Other than HP (I have one now and its almost dead after 2 years), Sony (I dont like the feel of the keyboard), and Dell (their customer service is unacceptable to me), what would everyone here recommend? I have used Macs and I dont like them, so I want a pc, but something that has a chance of lasting 4 or 5 years.
Macbook Pro.
(it is just an intel PC you know...)
I haven't owned one of their laptops, but I have and very much like my ASUS netbook. If I were in the market for a laptop, I'd be looking at their ultrabooks first.
MacBook Air or Pro. You can't beat Apple's build quality and you can run Windows on them just fine.
I bought a Toshiba and its been excellent minus the fact that it sounds like a Harrier Jet.
Thinkpads. They still seem to be pretty solid since becoming Lenovo out loud, rather than Lenovo with IBM stickers...
Granted, I haven't had my current one that long, and I am bummed that the lid no longer has a mechanical latch.
Toshiba. Much tougher than the Dells we buy for the shop. Mine's something like 6 years old now, has been humped all over the world and is rock solid. I don't generally drop them, though.
My memory is too long to be happy about Toshiba. They made it harder for our SOSUS guys to detect enemy subs. That may have been a while ago, but I still avoid their stuff. (insert your favorite epithet....I said a few just because of thinking about this.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiba#19th_and_20th_centuries
My HP is approaching 6 years and is still going strong. I like it other than that I detest Windows Vista.
My HP went thru 5 power supplies and 2 batteries and two screens. And my Toshiba went thru 5 harddrives. My Asus netbook has been good until the power port came unsoldered from the motherboard.
Travis_K wrote: Other than HP (I have one now and its almost dead after 2 years), Sony (I dont like the feel of the keyboard), and Dell (their customer service is unacceptable to me), what would everyone here recommend? I have used Macs and I dont like them, so I want a pc, but something that has a chance of lasting 4 or 5 years.
I have had good luck with Dell's customer service if you buy a business laptop. Order it through their small business site and make sure to get the 3-year business support dealie (typically included, especially in the outlet stuff). I've had them mail me replacement parts just inside of warranty just based on an email. It was nice.
But I'm not sold on their long-term quality... 3 years is about the limit of how long you want to plan on keeping one, assuming you get the 3-year warranty. Mine at home is kind of coming apart after 3.5 years of use. Cracked plastics (on a magnesium laptop, huh), adhesive on the rubber feet failing, etc. Oh well, it's still pretty and works.
Both my daughters have ASUS machines, and they seem to be pretty troublefree.
I have heard good things about Lenovo, Toshiba and ASUS from others as well. The reason I don't like the Dell customer service is that my sister recently bought one that turned out to be defective, and they wanted several $30-$50 support upgrades to recover the information (wasn't anything important, just would have saved time), and for phone tech support rather than just e-mail. It was quickly returned to the store after that. I have had one good HP that lasted 5 years, I have one now, and its only 2 years old and i can overheat it to the point of almost completely freezing with a 10 minute youtube video, and it has no dust inside, and sitting on top of an external cooling fan. A Thinkpad is likely going to be my first choice, although I havent ever actually tried using one.
ransom wrote: Thinkpads. They still seem to be pretty solid since becoming Lenovo out loud, rather than Lenovo with IBM stickers...
Good to know.
My T43 is verging on 'retro' status, and continues to run like a champ. Really solidly built old thing.
ASUS or Toshiba also, have both and both trouble free. ASUS 3 yrs and Toshiba 2 yrs
Asus, Toshiba, Lenovo, in that order. Currently at 3 years on my ASUS, have multiple netbooks from them, and even the wife can't break it.
93EXCivic wrote: My HP went thru 5 power supplies and 2 batteries and two screens. And my Toshiba went thru 5 harddrives. My Asus netbook has been good until the power port came unsoldered from the motherboard.
Maybe it's time to look at your usage patterns? Hard drives, for example, don't like getting used in high vibration environments or high impact ones.
Batteries are a consumable. They last a year or two depending on how they're used.
I'm in the market for a new laptop now. Not because of anything that's wrong with my old one, it just doesn't have the processing power to deal with HD video editing. I'm looking at Toshibas again, but I'll move to one of the major brands if I like the keyboard. A laptop is a content creation device to me, so I need to be able to rock the keyboard. Apples are just too pricey for my taste, even if they are pretty.
No Dells, though. Shoddy.
Keith wrote:93EXCivic wrote: My HP went thru 5 power supplies and 2 batteries and two screens. And my Toshiba went thru 5 harddrives. My Asus netbook has been good until the power port came unsoldered from the motherboard.Maybe it's time to look at your usage patterns? Hard drives, for example, don't like getting used in high vibration environments or high impact ones.
The Toshiba we figured out after the 5th harddrive was put in that that the harddrive wasn't very well supported. So we added a bit of foam to support it and that hard drive last a year before I accidentally knocked it off my desk and broke the screen. Asus has been the best so far though.
I've been using the same Toshiba since 2005. I have bought a Dell and HP since, but I keep going to the old Toshiba.
I've always disdained laptops and never owned one. Well, okay, I did buy an old one off of ebay after I got tired of running an inverter plugged into the cigarette lighter to power a desktop machine and CRT strapped into the passenger seat to tune the Haltech in the RX-7.
For the record, it was an IBM Thinkpad.
my old Toshiba P3 finally died.. and it would probably not take much to resurrect it. I think the HD finally went
asus and acer seem good now. wife's acer is awesome, though the keyboard takes some getting used to.
I was die hard for HP before this most recent one, ut now I will never buy another one again. They keep getting worse and worse.
On paper, this was twice as good as my dv6000 I had previously, but in reality, it's not even close. Bums me out that the wife threw out my old hp's, I would have rather fixed them than use this pos anymore.
Whatever brand you go with buy one of the business machines. They tend to be better buillt and should last longer than ones from the consumer line. I have both an HP and a Dell and I perfer the Dell machine.
has anybody ever looked into the machines the police and military use?
mad_machine wrote: has anybody ever looked into the machines the police and military use?
Panasonic Toughbooks. They are what they say they are, but.... they're more than mac money.
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