Posted by Bonovox
Im looking to buy a new laptop something i have never had before. Can anyone tell me which brand they think is most reliable and best quality. My budget is 600 quid. Please no answers like HP rules or Compaq are the best just your unbiased comments please. Some people have told me HP,Asus or Samsung though i was a little shocked when they said Samsung. But they said Samsung are reliable but really i would rather go with a company who are experts with pcs or laptops. I was told to stear clear of Toshiba Sony and Acer. Thanks anyone.
Posted by arien617
My HP laptop as been in and out of repair 3 times, it's a touch over 14 months old!
Brand new mainboard each time.
It could be that I had a dodgy machine, but mate, when it comes to the level of customer service HP provide, I really think you'd struggle to find much better! Helpful technicians, and the laptop is picked up from and delivered to your door!
Posted by Dups!
Had an Acer- utter
crap! Do steer clear.
Still have Hp-
not bad except the
build quality that
could be better (but
definitely better than
the Acer). Also
have the Dell-
fabulous! Exemplary
build quality (no
creaks whatsoever)
and a solid
workhorse, stable
too. I don't think
you'd regret much
with the Hp but,
having both the Hp
and Dell, I'd say the
Dell is ahead by a
margin.
Posted by Bonovox
Cheers so far thats good. My brother actually has a Dell though he has had one or two problems with his with the disc drive packing up. His is a home pc though. Gotta make right decision. I was going to say something about Acer that although i hear they are not very good they do make fantastic screens from what i have seen though thats no reason for choosing a laptop.
Posted by paul101
lenovos thinkpad range have brilliant reliability and build quality, the keyboard's are simply the best of all laptops
ive dropped my thinkpad quite a few times (its 1.5 years old now)
Posted by Bonovox
Ah Lenovos somebody in pc world mentioned them but i thought it odd cos i never spotted any in there.
Posted by drlau9
This must be one of the hardest questions to answer as there are so many great laptops out there!
I have used many many laptops and find the most reliable, functional, aesthetical are the leading brand Toshiba, who made computing portable. The portege (i think) was the first laptop made by them with a trackball as a mouse, it was all grey and plasticy. Things have changed since then, although a lot of plastic is used on their sub £600 - £1000 models they give me the impression of solidness. The hinge is by far the most important feature of every laptop, once it plays it'll augment into a rather severe problem. The Toshiba I had was the Satellite A30 - 151, yes, it's five years old this November :S. Through this time it has have a lot of scratches, one spill (casing was wet), many times overheating due to me blocking the air vents and many other clumsy things that our family has done, yet it was never returned to mastercare.
Now here's the downside to Toshibas, they tend to be big, both then and now. They're heavier than your standard laptop and probably a tad slower in performance (compared to a like for like specced machine). Taking all this into consideration, I still went along with it due to the fact that it'll probably out last me.
Currently, I use a macbook. For all those mac haters out there I must admit apple are doing well, especially sales figures between OS X and Vista. This machine is one of those you'd think "I'm never going to understand this" but you're wrong! Macintosh's are one of the most creative tools not to mention easy to use tools out there! They design their own hardware as well as software! My Macintosh was rather pricey for the specs I got as I purchased it from currys digital, once again my key features were, reliable, aesthetical, functional and this fit the bill. After using it for nearly six months this unit has never failed (fingers crossed) or ran into any software complications.
If you're a person who likes to keep up to date and prepares for the future mac os is the way to go, however it's going to cost you slightly more. Also mac's can allow you to use windows if you need a bit more time to get used to mac.
One week is all it takes to learn how to use the basic features such as music, video, internet (safari), chat clients, email, word processing
One more week will make you more familiar with peer to peer downloading such as azureus, video converting, time machine. One thing I almost forgot to mention was the absurdly long 'battery power time' I can use my mac through a six and a half hours day with one hour to play on. Though these times are affected by what you do, I tend to use spreadsheet and msn alot with the screen on brightness setting 1.
Hope this blurb helps,
Derek.
Posted by Bonovox
Cheers Derek. Its funny how people do say different things as someone said to me stay away from Toshiba yet i always thought they were a top company and you say so too. Not sure about a Mac cos this is going to be my first laptop plus i gotta get used to Vista yet have not used it. Got old very very old normal pc at home which is dying and it was actually built from scratch by my brother. What is Vista like is it better. One of my brothers updated his pc to Vista and lost all his music. Gutted. I wanna also get a laptop with at least 17 inch screen dont like them small. I did notice when looking around pc world how big Toshiba laptops were and the assistant said it too though i had to wait ages to be seen in that place. Nothing new there. Also i want to use one of these mobile broadband usb modems and i ask is it possible to do video calls abroad with them and how much do they cost. Was going to buy the recently reduced 3UK modem. Are they any good. Im going to buy one cos i dont want no contract with home phone broadband.
Posted by jcwhite_uk
From personal experience Dell are unreliable and the service is rubbish (over 2 weeks to repair a laptop). HP are reasonably reliable, but when they do go wrong the service is top notch (have had them send an engineer to site next day to change out a motherboard). Toshiba seems ok (some models seem better than others), not experienced the service from Tosh. IBM thinkpads wre great. They were very solid (mine got dropped down 13 stairs without a scratch) due to their magnesium chassis. The new Lenovo thinkpads arent bad but not as well built as the IBMs were. Lenovos in the UK are still supported by IBM and have excellent service.
Posted by Red_Rach
Theres so many different opinions about laptops that it's hard to say as people have had so many different experiences. I've had an Acer, a HP and a Samsung and the only one I've had trouble with was the Samsung.
To be honest I'd just go with the one with the best spec for the best price.
Rach
Posted by HornyNick
My brother has a Toshiba and i hate it! It looks good, but everything is in the wrong place. The usb ports are on the left hand side, the power socket is on the right - whats the deal with that?!
My Packard Bell doesnt look as good, but i got it for £50 less than his Toshiba the ports are in a sensible place - power is at the back for example and it seems to run quicker. I had it about 6 months now and no problems whatsoever. The only real gripe i have is that the fan is a noisy little bugger!!
Posted by Bonovox
Yes i will make a day of it deciding and shopping around will be in next few weeks will definately report back on what i get. Thanks for advice guys.
Posted by Xugaa
I've always gone for HP and Sony myself.
Great build quality and they've never let me down.
Obviously some of that is down to their spec.
Posted by carkitter
I've had this Compaq laptop since March 2005 and it's been Ultra reliable. The only troubles I've had have been ones I've caused - spilling liquid on the keyboard (easily fixed as replacement parts are readily available) and editing the registry in a misguided attempt to remove spyware.
Posted by whizkidd
Good experience with nw Compaq laptop here as well. Almost two years old now and i use it like shit. Still no issues whatsoever. The only minor issue i have noticed is the reduced battery standby time. Btw, hp/compaq, almost the same!
Posted by deluded
Have been using my Compaq Presario notebook since August 2006 and it's been serving my well till now. I take pretty good care of it and run some maintenance programs on it every now and then. No problems so far, everything works as it should.
Posted by kenoby
I am stuck with Sony for now. Had few Hells and wouldn't recommend them to anyone. Sony seems solid. As for the Toshiba, consider there are many components from them used in many established brands, but lately I heard a few complaints. IMO it is excellent price/quality/performance ratio.
Posted by markphil
hmmmm me too i don't know who's the tougher and reliable brand when it comes to laptop netbook/notebook.
Maybe i'll go for AsusTEK because playstation 3 uses AsusTEK technology
Posted by Bonovox
God this is fairly old this thread of mine. I never got round to buying one in the end. People tell me that HP/Compaq have become worse since joining up. Asus are good i have done alot of research since. But things changed so i never got one. I recently got the HP on T Mobile contract and its crap. Its slow and the screen is washed out with poor resolution. Also video through the dvd drive is jerky.
Posted by markphil
he he he
Posted by Dups!
My Dell is absolutely perfect, not a single issue after approximately 16 months. I read a few posts on this thread complaining about Dell but I'm sold. I'm planning to buy a Mac this december but the next time I buy a PC it is without a doubt a Dell, I'm mightily impressed.
I gave away my HP to my sister and it hasn't really been giving her too many problems but its build quality is not something to shout about.
My other sister has a Lenovo thinkpad and my what a nightmare! The thing is slow, keypboard is hard to type on and too plasticky.
My Dell is slow at boot up but once up and running it does the job brilliantly. Funny that that's the only complaint I have on it.
Posted by Bonovox
Yes my brother has a Dell desktop & its been reliable. I sent back my HP laptop this morning after finally getting the huge Special Delivery thing from T Mobile. Hated that laptop its too slow. Next week I shall buy a refurbished desktop from a shop near me. They are very good Altech computer shop in Birmingham. I am on my brothers Packard Bell right now its a desktop its good if a bit clunky in operation.
Posted by markphil
AsusTEK is the most reliable PC. . . .
19 august 2009
read here
http://www.theinquirer.net/in[....]ws/1529508/asustek-reliable-pc