Laptop Preferences

This is one for Wendell to answer since he's always on the prowl for the best laptop deals. Wendell, answer the man!! 🙂

A good place to keep an eye on is http://slickdeals.net

Almost all electronics we buy are found on there. However, I do find that Costco will often put those deals to shame or at least be very competitive. I generally steer clear of Acer and Gateway laptops and would generally favor HP over all of them. I've owned several HPs over the years and I've always got a lot of bang for my buck. The latest generation of HPs have brushed aluminum cases, which makes them even sweeter.

Not knowing what your price range is (or other specs for that matter), I'd take a good look at the 14" HP laptop at Costco. I'm using one right now and they just dropped from $799 to $699 on the 14th. Great machine and Costco doubles the HP warranty (making it 2 years). I like the size in terms of portability, but while at home, I can plug TWO (yes TWO) monitors into it (one into the VGA port and another into the HDMI port). The touchpad takes a little to get used to (it's a multi-touch pad) but I rarely use it, personally.

I also have a friend who bought his wife a purple $498 Toshiba laptop at Wal-Mart and she loves it. It's certainly not a top-of-the-line model, but he had me run some tests on it and I was surprised at how well it did. Toshiba seems to have a good name in the laptop department.

Probably the brand I would least recommend is Dell. I know I'll probably catch a lot of crap for saying that, but it is the customer support that makes me avoid them the most. The few times I've had to contact HP support, I've been treated good and they took care of the problem. The MANY times I've dealt with Dell support on behalf of clients, well, I've never gotten a satisfactory result and they give me the runaround each and every time. They basically operate on loopholes in your warranty and that sucks. It's safe to say that the largest segment of my computer repair clients own Dell computers... off the top of my head, I'd guess about 80% and the truly sad part is most of their computers are less than a couple years old.

And, for the record, not one Dell support call has ever been to someone in the States. Every HP call has been to someone in the United States and they've never given me the runaround. They diagnose and then solve the problem.

I hate to say it but you need to think Apple for school work. They have wormed their way into the educational system to the point that the apple laptops rule.

I'm not an apple fan, and don't have any Apple products, but I did buy a macbook for my son who just went off to college this year... Pricey little computers. I would have preferred a PC but...

Here is another place that sometimes has good deals. I purchased my current home desktop using their link and saved a bundle.

http://www.techbargains.com/

I have had some bad experience with them, and I would steer clear of Gateway and Lenova(sp?). I heard good things about Lenova, which I think used to be IBM, but we had ours fixed something like 5 times in a period of 6 months, and finally gave up on it. We had one of the top of the line Gateways, but it lasted a little over year.

We now have a Sony Vaio(sp?). Its been pretty good, but a little slow getting the internet started, but once running works great.

Jimmy: HP

in fall of 2008, bought HP Compac 8710w with HP L1908 secondary monitor.

It is hard wired into LAN, and is the travel work horse.

Support has been excellent and only needed for tweaking and learning system; no problems.

Concur with Wendell. Also agree with Gateway and Dell take.

You certainly can buy cheaper. But for reliability, power, and tech - it's HP.

MANY other choices, and you very well could order an HP and it be junk, but experience here has been great with HP.

Study what your software vender considers a suitable machine and then compare across the industry. Autodesk has much resources dedicated to finding the best box - power, video, etc.

Study the trades, watch the market; find hardawre that runs your apps, wait for your deal.

good luck!
david

Wait until the end of this month and get a Google Chrome smartbook. You'll be glad you did.

What I desire on my laptop has nothing to do with computers.

My go-to IT guy says solid state hard drives are the way to go.

> My go-to IT guy says solid state hard drives are the way to go.

I concur but they are spendy.

He suggested that about $80 for one in my old laptop would give it new life. I know, us unwashed users would probably pay a good deal more than tech gurus. No moving parts should equal long term reliability. Solid state hard drive plus Windows 7 should make for very quick boot ups.

Beware

teenagers are hard on laptops, I know this from personal experience. You will want a service plan. They have no sense that maybe you shouldn't drop it 3" to the tabletop in Starbucks, maybe you should gently set it down. Do that 50 times and something might fail.

This hp Pavilion dv1000 (15" widescreen) I bought for Claire 4.5 years ago. She had a lot of problems, bad hard drive, bad this, bad that. She finally asked for a Macbook and I had a use for this computer so I got her a Macbook and had this computer fixed up under the service plan. It has been fine ever since but I treat laptops very gingerly. Meanwhile the Macbook has been able to put up with her rough handling and when she did have a problem or something break she simply took it into the Apple store where they fixed it no questions asked (it may help that she is cute but I don't know for sure). I think they fixed hinge and a broken top piece. She is still using it after 4 years.

So I can recommend a Macbook for a teenager but they aren't cheap.

I bought Kelly a 15" Dell laptop 2.5 years ago and it has been trouble free except for the monitor cable came lose but that was easy to fix simply by reseating the monitor cable and then advising her to put it in the roller case hinges up so the cable tends to seat by the vibration and not vibrate out. She is generally easier on equipment.

I agree, Macbook first and HP second.

I have a 17" dv7000 that has been trouble free for 7 or 8 years but the video/audio went out last weekend. It will run an external monitor. I don't know if I can fix it.

Beware

> I have a 17" dv7000 that has been trouble free for 7 or 8 years

I thought I hung onto computers way too long, but I don't think I've ever gone beyond 6 years...

Wendell what is wrong with Acer?

RADU

JC

Check out good second hand laptop computers that were top of range a year ago, Probably better than bottom end laptops of today.What U say Wendell?

I have a nearly 4 year old Gateway that has seen some abuse and the only thing wrong with it is the DVD/CD RWR drive needs fixed or replaced. Other than a quite slow startup, almost no complaints.

Beware

We use Dell laptops at work...choice of our IT manager....

I used my Dell Latitude 610 HARD for 4 years before getting this Dell Latitude E6500 with Windows 7. it seems to work fine.

At home, where I vote with my money....we have gone to Macbooks. Zero problems, tough, smooth and elegant

Also pricy but worth it.

I am up to three laptops now (two business, one personal) Two are Toshiba, the other is a Dell.

I am pretty rough on them and they go to the field with me. Never had a problem with the function of the laptops, but I have had to replace one of the Toshiba power supply.

When I go shopping, I don't care about brand names as much as I do "bang for my buck".

I have purchased 2 Dell Refurbished Lap Tops over the years. They have been absolutley bulit proof. By purchasing a refurbished comnputer, I was albe to get upgraded hard drives and upgraded graphics cards. Both of them were not the current generation processor, but I did get a $2,000 computer both times for $800 or less. You have to watch the refurbished web site to find what you are looking for, but some deals do turn up.