Which lappy is most reliable?

Which one ?

  • HP

    Votes: 4 8.5%
  • Lenova

    Votes: 31 66.0%
  • Sony

    Votes: 1 2.1%
  • Acer

    Votes: 1 2.1%
  • other

    Votes: 10 21.3%

  • Total voters
    47

OPUS1

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Apr 25, 2003
Messages
1,766
I'm looking to get a Laptop,
Which company has the best quality?
 
My school sells Thinkpad laptops almost exclusively through the computer store. I work for the school's IT department. No chance in hell I'd buy a Lenevo laptop. Support is anywhere from acceptable to absolutely wretched. There was a huge batch of laptops that were shipped to the school that would BSOD upon connecting to our wireless network. Lenevo wouldn't do a damn thing about replacing them or shipping updated restore CDs with updated drivers that fixed the issue. Frustrating as hell, because you couldn't disable the wireless via the BIOS, and the wireless would automatically connect to the network upon Windows start up before you could disable it. Had to boot into safe mode, load the drivers off a thumb drive, extract the drivers from the setup file because the setup would not run in safe mode and install the drivers manually. Absolute pain in my ass. I'm pretty sure I had to do that to a good 300 laptops in the span or 3 or 4 months last year.

I've lately been fighting with Lenevo because some poor girl owns an olderish T42 that hasn't worked right since day 1. Damn near everything in the system has been replaced at least once. If you restore the system using the restore partition, you're pretty much guaranteed BSODs during startup (including in safe mode) within a few boots. Appears to be some significant driver conflicts or similar issues. Lenevo refuses to even look at the computer anymore, despite the fact that its still under warranty. True, it's a software issue, but its an issue being caused by vendor-supplied drivers on the only vendor-approved way of restoring the machine.

On the other hand, I do know a few people who have had to had various bits and pieces of their Thinkpad repaired/replaced. Turn around time isn't particularly stellar--I'd say roughly 2-3 weeks on average (a long time if you're taking classes and thats your only computer aside from over-flowing computer labs), but they've had their systems returned in good working order and hadn't any further issues.

Oh, and the pre-installed security software is absolutely obnoxious. They're lite on the other crapware that most OEMs like Dell/HP/etc. install, but the security BS that comes with it more than makes up with it (and don't even get me started on ThinVantage Wireless Manager which is enabled by default. . .).

Other companies I've had the pleasure of dealing with:

Dell - My own laptop had some issues while under warranty. Sent it back on a Friday, had it back on a Tuesday. Repair was quick, everything came back honky-dory. Most people I've dealt with who have had similar issues have had similar results. Support, at least in regards to warranty repair is pretty good all the way around. Ton of preinstalled shitware installed on most machines (they have/did offer to not install it on some higher-end models. Whether they still offer that I'm not sure). Price-wise you can get some damn good deals with coupons and other sales. They're also one of the few companies to still offer a reinstall CD (though it generally costs $10). Had a few horror stories, though I can't recall any of them that didn't appear to come from ignorant computer users who blame Dell for their malware-infested laptop running like crap. The whole "Tech support in India" thing tends to be a bit over-stated, but most of my dealings with them have been via online chat, though the few foreigners I've dealt with on the phone have been easy to understand and have some measurable level of intelligence (I wish I could say that about the average customer I deal with. . .).

Apple - Not personally a huge fan of OS X. Their support from dealing with customers and a broken iPod Shuffle has been mostly positive. I've heard one or two horror stories of Apple blowing customers off and sending laptops back not fixed, but nothing that would mirror my experiences with Lenevo support.

HP - Eh. Mixed bag here. Had a friend recently spend $250 to replace the motherboard on his crappy eMachines laptop. I tried to talk him out of it, but he went through with it anyway. HP's support hasn't exactly been steller there--they kept his system for well over a month, but did do a bit more than just replace his motherboard. He's had plenty of problems since with the laptop as well, though I wouldn't be surprised if at least part of the problem was him (he tends to treat his belongings like crap). I've heard of a few other reports of people sending out laptops and HP keeping them for over a month to fix, though average seems to be 1-2 weeks.

Toshiba - I will never forgive them for their wretched over-heating problems with all their P4-M laptops. Their support there has been absolutely awful. Can't say I have any experiences directly or otherwise with them since however. A lot of other people use to love the Satellite laptops in the past though, so perhaps they have since improved once again . . . I wouldn't be willing to take that wager personally.
 
levono is def. the best there i have dropped mine two or there times(yes, in a bag but still). then bout two months ago i tried to see how tough it was and the golf cart sadly won. HEHE
 
This poll makes no sense, it is asking which laptop is the most reliable, but the only choices are companies.

 
This poll makes no sense, it is asking which laptop is the most reliable, but the only choices are companies.


Yep
Just goes to show ya 1 out of 10 people just don't get it:D

I had a ZD7000 HP Lappy that had a serious design problem.
I bet every one of them crapped out!
Their service said that they could ether fix the thing with the same hardware or replace the graphics card with a slower one (the reason for the failure).
After doing some research I found out that it seemed like everyone had the same problem.
I spoke to India and right away said bump me up to the next level,
Told the next guy to let me speak to a case manager.
Told the case manager that the offer was not acceptable and she offered to send a brand new ZD 9000 series.to replace my 3 year old Lappy.
Had it in 3 weeks.
So I'd have to say that Hp did right by me, but I still hear horror stories about their laptops.
Me thinks Lenova or Sony will be my next choice.
 
Lenovo ThinkPad. I have 2. T60 and X60s. Solid is the only word....Oh ya I dropped my X60s 4 feet (onto carpet) while it was on...the active HDD protection prob had something to do with it working flawless still. :)
 
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