Which company has the best support for laptops?

[MX2]

Both technical and replacement

 

[corkyg]

That is a very subjective question, and answers will relate to experiences. Since 1995, I have had 5 laptops. The last two have required no technical support at all. (Gateway, and HP)

I hear and read about poor service from Dell, but I have no first hand knowledge of that. Generally speaking, I find that today, HP is very responsive.

I have not needed any tech support, but I have dealt with Customer Support in order to obtain parts and accessories. No complaints.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Dell and Lenovo are top notch, I can vouch from personal experience. Don't buy Inspirons, but Latitudes. Latitudes come with on-site service & Gold Tech Support (special phone support team) by default at a very reasonable price. Lenovo's support is also top notch, but of course Thinkpads are more expensive (but Thinkpads offer more than Latitude's do, depending on your needs).

Personally I've heard too many individual bad reports of HP's support (home & business) to put much stock in it. I know everything is really a case-by-case basis, but IMO HP business notebooks don't offer enough benefits over Dell or Lenovo to choose them. HP consumer notebooks are another story, quite the value in hardware, but again I hear support is lacking.

 

[whistleclient]

Apple

 

[corkyg]

The bigger question is, which laptops require the least amount of support. I think I would lean towards IBM/Lenovo as the current quality leader. And a related question - which laptop brands are the least proprietary so as to allow greater depth of user and 3rd party support?

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: corkyg
The bigger question is, which laptops require the least amount of support. I think I would lean towards IBM/Lenovo as the current quality leader. And a related question - which laptop brands are the least proprietary so as to allow greater depth of user and 3rd party support?

There really is no proprietary-ness in most modern laptops. Optical drives are the only areas where you have some leeway; some mfrs you can purchase aftermarket optical drives from NewEgg and such that will work. RAM and HDD's (except those which use 1.8", but you can still purchase aftermarket you just have much more limited options) is pretty standard. In Thinkpads you used to not be able to add an aftermarket mini-PCI WLAN card, but I think that's done with. Some Sony and other ultra-small notebooks use micro-SODIMM's. Other than that...you're good

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
Some Sony and other ultra-small notebooks use micro-SODIMM's. Other than that...you're good

Yep! That's what was in my mind with out knocking a brand.

 

[e b h]

Originally posted by: corkyg
The bigger question is, which laptops require the least amount of support. I think I would lean towards IBM/Lenovo as the current quality leader. And a related question - which laptop brands are the least proprietary so as to allow greater depth of user and 3rd party support?

Agreed, can?t go wrong with a Thinkpad however they can be very proprietary. Just try and change the wireless card. What a headache.