[rhy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lostbobby /img/forum/go_quote.gif If you live in US, i recommend seeing what Costco has, cause you get 6 months to decide if you like it or want to return it. The other option is a refurbished Macbook Pro for $1400 or so. Beautiful machines, but they are the 1st generation which make weird noises and get really hot.

so i could purchase a laptop from costco, use it for 5 months and 29 days, take it back, and get refunded in full, and not store credit but cash back, granted that i don't put a hole through the screen or anything?

 

[1911]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhy /img/forum/go_quote.gif so i could purchase a laptop from costco, use it for 5 months and 29 days, take it back, and get refunded in full, and not store credit but cash back, granted that i don't put a hole through the screen or anything?

yeah...but they keep track of things...do this too often and you will be blacklisted

 

[Oistrakh]

You should get a lenovo before getting a Mac... Nice computers and keyboards

 

[saint.panda]

I highly recommend the Macbook Pro and, depending on your size requirements, the Macbook due to both, in my opinion, Apple's superior software and hardware. Price-wise, it's at the upper end of the spectrum along with the Sony and IBM offerings. The Macbook Pro was probably the best eletronic purchase I've ever done.

 

[1911]

imo
toshiba satellite was ok and reliable...took a beating but the hard drive sectors started to go bad after 4 years but hey that is pretty good. but $ for what you get.

dell sucks..it broke after one trip while the toshiba was able to make it numerous times.

i now have a hp and it seems ok for now..i thought about a apple and perhaps next laptop i will....but i got it at costco and i am satisfied.

 

[hongda]

Check out asus. The laptops I've seen have all been solidly built. This is their Tablet Laptop

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3453

A little more info would be helpful. What will this machine be used for? Sitting at a given location most of the time? Moving around quite a bit? If your moving around a lot, I would go for the 13-14" range. 15"-ish for the more staionary laptop.

Next is the screen. Glossy is nice for movies and such, but hard to use outdoors or in brightly lit areas.

 

[Schalldampfer]

LG!!! Wholly on the more expensive side, but the components are top-notch, and it looks BEAUTIFUL! Actually... the most beautiful laptop.

 

[bLue_oNioN]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hongda /img/forum/go_quote.gif Check out asus. The laptops I've seen have all been solidly built. This is their Tablet Laptop http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3453 A little more info would be helpful. What will this machine be used for? Sitting at a given location most of the time? Moving around quite a bit? If your moving around a lot, I would go for the 13-14" range. 15"-ish for the more staionary laptop. Next is the screen. Glossy is nice for movies and such, but hard to use outdoors or in brightly lit areas.

I'm surprised it took until the second page for someone to mention Asus. Their offerings are IBM/Lenovo quality, but typically a generation ahead in terms of hardware, and priced at cutthroat values. Definitely the go-to notebook manufacturer of choice.

 

[kramer5150]

IBM T series. I beat the snot out of the T40 and T43 for at least ~75 hours/week, in and out of the office and on weekends. IMHO they are very durable. Why can't more models use cast aluminum screen hinges and sub-support structure? I have posted comments about HD crashes in other threads, but honestly, thats the result of user abuse more than anything design-related. IMHO any HD in my hands will crash eventually, regardless of what PC its installed in.

I for one didn't have much luck with the Toshiba Tecra series... but that was 5-6 years ago.

Spring for an external drive to back up all your files onto. I use a 40G Fujitsu via USB and it has saved me at least 2-3 times.

 

[facelvega]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kramer5150 /img/forum/go_quote.gif IBM T series. I beat the snot out of the T40 and T43 for at least ~75 hours/week, in and out of the office and on weekends. IMHO they are very durable. Why can't more models use cast aluminum screen hinges and sub-support structure? I have posted comments about HD crashes in other threads, but honestly, thats the result of user abuse more than anything design-related. IMHO any HD in my hands will crash eventually, regardless of what PC its installed in.

My personal experience backs up what others are saying here: IBM/Lenovo has significantly better build quality than Dell. The story:

I used a T40 (or was it a T42?) trouble-free for two and a half years, then dropped it in Penn Station when my bag's shoulder strap broke racing to catch a train-- after which the screen was semi-broken, and then when I took the thing apart to fix the screen, I managed to corrupt my hard drive as well and had to do a manual restore point installation. (curiosity killed the cat, couldn't stop myself taking the whole thing apart)

When I got a dell E1505 for peace of mind against the dying IBM (so much cheaper!), after less than two months the Samsung hard drive started clicking and then died, this time completely unrecoverable. Two months in which it left the house maybe a half-dozen times. Sure, they shipped me a new drive for free, leaving me the joys of data loss and ten hours of formatting and software reinstallation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kramer5150 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Spring for an external drive to back up all your files onto. I use a 40G Fujitsu via USB and it has saved me at least 2-3 times.

Look at my story, man: two dead hard drives inside of two months. Backup drives aren't that expensive!

 

[jmmtn4aj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwkarth /img/forum/go_quote.gif I bought a Sony SZ and although it was a really sexy piece of hardware, the software was so unstable I ended up returning it. I ended up buying an Apple MacBook Pro. I run XP in a Parallels VM and it is the best laptop I've ever had by a wide margin. I'll never buy anything else.

Software was unstable?

I dunno, I don't use any of the proprietary Sony software that came with my Vaio, and have uninstalled most of them. =\

 

[warpdriver]

IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads will always be at the top of the heap if I want something nice and reliable. They don't look like much, but they are built like a rock, and I love their keyboards. They do cost a lot more, but you get what you pay for in terms of stability and reliability.

Otherwise, Dell is good for the budget/bang for the buck category. Go for the Latitude line which is more of a direct competitor to the Thinkpad line.

I've been eyeing the Sony UX series handheld computers. Very cool if you absolutely travel and need to go light as possible.

 

[carlosgp]

Apple, Samsung, Sony.

 

[jules650]

My Toshiba m35 heats up quite badly too, so much so that I had to buy an external fan that almost doubles its thickness. I think dust accumulates quite easily over the heatsink.

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmmtn4aj /img/forum/go_quote.gif Software was unstable? I dunno, I don't use any of the proprietary Sony software that came with my Vaio, and have uninstalled most of them. =\

I bought two Sony Vaio laptops at the same time, a Vaio SZ-360 and a C-140.

The C-140 seems very stable. The SZ-360 on the other hand had so many proprietary versions of specialized drivers for video, wireless communications and the like that it was virtually impossible to use unless you never changed anything from out of the box condition. That was my experiece in any event. Great hardware but married waay too closely to particular versions of device drivers that would get routinely updated by hardware vendors, which then in turn, broke the SZ-360. It happened to me with Video driver upgrades for both the ATI and Intel video drivers (yes, the 360 has 2 video cards, either of which could be selected depending upon whether you wanted performance or battery life optimization.) and the Cingular WWAN driver (updated from built in EDGE card to UMTS) in the SZ-360.