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Thread: Laptop Manufacturer's - Which ones best?

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    Default Laptop Manufacturer's - Which ones best?

    Hello TBCS!

    Okay so im not like a complete noob when it comes to computers - but im not so great with laptops (my main focus is on desktops). So, im thinking of buying a laptop for my college course coming up (Computer Programming course, in VB6) - but im not sure which manufacturer is best. These are the ones i know of:

    • Acer
    • Advent
    • Asus
    • Dell
    • Emachine/system
    • Fujitsu Siemens
    • Gateway
    • HP (Compaq)
    • IBM
    • Medion
    • Packard Bell
    • Sony Vaio
    • Toshiba


    I've had an Acer and so has my sister, and they dont stand well against alot of use to be honest (i had the 5100 with the faulty HDD controller ¬¬). I dont really want a dell, because its dell. And im not that tight on budget to only buy a tacky Medion, Advent or Emachine/system.

    So what are your experiences with laptops of the above manufacturers, which one do you recommend.

  2. #2
    Religiously tolerant. Luke122's Avatar
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    Default Re: Laptop Manufacturer's - Which ones best?

    HP's are only good if you get into the Elitebook range.. and they arent cheap. Stay far far away from low end HPs.

    Asus is my number one pick by far... reliability is very high, costs are very good.

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    Yuk it up Monkey Boy! Airbozo's Avatar
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    Default Re: Laptop Manufacturer's - Which ones best?

    I have had 3 different manufacturer's laptops. Toshiba, Dell and ASUS. SO far my favorite is the ASUS, but that is because it is a high end model. The Toshiba's I have owned have also been good. No issues so far. Dell is pretty reliable, but I have only used the Inspiron models. Never had an issue with any of the Dells I have bought.
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    Religiously tolerant. Luke122's Avatar
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    Default Re: Laptop Manufacturer's - Which ones best?

    That's true I guess.. my XPS just keeps on working. The battery is toast, and a replacement is waaaaay too expensive for my budget, but the laptop itself is a trooper.

    I had a toshiba for a bit, and found it to be good, but it ran a bit warm for my liking, and I started having weird audio issues with it (weird volume fluctuations).

    \m/ d(-_-)b \m/

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    Will YOU be ready when the zombies rise? x88x's Avatar
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    Default Re: Laptop Manufacturer's - Which ones best?

    It depends what you get. Toshiba is kinda hit-or-miss, as are the lower-end Dell and HP laptops. I would steer clear of those for that reason, but if you have to get a Dell consumer-class laptop, the Studio XPS line is good (though quite pricey). A general rule of thumb is that pretty much anyone's business line laptops will probably be good. I actually quite like Dell's newer Latitudes, though the Precisions are a little iffy, weirdly.

    Personally, my favorites are Lenovo (bought IBM's computer manufacturing stuff) and Asus. Specifically, I like Lenovo's Thinkpad line, though their Ideapad line is quite well done too. Asus is more geared towards consumers, offering high-end graphics, if that's what you want, whereas Thinkpads are geared more towards business customers, so they tend to be rather aesthetically minimalistic (personally I like that), and built like rocks.
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    I've got the madcow, what's your excuse? Bopher's Avatar
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    Default Re: Laptop Manufacturer's - Which ones best?

    Quote Originally Posted by Airbozo View Post
    Dell is pretty reliable, but I have only used the Inspiron models. Never had an issue with any of the Dells I have bought.
    I've had a Dell, Inspiron 8500, for about 4 years and other then replacing the power cord because it wasn't charging the battery anymore its been dropped and attacked by the baby and it seems fine. Running Ubuntu on it right now trying to get a feel for that. My wife uses one of those Asus Netbooks and loves it. Pretty much runs all day long without rest. Had an old Compaq that I actually sold the ran pretty good so I think I've had pretty good luck with laptops. Been tempted though to unload the Dell and get a netbook because i just don't use it like I used to but I'm going to give it some time with linux and see if I can get some programs I use to run.

    "Technical neglect is one of the worst kinds of neglect, won't you sponsor an octal or adsl2 card so they can someday grow up into big capable adsl2+ cards? random celebrity does."

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    If it isn't stock, it's modded! slaveofconvention's Avatar
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    Default Re: Laptop Manufacturer's - Which ones best?

    I know from recent experience that Acer makes Packard Bell - I bought one of each for a clients sons and when I was setting them up, the software was absolutely identical except for the names on it. Flipping them over also showed utterly identical bottom layouts.

    Acer also make several other brands of laptop too - I just can't remember them right now but I know they bought out Gateway in 2007 too

    Something to bear in mind is that laptop manufacturers only really make the motherboard and the outer plastics. The optical drives will almost certainly be lite-on in origin (even with a different name) - the hard disk will be from one of the big-boys too - the CPU, ram and video chipsets will also be from a third party and the screens again are likely to all come from pretty much the same place. You're probably better off comparing things like battery life and warranties than specs or brands for those reasons.

    Having said all of that, I have an Acer netbook, an Acer laptop, and my last laptop was also an Acer - it's now in the care of my mother and still working perfectly after nearly 6 years. I've bought literally dozens of Acers for customers because of my postive experiences with them and only one ever went wrong - that fault was a backlight failure on the screen after about 4 months and Acer collected, repaired, and redelivered the laptop after one phone call and within 10 days so even when one DID go wrong, the backup was there - but that's my experience and no guarantee of anything.

    ANY brand you choose, if you look hard enough, will have customers claiming they're useless and unreliable and others singing their praises....
    Last edited by slaveofconvention; 07-08-2010 at 01:44 PM.

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    Will YOU be ready when the zombies rise? x88x's Avatar
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    Default Re: Laptop Manufacturer's - Which ones best?

    Quote Originally Posted by slaveofconvention View Post
    Something to bear in mind is that laptop manufacturers only really make the motherboard and the outer plastics.
    This is very true. In fact, a lot of the time the manufacturer doesn't actually make anything, they just contract with companies that also tend to make stuff for plenty of other manufacturers too. One humorous one that comes to mind is that I guess because Foxconn didn't have many plants with milling capabilities, the monocoque for the Macbook Air and the Dell Adamo were made by the same company, in the same factory, probably on the same machine.

    That being said, because the internals are made by other companies, the case, cooling, and overall presentation of a laptop is what I really look for, and that is why I don't like Acers. Maybe I've only seen cheap Acers, but from all the Acers I've seen, from friends, family, and people who would bring them into the computer repair shop I used to work at, every single one was built very cheaply. Sure, if you were really careful with them, I'm sure they would be fine and last a long time, but I tend to really beat up my laptops, so I need something that's actually built well and can put up with continual abuse. That's one of the reasons why I like Thinkpads. Also, the keyboards...I love me my Thinkpad keyboards.
    That we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously.
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    I've got the madcow, what's your excuse? Bopher's Avatar
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    Default Re: Laptop Manufacturer's - Which ones best?

    Quote Originally Posted by slaveofconvention View Post
    ANY brand you choose, if you look hard enough, will have customers claiming they're useless and unreliable and others singing their praises....
    Very true. I remember selling computer for Circuit City and we would try to keep most people away from eMachine desktops because we kept getting them back. But there were people who would come in looking to replace an outdated eMachine and want another one because they had no issues for all the XX years they owned to other one.

    "Technical neglect is one of the worst kinds of neglect, won't you sponsor an octal or adsl2 card so they can someday grow up into big capable adsl2+ cards? random celebrity does."

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    baaah. billygoat333's Avatar
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    Default Re: Laptop Manufacturer's - Which ones best?

    I love my Dell Studio. super reliable... and good bang for my buck at the time. I have always disliked Dell, but this laptop rocks. I would recommend it to anyone.
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