Best Laptop Manufacturer

[ragiepew]

ohh. almost forgot my opinion on this... I have used Compaq Armada's (m700 to be exact) and I like them and recomend them. A friend of mine just got the thin Sony (dont remember the modle number) but its real small and light... really nice laptop too. I think Sony has the nices looking PC laptops but, like IBM, you pay a bit of a premium. Dells are nice and releteively cheap as are toshibas... Anyway, I dont know why everyone nags on Compaq, like I've stated time and time again, I think their support (corporate anyway) is way better than Dells (in my opinion only... no flames pls) and their products (no home desktops... those suck) are nice...

alin

 

[jaywallen]

ragiepew



<< hehe, was that actally &quot;portable&quot; ... very nice post by the way! >>



Believe it or not, I carried that puppy on a motorcycle! It was a large bike (a Honda CBX -- 6 cylinders) but not a touring bike. I used to strap the computer in its carrying case to my back. The Toshiba I used later on was a bit easier to carry in this fashion.

And I agree about Compaqs. Forgot to mention them. The Compaq notebooks I've seen in the corporate environment have been very reliable and had good ergonomics. I think most of the bad press Compaq has received has been because of a few pretty bad consumer systems that they made coupled with bad support for those same systems. (Support can only be so good for a badly designed system.) Back when I had the Sr. Partner, Compaqs were considered to be the best Intel-based hardware available, period.

Regards,
Jim

 

[davidsnot]

I've had a Toshiba, and dealt with their tech support. Not too bad.

Ibm's tech support blew them away, even to the point that they've called me afterwards to make sure everything's ok with the system.

I'm in Compaq tech support hell, 3 trips back for the same problem, and they really don't wanna fix it. Hard to use a laptop when the screen has no picture!

Right now, if I was going to buy one, it would be one of the Ibm Thinkpads. Carried one for a year, liked it alot.

Have you thought about a Visor? That may be my next move. They're lots lighter, too.

 

[Jejunum]

does ibm have a laptop with a powerful graphic system. I was looking at the t series but they all have 8 meg video cards; BLAH!. anyone know if those can be upgraded?

 

[rmblam]

I personally won't buy another Compaq laptop.

<rant>
It ticks me off royally that they will not allow open access to the bios or provide bios updates for older hardware. I have a Presario 1685 that runs Windows 2000 very nicely except that I can't for the life of me get my DVD drive out of PIO mode. I have tried everything, short of making my own bios.

I contacted compaq support and they, of course, tell me I will have to use my &quot;system restore&quot; disk because my model does not support windows 2000. Bullsh!t. It doesn't because you WONT LET IT. Great way to lose business.

So much for &quot;your 100% satisfaction is our goal&quot;.
</rant>

I noticed that Dell dropped their prices recently.... good move considering the market.

I am still waiting for an Athlon 4 coupled with some better graphics like Radeon mobility or the geforce2 go myself....

I'll probably get a Toshiba for the sound quality myself. Unless someone else steps up.

 

[tornadobox]

the new Toshiba Satellite laptops have the GeForce2GO video card.

 

[Gunbuster]

&quot;Bullsh!t. It doesn't because you WONT LET IT. Great way to lose business.&quot;

rmblam tell me when you find a OEM that will bend over backwards to support a OS they didnt sell the machine with

Sony is getting better, but just try to find 2k drivers for some models.

 

[Degenerate]

Toshiba and IBM are quite good but i would have to give it to IBM

 

[bevancoleman]

One of the mag I some times get tests laptops for durability, this included droping them of tables, spilling coffie on the keyboards, heat, cold, etc... The Toshiba's always used to come out on top. However I havn't seem a recent review so I don't know about current laptops.

What ever you do, DONT buy a Twinhead. Where I work has three of them and they are all f**ked after 6 months.

 

[Workin']

Just to add a plug for IBM support - I have a old circa-1997 P166 ThinkPad that I use all the time. Actually, I'm sitting in a hotel room right now using it to type this. Back to the point - It's still in perfect shape, except I accidentally broke off one of the port covers this past February. I called IBM's tech support and they were able to send me a new cover right away. I had to pay a few bucks for it, but I was amazed they had such a minor part for such an old machine still around. The folks I talked to to get the part were very nice, they were very concerned that I get the exact part I needed. They also called me back about a week after the part was delivered to see if it was right! Freaked me out.

 

[rmblam]

<<rmblam tell me when you find a OEM that will bend over backwards to support a OS they didnt sell the machine with>>

Maybe, but at least Toshiba, HP and Dell all offer Win2k drivers for each laptop I have investigated (those with 98se or ME natively).

It would be nice if someone offered an &quot;advanced user&quot; brand of laptop I guess is all I am whining about. It's too bad they can't be built like we build our desktops. Someone needs to start making these parts and cases available to us..... ;-)

 

[MWink]

I hate to say this but Dell's support is not all its cracked up to be. I sent them a question over 3 weeks ago and still not response. It took about 5 days before I even got a confirmation email. My opinion of Dell has dropped a great deal since I bought my Inspiron 8000.

 

[davidsnot]

<< <<rmblam tell me when you find a OEM that will bend over backwards to support a OS they didnt sell the machine with>> >>



And Ibm even gives you instructions and suggestions on how to shift from 98 to 2k. Was a Great company to deal with.

 

[Blain]

Will ALL laptops accept regular SODIMMs, or do some require proprietary memory?

 

[vegetation]

I'll give another vote to Dell. My I8000 has held up very well over the past 6+ months I've had it. I use it daily as my main machine and take it out on the field sometimes. The reliability comes as a surprise to me since the case feels (and sounds) rather flimsy for a laptop in this class -- I thought it would break just after a few weeks.

 

[bevancoleman]

Blain

Many laptops require special memory (often in the form of a card) all of laptops I've owned did anyway.

I'm inclined to think all laptops wouldn't use standard SDRAM because of the space required and they would be harder to mount.

 

[anime]

some laptops will require will need a specific sodimm chip design module--like my laptop--toshiba 2805-s402--it wont work with regular pc100 sodimm--even though the module is Micron. I have to buy kingston module before I can get it to work perfectly.

 

[kingz]

IBM - Best but $$$
Dell/Toshiba - Best bang for buck

Simple eh?

 

[dcdomain]

I have a Toshiba 3020ct Portege. Two of my other friends have them too. Bought them refurbished for $500. 300mhz, 96mb ram, 6.5 gb harddrive. It runs Win2k fine, heck my friend runs a cold fusion server off one, and I heavily use Photoshop on mine. Crazy huh?

Smallest laptops I've ever seen next to the Sony's. .78 of an inch, less than 3 pounds. And it's pretty solid...