Which brand of laptop?

[ICEVaPa]

Hey all,

I was looking at getting a Sony VAIO, however i saw some comments on the forums proclaiming that the VAIO series really arnt that good. (even tho the specs are quite good)

Now, I can a HP, ACER or TOSHIBA laptop.

I have worked with HP's and they seem good and reliable, but are a bit costly compared to the Toshibas and Acers.

I have never worked with a Toshiba or Acer laptop, so was hoping you could maby leave an opinion on which of the brands are better? (any model recomendations)

Thanks again for your help!

ICE

 

[evenmore1]

Depends on your price range....ONE of the higher end Sony's are good quality out of HP, Acer, or Toshiba....HP's are pretty good, Acer is definitely the best bang-for-buck option, and the Toshibas are good in mid-range to high-end....but it all depends on the price

 

[Robor]

Best laptop IMO is a Thinkpad. They aren't cheap but they're sturdy and well built. They have excellent support as well.

Edited because I can't spell 'sturdy' right!

 

[phantom404]

Just got the acer travelmate and I am very impressed. This is a desktop replacement at work and its a whole lot faster then the dual p4 i have.

 

[thescreensavers]

I had a toshiba for 3 years no problem then sold it

 

[NurseRN]

Best laptop IMO is a Thinkpad. They aren't cheap but they're sturday and well built. They have excellent support as well.

They USED to be! Note the distinctive use of the Past Tense here. That was until a CHINESE company by the name of LENOVO took over the entire mobile division of IBM. I understand that everything is made in China but I very much liked to see IBM in charge of this not LENOVO.

What?s interestingly funny is how LENOVO took over this operation but unscrupulously still maintained IBM?s name as the trademark. If you go to their webpage and look up the history of this company, it portrays LENOVO as an intricate part of IBM?s long and productive technological history. Fact that makes me laugh because during the 80?s while IBM was pioneering technology making it available for general public, the Chinese were barely picking up their heads out of the rice fields. Yet, if you read through their historical corporate babble you?ll notice that somehow Lenovo became ?intimately? involved with IBM?s quest in technological innovation.

I?ve religiously used ThinkPads for the past 10 years and they?ve been great, great travel companions. No other product could match the warranty, reliability and quality of these laptops. I will never again buy a Lenovo designed/supported ThinkPad!

For the first time in my life I bought something which seemed a good deal and skimmed on quality. I purchased an Acer. Unless you don?t take them for a ride they?re pretty decent. The quality of the plastic shells is below what I call ?par?. I had to replace the hinge cover twice. Everything else is as bad. I had one of the little back sitting rubber pads come off; as per ACER I would have had to buy THE ENTIRE BACK casing in order to have the little pad replaced. God bless ?em!


HP?s ?. A little better. My wife has one and looks and feels ten thousand times better than my ACER. Their tech support is somewhere in India but this seems to be the norm nowadays. You can?t understand a freaking thing they say (and vice versa) but if you?re pushy enough they will fix and return your laptop via FedEx free of charge and relatively quick.

Toshibas? I like. Never had one but I have friends who seem to think they?re good.

Sony?s? I think they?re cashing in using their known and resounding name (SONY). They look spiffy and the screens are really nice. Everything else is just about same as everything else out there. They?re ALL made in freaking CHINA!

One piece of advice: go to a local computer store (Best Buy, Staples, Circuit City, etc) and closely look at the floor models. A good way to find out if they take a beating well is look at their overall appearance. These floor models get a nice and fairly constant beating. A nice start to see which model holds its own.


But there?s nothing like the old IBM ThinkPads.

 

[n7]

Wow, biased & racist.

Take a look inside your laptop now & count the number of parts made in China.

I'm sure there's quite a few.

 

[acityDweller]

i like the thinkpad for business use.

Personally, i would get an Acer. I am currently working on a travelmate for a friend. Build quality is impressive. light, sturdy and tastefully styled. This was the first Acer i've used first hand and it looks promising.

Had two toshiba tecra's in the past 8 years with random things fail... usb, lcd, motherboards. They may have a quality product but I dont have faith in their reliability.

HP's look impressive but appear to be desktop replacements. Since i have a fast desktop unit, a laptop the size of a desktop wouldnt suit my needs. Battery life is also less than stellar when compared to the other units.

Dell... hmm competitively priced, kinda bulky compared to the Acer... the details definitely arent as fine as the Acer. In this day in age, i would expect the buttons, lights and port placement to be well laid out... I have used a few of their laptops this year, but probably wouldnt buy one personally...

 

[Robor]

As far as I know the Lenovo Thinkpad is being made by the same people who made the IBM Thinkpad. Design, parts, quality, support etc are all the same. Looking at it and using it you can't tell the difference between IBM and Lenovo manufactured models. The only difference is Lenovo owns the division rather than IBM and I don't think that's reason to avoid the Thinkpad. They're still (IMO) the best laptops available.

 

[SparkyJJO]

why not dell?

I think they have fixed it by now - at least they better have - but I know HP/compaq had issues for awhile with their power sockets breaking off the mobo after awhile. Sometimes it would just stop working right, other times it would short and blow the mobo. Sometimes you just needed to resolder it to the mobo, sometimes you needed to go to ebay to get a new socket, sometimes you had to get a new mobo altogether.

seriously, it isn't funny how many of those things I've replaced/repaired those sockets on

 

[ICEVaPa]

Thanks for the comments guys, has really help - i found two Toshibas im quite interested in now.

Appreciate it!

 

[Schadenfroh]

Are the Toshiba's made in Japan or China?

 

[Scifience]

My Toshiba was made assembled in China.

 

[M11293]

Everything is made in China...

 

[ChiSoxFan]

I've had 3 Toshibas for personal use and 3 IBM's for work use in the last few years and have been very happy with them FOR THEIR PURPOSE. My Toshiba's have incredible media features and VERY nice speakers. I have a Quosmio and love it. My newer IBM is a T43 and while the speakers suck it is very slim and light, has a high res screen, extremely sturdy case (can take a real beating), a HD protection system that parks the HD, built in backup software, and the best keyboard you can find. I disagree with the anti-Lenovo poster as my new T43 has the same build quality as my T40 from a couple years ago. Quality and features have stayed the same or improved. That's my 2 cents.

 

[Bluestealth]

Originally posted by: ChiSoxFan
My Toshiba's have incredible media features and VERY nice speakers.

They sure do, my dad's toshiba speakers can easily fill a room with sound, and it isn't terrible sound either, where as my dell speakers are crap and not very loud at all.

 

[essasin]

The lenovos/ibm are still very good imo.

 

[Green Man]

I love my toshiba satellite

 

[One43637]

personally, i would get a Dell if you can configure a good one when the coupons are around. if not, then HPs with the AMD DC sound appealing.

i just configured a 1.83GHz DC laptop, 1gig of ram, an ATI card, 80GB HD, DVD burner, a 15.4 WS for 1400 USD shipped 3 days ago.

 

[Parasitic]

My old Compaq laptop was a dog - horrible design, crappy screen, PROPIETARY PARTS/DRIVERS (which made transition to Windows 2000/XP VERY DIFFICULT).
My new Compaq/HP is much better - I love the fit and finish, although it tends to be overloaded with trial crap-o-ware which required an immediate reformat when I tried to uninstall Symantec Client Security so I could use MY version of Corporate SCS (from the university) and Symantec just decided to be a bitch about it and refuse to work.

Of course this was a $500 laptop, so yea.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: M11293
Everything is made in China...

I heard the Fujitsu's are made in Japan, have not confirmed it.

 

[Punisher007]

I love my T43 thinkpad. It's hands down the best laptop for business use, based on overall features, warranty/support, and custom software.

I've owned many dells and one compaq in the past.

The only thing the T43 lacks is multimedia/gaming power.

 

[WackyDan]

Originally posted by: NurseRN

Best laptop IMO is a Thinkpad. They aren't cheap but they're sturday and well built. They have excellent support as well.

They USED to be! Note the distinctive use of the Past Tense here. That was until a CHINESE company by the name of LENOVO took over the entire mobile division of IBM. I understand that everything is made in China but I very much liked to see IBM in charge of this not LENOVO.

What?s interestingly funny is how LENOVO took over this operation but unscrupulously still maintained IBM?s name as the trademark. If you go to their webpage and look up the history of this company, it portrays LENOVO as an intricate part of IBM?s long and productive technological history. Fact that makes me laugh because during the 80?s while IBM was pioneering technology making it available for general public, the Chinese were barely picking up their heads out of the rice fields. Yet, if you read through their historical corporate babble you?ll notice that somehow Lenovo became ?intimately? involved with IBM?s quest in technological innovation.

I?ve religiously used ThinkPads for the past 10 years and they?ve been great, great travel companions. No other product could match the warranty, reliability and quality of these laptops. I will never again buy a Lenovo designed/supported ThinkPad!

For the first time in my life I bought something which seemed a good deal and skimmed on quality. I purchased an Acer. Unless you don?t take them for a ride they?re pretty decent. The quality of the plastic shells is below what I call ?par?. I had to replace the hinge cover twice. Everything else is as bad. I had one of the little back sitting rubber pads come off; as per ACER I would have had to buy THE ENTIRE BACK casing in order to have the little pad replaced. God bless ?em!


HP?s ?. A little better. My wife has one and looks and feels ten thousand times better than my ACER. Their tech support is somewhere in India but this seems to be the norm nowadays. You can?t understand a freaking thing they say (and vice versa) but if you?re pushy enough they will fix and return your laptop via FedEx free of charge and relatively quick.

Toshibas? I like. Never had one but I have friends who seem to think they?re good.

Sony?s? I think they?re cashing in using their known and resounding name (SONY). They look spiffy and the screens are really nice. Everything else is just about same as everything else out there. They?re ALL made in freaking CHINA!

One piece of advice: go to a local computer store (Best Buy, Staples, Circuit City, etc) and closely look at the floor models. A good way to find out if they take a beating well is look at their overall appearance. These floor models get a nice and fairly constant beating. A nice start to see which model holds its own.


But there?s nothing like the old IBM ThinkPads.

Hate to quote so long.... but... I've done my fair share of research on Lenovo, and there's a lot of myth out there.

Lenovo started in 1984 as an IBM business partner, hence that connection. It's an interesting company with dominate position in China due to home turf certainly, but it's won the highest honors in Asia for design. Interesting as well, the company has essentially been run by scientists and engineers all these years, not MBA types. It now has an American CEO, and the upper management is fairly diverse, being 50/50 Legacy Lenovo and IBM.

They use the IBM logo out of a long term agreement with IBM. IBM actually still sells ThinkPads and ThinkCentres. It's in IBM's best interest to still have the logo on the machines, as they are able to still offer their customers a complete IT solution that still includes PCs.

Oh... here's the one that gets me.... If they are still a true Chinese company..... How come their world HQ is in NY (moving to NC)? How come they are corporate taxed in the U.S.A. and not overseas?

I wouldn't say your comments are racist as another user suggested, but certainly protectionist. I'd rather have the same great engineering (same design teams are still designing THinkPad), and still be able to buy a ThinkPad, then have the IBM PC Division shutter ops completely and not have the choice again of owning a ThinkPad.