What is the best laptop brand?

[BMFX]

Frozenlead. While yes it's not the 9800 in the new ASUS, It's still looking at the over all picture. Plus when you think about it, how much is that HP laptop or Dell laptop that has a 9600 in it going to be worth 2 years down the road. Odds are your going to lose 1/3 - 1/2 the value.

With a mac resale you lose at MAX 1/5 the value. Plus the qualities better, as well as the support. Not to mention not alot of laptops use DDR3 like the mac does. Nor do alot of UNDER 2k laptops use a 2.5ghz or 2.4ghz processor.

 

[frozenlead]

I'll agree with you on the resale value - macs do tend to retain that.

However, the rest of the arguments aren't that great..

Qualities better? Dell, HP, Apple - all their notebooks are built by the same company (Quanta Computer). Since I've been at the University here (well known for fixing everyone's computing troubles) I've seen just as many macs as PCs on my dresser or desk getting repaired. Often the Mac troubles are more dire - graphics card is dead, fans died, case is bent and won't close anymore, optical drive dead... whereas the PCs are simpler things..slow software config, malfunctioning hard disk, power adapter died...

Edit: But stuff breaks. It always will. That's not a good arguement, either.

DDR3? It provides very little performance advantage over DDR2. The increase from a 9600 to a 9800 (or another GPU upgrade) brings far more performance to the table (in games, and more and more GPGPU applications). The performance delta isn't worth the price you pay for it. One can hardly say they bought a notebook simply because it uses DDR3. Memory capacity is far more important.

Under $2k notebooks using 2.4/5GHz CPUs? That's just incorrect. If you take a look at HP's entertainment lineup...most of them are under $1k and offer options for >=2.4GHz CPUs. Even the "everyday computing" line does. The same is for Dell's Inspirion line (as well as the XPS, of course). I'm willing to bet other manufacturers have the same (Gateway, Asus, etc.)

Just the other day someone asked me how to hook their computer to their TV...I gave him an s-video cable and a headphone-component cable. He came back saying it didn't work...only to find out he had a mac. Non-standard ports? Yes. His friend brought a Dell (he probably payed 3x less for) and it worked just fine.

Apple computers are nice. Some people think they're pretty (I don't) and some people like OS X (I don't). They are highly resellable, also, as you mentioned. Other than that, though (and the pretty argument isn't for a person with half a brain or more) a sufficient PC is superior to a Mac in both hardware and price (Software also, depending on your needs/wants/what you have available, but that arguement doesn't belong here).

 

[trulore]

After that long of a post, I now suspect that YOU work for Dell.

I'm an engineer who works for a company making GPS devices, so I have no false loyalties to any particular computer maker. However, I have used many dozens of computers over the past several years, and I am quite convinced that the quality of Dell computers has gone downhill.

Yes, Dell has a fantastic name built on reasonably priced and highly RELIABLE computers. That was true up until roughly three years ago when Dell had pretty much peaked in market share, and the only way to squeeze out more and more profit for the shareholders was to cut costs at the company. They outsouced their customer service, and they switched to cheaper vendors for their parts and assemblies.

I used to never see Dell computers fail, but these days I've seen a roughly 30% failure rate on all Dell computers in just the first year of use. That failure rate is consistent across several models of laptops and desktop that we use at my company.

I have been told by other engineers that some of the high-end Dell systems, like their gaming PC's, are still reasonably reliable because they have no choice but to use high quality parts for those systems. That may be true. But the poor customer service is also true, and that applies across all tiers of Dell systems.

If you are unlucky enough to be one of those 30% with a broken computer, be prepared to waste the next 3 weeks of your life.

I have personally witnessed several NIGHTMARE stories of friends of mine having to deal with Dell customer service. I would post them, but they are so awful that you surely wouldn't believe me. I don't blame you, because I wouldn't have believed these stories either had I not witnessed them with my own eyes.

 

[frozenlead]

I only mentioned Dell once...I don't know where you gathered that I was a Dell worker (which, I assure you, I am not). Anyway, why would I have a Sager if I worked for Dell? I would almost assuredly get a discount on one of the 1700 series. Why spend so much on another computer?

Anyway, my arguement was made for Mac vs. PC. I think you're missing the point.

 

[trulore]

I only mentioned Dell once...I don't know where you gathered that I was a Dell worker (which, I assure you, I am not). Anyway, why would I have a Sager if I worked for Dell? I would almost assuredly get a discount on one of the 1700 series. Why spend so much on another computer?

Anyway, my arguement was made for Mac vs. PC. I think you're missing the point.

Sorry, I'm new to this forum, and I clicked on "reply to" another message WAY up high, and somehow this forum software just tacked my message onto the end of the list, and not under the message I was replying to. (??) This is no slashdot.

Newbie error.

 

[frozenlead]

That's alright. If you want to quote someone...well, do what you just did. That's the best way to reply specifically.

 

[leaf_101]

i like toshiba better! except aliens

 

[saraleew]

I have to say that 5 years ago we purchased a Toshiba laptop and had nothing but problems with it since. It ws always shutting down, restarting itself, or freezing up. It caused me a lot of time, money and headaches. I recently found out that during that time frame Toshiba had tried to cut money and still keep up with other top-of-the-line companies and didn't put in an anti-static strip. it was very disappointing to me that this happened when we spent soooooo much money. Also we have had problems with the a/c adapter thing where the cord goes in the computer. It has gotten loose and costs a lot to have fixed.

I agree with eariler inquires, people are always quick to say negitave things.

On the positive, My mom has a Dell pc I bought for her 8-9 years ago and it still runs great, with no problems or upgrades. the olny thing she needed repaired was to have viruses taken off and programs cleaned up.

saraleew

 

[Guest]

I am just curious; How much money do rival companies of Dell pay people to come on these sites like this and cut down Dell computers? .............

triplesixes, zero money. are you getting any (benefits from Dell)?

I bought a Dell Inspiron 1501, after much time spent to choose between a Lenovo ThinkPad and Dell. The Dell looked awesome, all the reviews were praising the Dells so, as the right ThinkPad T series was not on the store, I took the Inspiron.

Dell Inspiron 1501, Dual Core 2 Duo, 160GB drive, DVD, card reader, 4xUSB , nice lid with silky feel, that series with many colours. I paid around 1000EUR on it (from Europe).

When I opened the box I was impressed, all looking great, imagine: it was DELL! The DELL marketing is one of the best,made me think so good that I own a Dell laptop
However, after pushing the Power button, the CPU started to whine, not so great. The LCD was (still is) leaking light on bottom. In under three months, the drive made a bad sector. Soon, the DVD drive stopped working. At a moment the system produced a strange battery error while another push on button went through.

On all these problems I called the company who sold it. They asked me to pack it for them, leaving me 2-3 weeks without it just to have a look only for them can figure out if they need replace the part or not. Replacing meaning yet more weeks to wait.

I tried asking help (I'm good to computers) on DELL US, they sent me to DELL Europe. The DELL Europe had problems (bad programming/hosting ) to register an account so after wasting few hours trying to circumvent the problems I went back to DELL US. Guess what, they closed my ticket and did not respond even now, more than one year after.. Not much luck on on the Dell community forum either..

To put it short, I bought a ThinkPad and promised myself I wont use DELL ever. Pity, I was in love with their C420/D420,those made history!

I tend to agree with the guy who said before about the bad support service. Some companies outsource this department to India which is a bad move for clients; those people have a personal way to deal with problems and I've found more times irritated and I just let it be. Just think, some companies came to even advertise "US support staff" as key to their business!

I owned Fujitsu LifeBook (I prefer working on the business or ultra-light series) and was simply great until the board had to be replaced. It happens I guess, it had few years so no complaint.

Now I am looking for a laptop around $2500, wont be Dell. I'm thinking to ThinkPad x301, Panasonic ToughBook w8, Sony TZ and Samsung X360. If you wonder, MacBook air is mostly cool, not much functional for a techie like me while Toshiba Portege R600 is great but uses too much plastic for my taste.

 

[Guest]

Interesting stuff - to add my four pence worth to it - I have used all makes and models of laptops or some years and managed a large hospital IT dept for 4 years. I had always owned toshiba laptops (myself) and found them very good. Then after using Dell at work and buying them for staff, I switched to Dell for my own laptops.

I found the service good, helpful and only a few hardware failures to be expected - say a screen controller going. All replaced by Dell efficiently, I was well pleased.

However - about 4 years ago I suffered the start of a nightmare with Dell Inspiron laptops - 2 of them. I think the quality of the Dell units dropped and I had no end of hardware issues.

Failures of hardisk, memory, screen and controllers - the final straw is this laptop I am using has a re-booting blue screen. As soon as it heats up (say after 5 mins being on) and if you use the vidoe or any intensive process - it BLUE SCREENS.

Now looking at Dell fourm this is a known problem, but even within warranty the now outsourced helpdesk, wont help. They tell me its a software issue ! How is that - do anything that uses CPU cycles and it BLUE SCREENS ! I suppose it is software but in the broadest sense.

Support were happy to waste my money on the calls and give no help - terrible. So after all this I have to conclude the components they use are cheaper and the reliability which certainly they used to have has now gone. Perhaps not all models suffer - but my last Inspiron had a terminated hardisk controller after over heating.

I am sad I replaced it with this laptop - no more Dell for me.

I am now swithcing back to toshiba laptops for the forseable and hope I won't be on this board bemoaning probelms with them next year !

I do not work for any laptop company -

 

[Guest]

IMHO, unless a comprehensive analysis is done to determine the reliability of different PC brands, one can only guess how good a product is in the long run. Factor in the fact that many issues are user related (or more like user caused, directly or indirectly), makes the situation even more difficult to evaluate.

I have an Acer Aspire laptop (Acer wha? ) that's a week short of its 3rd year. I have not encountered any issues with it (except for the occassional crash, which I directly caused) and I'm guessing it will serve me for another 2 years or more (or until the hardware is absolutely no longer capable of running current applications). I can even still eke out 2 hours off the battery if I use it right.

Compare that to my wife's Dell XPS that is a year younger... its battery performance started declining rapidly a few weeks back, and now it's totally dead... the system doesn't even detect it anymore. Thankfully that's the only thing that's conked out, but the fact that it did kinda raises questions on the brands reliability.

On a related note though, it's not actually so much as Dell per se, rather than the battery OEM who's to blame. But then why did Dell get their supplies there in the first place?

So in a nutshell... actual demographics notwithstanding, there will always be a statistical probability that one might get a lemon no matter what the brand is.

 

[Guest]

For regular needs, I would go with an HP dv6700t. My favorite series for the college goer, and better performing than Dell's offerings at sub $1000 levels.
Anything above $1k I would go for a gateway or a Sager - I prefer sager, though, considering I own one

Man, HP socks sure there cheap and relative inexpensive, however Dell laptops last longer and in one year or maybe 2 if you take care of your HP it will fail, then you'll have to fork up extra cash and you wont be happy. I have both I first bought a Dell E1705 good for games but then I saw HP 2 yrs later and I had to have it. After 1 year of good times it failed on me, first the harddrive then my games started loosing powers after I got a new harddrive, then my fan stopped working. I sent it back to HP, and they sent me a new one. But 1 year later it dies again the laptop stopped after 1 year, usually happens when my laptop gets hot after playing games which its supposed to handle with ease. HP customer service said the fan needs replacement, so I had it replaced, but now sometimes Windows starts and sometimes it auto shutdowns. Guess what Im still playing worldofwarcraft on my Dell now with little problems on relatively high settings, although the screen flickers occasionally like 2 times every 4 hours (dont know why), I still enjoy it and after 4.5 years it never had to be replaced, I take it to school, I work on it, and its gets banged around. I once droped it when I was getting out of my truck and still it works fine. You want a sturdy reliable laptop that you can depend on, get a Dell, but if you want to save money and buy a laptop that probably will have issues in about 1 year give or take a few months, then get a HP. Its your money, and I regret spending money on HP laptop, I gave it to my wife, she only goes on the internet to view her episodes of Intervention she missed. Point is get a Dell.

 

[Guest]

Man, HP socks sure there cheap and relative inexpensive, however Dell laptops last longer and in one year or maybe 2 if you take care of your HP it will fail, then you'll have to fork up extra cash and you wont be happy. I have both I first bought a Dell E1705 good for games but then I saw HP 2 yrs later and I had to have it. After 1 year of good times it failed on me, first the harddrive then my games started loosing powers after I got a new harddrive, then my fan stopped working. I sent it back to HP, and they sent me a new one. But 1 year later it dies again the laptop stopped after 1 year, usually happens when my laptop gets hot after playing games which its supposed to handle with ease. HP customer service said the fan needs replacement, so I had it replaced, but now sometimes Windows starts and sometimes it auto shutdowns. Guess what Im still playing worldofwarcraft on my Dell now with little problems on relatively high settings, although the screen flickers occasionally like 2 times every 4 hours (dont know why), I still enjoy it and after 4.5 years it never had to be replaced, I take it to school, I work on it, and its gets banged around. I once droped it when I was getting out of my truck and still it works fine. You want a sturdy reliable laptop that you can depend on, get a Dell, but if you want to save money and buy a laptop that probably will have issues in about 1 year give or take a few months, then get a HP. Its your money, and I regret spending money on HP laptop, I gave it to my wife, she only goes on the internet to view her episodes of Intervention she missed. Point is get a Dell.

 

[Guest]

My last high end dell turned into a $2700 dollar paperweight which I salvaged for parts on ebay. Half of the ram went bad, immediately followed by the power connector on the motherboard failing. This was a month out of warranty and their outsourced tech support was more than willing to waste my time. I will never buy another one of their products, and gladly pay more for equal performance from almost any other brand. I now buy sub $500 dollar laptops... use them a year, sell them for 350, do the math on how much that saves you over losing 1500 a year in depreciation to play cutting edge games at a mediocre at best speed. Toshiba, Hp/Compaq/Sony, anything cheap and play good games that are a few years old if you HAVE to game on your laptop.

must have been an HP. I paid 2600 for my pavillion less then a year video card burned out. ruin whole motherboard. I had to argue with their customer service to get it fixed. Six months later it broke again. Both times it was under warrantee both times had to argue to get them to fix it. I will never buy an HP again. Horrible company

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I'm just curious to hear what some of you people think is the best company to buy laptops from. Not so much for gaming, just everyday use.

That question might as well be written as "What sticker placed on a laptop means it's the best one". Since most brands you ever heard of don't actually make laptops ...... the real answer is kinda hard to convey in a way you are looking for. ... especially given the fact that two brands which people are comparing saying on is good and one ain't might just be made by the same company.

* Quanta sells to (among others) HP/Compaq, Dell, Toshiba, Sony, Fujitsu, Acer, NEC, Gateway and Lenovo/IBM
* Compal sells to Toshiba, HP/Compaq, Acer, and Dell.
* Wistron (former manufacturing & design division of Acer) sells to HP/Compaq, Dell, IBM, NEC, Acer, and Lenovo/IBM.
* Flextronics (former Arima Computer Corporation notebook division) sells to HP/Compaq, NEC, and Dell.
* ECS sells to IBM, Fujitsu, and Dell.
* Asus sells to Apple (iBook), Sony, and Samsung.
* Inventec sells to HP/Compaq, Toshiba, and BenQ.
* Uniwill sells to Lenovo/IBM and Fujitsu.
* Clevo made or still makes Sager and many other boutique" brands.....such as Sager, VoodooPC, Falcon Northwest, Eurocom, Alienware, etc See http/forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=91510

So based upon the above, how do you argue that Dell is better than HP or visa versa when both were likely made by the same company. The trick is to buy from a reputable distributor who supports the product....not what sticker is glued t the casing.

 

[Guest]

Thinkpads are reliable

 

[leahz72]

I am just curious; How much money do rival companies of Dell pay people to come on these sites like this and cut down Dell computers? I have read time and time again where people have had all these problems or all that problems with their Dell computer, and I have to say that I am a bit surprised. There just can't possibly be anyone out there that is being legitimate with one of these stories about so many multiple problems with their Dell computers. Unless of course, they are running over their computers with cars and trucks and then wanting to return them! Is that the case perhaps, and perhaps Dell Corp is just a bit too smart for you guys? Maybe too smart to let you pull the liars' wool over their eyes? Hmmmmm?? could this be the real truth??

The reason that I say this is that I have bought many Dell computers. I have bought Dell desktops and countless Dell laptops. And I have not one time, in these 12 to 13 years of purchasing Dell products, had any of thse very aweful experiences that I keep reading about. In fact, I have a Dell laptop And desktop evena s we speak that I purchased at the same time, about 5 years ago, and both of them still look and work as though they were just bought. They are awesome. And I still have them. Also, I have bought several Dell laptops even after those, one that I still have, and it works exquisitely awesome. It is decked outy with all the amenities that could possibly come in a laptop. It is the Dell Inspiron 1520. I also had a Dell Inspiron E1505 that, very sorrowly, I ended upselling due to buying a new and different brand of laptop and wanted to make a big payment on it. But that laptop worked and looked flawlessly as well. I had it for just over a year before I decided sadly to sell it. And OMG do I miss that laptop at times. Selling it felt like I was getting rid of a beloved computer family. And Dell Customer and Tech Support? Well, let me just say that I have Never in my life done such good and professional business with any other Customer Support and Tech team as Dell.. I find them to be compassionate, patient, understanding, and willing to go above and beyond all expectations in order to assist customers. Why I have even called once to see if I could get some little round rubber/foam guards that had been placed on the lid of my laptop in order to make sure it didnt wobble or grate against the bottom of the laptop when closed. One of them had fallen off, and, well, I am the type of person that likes to have any and all parts to his gadgets, right down to the screws. But I just knew that getting these replacement little foam rubber things were impossible. I actually thought I was being dumb to even try. But shockingly and to my surprise, the Customer Service person that dealt with me totally understood. It was the exact day that my warranty was expiring. But he said that he would get them sent out to me right away, and asked me if I needed anything else. I had asked him could he also send the little rubber things that were on the bottom of my laptopa s well, just so i would have them. he said sure thing. The very next day, they arrived. He had sent me out quite a few little replacement foamy tabs and bottom ones too. I have to say that i was extremely shocked that I got these replaced, especially it being the very last day of my warranty. So there can't anyone tell me or convince me that Dell Custom,er Support and Tech Support is this difficult to deal with as these and other stories claim they are. I am sticking to Dell, and also to Fujitsu, from whom I bought my last laptop from. They are awesome too. So to sum this up, I highly recommend Dell and Fujitsu laptops. They are the best in my book. And to these people that tell these seemingly false horror stories about Dell and their purchases; People, quit doing this for other companies. The money just isn't worth trying to ruin a great and respectable company such as Dell. Besides, Dell's rep speaks for itself, and your little bs stories are getting nowhere to us Dell purchasers that know the truth. Thanks for listening!!!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME YOU MUST BE THE ONE WORKING FOR DELL TRYING TO UP THERE COMPUTERS. I PURCHASED TWO COMPUTERS THROUGH DELL 1400 DOLLARS EA AND BOTH HAD NOTHING BUT PROBLEMS. FIRST THE HARD DRIVE THEN THE OTHER THE WAS REPLACED BY DELL BECAUSE OF A BAD MOTHERBOARD. AND WHEN TRYING TO TALK TO SOMEONE AT DELL IT IS IMPOSSIBLE BECAUSE NOONE SPEAKS ENGLISH??? GIVE ME A BREAK!!!

 

[leahz72]

The reason you see so many negative remarks compared to glowing reviews is that for whatever reason, an irate person is more likely to tell someone about the awful experience that they've had then a happy person is to tell about a good experience. It just works that way.

I personally, like Dell. I've owned several systems, both laptops and desktops and even a TV or two. I recommend them to people here on a decent basis. I am also currently using an XPS 710 chasis (great case design btw).

And sometimes I need to ask the question: who is worse, the people doing the complaining or the people complaining about the complainers?

HONESTLY PEOPLE VOICE THERE OPINIONS TO LET OTHERS KNOW WHAT TYPE OF EXPERIENCE THEY HAVE WHEN PURCHASING SOMETHING THAT COSTS 1000'S OF DOLLARS. NOBODY WANTS TO TAKE A CHANCE WITH A COMPANY THAT HAS ALOT OF PROBLEMS. I LIKE TO SEE THE REVIEWS AND GIVE THE BAD AND GOOD ONES.

 

[fps_dean]

Man, HP socks sure there cheap and relative inexpensive, however Dell laptops last longer and in one year or maybe 2 if you take care of your HP it will fail, then you'll have to fork up extra cash and you wont be happy. I have both I first bought a Dell E1705 good for games but then I saw HP 2 yrs later and I had to have it. After 1 year of good times it failed on me, first the harddrive then my games started loosing powers after I got a new harddrive, then my fan stopped working. I sent it back to HP, and they sent me a new one. But 1 year later it dies again the laptop stopped after 1 year, usually happens when my laptop gets hot after playing games which its supposed to handle with ease. HP customer service said the fan needs replacement, so I had it replaced, but now sometimes Windows starts and sometimes it auto shutdowns. Guess what Im still playing worldofwarcraft on my Dell now with little problems on relatively high settings, although the screen flickers occasionally like 2 times every 4 hours (dont know why), I still enjoy it and after 4.5 years it never had to be replaced, I take it to school, I work on it, and its gets banged around. I once droped it when I was getting out of my truck and still it works fine. You want a sturdy reliable laptop that you can depend on, get a Dell, but if you want to save money and buy a laptop that probably will have issues in about 1 year give or take a few months, then get a HP. Its your money, and I regret spending money on HP laptop, I gave it to my wife, she only goes on the internet to view her episodes of Intervention she missed. Point is get a Dell.

LOL! Dells are the absolute worst you can buy. Dells are anything but sturdy, or reliable.

Buy an Asus (most reliable), or Lenovo or whatever... even an emachines or Acer would last a hell of a lot longer. You have no idea how many Dells I've seen ship with something not working straight out of the box before they were ever turned on. I have never, once seen the same kind of unreliability from any other manufacturer, even HP whose laptops are fairly unreliable are still far more reliable than any Dell desktop made since 1996.

I would get an Asus, or maybe a Lenovo. The Asus's are extremely well made, the only downside is that their support isn't all that great, but they certainly do not lose to Dell in that category either.

 

[Jeff Matthews]

If you are not in an Information Technology programme go ahead and purchase an APPLE MacBook, I have good recommendations on that. Keep in mind, you will be limited to lots of things, such as DVD games etc.. which are more of Windows based. I had issues with Apple, their service was excellent.

Worst laptop service in the market is HP, they talk a lot about award winning service etc.. including myself, even my friends had the same experiences and history of HP nightmares.

I sent my laptop twice for repair, all they did was cleaned it up with a piece of wet cloth and returned. Again I had long discussion with people with no brains at HP technical service and same happened.
When you complain, one by one of their most arroganant ladies call you and talk to you like you killed someone and talk very rude. If you ever purchased a HP laptop and have a repair issue, my friend, just through that away. If you want to have a high blood pressure and die of cardiac arrest, go ahead with the HP technical service. This is my pathetic experience.

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