What are good laptop brands in 2012?

[zyzz]

Is there a site to watch for good laptop reviews and comments on the brands?

I have only owned 2 Laptops ever. Well I had an ancient Mac Laptop, but lets ignore that.

HP - I always thought HP made cheap crappy products. But now I read HP makes some of the best gaming laptops for the price. Even HP non gaming laptops are suppose to be some of the best.

Acer - I always thought Acer was an average brand. I heard it's total garbage in 2012. I have seen some in stores, the material is quite cheap on most, but hardware wise I don't know nothin' bout em.

ASUS - The one brand I really trust. Had ASUS mobo's and ASUS gpu's. Never have failed me. I have heard now that their customer service is awful and the laptops are quite average.

Lenovo - Don't know much about this brand. All I heard that it was very good.

Sony - Sony seems to have good quality products that are not computers. I have only heard bad things about the Sony VAIO.

Dell - Never liked Dell. Overpriced crap. Dell/Alienware overpriced crap, nuff said.

Samsung - Went with a friend and bought a brand new Samsung laptop last year. Wireless card was broken. Returned it to the store and got a different Samsung. The Hard Drive was clicking - returned on the spot. That's all I can say about them.

Toshiba - a laptop I own. Nothing fancy, not for gaming. Got a deal on it. Hate the touchpad and keyboard is average. Material is average. The charging port was flimsy and broke. Got it fixed though.

Compaq (HP) - other laptop I own. Quite old, AMD 64. Pretty average. Nice keyboard and touchpad, decent screen. Runs very hot though. Try installing Windows and you have to prop the laptop up or the computer will turn off. The DVD drive is slowly failing.

 

[usbgtx550]

I have an old hp g60 from 2009 I think. DC power jack died after a year. Didn't know a thing about computers then so that rotted until couple of months ago when I found it. Works now but is rather loud. That thing was horribly designed, simply a pain to take apart to replace the power jack. But what was I to suspect, it was a cheaper laptop at around $340 I believe. Then there is the old toshiba satellite a75 that my parents had back from 2005. That also developed charging issues after about a year. This was disappointing considering its cost was approx $1000. Till this day it only charges when it is off. However once charged it still turns on (albeit its batter life is horrendous) My brother got a hp netbook. Both the hinges to the screen have broken. Then last year I got a cheaper samsung lapotop ($400). Quality seem sub-par and I feel like the hinges to the screen will break from average use after a couple of years.
Seems my family has bad luck with laptops in general.

 

[sonogo]

Well everyone has different experiences with laptop brands. I've had a Compaq, Acer Aspire (current), Dell, Apple, x2 Toshiba Satellite. My first Toshiba battery failed after several weeks, but Toshiba were quick to replace, didn't have it long though as it was stolen. My second next model Toshiba (previous) was the worst laptop I'd ever owned, nothing but major problems from new, random power failures from new, crappy keyboard, noisy, gets too hot, motherboard faulty, the battery lasted about four years though which is very good, I gave it to my cousin, but it's become basically unusable outside of safemode. The apple power supply kept failing, and battery was crap, it was also very overpriced, and expensive to replace parts. Compaq was great if not slow and low-spec but very reliable, still going strong after 6 years, even the original battery still holds a charge for a couple of hours, (my parents own it now, but it only has fairly light use), and old Dell lasted many years, and took quite a bit of abuse before the hard drive failed after 10 years. This Acer I have mixed feelings about I bought is second hand from my uncle who only used it a couple of weeks, because it spend 7 months going back and forth from Acer in Australia, who failed to fix the graphics issues and they also put a deep scratch across the lid (deliberate), and then failed to fix that as promised - each time it went back, they had it for up to two months. It still has the visual artifacts - but they don't really bother me. The speakers are crap, and the battery only lasted a year, but other than that I don't really have a problem with it since I got it so cheap anyway. Desktops are also another story. The Dell I had was the most reliable computer I ever had. I had an HP Pavilion but that had a bad motherboard from new. I am looking to upgrading my laptop now so I can play Civilization 5, and giving this one to my frustrated cousin (the one I gave the ailing Toshiba to). I don't want to spend much, and am looking at HP, Asus, Dell as my top three, Lenovo I'd definitely consider if I had the means to get one, as I've heard only good things. I will still look at Toshiba and Acer if the value is very good, but I'm really put off Toshiba and not very unimpressed by Acer either as support goes. I've never been an HP fan especially due my desktop issues, but I hear they are making better laptops and are rated as top #3 under Apple and Lenovo. Dell Inspiron was my top pick, due to my good experiences in the past, but only if I can find one that suits my needs + budget. Would not touch Sony, have a few mates with those, and they are overpriced flashy rubbish based on the ones I've seen. Dell scores fairly highly in reviews (#4 according to laptop mag), but there are also plenty of very outspoken haters of Dell to put one off.

 

[SuperAxilla]

I work on a lot laptops. From my experience, the better brands would be ASUS, New Toshiba's, Lenovo. As far gaming, I would stick with ASUS and MSI. HP makes some with nice GPU's but I've seen these burn up and reflows won't save them. I still have an old HP DV4-1435dx and that sucker is still running strong. I've used it as a crash laptop and shocked the mobo so many times, it's a miracle it still works. New HP's aren't bad but they had a bad run previously. Dell went south. Gateways/Acers are pretty troublesome. Probably the most difficult to repair are the Acers and Sony PCG's. Macbooks are good but they are a liquid magnet. Water damage will drive you nuts and ends up being the most difficult of all laptops to repair. C655 series Toshiba's and thereabout can have charge port problems. That's my 2c. Just based on what I've seen and repaired. Haven't dealt enough with Samsung to really comment.