Buying Laptops

Ah. My experience with HP is a few years old.

The best customer support I've had has been from Apple, though I'm aware that there are 'issues' with their laptops (not least the cost).

 

I've had a few experiences with laptops over the years - namely, Acer, Dell, IBM, Toshiba amd Viglen.

Acer - performance, specs and support used to be shocking just after they took over Texas Instrument's laptop division back in 1997. I had one of the last TI-badged Extensa's - a 670CD. Build-wise, the machine is fine - it still works today and given the fact it's been hauled about on trains and a good few plane journeys, that's pretty impressive. Performance-wise, not so hot. Even though at the time, it was top of the range (a Pentium 166MMX, IIRC), it was still pretty sluggish, compared to an equivilent desktop of that era.

I work as an IT Support techie in a local school and of course have to deal with the 'laptops for teachers' scenario. For the previous three years, teachers have been issued with Acer laptops. Perfomance-wise, they aren't bad, although I had to send one off for servicing the other day. So, I get on the Acer website and call their service centre (which, after selecting the right option over the phone just cuts me off dead). I then get an incident number and a courier account number. Call the courier (CityLink), using the number they give me. Constantly engaged. Mutter swear words for 15 mins and have a coffee. Find the number for the local CityLink (Portsmouth). A very helpful lady says that I need to deal with Acer/the Plymouth branch. Explain that they are constantly engaged (ironically, the lady mentioned that Acer were 'very good at palming things off to them (Portsmouth CityLink branch). Got the correct number from her and called the Plymouth branch. Finally got a collection number etc. The whole saga took over an hour - and that's just to send the thing off for repair. It's supposed to take 10 to 20 days to be repaired, so we will see. Their notebooks may have improved, but I'm unconvinced about customer service/reliabilty. The notebook in question was about a year or two old). The website is a damn sight better than it was 4 years ago - at least I can now get hold of the correct drivers etc.

Dell - these were issued to teachers this year and I have one at home as well for testing - Latitude D810 is the model number. P4 1.8Ghz processor, 512MB RAM, 60GB hard disk, ATI Mobility X600 graphics, DVD-RW, wireless LAN etc. Very fast and a reasonoble screen. Keyboard OK - not like IBM ThinkPad's, which still have the best keyboards in my opinion. Heavy and bulky to carry though.

IBM ThinkPads - superb machines. Excellent build quality and robustness. My current laptop is a ThinkPad X20 - a P3/600, 320MB RAM and 20GB hard drive. Fairly slow in this day, but fine for e-mail whilst away from home and downloading digital camera photos etc. Superb keyboard, no problems at all with the machine (only software). Top-notch build quality - my laptop has travelled a lot! Excellent service centre support - I have had to deal with my sister's idential laptop through the service centre serveral times and have had nothing but first class support. This is not due to the quality of the laptop - basically she is bl--dy careless with the thing and couldn't give a stuff about it. I refuse to deal with it now! Excellent website - I can download all drivers easily for every OS that the laptop supports - and this is 4 or 5 years after the laptop was realesed.

Toshiba - decent featureset, good performance and build quality. Now a reasonable range to suit all budgets. Bought numerous ones at the place where I worked last and never had any problems. Our users liked them too. No thanks to the muppets in IT Services who decided to install Windows 2000 on a Tablet PC, only to find it doesn't work properly - hint, Windows 2000 has no Tablet PC support! They wasted months trying to get it to work!

Viglen - total rubbish. They tend to rebadge a chassis made by another manufacturer and customise it. Aweful performance and motherboard failures on the Dossier NS series. Had to wait a good while for spares too. Not my choice - my previous employer (local government) used to buy them. Most of the time, I used to recommend Toshiba - we bought a fair few of them.

 

Thanks for that. IBM is looking like top dog then. I looked at a couple of stores that do them but couldn't find any extended warranties. Do you know what warranty options IBM offer?

 

If I had to have a PC Laptop (which thank the gods I don't have to have anything PC centric) I would go for a sony or a toshiba.

I only mention the toshiba because you can confidently lift that with one hand. Other laptops I have done that with physically bend when you do! Not the iBook though, rock solid and I can't remember when it was last shut down or restarted, although about two weeks ago safari crashed.

The sonys look nice as well, and like apple they seem to at least pretend to think about the design, and it can;t be denied the sony screens look gorgeous.

Its like all things in life, if you pay cheap you get cheap and this is especially so of computers.

One thing is for certain though I would never buy a computer with a serial port on it. Any computer supporting such legacy is on a back foot in my opinion. Get modern thats what I say snigger.

 

One other thing its probably fair to say every company has its customer support horror stories, I suppose apple at least supports its discussions forum, but wo betied anyone who disses the brand, I have been on probation twice for not toeing the company line lol.

 

Regards Toshiba, they are well liked, and I can see why, but on recent research I noticed their battery charge stats seem really bad, not sure why - even the latest Centrino versions.

From our investigations, if the variables are:
Display size/res
Display quality
Battery life
Performance
Rigidity
Weight (ie. lack of) and portability
Slimness
Widescreen
Well integrated components
General spec.
Low price
After sales support

There really didnt seem to be a system which ticked all the boxes.
For example:
15"+ screens mean the machine is bigger and thus usually heavier and poorer battery life, but then maybe you'll mostly have it plugged in on a desk.

12" screen machines are v portable lovely, but of course 1024 * 768 and do you really want to travel with it all the time anyway

Workstations like the Dell Precision M20 are well spec'd, nice, light, but the graphics cards are CAD orientated.

P4 machines seem great value, but they get hot.

I think you really need to decide which aspects are the priority, then the decision will be easier.

 

I'd definitely agree. Whenever we've cut corners we ended up regreting it.[/QUOTE]

When you need to configure a Cisco firewall via its console you'd be kissing the serial port for being there.

 

I'm looking for a Centrino with a Pentium M - probably 1.6 GHz. I'm very interested in low heat and low noise. The laptop will be used on the living room coffee table and will rarely leave the house so extreme lightweight isn't necessary. I could live with 3 kgs.
The IBM R52 with the hi-res screen looks interesting. I can find machine specs and prices but I'm having trouble finding any sensible information about extended warranties. Perhaps IBM just don't want private individuals to buy their machines

 

I have to say IBM's website is hard work and that's being kind. I hate the way they list every combination of spec as a different model - this does mean they are built and tested properly rather than built to order. I'll ask our Distributor tomorrow regards warranties on the R52.

 

Not sure - I bought mine from a retailer when I lived in Hong Kong. If I remember rightly, it came with a 2 year international warranty.

Agreed - the IBM website is difficult to navigate, but once you find things, it's a treasure-trove of information. I even managed to get hold of the proper service manual for my X20.

 

I'm told that the R52 includes a standard 12 month "Customer carry in" warranty (not very impressive). However an upgrade to 3 years onsite (ie. attended) is £202 (RRP). This upgrade is part number 14J1490.
HTH
G

 

Thanks greg. I did manage to find it in the end. It took even longer to find IBM's dead pixel policy. I was rather disappointed to find that it is about the least generous one I have encountered. The high-res display can have up to 16 dead pixels before it is considered faulty. That is disgraceful.

On the subject of dead pixels, does anyone know how we stand in law with regard to dead pixels on a new machine. It's all very fine having a policy that says a screen has to develop a certain number of failed pixels before it will be replaced but surely a brand new item should be delivered free of any fault including dead pixels. Does the Sale Of Goods Act or the Distance Selling Regulations offer any protection here? Can I return a brand new machine which was delivered with dead pixels?

 

I have no idea regards Sale of Goods act, but due to the fact IBM sell through resellers this means you have a local presence as your point of sale, then backed by the manufacturer rather than having to return goods back overseas. In case that helps.

 

16 does seem a little unfair. On the flip side I can honestly say I havn't seen a dead pixel on an LCD in a long time, including my TV, Macs and other peoples PCs. I don't think its the problem it used to be.

Unless of course you buy cheap

 

I'm probably gonna order an IBM Thinkpad R52 with the 1400x1050 screen. It'll do everything I need and I can get 3 years on-site warranty with it.