New Laptop Suggestions

PhotoCarp · Joined: Sep 06, 2007 Posts: 109

About a month ago the Mrs's 4.5 year old Dell laptop decided to commit suicide by jumping off the coffee table. (She insists it fell but I suspect it may have been pushed.) Now the screen has a green tint to it and things appear splotchy. So we decided it is best to put it down like a faithful old dog (unless someone out there has seen this behavior before) . Rather than rushing out to buy a new Vista machine and having to deal with upgrading she dealt with the bad screen while awaiting the arrival of Windows 7. And now the time has come.

Since it has been a while since I dealt with buying a new laptop we are open to suggestions as to which brands are the better ones out there (i.e. more reliable, better warranty, better customer service). First off, we will not be going down the Apple road. Also, I know that Dell is no longer as good as it used to be so they are also ruled out; besides I have had more hardware issues with my son's 1 year old Dell than I've had with the wife's over the past 4+ years . Lenovo seems to get high ratings in many reviews but so do Toshiba and Sony. HP seems to be hit or miss.

FWIW She would like to stick with a larger screen (about 17") and we have planned to spend about USD1000 on it.

Suggestions? Warnings?

zlim · Joined: Mar 11, 2005 Posts: 2636

Every brand has lemons. You want to get the brand with the fewest lemons.
PCMag used to do reliability reports but I can't find anything like that.
The best I could come up with is this page
http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,2806,9,00.asp

If you scoll to the bottom of the page, you can see products, with ratings aside. It also lists the date of the review, and price. That might help in your search to rule out certain brands/models.

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1546 Location: Central FL, USA

You would do well to talk with people "in the PC Service business" about what is the best laptop to buy.

And remember, that ratings can be bought as easily as a burger & fries. Crying or Very sad

I've seen things with high ratings turn out to be pure JUNK. Crying or Very sad

The last time I talked with my friend at the Laptop Service Center in Orlando, he did say that Toshiba has the greatest mean time between failures of any laptop that he has to work on.

Toshiba is the one brand that I recommend to my own customers and I've never had reason to regret it.

However, I have several customers that have purchased Acer laptops and they are having no problems with them.

The little netbook I purchased a few months ago is also an Acer.
It's a fabulous little computer. (Acer Aspire ONE)

So my recommendation would be Toshiba #1 and Acer #2.
Third and fourth choice would have to go to HP and Compaq.

Happy Computing!

The Doctor Cool

bern · Joined: Mar 12, 2007 Posts: 1432 Location: ann arbor

I presently have 3 Dell laptops of various ages, running XP and Vista. I bought them all as refurbished units and have had no problems with any of them. So don't rule Dell out completely.

The point of my suggestion is to buy a refurb of whatever brand when possible. They have like new warranties generally, and have passed the "early mortality" phase of any mass produced electronics device. And in addition to probably better short term reliability, you save money.

PhotoCarp · Joined: Sep 06, 2007 Posts: 109

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1546 Location: Central FL, USA

Whenever the subject of reliability comes up, someone jumps in with "I...blah, blah, blah" but it's always just one person with maybe one or two computers.
Somewhere, someone has had good luck with even the worse PC on the market. Rolling Eyes

When you work on as many 'Hundreds' of computers as I work on, you begin to get the "Big Picture" as to what's good and what's NOT.

Like Packard Bell and some other brands, now gone, Dell is getting a real bad reputation among service tech's the world over.

When there are so many GOOD brands out there, why even flirt with disaster by buying a PC from a company where their quality and reputation is rapidly going down hill.

There is something to be said, for buying "refurbished" units of any type from any company. Those are usually tested much more stringently than new units and may include either firmware of hardware upgrades not found in the new units.

I buy all my printers and scanners from the "Epson Store" and I look for refurbished units whenever possible. I save a lot of money over time, by buying refurbished.

Cheers Mates!
The Doctor Cool

eric_s · Joined: Jul 16, 2003 Posts: 25 Location: Western Canada

Doc I'm with you - been doing this computer thing since before "personal" was part of the name. Now after 47 years the "name" I trust in P.C.s is Home Built, and since I can't build my own lappy I'll take Acer or Toshiba - a lagging third is Lenovo. After that your playing with fire in a gas station.