TibbyGirl

Getting another laptop for school and I was wondering what you all thought about the 3 brands in the title. Ive looked at laptop and the 3 brands are all comparable in specs and price. If everything was the same, but there were 3 different brands, which would you guys choose and why?

majik

depends on the model to me, but I'd go with the cheapest. All three make both cheap laptops and really nice laptops.



I opt with Dell, personally, because I can order through their "Dell Outlet" and get scratch & dent or refurb items for super cheap. I spend $400 on a $700 laptop and it easily lasts 4-5 years, at which point I'll replace it with another $400 laptop.



I got a really good desktop and 19" monitor for $500 total after shipping and 10% sales tax. 4 Years old and going strong



http://www.dell.com/outlet - I'm curious what the price difference is between your exact model in Store vs. Outlet

DTN

I was going to wait for others to chime in and say their favorites.. It does not look like many people want to participate...



Dell has had a government contract for a while. With the sheer numbers of volume, you'd have to imagine that they would be able to improve their hardware combinations.... Really, though, when it comes down to it, they're simply a distributor.



AMD, Intel, Nvidia and the plethora of motherboard/ram/case designers make the hardware what it is... There is no best. Companies who have "great customer service" today have terrible customer service tomorrow. The little guys can be the way to go. They have something to prove and are trying their hardest. The big guys got big because they were once little guys with something to prove.



If I were to pick from those three by name, I'd go with samsung.... Simply because I bought their phone yesterday and love it.... You're thinking, "hey, that's not a real reason".... You're right, that's not a real reason. There is no real reason to pick and choose a vendor's name unless it's for customer service, and that changes constantly.



You're going to hear great/poor reviews from all of those companies, except Samsung because noone expects anything from them, they're not a known computer company. If you buy a Hyundai and the door handle falls off in 1 year, you'd be pissed... If you spent a little less and bought a "mom-n-pop's automotive" car the pissed-off-ness of the situation would be lessened considerably.



So, unless you're getting a specialized product, like a "Tough-book", or a "Mac-book-pro".... It comes down to hardware value/cost.



Consider this, Laptops have a 2 year life expectancy in the rough conditions of a home. You will drop your laptop about 2-4 times per year. The hardware will exceed recommended temperatures once a month when you set it on your couch or your bed, or even cover up the vents. You will splash a bit of your drink in the keyboard as well. If you're in school, it's subject to loss or damage. Lets just say the annual rate of occurrence of catastrophic failure is 1/2.



If you spend $1000 on a laptop, you can assume it will basically cost you $41 per month. If you spend $250 on a Walmart netbook, it's $10 per month. That's practically expendable... Less then the cost of Internet. $10/month would hardly be worth insurance or extended warranty.



You can spend quite a bit more on a desktop which will last you for much longer. Every 2-5 years I buy a new motherboard/processor/ram combo for about $400. It's not going to fail because it's not exposed to any of those conditions.. It's going to fail because of use/age/wear. My wireless keyboard does get some drinks spilled on it from time to time.



I'm with majik... Go cheap. Don't worry about brand name, because you're going to cause the problems with your laptop anyways. It's a much better idea to have a expensive desktop with a low rate of failure and a cheap laptop which can be damaged/lost/stolen without any real impact.

majik

I'm with DTN - a desktop will last longer and you can get more for your money, it's also easier to upgrade to keep it current, but since you're getting it for school a laptop may be a better option.



I use a laptop 90% of the time. My desktop is primarily for pictures, music, photo editing, and storing important documents. The laptop is for everything else.

DTN

I'm with majik. I'm suggesting both... Since she already has 1 or 2 laptops, she posted last time she bought one.... I use my desktop quite a bit because it has a huge screen which makes data easy to present and windows easy to locate, it's also a very fast machine. I use a netbook for processing power on-the-go. I use my phone about 70% of the time for internet, email and what not... Laptops are good for school, but if you've already got one, don't get another... That's 2 pieces of hardware which serve the same purpose, are overpriced, and vulnerable to the same problems.

Tibbi

If I had to pick one of the three it would be Samsung.

HP has never made a respectable product imho. And after Dell told me that a failing fan and lack of POST was "user induced damage" I basically have written them of too.



If you need a laptop and want quality Asus is the best bet these days, again that's just my opinion. A lot of bang for not so much buck. It won't be as cheap as the others.... but it also won't be cheap [period]

Personally I am holding out for the Gscreen Spacebook as my next laptop, but it's still in beta stage and probably well beyond the needs of any sane individual.

187sks

I would not buy anything from either Dell or HP unless I was at gunpoint. That is based partly on their rampant bloatware, some on the true value of the products, and some on business practices that I disagree with. I wouldn't buy a Samsung because IMO their quality is unproven in the computer market.



Personally I would suggest either Toshiba or Acer.

turbosocks

from experience, I would go with a dell or samsung.



I have a dell laptop (going on 7-8 years old now) and an HP laptop (about 2 years old) and a Samsung phone.



Yeah, comparing a phone with a laptop is night and day, but I have always been more than satisfied with any samsung product, but i have never even seen or touched a samsung laptop.



In the 7-8 years I have owned the Dell laptop (inspiron 6000) I haven't had many issues other than user inflicted (a few times the AC adapter on the motherboard came loose and had to be soldered) I have replaced the battery and AC adapter a couple times, but thats about it. Still running the OEM windows XP and still going strong.



My HP on the other hand, what a piece of junk, until I did a bunch to it.

From the getgo, the thing would get so hot (100+C) sitting on a table (no vent restriction) that it would turn off. I ended up taking it all apart, cleaning off the processor and other elements, using new thermal compound to fix the problem.

Windows vista was also the source of alot of my problems (upgraded to 7 ultimate)

The customer support SUCKED when it was under the 90 day warranty.

The backlighting on the screen all but went out, so i took the entire thing apart again and had to secure the plug better and solder the actual plug to get it working again.

The bloatware sucked, alot more than the bloatware on the dell.

half the time the 'touch' quickplay features don't even work. the volume will get stuck in a loop and stay up on the screen until a restart or going to sleep mode and back.

That was my HP...

My brother also had/has an HP laptop and desktop, both a year older than mine. He doesn't download anything or do anything non-legit( like i do) and both of his computers are crap.

The HP laptops wireless hardware stopped working after a year, the screens resolution goes back and forth from hi to low, even after recovery's, gets really hot, etc.

His desktop has been recovered 4 times in 3 years, sometimes randomly will pop up and say its missing a file or try to start in safe mode and get stuck in a loop.



I wouldn't recommend anything HP to anyone.

majik

Samsung experience: I'm very happy with my Samsung 40" LCD and 55" LED LCD. I can't say anything about their computers.



Toshiba experience: I had one of the first 16" laptops that came out, back in 2000 I think. The laptop was great, but it was more of a desktop replacement at 9.5 lbs. Ran games great, had a strong processor, but had poor air vent design with the inlet on the bottom (if placed on a lap it would prevent any air from cooling). It would overheat easily, and every 6 months I would have to remove the bottom to strip the inch thick dust from the heatsink so air could get to the processor. Otherwise, it would shut off when it overheated (anytime any graphic intense games were started). The laptop was great, build quality was great, it was a top of the line model, but it had poor design on the air circulation. That's the first thing I look for now when searching laptops. Haven't seen any as bad as that model, so I guess they learned after floods of complaints.



My mom has a Toshiba laptop that ALSO has heating issues. It will shut off when it gets too hot, and it isn't easy to access the bottom (so I can't clean the dust out of there). It's had wireless device problems since the beginning, and it's been wiped clean twice in 3 years.



Dell experience: I've owned a 15" Inspiron laptop and inspiron (i think) desktop for 4 years. Both are still going strong with original bloatware added. Both are running Vista. The only thing I've done is added 2GB RAM to the desktop to make it 4GB. My wife uses the laptop for school, and regularly runs off the battery. The battery life has shrunk to probably 35-45 minutes of unplug time, but that's still good IMO after 4 years of constant use. Both were purchased from the Dell Outlet and came looking brand new.



HP Experience: I have a very nice 17" HP laptop at work (Elitebook 8730w). We have 9 people in our department that have this same laptop, and nobody has had any issues with it. However, it was stripped from their Vista/Win7 installs and reimaged with our IT Dept. settings (Win XP). Structurally, they're great and durable. Great screen, good biometric fingerprint scanner, full number pad. We moved to these laptops when the IBM Lenovo models we used reduced to a 14" screen. These have been much easier for us than the Lenovo, easy touch buttons for activating wireless, adjusting sound, etc. Our department has been using them for 2 years so far without any complaints. No hardware issues at all, they're still fast, and no problem with batteries or power cables.



However... my sister has a cheap HP laptop and it sucks. She's the worst at taking care of electronics, but it has several missing keys that have popped off the keyboard, the screen was sensitive and has had issues with a disconnecting sensor and now has a permanent vertical line displayed about 20% from the left side. It's crappy, but it was a $350 refurb and my sister has beat it to death. I don't know how much is her fault or the cheapness of the laptop.



Bottom Line: My experiences have been GREAT with higher end purchases, and hit-or-miss with low cost refurbs. I take care of my stuff, and never had a problem, but with my mom/sister being less than careful, they've had problems.

turbosocks

guess thats something good to note..



My HP along with my brothers were more entry level models. I still think its shitty that a company even puts out a 600$ entry level hunk of junk.