Laptop experience

[don_svetlio]

 I'm curious, what have your experiences with laptop brands been so far? Which brands do you prefer.

Me? Well, I've had the pleasure of using both an Asus and a Lenovo laptop.
-The Asus one is old so the hardware is nothing exciting, I use to use it for gaming until I got my first actual build. I remember it could run SC2 decently on low and that was about as far as it could really be pushed.
What really amazed me about it though is the endurance of the poor machine. It has since been passed on to my sister who has poured bear, coffee and water over it. I believe cigar ash has also made contact with the keyboard, the cat used to sleep on top of it during the winter (it stays open) and it pretty much runs 24/7. It is currently 6 years old and still works fine to this day. Asus are my gold standard for laptops because of this one.

-As for Lenovo, I've heard good things about them, their products don't really lack anything I can see but I've not owned one myself so I take everyone's word on it.

[BrandonTheCat]

Never. Buy. HP. Ever. Buy anything else. 

 

I like Apple laptops. I won't buy a PC Laptop. 

[don_svetlio]

Never. Buy. HP. Ever. Buy anything else. 

 

I like Apple laptops. I won't buy a PC Laptop. 

I take it you have had a bad experience? Feel free to share if you are okay with doing so, would like to hear your story

Also, I've heard people call Acer the "laptop plague".

[BrandonTheCat]

I take it you have had a bad experience? Feel free to share if you are okay with doing so, would like to hear your story

Also, I've heard people call Acer the "laptop plague".

 

I owned a HP touch smart back in 2011. Which costed around $1000. And at the time, there were so many consumer features that were purely marketing, mostly for the purpose of basically just adding Bullet Points to the list of “Features” that HP wanted. Thats cool and stuff, HP would pretty much agree with this but they would hate me soon because I'm about the beat on it pretty hard.

 

I uninstalled windows and reinstalled to remove the Crap HP "Features"

 

Long story short, that computer, was the worst computer I've ever owned. It lasted 1 year, and after that, the Motherboard basically died and HP couldn't repair it. (Keep in mind that they didn't even tell me what was wrong with it, and offered no repair or replacement) Basically I had to buy a new one. 

 

So, with that, I went to the apple team to see if the grass was really greener on the other side. And boy was I not disappointed.

[don_svetlio]

I owned a HP touch smart back in 2011. Which costed around $1000. And at the time, there were so many consumer features that were purely marketing, mostly for the purpose of basically just adding Bullet Points to the list of “Features” that HP wanted. Thats cool and stuff, HP would pretty much agree with this but they would hate me soon because I'm about the beat on it pretty hard.

 

I uninstalled windows and reinstalled to remove the Crap HP "Features"

 

Long story short, that computer, was the worst computer I've ever owned. It lasted 1 year, and after that, the Motherboard basically died and HP couldn't repair it. (Keep in mind that they didn't even tell me what was wrong with it, and offered no repair or replacement) Basically I had to buy a new one. 

 

So, with that, I went to the apple team to see if the grass was really greener on the other side. And boy was I not disappointed.

Yeah, I can see why you are angry. Having crappy products is one thing, not abiding by your warranty service is another. Thank you for sharing.

[GoodBytes]

I have had experienced with: Lenovo, Dell, Microsoft, Apple, and HP.

General rule of thumb: You get what you paid for. If you go with highest specs for least amount of money, expect cheap build quality, horrible cooling, noisy fan, flimsy keyboard/touchpad, extra amount of junk pre-installed on the system.

Business class system are most of time uglier but way more solid, better (in my opinion) keyboards, display option to be non-glossy exists (but mostly TN panels, and no fancy resolutions), super durable, cool and quiet operation.

If you have a Microsoft Store near by, expect similar experience to Apple. If not, then sadly, Microsoft doesn't process RMAs themselves, They hire another company, which seeks in maximizing profits, and that hurts Microsoft. Too many people send in perfect condition, well maintained Surface, and get back a scratch up one (screen never scratched). But Microsoft product are, so far, very solid, and reliable. and each version of the Surface line, Microsoft has showed to do considerable improvements each time, showing that they want to make rock solid products, and lack of experience is what holds them, but they are getting there. If you want a Surface Pro, I think the Surface Pro 4 would really shine, not that the Surface Pro 3 is not great already. Still amazing how much power they were able to cram inside that small device, and not overheat (The Pro 3 does throttle a bit under heavy gaming, however. Not really the Pro 2, however it is thicker, and heavier, has dual fans and larger heatsink). The Surface line battery is super impressive, not only in battery life, but how much heat it not really affecting the battery life of the system. Any other standard laptop would be a huge problem, probably the battery won't last a year. In fact, my previous laptop highlighted this, despite being a business class, high-end system, and it wasn't anywhere near as warm as my Surface Pro 2 under intense extended load.

Lenovo consumer grade is like any other companies. Low end it crap system, high-end is OK. Business class is a tank.

Lenovo still loves PC Speaker, and you can bet your system will beep super loudly when you plug/unplug the system, or battery is low, especially business class models. I don't know why the company is stuck in the 80's. I was told it is getting less true however. If you thinking of using a Lenovo in class room, be aware to check for this before buying.

The best warranty I have ever had, is with Dell. But only if you get the in-home service. Why? If you have a problem, you have a certified technician that comes at your place, at the time you want, the next business day, repair the system in front of you, allowing you to make sure your problem is solved, the work is done right, and you always have your system in hand. Apple exchange of system is great, but you do loose your data. It is a small premium to pay for it, but worth having. Especially if you get a 3 year warranty, where the chances you'll need something replace is pretty high as we are talking about a laptop, especially if it will go through heavy usage and transport.

Dell technicians are well trained, and work fast. If you order a business class system, the warranty service is far better than consumer grade service (it is all part of the system costing more).

So, basically Apple has great service, but you pay the system more.

If I had to put in order the best warranty service to worst (assuming you get, if you can, max year warranty, full service package, etc). This includes warranty coverage, speed, warranty period, phone/chat waiting/experience, delay to fix the system/accessory. This is based on my current experience. This may change over time. The exception is Microsoft Store online, I am only going with what I read online. I don't have a Microsoft Store near by.

Apple > Microsoft Store > Dell Business > Lenovo > Microsoft Online > Dell Home > HP.

The reason why Microsoft Online is lower in the list, is the fact that the system receive can be scratched, the keyboard cover is not covered under Microsoft Complete Care extended warranty, power supply, and pen are covered strangely enough (usually, even for Apple, it is not. Accessories usually have 1 year warranty only, at least in North America). Dell Business makes it third place, due to the on site service, and warranty service call being OK in wait times, and listens to you, and what you tested. Dell home, is more talking to a machine, where the guy on the phone is told to read a script and follow troubleshooting steps, and ignore what you said you tried.

Microsoft Online, chat/phone service is way better than Dell Business, and even Apple, for that mater, however again the service center for RMAs is sadly not Microsoft, and that hurts them a lot. Dell refurbished are excellent. Any noticeable scratches, will make Dell replace the casing. While that is completely not true with Microsoft. Also, if you send it at the center and not in store, if the device is too scratched up, even if it not related to the problem, they'll void your warranty. While it might seam obvious, all manufacture have such policy, including Apple. The big problem, is that the Surface Pro is painted and not dyed or anodized. This is due to the magnesium body, it doesn't allow this. Paint scratches it easily. Microsoft will cover you, if you have Microsoft Complete, as it will fall under accidental damage, but if you don't get it, and it is really scratch up, they'll consider you didn't take care of it at all, as it will look bad, and void your warranty. So get a cover or something to protect the system, and/or avoid putting it on the table side of the paint, but rather the keyboard cover. It must bed noted that this is the same story with any other manufacture that uses magnesium body. So sure magnesium is very thin, very light and very solid, but it requires special care due to that it is painted.

Microsoft warranty coverage stops at 2 years, while Dell and Lenovo can offer you 3 years even 5 years on some products, and willing to pay the premium.

In terms of build quality, outside of cosmetic scratches:

Lenovo Business class systems > Microsoft > Apple > Dell Business > Dell high-end home > Lenovo high-end home > HP Business > Lenovo med and low end home > Dell med and low end home > HP home.

[don_svetlio]

-snip-

 

Thank you for the great and detailed description of the services and quality. I am sure I will find myself falling back on this very post when making future decisions, be it for me or for friends and relatives. This is indeed a very informative and overall fairly objective post.

In the near future I believe I will be recommending Lenovo or Asus to anyone with a very tight budget and Dell or Lenovo Business for people who want reliable solutions.

[GoodBytes]

You are very welcome.

[Bouzoo]

-snip-

Wow. You really take your time don't you? :lol:

For the OP.

I had experiences with Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo, Toshiba.

Acer. It was good build quality with decent specs. Didn't have it for long but it served it's purpose. Gladly I didn't have any problems with it, but from experiences from people that I know, Acer is like roulette. Either you never had problems with it, or you'll have to RMA it at least once a year. As I said, gladly I had no issues nor did some people I know, but 2 friends... it's pure torture, that had to RMA it 4-5 times I think? It was a decent laptop. Can't remember the name.

Asus. I had experience N61JQ and have a N550JK atm. Both are really good. N61JQ is still working decently and N550JK is really great. Build quality, it's good. Not superb but good. Why? I have about 20-30 dead pixels on my screen atm but can't afford to RMA it at the moment, gonna do that in few weeks, it's still under warranty. No idea how I got them. But the sound systems on both? That's superb, well in the end they are both N series. N61 has a TN glossy screen while the N550 has a matte IPS. I couldn't go back to TN even if I wanted to. Really, if you can get yourself a matte IPS.

HP. Can't remember the name of one even if it killed me, and I still have a nx9420 at home. The first one, well it died after 5 years, build quality was nice, specs were nothing spectacular. The latter, well I gave it 3GB RAM and a new HDD and it's rocking Win 7 atm. And it's almost 10 years old. It's ugly all right, like all old HP's, but it's still alive and working w/o a single issue. And the sound system is, well wow. I'd say it's almost on pair with N61, only worse than N5500 (Bang&Olufsen) & Lenovo (JBL). And I recently played Star Wars Republic Commando on it maxed to see if it'll work so that's how alive it is. Matte screen is quite good even today.

Lenovo. Only had experience with Y510. Honestly, it's the best build quality of all and it was the most expensive at the time, ~$1380. It's got a SLI TX650 from which one you can change for another HDD or a fan. Neat trick. Screen is decent, nothing spectacular. Sound? Awesome, JBL did a great job. It's quite heavy but it's from aluminum iirc. My brother-in-law has it and he's happy with it, but probably gonna get a new since he's a graphics designer and the screen is it's worst feature.

Toshiba. L550 and L655. I owned the first one until iGPU died. Managed to repair it but died again (not me, the repair shop). It survived everything for 6 years I threw at it and I wasn't kind at all. That one has a special place in my memory. The latter my gf had. It was a year newer but it was still great. The only problem with both was the build quality. The L550 was grey and only the trackpad buttons "lost the paint" from overuse, they became black. The L655 was red and got few black spots on the palmrest, the paint wore off.

And regarding all laptops, I would open them every 6 months / 1 year so they never became that hot.

I'm sure I forgot a few things but this are the first things that came to my mind. Hope it helps.

EDIT: I had around 20 laptops in my hands so I could clean them etc, but got to use them max 2 days so can't comment anything concrete on them.

Edited June 14, 2015 by Bouzoo

[Root]

I only had two laptops so far in my lifetime. One was a Gateway (back in 2009) and an Acer (2010). Both were similarly cheap, about $400-500 CAD at the time, and pieces of crap. The Gateway laptop's screen randomly broke one day, wouldn't display anything and no one did any damage to it (not even a tab that would effect it). The Acer laptop broke after a couple months. The WiFi board stopped working and both USB ports broke, don't know how it broke but woke up the next day and it was broken.

 

Those were cheap laptops though. I'm buying Acer VN7-791G-77HR (~$1,400 CAD), unless I find something better, for college either next month or in August. So, I'm hoping that my bad laptop experiences don't come and haunt me.

[SauronsV]

Had an acer lasted 2 years this was back in 2006, had a lenovo lasted 4 years was crap in the last year, and now have an acer for 6 months and it has overheated and have to replace it.

So I dont really like acer.... I want to try asus next or apple

[Root]

Had an acer lasted 2 years this was back in 2006, had a lenovo lasted 4 years was crap in the last year, and now have an acer for 6 months and it has overheated and have to replace it.

So I dont really like acer.... I want to try asus next or apple

Apple is good brand to buy if you like OS X/Apple, you take good care of it, and plan on reselling it to get a new one down the road. And depending on your area, you could resell for at least half it's value. Around my area, MacBook's that are from 2010/11 are selling for $1,300-2,000 (depending on specs and condition). I'm hoping that my Acer doesn't go to crap but I'm hoping I can find an ASUS laptop with the specs I need and in the same price range.

[don_svetlio]

-snip

 Thank you for sharing, I was actually very interested in seeing what Toshiba had to offer since none of my friends or acquaintances have used them, thus I was completely clueless about them so thanks for the info As for acer's overheating, I know that almost first hand. A good friend of mine has one of them and even though it has a low-clocked celeron, it still manages to overheat at very, very random times. She's actually thinking of swapping it now and if she does I'll be the one picking it. Anyhow, getting off course.

-snip

Gateway? Huh, I actually didn't know them up until this point but I guess I know to avoid them. As for Acer, I believe we all agree they're like the russian roulette of laptops

Thanks for sharing.

PS: Another one of my friends has an Acer tablet which also overheats like there's not tomorrow.

EDIT: Actually, does anyone know where I should post the topic asking for advice regarding the laptop choice? (Sorry for the dumb question, I'm new )

[Bouzoo]

-snip-

Hope it helped

And as far as Tos goes, when I had it it was the best in money/specs and the reviews were good, it was great for that time, but nowadays they lost that, nowhere near that. But at least I think they pumped up the build quality.

[don_svetlio]

Hope it helped

And as far as Tos goes, when I had it it was the best in money/specs and the reviews were got, it was great for that time, but nowadays they lost that, nowhere near that. But at least I think they pumped up the build quality.

It very much did. It saved my friend from Toshiba and HP .

Anyhow, this is what I'll probably end up recommending her

http://www.emag.bg/laptop-lenovo-g50-45-s-chetirijadren-amd-a6-6310-1-8-2-4-ghz-4-gb-1-tb-sata-5400-rpm-amd-radeon-r5-m230-2-gb-free-dos-cheren-lenovo-g50-45-80e30067bm/pd/D2D75BBBM/

Price is 300 Eu or about 345 USD or 425 CAD or 600 BGN (my currency )

[don_svetlio]

Figured I'd give this thread a bump and share some insights with a laptop I recently got 2nd hand.

It's a Compaq Prescario and even though Compaq are essentially HP now, this one seems to be a bit more reliable than the modern cheapo hp ones.

So, firstly, the lappy's specs are rather old (in my sig) and you can't expect jaw-dropping performance by it but it's enough to actually run SC2 on low settings at 30 fps even with lot's off stuff on the screen. Haven't exactly tested it more than that but what I did do is monitor temps very thoroughly and noticed that even though the heatsink is likely aluminum with only 1 heatpipe and a small-ish fan, temps on the tri-core never ever exceeded 72*C even at max load for about half an hour. That is actually impressive for a lappy considering that even dual core Celerons *cough* Acer *cough* manage to overheat somehow. (a friend has one ._.).

As for overall component quality, it's used so take this with a grain of salt as I have no idea what it's been through, Keyboard isn't overly impressive, it feels a bit cheap and looks like that but works fine, even after getting burned by a cigar or something along those lines. Screen is decent, not like newer IPS panels but still good screen without dead pixels or light leak. The camera included is your average run of the mill 720p camera and the microphone is sub-par. Audio quality for the people i skyped with was worse than a cheapo headset I normally use. Speakers aren't bad actually, I've not got much experience with actual good speakers but those were sufficient for my liking. The trackpad is slightly lacking as it occasionally will lose track of my fingers but that's something I blame on the thing being about 3-4 years old at this point. Mouse buttons are also slightly stiff, which I found weird as it has been used frequently in the past. I cannot comment on battery life as the one it came with is almost dead and needs replacing (30-40 mins of usage out of it ). Overall, i'm fairly happy with it as it was 140 euros and actually offered performance akin to 250 euro brand new lappys available here. It also has a 3-month warranty which is still better than nothing.

Overall, I'd like to see HP have such good quality low-end units but alas, that is unlikely

[exercutor5]

I had a HP Pavilion something something something, I cannot remember the model anymore, but it was a 14" notebook which back then I played games like Midtown Madness 2, Halo Trial, and mind you, that was in like 2012. The machine fried itself within months after my uncle gave it to me. Before that, my uncle hardly used it. So within like 2 months or so, the NVIDIA 8000 something GPU fried. Googled online a little and found out HP gave this machine an extended warranty of 3 years due to the fact that they discovered a design flaw and it couldn't handle heat output properly. So when my uncle brought it to our local HP service centre, the warranty just expired, even after the 3 years extension, and to repair it would cost 2/3 of the original price of the notebook. 

 

Moral of the story, don't get a HP, get a Clevo.