Buying a laptop/notebook

[Reba 2]

If you're not particularly technically inclined, I'd say get a Dell with the added warranty. If you do know a bit of something about computers, just get any old thing from Best Buy or whatever.

We bought my Mum a Dell because she's not really inclined, and now she can just call their customer service any time and they can fix it for her, or walk her thru it to fix it. If it breaks. I had a Dell desktop which I gave her when I moved and it lasted over 6 years. Then we bought her a new shiny one

Last year for hubby's birthday I got him a Toshiba with a 17 inch screen. We took it camping with us so we could watch DVDs

Go into the stores and test drive them. Some you may like, others you may not, just because of keyboard lay out and the feel of it. When I used to have a laptop for work, I had an IBM for a while, then they "upgraded" me to a Toshiba, then back to IBM when the Toshiba fried. That was a few years ago tho, and I think Toshiba is a bit better now, but I still don't like their keyboard layout or the touchpad mouse.

I think they *all* come with wireless capabilities now, but also have a look at peripheral accessories like mouse and number pad. They're nice to have.

[saturn5man 0]

I bought a Compaq Presario 1010US widescreen about 2 1/2 years ago. It cost $1,000 and after just over a year (out of warranty), the screen stopped working !! I was told it would be about $500 for a new screen and so reluctantly I bought another laptop...

This time I bought an HP Pavilion DV1217US (also widescreen) for another $1,000 ish and within a year the battery was holding a charge for less than 1 hour of the originally promised 3 hours. I was told that batteries are not covered by the warranty !! I have therefore had to buy another battery (at $90) from a non HP supplier and this is working great so far.

As HP and Compaq are the same company, I will not buy products from them in the future. I am beginning to feel like an Apple might be my next purchase but they generally seem to be more expensive than other brands. Hopefully my current machine will keep working for a few more years....

We have installed a home network and also have wireless capability (around the house and also the back deck etc.) which is great

Good luck with whatever you decide to buy. Neil.

Edited September 22, 2006 by saturn5man

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Hasn't Dell customer service gone to hell the past few years?

[ladybird216 2]

We love our Toshibas...we have one each and (touch wood) have not had any problems in the 3 yrs we have had them.

[Ban Hammer 13,340]

Hasn't Dell customer service gone to hell the past few years?

yes, i will never again get an extended warranty. it's a waste of money.

[Fischkoepfin 1]

I would get one of those new Macbooks unless you need more performance than the average user under which circumstances, I'd go with the Macbook Pro. The pricetag is higher but you get more bang for your buck as there's tons of software installed and several gadgets are included (like the build in webcam) that you'd have to pay extra for on a PC. Apple's service is decent and, another nice aspect, they offer world-wide warranty.

As someone pointed out, you can also run Windows on the new Macs which means even if you're into gaming, you don't have to worry about owning a Mac (not that a Mac doesn't make a good gaming computer in itself). Btw, you can get relatively good deals on refurbs on Apple's website.

[PlatyPius 5]

Toshiba.

Avoid Dell at all costs. Someone "having 3 Dell laptops with no problems" is not the norm at all.

Gateway makes nice laptops too, but nothing IMO beats a Toshiba for general usage.

[tsunamihart 0]

Hasn't Dell customer service gone to hell the past few years?

NO, just to India, Doh, didn't mean that hugs and kisses everyone...

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Toshiba.

Avoid Dell at all costs. Someone "having 3 Dell laptops with no problems" is not the norm at all.

Gateway makes nice laptops too, but nothing IMO beats a Toshiba for general usage.

I had a horrendous problem with Gateway in the UK a few years ago. I ordered the computer and waited a month and a half for delivery - the order somehow got stuck and everytime I called the customer service line (which took ages to pick up - because they, or the call center handling their calls was using "hold music" that sounds exactly like the ringing phone - a practice which is actually illegal in the UK) they told me that it was "packing", because they could only look up your account number and had no connection to the factory or the warehouse..

Ended up researching their company and calling their European Director at his desk. Seemed to be the only way to get the machine out of them. Then a couple years ago I discovered that the machine wasn't the exact spec I'd paid for - and they used an integrated graphics chip, rather than the separate AGP one that was supposed to be there.

Almost all of the big companies have atrocious customer service - Dell I personally have had no problem with, but if you google it, there are a whole bunch of customer complaints on various consumer websites. "Dell Hell" was their nickname a few years ago.

Best bet research the company before you spend any money - as if you back the wrong horse it causes a massive amount of grief.

Also if you do buy from Dell or some such - those companies usually have a forum (Dell does at least) so you can search under specific models and find out what "issues" other customers have had with them.

The early P4 Inspirons for example, were notoriously prone to overheating. Other models ship with substandard keyboards.

Edited September 22, 2006 by erekose

[Nizzy 1]

I've got a Dell and it works great. I did break the screen but thank goodness I had insurance. the service for getting it repaired was super fast! I couldn't believe it. So one thing to say: GET THE INSURANCE!

[bhajishah 4]

He recently bought a acer, it has pentium dou core tech and warranty etc, was about $600 after $200 rebate, no problems. I heard TOshibas are good as well

[ChristinaM 0]

I have a Toshiba personally, which in hindsight I should have paid the extra hundred bucks and got the Pentium processor. The Celeron struggles, and I also had to add more RAM for it to cope with certain applications. Other than that, I love it to death. The screen is broken, but I think that may be something to do with me dropping it one-too-many times.

My work machine is an IBM R40, which is good and solid. It has good battery life and runs at a decent speed with our integrated database applications, which are pretty memory intensive.

I would also say DON'T GET A DELL! My family and I have had nothing but "Friday-Afternoon" models, and there's always something going wrong with both the desktops and the laptops. Saying that, my husband has one, has had it a while and is very happy with it. It's a personal issue of mine - you would have to pay me what the Dell cost for me to have one given the history we've had with them.

Edited September 22, 2006 by ChristinaM

[~Jackie~ 30]

Thanks for all the input!

I did not get it today I went to 3 stores and NO ONE had a 17in in stock! I will try again tommorrow.

Jackie