Quality Nootebook Brands

[JMoore]

I was wondering what you thought of HP/Compaq, Dell, IBM, Gateway, Toshiba, and Acer? I want to buy a nice nootebook so i was wondering what you guys thought.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Acer :thumbsup:

 

[Corporate Thug]

IBM and Fujitsu

 

[jvarszegi]

Originally posted by: JMoore
I was wondering what you thought of HP/Compaq, Dell, IBM, Gateway, Toshiba, and Acer? I want to buy a nice nootebook so i was wondering what you guys thought.

I'm including Fujitsu.

IBM, Fujitsu
Acer, Toshiba
HP/Compaq
Dell
.
.
.
.
.
.
Gateway

 

[Commodus]

Hey, don't forget Apple! They usually get high rankings for reliability and support (and not just because some fans are zealots).

 

[jvarszegi]

Yep. For sheer quality they belong at the top.

 

[vaioman]

Sony

 

[eriqesque]

IBM
Fujitsu
Apple
Sony
Toshiba
HP/Compaq
Gateway
Dell

 

[halfadder]

I would rank Sony at the bottom. They're great out of the box, but they fall apart quickly unless you're a really careful person. I have had good luck with Dell notebooks, but because I've only used the bulky models (1100, etc).

IBM
Toshiba or Apple
Acer
Dell
Fujitsu
HP/Compaq
Gateway
Sony / Avertec

 

[atsang]

acer

 

[NeBaWONG]

I like ASUS

 

[Wuzup101]

IBM, Apple, Fugitsu

 

[JMoore]

I've been hearing Apple screens are dim though : /

 

[jdiddy]

IBM quality is on another level for now. Who knows what the future holds for the Thinkpad line though. Apple has good build quality as well. Gateways are really hit or miss and Compaqs are horrible hands down. I can't really comment of Acer Dell or Toshiba since I haven't owned any of them. But out of those that I have owned the IBM's are great and take the most pounding. There expensive as hell but you get what you pay for

 

[PeeluckyDuckee]

Even with the changes IBM is going through right now, I'd still stick with IBM unless I hear otherwise of their quality/service levels deteriorating.

 

[vaioman]

Originally posted by: halfadder
I would rank Sony at the bottom. They're great out of the box, but they fall apart quickly unless you're a really careful person. I have had good luck with Dell notebooks, but because I've only used the bulky models (1100, etc).

IBM
Toshiba or Apple
Acer
Dell
Fujitsu
HP/Compaq
Gateway
Sony / Avertec

My Sony Vaio has run beautifully for the best part of 3 years and for the last 5 months has run UD 24/7 without a hiccup.
I would buy another Vaio tomorrow if they had a decent A64 model.

Happy new year.

 

[LtPage1]

apple>everything.
otherwise, ibm.

 

[niggles]

wow, have any of you actually owned an IBM laptop? I can't get over this. I owned a 370 and I spent 8 months taking it in to be fixed before I sold it. It had serious design flaws. I waited about a year and then bought an A21M... again, total garbage. It was fine for the first year and then kaput, it died. Turned out to be a bad mobo... The service people I talked to said that they'd seen nothing but problems from the IBMs post warranty and that while warranty is still available they're ok, but motherboard design is generally very poor. I've had a few Toshibas over the years and they've been pretty solid, also Dell seems to make an ok (but over priced) product. According to Consumer report Apple breaks the least and has the highest consumer rating. Toshiba is 2nd, but top in Windows based. HP was way down the list.
Personally I'd say stay away from anything IBM, also Compaq/HP aren't great, but are passable. Acer winning themselves a good name since they brought up their quality control, but it's still too early to talk about post warranty with Acer as the change in operatios is only about 2 years old.

 

[hopejr]

I don't like IBM's because they haven't changed the design much since the mid-90's Compaq/HP, well, I've had bad experiences with them in the past. Toshiba is ok, and I think Acer does a good job. But for now, my loyalties are with Apple.

 

[wisdomtooth]

Originally posted by: niggles
wow, have any of you actually owned an IBM laptop?

I've owned four over the past 15 years: 701C with pop-out keyboard (486), 600X (P2), X31 (Centrino), and my current T41 (Pentium-M).

Never had a single problem with them or IBM's service when I do something stupid like drop it on the floor and break a hinge.

Have tried many other brands at work including a Powerbook G3, Toshiba Satellite, Sony Vaio, Trash Compaqters, Dells and Gateways. None could match the IBM Thinkpads I've had qualitywise or supportwise.

 

[RaNDoMMAI]

fujitsu for me

apple would be number tho if they had a enhance screen. The screen on the ibooks and powerbooks are too dull even complared to generic LCDs in todays market.
Same with IBM, the screen is just too dull.

~RaNDoM

 

[Wuzup101]

Apple definitely needs to update their screan quality/resolution. A 15" with something like 1680 x 1050 would be awesome... you know... bright view... or whatever they would market it as. That would dominate... probably would charge an extra grand for it though.... If they do come out with one by next summer I'll sell my current powerbook for it. The screan on the 15 and 17 inch powerbooks is much better than that of the 12" and the iBooks... However, it's still not as good as other less expensive laptops on the market.

I'm looking for a dual core G4 @ 1.7 - 2.0 ghz w/ a carbon fiber enclosure and 16x DVD-R drive by summer... it'll never happen... but it's nice to dream...

 

[hopejr]

I don't mind the 12" screen on my ibook. It can be dull at times, but I've seen worse.

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: wisdomtooth
Trash Compaqters

:laugh:

 

[Tostada]

Seems like a lot of people are ridiculously opinionated on laptops.

I guess it's to be expected. You see the same thing with hard drives. One person has their Seagate die and then they hate Seagate for the rest of their life because of their limited experience.

I've had a bad opinion of Toshiba ever since I worked in a service center that that did warranty repair. The Satellites were ridiculously difficult to take apart and it seems the boards were always dying in them. Now that I think about it, I'm sure Toshibas are just fine. I mean, we had a contract with Mac Tools, and their field guys all had Toshibas. These guys probably beat the hell out of their laptops.

I worked at a place that sold Acer desktops in 1997. Those things sucked. They had those old slow Quantum Bigfoot drives in them which died within a year about 50% of the time.

I've always been impressed with Dell's next-day on-site service. I've only had a couple problems with Dells, and never had a problem with service. Now, I know a guy who is pretty clueless and he's got a pretty bad opinion of their tech support, but I'm not going to hold that against them.

I think Sony has the best-looking laptops out there. I don't think I can get one, though, because not only are they expensive but people keep saying they blow up. I think the IBMs look dated, some of them don't even have touch-pads, and they really don't have many with decent graphics. A friend of mine has a 17" Powerbook and a new 15" Gateway Centrino, and the Apple is a real furnace compared to the Centrino.

I'm surprised people are putting Dell below HP/Compaq. Compaq has some good deals on laptops, but a lot of those things still have parallel ports on them and look like they were made in 1992.