far as I remember, though, I've never seen one in a shop. I'm going to go to the electronics store today, so I'll have a peek for them. I know that they sell routers and and things (and in fact I will probably buy one of their routers today). Hmmm... Definitely something to consider. Edit: I take it back. Should have did some poking around before I posted. NEC sells the La…