Laptop recommendation

[kelly]

Friend of mine is looking for a laptop for personal use. Email, Internet, maybe put OpenOffice on it.

I'm inclined to tell her Apple, but she's used to Windows. So I'm thinking IBM. Any thoughts?

-tony d

[Dan18960]

HP has come to the forefront with their Notebooks.

I "think" Rich will even acclaim to that - he dumped a Dell for what I think is his current HP notebook.

I have been using one I got several years ago for on-site LAN access and am more than happy with it.

[Pi rules]

I would also recommend HP, just make sure to check out what they junk (software) they put on there. Apples are nice but very expensive. :( IBM is kind of the same way; they are usually high quality, but they are usually business-oriented and expensive.

[jcampi]

I made a very similar post a short time ago. Rich M. suggested HP also. My client is very pleased with the choice of two HP laptops I speced out. HP does make a very nice product.

[mikehende]

I have owned 2 compaq laptops in the past, the most recent being an EVO N610C which was a powerhorse, I used it for music creation and DJ softwares and threw a lot of complicated stuff at it running 5 or 6 programs at the same time, never let me down so for "simple" stuff [email, internet e.t.c], a breeze.

If purchasing a "new" laptop, do NOT buy from Dell, their product is inferior to Compaq [HP] and their warranty\tech support stinks!! I should know, I bought a new pc from them 2 years ago, one of the biggest mistakes of my life. If anyone wishes, I can gladly compare the 2 companies here.

[Terry Hanushek]

Tony

Friend of mine is looking for a laptop for personal use. Email, Internet, maybe put OpenOffice on it.

I'm inclined to tell her Apple, but she's used to Windows. So I'm thinking IBM. Any thoughts?
IBM would be an excellent choice. I have used Thinkpads for the past dozen years and highly recommend them.

I outlined some thought on laptop selection a couple of weeks ago in a previous thread (http://www.kickenhardware.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2814)

Terry

[dale@fcg]

If purchasing a "new" laptop, do NOT buy from Dell, their product is inferior to Compaq [HP] and their warranty\tech support stinks!! I should know, I bought a new pc from them 2 years ago, one of the biggest mistakes of my life. If anyone wishes, I can gladly compare the 2 companies here.
Mike, please give your comparisons. thanks:cool:

[dale@fcg]

Seems like Toshiba and Dell have become suspect with laptops lately. I can attest to a few Toshiba laptops I'm privy to that have serious overheating, sluggish performance, etc.

Gateway is another consideration, as I have purchased a few for 'clients' and they are thrilled with 'em. No issues in a year of use.

[mylanta]

I have owned 2 compaq laptops in the past, the most recent being an EVO N610C which was a powerhorse, I used it for music creation and DJ softwares and threw a lot of complicated stuff at it running 5 or 6 programs at the same time, never let me down so for "simple" stuff [email, internet e.t.c], a breeze.

If purchasing a "new" laptop, do NOT buy from Dell, their product is inferior to Compaq [HP] and their warranty\tech support stinks!! I should know, I bought a new pc from them 2 years ago, one of the biggest mistakes of my life. If anyone wishes, I can gladly compare the 2 companies here.

Yes remember Compaq is really only the promo line of HP these days and I have an ou***anding Compaq 6000 series with 17" screen that blows away anything else I have used and runs just like HP. When everyone was looking away, HP really took a dynamic foothold in this business.

[mikehende]

To be honest, my main bad experiences with Dell have to do more with warranty, tech support and general support after your warranty expires than the performance of the Dell product itself when compared to Compaq. We have owned 7 Dell pc's and 3 Compaq's in the past, the Compaq's always worked smoother and gave a lot less trouble than the Dell's or to put it another way, never really got any trouble with the Compaqs but would run into trouble every now and then with the Dell's.

Regarding the Warranty issues, with my last compaq laptop, after doing some experimentation with "macros" for music purposes, I thought I had damaged something and I sent it in 3 times to HP for them to look into what I had thought was a problem. Each time DHL would appear at my door within 24 hours of my call with a special box for the laptop, they would return again within 24 hours of my call telling them that the laptop is ready and within 2-3 days the laptop would be back at my home, fully tested and with a specific person with whom I could ask about anything concerning my laptop and what they did and at every stage of the testing I would be given an update as to exactly where my laptop is and what tests were being done.

Picture now my existing Dell pc, while within warranty, I call them up and asked them to look into a grounding problem, took a "few" days for them to get a box to me, when I eventually sent the pc out to them, I waited for a few days for a call to inform me about any updates and no call came so I called them, first they told me they can't locate my pc, they simply did not have any sort of tracking system to know where my pc is and was told that they will will call me when they locate it. I got a call back the next day with them telling me that the pc was shipped that morning back to me and that I will be given a tracking number for it, waited and got no tracking number so I called them again the next day only to find out that my pc is "now" being packed and is almost ready to go back out to me. I got the pc back after a week of waiting and utter frustration.

When my warranty ran out and I would need simple technical info about my pc, guess what? I have to pay for that info or go to their support community where sometimes I would get help and sometimes not. What really got to me whenever I would call them when my pc stilll had warranty is that I would ask their tech support simple questions and sometimes could not get a satisfactory answer and my favorite phrase was/is
"please hold while I look up that info"
that really gets my goat because aren't these Help desk guys supposed to know at least basic stuff regarding pc's? Even on their site I remember coming across a thread where people voice complaints and my opinion of Dell is that they are a money-hungry company who don't give a damn about their customers, I posted this on their site, made a formal complaint to them and never once got a reply from them, seems to me they don't even care to defend themselves so what does this tell you about them?

[dbarrow]

I would stay away from Gateway....
One of the people I work with bought a very expensive Gateway top end laptop.
In the eight months he has had it, he had to send it back twice for a bad motherboard, at over a month each time for service.
The DVD/cdrw quit and they wanted over $350 to replace it.
It has far inferior specs to an HP for the same price range machine.

[kelly]

I've been seeing Acer laptops at some stores around here including Micro Center. They don't seem to be as expensive as other manufacturers and I haven't heard anything bad about them. Don't know what tech support is like. Anyone have experience with them?
-tony d

[mikehende]

Our very first pc years ago was an Acer Desktop, worked fine and tech support was great but that's many years ago, don't know the situation now.

[mylanta]

I've been seeing Acer laptops at some stores around here including Micro Center. They don't seem to be as expensive as other manufacturers and I haven't heard anything bad about them. Don't know what tech support is like. Anyone have experience with them?
-tony d


Tony if you aren't hearing anyting bad about Acer laptops, then you aren't on the right forums, they are extremely problematic and Acer service is amongst the worst out there.

[kelly]

Hey Rich - thanks for the info. Right now, I think there's a lot of value to be placed on service. Good to know. I've worked a bit with HP tech service and they've been pretty good, esp after warrenty is over. Apple is good, but after warrantee is over - forget it.

btw: No power here tonight. When power went out, I disconnected the TV, micorware, computers, and refridgerator. Also disconnected computer modems. Running my laptop right now. Storm took out a bunch of trees in the neighborhood. I lost some limbs on a blue spruce, so I'm doing OK. Other neighbors aren't doing as well.

- tony d

[kelly]

Found a page on IBM's site where they sell "IBM Certified Used Equipment". They have a T-40 there that I'm considering. I'm seeing conflicting info - does this have a Pentium-M or a Centrino processor? What's the difference?

http://snipurl.com/tgxs

thanks
-td

[Pi rules]

Centrino is more a name for a grouping of products. For example, an Intel Pentium M, an Intel chipset (like the 855) and an integrated Intel wireless chip (like 802.11b). So the notebook has "Centrino technology" with it's 1.5 GHz Pentium M, Intel chipset, and Intel wireless.

[kelly]

Thanks for clearing that up. btw: nice signature. It reminded me that I wanted to d/l memtest86.

- tony d

[Terry Hanushek]

Tony

Found a page on IBM's site where they sell "IBM Certified Used Equipment". They have a T-40 there that I'm considering. I'm seeing conflicting info - does this have a Pentium-M or a Centrino processor? What's the difference?
The Thinkpad T-40 comes at a good price and will certainly handle email / Internet / Office requirements of your friend. However, the T-40 is a relatively old machine. There have been T-41, T-42 and T-43 models since then with a T-60 being currently introduced. The T-43 is still available from IBM / Lenovo with more memory, a bigger hard drive and built-in wireless.

http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/notebooks/thinkpad/t-series/index.html

BTW I have a T-42 and highly recommend the IBM T-series.

Terry

[Pi rules]

T-series? I have an A-series. ;) When I got it, it didn't work (BSOD), but I fixed it and they gave it to me. Even that can handle basic apps, but the 8 MB graphics is limiting. Still, I also recommend IBM if you can afford the price tag.

Thanks for clearing that up. btw: nice signature. It reminded me that I wanted to d/l memtest86.
No problem. :)