Opinions on Dell and HP Business Notebooks

[stealth_blade]

I'm thinking about getting Notebook in the next couple months. It will primarily be for work/school, but if it can play some games that's a bonus.

I do have a few requirements for the Notebook.

Core 2 Duo at least 2.0 Ghz
2 GB Ram <- RAM is easy to upgrade, so notebooks with a single 1 GB stick would be fine too
15.4" 1680x1050 Non Glossy Screen

I'd also like the notebook to be sturdy and well built. I expect to pay a reasonable amount of money for a quality laptop, but I would like to try and keep it under $2000. That said, do feel free to suggest laptops that cost more if you can say what makes it worth it.

Based on these parameters, I've been looking at:
Dell Latitude D830
HP 6710b
HP 8510p

Has anyone used any of these laptops and could tell me what he or she liked/disliked about them? Are there any other laptops you can think of that fit the above specs?

 

[g-paw]

Suggest you repost within a week or so before your ready to buy, who knows what will be out there and what the prices will be? Is there a reason you're not looking at the Dell Inspiron rather than the Latitude? if you haven't done so, compare the 2. I know your using for business but that doesn't mean a consumer laptop might not be better. Check Lenovo, makes very good lapatops

 

[stealth_blade]

I did actually consider Inspirons, but I ruled them out since you can't get a screen size over 1280x800 (15.4"). I've used a laptop at this resolution, and I found that it just wasn't high enough to get any work done.

I need either Vista Business or Windows XP Pro on this laptop, so that's the other major reason I've been looking at business notebooks. I really don't want to pay for a copy of Vista Home Premium I will never be able to use.

I forgot to add Lenovo to that list, but yes they're another brand I would be interested in.

And as for why I'm asking now, I was hoping there might be some people on this forum who had experience with these machines and could give me their general impressions.

 

[lostandwandering]

My school had Latitudes for the students to use in classroom settings. They were the older D820's I believe. Very nice systems with sturdy construction. I have no experience with the HP's though.

 

[stealth_blade]

@lostandwandering

I notice from your sig you have a sager laptop. How do you like it? I was looking at a Sager today, and they seem like very good machines.

 

[lostandwandering]

I have absolutely no complaints with the laptop itself. I was a little frustrated with the ordering process (ordered from sagernotebook.com) but I chalked it up to Sager/Clevo releasing a new chasis. Anyway, Build quality is excellent, performance is excellent and these systems have some of the best screens I have ever seen (comparing to an Inspiron 9300 WUXGA and an HP DV9500t WSXGA). Would I do it again? Yeah but maybe with a different company. I've gotten to know the owner of killernotebooks.com and really like the company and his attitude so I would buy from him. His prices are a little more expensive, but depending on who you are it's probably worth it.

 

[theworminator]

Yeah, I have the same model as LostandWandering, but I bought mine from Killer Notebooks. The build quality on the Clevo m570u is very good, and although BIOS doesn't have overclocking options, you can software OC it. But then again, they don't offer the m570u (they offer m570RU) anymore, so my review was pointless

Anyway, yeah, Killer Notebooks is slightly more expensive for the customization he does on it, but I think he just stated that he'd beat the price of any competitor by 50 dollars if you want just a non-customized Sager-standard notebook.

 

[stealth_blade]

I'm considering the Sager NP2092. Any comments on the quality of that specific model?

 

[theworminator]

I'm not familiar with that model, so nope, sorry. Though it's interesting to note that it only has VGA video output, not the digital DVI, though that's not necessarily a significant problem.

 

[lostandwandering]

Personal experience, I got none with that unit. It's a new model based of the Compal JFL92. Compal is a decent company so I would expect the unit to be fairly decent. It's got pretty good specs including the new Penryn's. I'm sure if you wait a little you'll be able to find some reviews for that model, at the moment though I can't seem to find any.

 

[stealth_blade]

VGA or DVI doesn't bother me. As long as it has one (and i think you'd be hard pressed to find a notebook these days that didn't).

Just to clarify though, does Sager manufacture their own notebooks, or do they buy a standard chassis and assemble the remaining components? It sounds like from previous posts that they do the latter. Not that this would bother me, but I am curious.

 

[theworminator]

They buy the chassis from a manufacturer like Clevo, then put the rest of the parts in them. Then they either sell them directly from the Sager website, or through resellers.

 

[laptopspares]

I would personally not go for dell as there user support is not as good as they claim, IBM T43s are very good , we use them for our business and have not had any problems, also they are slim and light , i think they look good as well

shaz