[PCXL-Fan]

I'm thinking of get a laptop of a brand i don't know yet.

With payola running rampant in the review industry, particularily on some of the bigger sites, i'd appreciate and really like a first hand ground view of users experiences with various laptop brands. I know each different laptop model in a particular brand is different and there are different price catagories, and quality has varied throughout the years, but i wanna get a general understanding of laptop by brand from people using it.

Lets hear peoples experiences with laptops.


Thanks

 

[70597]

I bought my dad an MSI Wind U100, and we've loved it so far. It's given us no issues. It has a decent screen, can have 2GB RAM, and just about everything is upgradable inside[you just unscrew the bottom of the case and you can change nearly everything except the CPU and the 1GB of ram that's soldered down to the mobo].

 

[PCXL-Fan]

Thanks dax.

My sister's HP laptop. A core2 duo 1.5ghz, 2gb ram, and 8400gs. It was okay, but lugging the thing back and forth to university and i guess just using it alot, the powerband that power the backlight of the lcd started to faulter after ~1.2 years of use. Now she has to fiddle more and more opening and closing the screen lid until the backlight flickers on, otherwise she just stares at a black screen. And the issue is getting worse and worse, eventually she'll be forced to get it repaired. Other than that no issue yet. (currently at 1.5 years into her ownership)

Seems to be a problem inherent with lcds though, as the wear and tear of lugging it around and opening and closing the lid will eventually put wear on the powerbands.
But perhaps the make of HP laptops means they are more suseptible?

 

[70597]

Other brands I've had experience with:

Apple: I bought a firstgeneration Macbook Pro in 2006, and Apple refused to admit this line had serious heat and CPU whining[like a high pitched electronic squeal] noises for the longest time, until people were getting ready for a class action against them. I still have this same laptop, and it's been good to me, regardless of the heat and noise[I found workarounds]. Nevertheless, I like Apple. I hate their stupid PC vs. Mac commercials though. It's an embarassment.

Sony: I had a VAIO before my MBP. Oh lawd, that thing sucked. It weighed probably almost 10 pounds, making it impossible for portability. It was hot and loud[pentium 4 mobility, WTF were they thinking?? :rotflmao:]. My opinion: meh.

 

[skoreanime]

Meh, I stopped trusting HP laptops awhile ago. The system cooling fan died after just a year of use.

Trust Asus man. They make very good laptops, especially for their price. Sony and Mac aren't bad, but they cost more then they should.

Check out Notebook and Laptop Reviews and browse through their forum. Plenty of resellers hang out and give out tips and advice for laptop seekers. They've got a forum section dedicated to filling out a criteria form and people throwing out their advice. Lots of Canadians on there too. Really helped me out on my laptop purchase.

 

[PCXL-Fan]

Thanks again dax.

For me a mac is out of the question. Too expensive. And cost isn't worth the advantages getting an macbook entails. And there are tons of nifty apps you just can't find as easily on a mac.

Meh, I stopped trusting HP laptops awhile ago. The system cooling fan died after just a year of use.

Trust Asus man. They make very good laptops, especially for their price. Sony and Mac aren't bad, but they cost more then they should.

Check out Notebook and Laptop Reviews and browse through their forum. Plenty of resellers hang out and give out tips and advice for laptop seekers. They've got a forum section dedicated to filling out a criteria form and people throwing out their advice. Lots of Canadians on there too. Really helped me out on my laptop purchase.

Awesome. Wicked thanks alot skore. I'll defintely check this out.

I wonder how good Dell is. My dad has a dell ~1.5ghz pentium-m thats been going on 5 years now. And it working flawlessly still. Though he hardly takes it out of the house and doesn't give it nearly the treatment my sister gave hers. Its basically his desktop that he occasionally takes to work or takes on a trip.

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

Acer Gemstone blues... depending on the model, can double as a portable gaming system.

 

[makotech222]

Lenovo A-
Dell B-

Lenovo: Works great, very light and cool. Trackpoint is a major plus over trackpad. Only realy gripe is that the integrated camera comes with no software for taking pictures so theres no purpose of getting one.

Dell: crappy support and my friends motherboard got messed up. It gets pretty fricken hot too, and its brand new. Got stuck with a Nvidia 8400 too, which are defect. B- because its average, it works.

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

don't like Lenovo >.>.

btw,... windows can natively take webcam shots via scanners and camera's (or the webcam icon in my computer)

 

[makotech222]

Why not?

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

component quality issues, though it might be different depending where the laptop was manufactured.

 

[sgsavvy]

so how can we check where is it manufactured from?

 

[runawayprisoner]

btw,... windows can natively take webcam shots via scanners and camera's (or the webcam icon in my computer)

Works only with some generic webcam brands IIRC. If Windows ain't recognizing it by default and you gotta install vendor-supplied drivers then there's a good chance the ****er won't show up.

Anyway, from my own experience, some Sony Vaio last ridiculously long... Like my dad's Vaio has lasted almost 7 years now.

I think people shouldn't keep their laptops for too long though. If possible, sell her off two years later or so and get a new one. Reason being that... your laptop's battery wears out quite fast... and after a year or two, you're already down about an hour of battery life if you use your laptop too much. Then there are wears and tears in other parts as well. Though the situation has improved a lot since 10 years ago... You're still better off switching laptops as regularly as possible. Well, or at least that's from my point of view.

If you're not going to take your laptop out and use her battery then there is no point in owning a laptop at all. In which case, you're better off building yourself a very compact desktop computer (and that's where I can proudly say that thanks to recent efforts from Zotac, things have been looking much nicer).

P.S.: And yeah, Phil, truth is I'm not a fan of laptops myself. I'm all for ultra portable machines... but a laptop (full-blown) is just a big no-no.

 

[gamefreak94]

Only ever had one laptop, old Compaq Presario 2500, and I hate it. Its design in HEAVILY flawed, it has 4 fans to keep it cool, and out of those, the 2 largest ones are located smack in the bottom of the body, meaning that if you keep it on your lap or, say, a table, its gonna overheat awfully fast (not to mention that your legs burn as well).

 

[70597]

Compaq's never been the best brand..

 

[gamefreak94]

It was a really high-end laptop when we brought it ~5 years ago though. Ordered it from the UK via relatives and it cost 700 pounds! People barely has DVD drives on their PCs back then, let alone DVD burners on their laptops!

But its freakin' heavy and bulky! I estimate its ~2.5 inches thick! oO

 

[Ahielia]

My Asus A6J has been working perfectly since the day I got it. Well, except for a few small software problems I could fix myself

 

[masta.g.86]

You may want to check out a Clevo based laptop. Most people have probably never heard of them, but they are generally the ones who build the base models available for many of the lesser-known laptop brands out there. Companies like Sager, Eurocom, Falcon Northwest, VoodooPC, and XtremePC to name a few.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=264311

This forum guide has a list of many of the resellers available worldwide. From the list, I can tell you that Eurocom is a great company to check out, especially since they're based in Canada. You may also want to check out Sager even though they are based in the states. Be sure to check out the various pricing options available between the different resellers, as some of them offer monthly deals from time to time.

While most of the models they promote are generally desktop replacements, they do offer ultraportables, thin and lights, and later this year, a competitor to the Asus EeePC that has a swivel screen.

As far as my own experience, I've fully enjoyed this laptop. It's fully upgradeable though some parts like the GPU are a bit too pricey to reasonably upgrade. (Sager wanted $600 for a 9800GTX since mine isn't a Sager brand laptop >.<)

 

[Ahielia]

[Kinda offtopic]

Spoiler

There's no such thing as a "desktop replacement gaming laptop". Basically what you need for stuff not to feel weird playing, is a monitor, a mouse and a keyboard.
I've tried gaming on my laptop, and the placement of the monitor versus the keyboard just feels weird to look at compared to my desktop. Also it's too hot on the finger/wrists (at least for me) to game for longer periods of time.

[/offtopic]

 

[masta.g.86]

@Ahielia

I don't know about that... My laptop has a full size keyboard and couple that with an external mouse and a 17" widescreen LCD and it doesn't feel that different from a desktop.

Either way, "desktop replacement" just refers to a laptop with power that can match or in many cases surpass the computing power of an "average" desktop. The other thing to note is the poor battery life: I get about 1h 45min at maximum power savings. Gaming on the battery is just suicide.