Buying a laptop

[Norellicus]

Buy a Lenovo. They are ugly, but they are solidly constructed since they'll only be as good as a brick 6 months in and their apps that come with the system aren't just memory hogging add ons, except for all the other ones that do.

Fixed.

IBM/Lenovo are the shittiest laptops ever, second only to Compaq. Their parts burn out, the online support is horrid (why does your website only list half of the drivers that your own driver update software recommends I get? I'm trying to make a slipstream disc, I don't want to use your shitty ass tool), and their cooling is grossly inefficient to the point of damaging the screen if you leave the machine running with the lid closed.

And seriously, I don't need a management app to run in the tray for every.single.peripheral. Touchpad and special keyboard functions, ok, but I really don't need to have my media reader, CD drive, battery, etc etc monitored by a tray app when it isn't doing anything windows doesn't already do, except look different.

[BarthelloSylph]

Buy a Lenovo. They are ugly, but they are solidly constructed since they'll only be as good as a brick 6 months in and their apps that come with the system aren't just memory hogging add ons, except for all the other ones that do.

Fixed.

IBM/Lenovo are the shittiest laptops ever, second only to Compaq. Their parts burn out, the online support is horrid (why does your website only list half of the drivers that your own driver update software recommends I get? I'm trying to make a slipstream disc, I don't want to use your shitty ass tool), and their cooling is grossly inefficient to the point of damaging the screen if you leave the machine running with the lid closed.

And seriously, I don't need a management app to run in the tray for every.single.peripheral. Touchpad and special keyboard functions, ok, but I really don't need to have my media reader, CD drive, battery, etc etc monitored by a tray app when it isn't doing anything windows doesn't already do, except look different.

You've obviously had one bad experience with Lenovo. That stinks.

But do remember that your experience was probably with IBM - which sold its business to Lenovo a few years ago. The notebooks coming out now are by Lenovo, and are very high quality. In fact Lenovo and Apple are known as the top tier brands of notebook computers, with Dell and Acer coming in at the bottom.

The ThinkVantages technologies are far superior to the Microsoft apps. No debate.

[Norellicus]

To clarify, these were about a year ago, and they were "IBM ThinkPad by Lenovo", so you may be right. I assumed you meant the thinkpads, because a good 90% of the corporate community bubbles about how good they are, but field experience both personally and from many, many people I've talked to says otherwise.

[Cephius]

In fact Lenovo and Apple are known as the top tier brands of notebook computers, with Dell and Acer coming in at the bottom.

The ThinkVantages technologies are far superior to the Microsoft apps. No debate.

lol, Lenovo and Apple are known as top-tier brands? By who? In what studies? Apple notebooks are INSANELY overpriced given their components. There's no excuse considering they use the same Intel chips and components that the other brands do. As for Lenovo/IBM, they have a long way to go. They have lost much of their business contracts to Dell due to IBM's failure at tech support and the bloatware you speak so highly of.

Take a look at this list and tell me how many of the top 10 laptops are Dells. How are they a "bottom tier" brand again?

[Darus Grey]

If you don't plan to do any major gaming on them I'd consider the Macbook(not pro).

They recently updated the line with new standard hard-ware and the $1299 model is a pretty good value for what you actually get. It's actually cheaper than many notebooks with similar specs. Edit: Just tried for hell of it...a dell with same stats is actually $150 more...plus it's pretty easy to get a student discount of $100-$200(and a free ipod touch) if you are a student or know one.

A Macbook being cheaper is almost a no-brainer for buying. Though that's assuming you were shopping for that level of power to begin with, and didn't want something in the $600-range.

lol, Lenovo and Apple are known as top-tier brands? By who?

PCmagazine for one. IBM/Lenovo and Apple have consistently been the top 2 of their user satisfaction surveys for almost a decade.

[Stee]

I bought a HP Pavilion tx1000z series a few months ago its one of those laptops that you can swivel the screen around and turn into a tablet that you can write on.

It's got a 12" screen and extremely light so its good for portability so I can bring it to classes without a problem, though if your really into the tablet part you might want to get the tx2000 which has a better screen to write on.

[Senoska]

I love Acer <3

[Sonomaa]

Is that the vostro? Specs?

2ghz core 2 duo
2g ram
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce 8600M GT
250g HD
windows XP


I got a wider bag that works with it fine

[#686578]

I honestly have to say I expected more, how much did you end up paying?

[Sonomaa]

I honestly have to say I expected more, how much did you end up paying?

about 1k, I got an extended battery and of course the numpad keyboard

[#686578]

Shit I knew I forgot something when I ordered mine. I meant to buy an extra battery as well, I hardly ever use the CD/DVD/Burner/Whateverelse.

[Oxyminus]

while we're here, what are people's thoughts on HP laptops? looking at getting one in the next few weeks. put a custom build off the dvt9700 series together, which I'm too lazy to copypasta from the laptop thread in tech help, but off the top of my head it was

2.1Ghz duo core
320Gig HD
3Gig Ram
512MB Nvidia 8400 card?

was going to run about ~1,300 or so, before adding on software/support options I'd probably invest in as well.

[BarthelloSylph]

I wasn't talking about price. Lenovo/Apple are very expensive, and could be considered overpriced (especially if you think of laptops as a commodity). But they do have the reputation of being the most well made machines. Lenovo is especially popular with businesses. Sure, the final few years of IBM reign hurt their rep, Lenovo is winning back customers. It's a very good company and makes very solid, well constructed products.

[Totien]

while we're here, what are people's thoughts on HP laptops? looking at getting one in the next few weeks. put a custom build off the dvt9700 series together, which I'm too lazy to copypasta from the laptop thread in tech help, but off the top of my head it was

2.1Ghz duo core
320Gig HD
3Gig Ram
512MB Nvidia 8400 card?

was going to run about ~1,300 or so, before adding on software/support options I'd probably invest in as well.

I work in PC repair, I can honestly say I see more HPs and Compaqs come through than any other brand. Mostly software issues, cause they load so much fucking crap on them.

[Octavious]

My laptop is a DELL E1505 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 120GB HDD, 256 GeForce GO 7300, that I run Windows XP Media Center Sp3 on and i love it. When it came from DELL (2yrs ago this august), was loaded with 2 wierd partitions and some BS bloat software. I pretty much DBAN'd it and made it one large HDD since I use 2 external hdd (160gb for docs/music, 1tb for video backup). Basically, if you know how to format and configure a laptop to your liking, look for the specs you want at the most economical price. As much criticism as DELL recieves, they produce pretty low cost material that isn't completely built like trash. I've purchased my desktop/laptop from them and I can say i'm pleased with both.

Anyway, best of luck on choosing something. Laptops are fun ^_^ wish i'd a got mine sooner.