| MALIBAL Customer Reviews |
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Reviews 1 - 15 of 66
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12/4/09 8:11 PM
If you are like me, you probably found this page because in your quest for the laptop equivalent of the Death Star, you found Malibal and said "What the hell is a Malibal?! And does it rhyme with volleyball?"
I built the requirement for a great machine into the contract for a job I have just started. I compared everyone. I looked at Lenovo and Dell new and refurbs... Read MoreIf you are like me, you probably found this page because in your quest for the laptop equivalent of the Death Star, you found Malibal and said "What the hell is a Malibal?! And does it rhyme with volleyball?"
I built the requirement for a great machine into the contract for a job I have just started. I compared everyone. I looked at Lenovo and Dell new and refurbs (both excellent, btw), Alienware (over priced my little pony for nerds), Sager, before stumbling upon Malibal.
My budget allowed me a Nine series with a 17" 1920x1200, i7-950, 12GB of PC3-10660/1333MHz DDR3, 280M-GTX, 3x500GB 7200RPM SATA in RAID-0, and a few accessories.
I chatted online with a support person prior to the purchase, and they were absolutely awesome. I had initially been looking at the Veda, but as I explained that this would be 75% for business, the rep steered me toward the Nine... smaller display, and only 1 GTX-280M vs the SLi capability in the Veda, the Nine is tops in the power category. I was unable to find any other laptop that came close, and the price was DAMNED reasonable for the ridiculous power this thing packs.
So, it was between the Malibal and a Thinkpad. Thinkpads are an engineering marvel. They are the best designed laptop chassis you can buy. Maxing out a Thinkpad W700 from the Lenovo site came up with the following: QX9300 Extreme processor, 8GB of 1067MHz RAM, 2x320GB 7200RPM HDs in RAID 0, 17" WUXGA, Quadro FX 3700M.
Now, chassis engineering aside, the Malibal absolutely devastates the W700 in every possible way*. The domination of the QX9300 by the i7-950 is staggering:
Intel Core i7 950 : 3.07GHz : Passmark Bench:6,196
Intel Core 2 Extreme Q9300 : 2.53 : Passmark Bench 3,664
(The i7 bus absolutely murders the previous generations - however, keep in mind that the Nine packs a DESKTOP class processor, so the W700 can run on battery a bit longer)
Next, the RAM... 8GB 1067MHz vs. 12GB of 1333MHz. Your call.
HDs - with the W700 you max out at 2x320GB (Obviously you can buy drives from TD or wherever, but that is beside the point) You COULD go SSDs, but in that case the W700 only goes 2x128 where the Nine will go 3x160. The 3x500GB in RAID 0 screams. Just makes sure to back up, kids.
As far as the screen goes, the Nine is beautiful, but it IS glossy. The W700 screens I have seen are very nice, and I would honestly have preferred a matte finish on my Nine's display.
On to the GFX cards - (see * above) for CAD you might be better off with the FX 3700 - I don't know. The much greater RAM capacity and speed, and the dominating i7 might make up the difference, if there is one. If you are a CAD engineer, I would definitely look into this before buying.
With all of the above taken into account, the Thinkpad is STILL almost $1,000 more. Lenovo's support service is top of the line - I have no experience in that regard with Malibal. They both come with a 1 year parts warranty - but Malibal ups the ante with 3 years of ltd labor, and free shipping both ways as well as free labor on upgrades and they have 24/7 US based support.
So, now here is the trick: I am getting this mainly for business. I WILL travel, but I don't care how heavy something is - you might I haven't tested it, but I would imagine the battery won't outlast your average NFL TV Timeout.
There remains the issue of the leap of faith in going with this brand over a established enterprise name like IBM, Dell, HP, etc. *I* had no issues with that what soever, I run Linux and it doesn't care who's machine it is on. But, what did concern me was that if this thing turned out to be a turd, it would be a bad way to start off at a new company to say the least.
So, happened upon this site and that was enough for me. What sealed the deal was the response that they had to one irate customer. I deal with people like that from time to time, and they handled it admirably indeed. (Search through here to find it). My subsequent experience with the online support staff was spectacular, as was my experience with the ordering and delivery process.
I got what I ordered and got it when they said it would get here.
This machine rocks, but you can get it from all kinds of different vendors. I will buy from Malibal because their site rocks, their ordering system is great, they integrate tracking right into your account. They don't pressure you or spam you.
Everything else aside, it comes down to this: the genuine passion that this crew has for doing what they do better than anyone else is shown through their actions instead of a flowery "About Us" page.
Oh, and in case I forgot to mention it above, this laptop is awesome. And also fast. I would say that it is one step above having your own giraffe or platypus.
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1/23/10 2:58 PM
I tried to order the same laptop from Cyberpower and they did not tell me they were out of stock and kept me waiting for 2 weeks. I had very good experience with Malibal and the computer is fast and nicely built. Only thing I can complain is it did not come with any label for processor and video card, other than that it was a good laptop.
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1/14/10 11:04 AM
Looks like a great product. Am excited to have a screaming fast processor (here's hoping the i7 lives up to its hype) with Win7. SHould have probably ordered the SSD but the 500GB disk drive capacity pulled me away. I am glad I stumbled upon Mailbal's website. I couldn't decide between Alien, Lenovo, HP, ASUS & Visionman. Malibal is the most cost effective product!
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1/12/10 1:59 PM
I recently purchased a DV7 laptop from HP only to find out that it was not what I expected. It was not fast enough for my software, (Revit & AutoCad). Did I mention the speakers also went out in two months. I decided to take it back and upon researching other laptops, I found Malibal. It was more pricier, but you got what you paid for. The customer service was great and I hadn't even purchased a thing yet. They help me on the phone compare theirs with others and it was a great experience. I decided on getting a Nine series with an 1&-920 processor, 2-500GB hard drives, 6GB of RAM with the Nvidia 280m graphics card. I barely got it yesterday and have already noticed the difference in the speed and quality of my programs. Thanks again for the help and I HIGHLY recommend Malibal to others. This review was modified by its author, jparker9, on
1/12/10 6:02 PM.
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1/9/10 3:54 PM
Sent my first email to Malibal around 11 PM - figuring I would get an answer the next day - just as I was ready to call it a night, bingo, I had an answer to all my questions.
After discussions with several companies, I decided to purchase from Malibal, as I was quite comfortable with their knowledge and their responsiveness of trying to be sure I purchased what computer was needed to do the job right, not just meet minimum requirements.
After placing the order, I received confirmations and could check the status at any time. I decided to pay by check and therefore, my check had to clear before shipment. That caused an obvious delay in delivering the computer, which I understood and was my decision to make. However, once the check cleared, Malibal was excellent in building the computer and shipping it, exactly matching the process and schedule the committed to when I made the purchase.
The computer was a present for my son to use in his business, which he has received and is in the process of installing some additional s/w, etc.
Once I get a report from him regarding the operational aspects of the computer, I will add to this review.
However, as of right now, everything in dealing with Malibal is very, very positive.
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1/1/10 7:40 PM
I didn't make my choice to buy fom malibal lightly nor quickly. I checked out alienware but you mind as well say dell. They would not help me at all with what I wanted it had to be what they wanted me to have. I then started to look other places and came across malibal, I configuered exactly what I wanted in the nine series, the price was right,so i made a call to malibal to see if someone would answer and they did without waiting 10 minutes to get someone on the line. I then ordered the nine series about 10 day's later it arrived in 110% condition everything worked flawlessly. the raid0is fast as sh-- the i7 960 just remarkable nvidia280m wow. I'm so pleased with it. Thanks Malibal for giving me the fastest computer I've ever seen at the price I could afford.James
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12/15/09 12:23 PM
As a rule, if I write a review on electronics I wait at least 3 months because I figure any problems will manifest by then with regular use.
I bought a Malibal Lotus 15.4" 1920 x 1200 WUXGA LCD Active Matrix Display Memory: (4GB) 4096MB, PC3-8500/1066MHz DDR3 - 2 SO-DIMM Graphics Card: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M 1GB GDDR3 Hard Drive: 500GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA-300 for quite a reasonable price considering what I was getting. I had been looking at Alienware, etc. prior to purchase and would have ended up paying much more for the same computer. The machine runs smooth and fast, looks sleek (black with silver trim, a lot of people have asked me: what kind of laptop is that?!), handles video editing and gaming well (currently playing Dragon Age and Aion on it). Based on notebookreview.com I got a zalman cooler but honestly it doesn't run all that hot most of the time. I've been trying to talk my wife into upgrading her laptop to a Malibal but she'd rather spend the dough at Barney's. To each their own.
$50.00
Optical Drive: 8X Multi DVD+/-R/RW RAM Dual-Layer Drive
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12/2/09 11:50 AM
I have put all my desktop computers together since college and had the idea that I would try to put a laptop together instead. As it turns out many of the components either come with the barebone (which they're only so few to choose from depending on what type of processor and gpu you want), are expensive, or very hard to find. My other alternative would be to go with a major distributor of high end notebooks (i.e. alienware) which would've made my laptop look like a christmas tree at work and cost a few hundred dollars more. Throughout my month search I found Malibal and it was worth it. Not only did my 15.6" FHD, i7-720QM, GeForce GTX 280M come below budget ready for me to put in windows 7 ultimate x64... It also came in 10 days and I didn't have to put the thing together. Right now I can have 4 cpu demanding programs (autoCAD, Photoshop, etc.) running at the same time and my cpu usage never reaches 50%. Games play flawlessly at max settings and surprisingly the fan runs much quieter than anticipated. Had I put it together I might (after constant searching) have saved maybe $100 if that. Customer service was helpful for cash payment and quick to respond. I recommend this company to anyone seeking high end notebooks. Shopping there again once this badboy becomes ancient. Unfortunately that will be in 6 months. I've never written a review in my life. Enjoy my first!
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12/1/09 11:47 AM
Overall: Outstanding experience.
There was a bit of confusion initially about when my laptop would be shipped: they gave me a time window when they expected it to be shipped, but their incoming delivery of laptops was smaller than they expected, so they informed me that they'd have to push my ship date (past Thanksgiving, which is when I really needed it since I was travelling).
I let them know that I was disappointed, and a couple days later they contacted me, said they pulled some strings and got me a laptop, and even upgraded my UPS Ground shipping to next-day-air for free to ensure I got it before I went out of town! I was pretty shocked -- it was way above and beyond what I expect from a retailer.
As far as the laptop itself, it's excellent, exactly what they described, and with very competitive price.
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11/30/09 6:32 PM
I found Malibal by chance while searching for Clevo resellers and I couldn't be happier with my findings. The customer service was absolutely incredible! Questions were answered promptly and they took the time to ensure my order was to my satisfaction. Shipping was immediate and they even gave me the option to purchase the extended warranty in the 30 days following the purchase date. The website is easy to navigate and the accessible customer reviews can only make my decision easier. I recommend Malibal to all and please send me any questions if you're still unsure whether to go with them or not.
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11/29/09 10:16 AM
After spending 6 years tethered to my old Pentium 4 PC, I'd decided it was time to purchase a laptop. As a web designer, video editor, and hobbyist gamer, however, I needed a laptop that could perform to the highest level. Having never purchased a laptop before, I began to search for the best deal, reliability being a big factor after being forced to troubleshoot faulty laptops of friends and family. I spent a good deal of time exploring outlets such as Cyberpower and XoticPC, and then I came across Malibal. After reading their reviews, I began to take a look at their inventory. Wow. These are some *manly* laptops. I was quick to check their reviews, not being one to believe in miracles. Surprisingly, Malibal had achieved the most spotless customer service record I had ever laid eyes on.
I made my decision to purchase from Malibal, and quickly built a $3000 power-laptop with a 1080p screen, 6GB of RAM, Corei7 processor, and Solid State Hard Drive. This was the most money I had ever spent on a computer... ever -- as such I was somewhat nervous as to whether the money was worth it.
Although the shipping was delayed on Malibal's end due to a back-order on the Lotus series, customer service was quick to upgrade my shipping from standard ground to 3-day, reassuring me about their customer care.
The laptop arrived just under a month after I ordered it -- somewhat of a long wait compared to the other reviews, but it was worth it. The laptop performed perfectly, and I was quickly enjoying Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2 on Very High settings.
Then tragedy struck. Listed on the Malibal website was a BIOS update on the Lotus's driver page. BIOS updates are sort of risky, I realized, but my Linux installation was experiencing some issues that may or may not have been related to the BIOS, and I was hoping an updated version may fix it. After installing the new BIOS, however, I was horrified to be informed that the BIOS was in fact for a different model laptop, causing my laptop to shut down after 1 minute of use. I immediately contacted Malibal for assistance, citing their incorrect BIOS listing on their site. They immediately removed the BIOS listing from their site, and within a week I was sent a new BIOS image to flash onto the laptop -- fixing it completely. Although the customer service may be slow at times, they definitely live up to their ratings.
If you buy one of these machines, chances are you will be blown away by the power. But you should be prepared to deal with weight and low battery life. My model will last about an hour on one battery, max. I've purchased two to extend the life to 2 hours. This usually is not a problem for me, though, as an outlet is usually nearby.
These laptops are extremely powerful, fairly priced, and backed by some great support. I'm confident that I made a good decision by purchasing this laptop, and I'll definitely look to Malibal for my next machine purchase when the time arrives, which may be quite far away, judging by the performance of this machine as of now.
11/29/09: I've noticed that the HDMI port isn't working as expected -- I plan to contact customer support soon to see what the issue may be.
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11/24/09 7:25 AM
Delivered ahead of schedule, per requested specs, in perfect condition, and free of bloatware.
In terms of appearance, the 15.6" Lotus reminds me of a "sleeper" car: highly tuned under the hood without all the flashy colored plastic and bling lights on the body. This is a clean, understated laptop that does not shout "gaming rig" with its appearance but instead proves it through superior performance. This review was modified by its author, PapaShultz, on
11/24/09 7:46 AM.
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11/20/09 8:19 AM
I have to say initially I was hesitant to order a $2,000+ laptop from a boutique laptop shop. I'd ordered from larger companies like Dell in the past and always received a decent product, but the larger companies just didn't offer the kind of performance in a laptop I was looking for. After some intensive research, I happened upon Malibal. I'm not the type of person to place an impulse order and I extensively reviewed my options over the course of three months. Malibal offered the best price for performance across the board, so I eventually placed my order for their Lotus series of laptops.
To start things off, I placed the order incorrectly, hitting the wrong button on checkout. I immediately hopped over to their website, and was about to send them an email when I noticed the live chat option. Soon I was talking to a Malibal rep, explaining the problem. They updated the order, and processed it correctly within minutes. I imagine had I done the same at a large corporation, I'd have still been listening to elevator music while I was put on hold over the telephone.
Their website made it easy to verify and review my order status, and any questions I had were answered promptly. I chose ground shipping to save money, and after the long wait for UPS to get me my laptop, it arrived on a Wed night. I was impressed with everything, from the free laptop case to even the small details like the ease of unboxing everything. Unfortunately the laptop was a bit "buggy", and would blue-screen at random intervals. I work in IT, and have been working with computers in one fashion or another for 15+ years, so I started to probe a bit deeper into what was causing these problems, hoping it was just a software issue. After several OS installations, driver upgrade, etc.. the problem persisted.
I finally created a ticket to Malibal support regarding these problems on Thursday evening, around 11PM. It was my expectation that I would get an email back the next day with some silly settings to check, or even have to sit on the phone with a technician while he verified what I already knew to be a hardware issue. None of that happened. I received a response back from Malibal support at 11:30PM in the evening, only 30 minutes after my original email. After reviewing the steps I took to track down the root of the problem, they agreed it was a hardware issue and the next day provided me everything I needed to return the laptop.
Obviously I was disappointed that my brand new laptop was a lemon, and that I was going to have to wait another 1-2 weeks for a replacement to arrive. Before I could even express my disappointment, Matthew at Malibal contacted me and told me they would upgrade the replacement shipping to 2 day air, instead of ground shipping, which took 5 days. A day later, Matthew sent me an email stating that there was a back-order on the specific configuration that I had chosen. Instead of saying "Sorry, bad luck", Matthew offered me two options. I could certainly wait for the exact laptop I had ordered to become available, or I could take an upgraded model that would ship on-time, for no extra charge.
After about 2.1 seconds of thought, I took the free upgrade. When their supplier dropped the ball on getting my laptop out on the correct day, Matthew and Malibal took it upon themselves to make up for that by upgrading my shipping yet again, to overnight. The laptop did indeed arrive on the day they promised, and I've been using it (with the upgrades!) ever since without any issues.
As I mentioned originally, I was a bit wary about spending that amount of money with a small company. However, I have experienced a level of customer service that is completely new to me. Malibal is dedicated to their customer's satisfaction, 100%. I know that with any computer, problems can happen, and that was out of Malibal's hands. What they did do, was take control of the situation the best they could, and went above and beyond my expectations (certainly at the expense of their bottom line) to make sure I was happy with the laptop, and their business. I can only imagine that had this happened with Dell, or any other large company, I'd still be calling daily to try and get this problem fixed. Not the case with Malibal. I'm so pleased with my order, and how their customer service operates, I'll be ordering another $2,000+ laptop from them in a month.
If you're like me, and are hesitant to put your faith in a small company you may not have ever heard of before, let me be clear on this. Malibal will take care of you. It doesn't matter if you’re ordering 200 laptops for your company, or a laptop for your 10 year-old. At the end of the day, they'll make sure you're happy.
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11/6/09 8:40 PM
Excellent sales and tech support up front. Sale had a slight glitch with the Paypal and discount. Perhaps a more succinct description on thier website might have helped. Delivery was faster than expected. The product is excellent so far.
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9/29/09 9:35 PM
Where to start...? Well lets say your friend buys a new laptop with a pretty advanced equipment, since your laptop recently broke you are looking for a similar one for roughly the same price. So here is the story, the friend buys a brand name laptop for $1,700.00 and it is pretty fast, actually really fast. But you don't like the RAM it has and the video card just isn't enough for you. So you find this company online and you find a laptop for the same price roughly. Except it has better ram and a much much better video card. Thats exactly what happened to me and Malibal came through in spades in delivering a super fast laptop that I can do everything I want and more than I could have expected. With great customer service before i ordered it, and great shipping and dont forget the best possible computer you can by for the money!!! I highly highly recommend them and will in fact use them again!
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