[j3rt]

hi everyone,
this is Jeremy's lady hijacking (oo am i allowed to say that on here???) his board for a moment.....
anyhoo, he mentioned that there we previous discussions about laptops, but searching through the posts is awkward.
anyhow, i am looking for a laptop and am just wondering if anyone has any preferences or bad experienes...i am looking at the toshiba protege or tecra..
need it to be fairly lightweight but will not be running any programs such as photoshop but would like to get a fairly decent one nonetheless..mostly i will use it for word, excel, internet, music and such.
maybe mid-line, not the very top of the line.
thanks,
Rita
:o)

[NOS2Go4Me]

No... noo... NO!

Stay far, FAR away from Toshiba.

I'd recommend something from Dell that actually has a warranty you can use.

I'd especially recommend starting with this: http://configure.dell.com/dellstore/config...SP640MS_FEAT_E1

They walk you through picking everything... it ought to do everything you want, and it even comes with a printer, carry case and 3 years Next Business Day on-site warranty at the price I spec'ed it out at and made the PDF from.

I made a quick PDF cart printout of what I configured: http://home.cogeco.ca/~aweichel/testsystem.pdf

Just so you know, I run an environment of 80+ Dell laptop / desktop units daily just in North Bay, plus another 15 or so remotely in Sudbury. I can't beat the value on the warranty they offer (and the components are good, too). On that note, they're ideal for someone who will require the laptop to always be available.

Adam :)

[ANTHONYD]

Hey Rita:

Most Apple iBooks are a good bet. I have 2 myself and absolutely LOVE them.

DarkPuppet (Steve) and Nos2GO4me (Adam) are good guys to ask.

[ZX5focused]

i swear by my toshiba, it was top of the line when i bought it 3 yrs ago and can still eaily keep up with whats out now. the warranty is good if you take it directly to the repair shop.
anythign by the store you buy it from is useless(they usually send it away). i had two problems with mine, broken keys (from playing games) and a pinched wire in the lcd screen. brought it to the repair shop and picked it up 2 days later. future shop said 4 weeks minimum.

i would buy a toshiba again, ive had friends who've bought compaq's and had tons of problems.

[NOS2Go4Me]

ZX5focused,Sep 5 2006, 03:55 PM Wrote: the warranty is good if you take it directly to the repair shop.[right][snapback]205504[/snapback][/right]

No offense man, but that's my point. With Dell, it's one phonecall. Typically, it's like this:

Dell Cust Support: Hi, what's the problem?

Me: My laptop keyboard just shot 4 keys across the room..

Dell: What's your service tag, confirm address and name, yadda yadda.

Me: yadda yadda

Dell: A technician will be at your home/work/cottage/hospital tomorrow with the new keyboard. They'll install it and you're good to go.

Or

Dell: What's the problem?

Me: One of my guys flew back from Indonesia and checked his laptop in with his luggage. His LCD screen is now a 1000-piece puzzle at best.

Dell: We'll have a tech there tomorrow with a new LCD.

The second one only works if you have Complete Care, which I wholeheartedly recommend.

Their software support is great as well. :)

[darkpuppet]

^-- complete care is handy, and you can usually get that kind of support for any laptop if you go through a proper distributor.

Now, technology-price wise, I find the Toshiba's a very good value. They used to be the top of the heap, but still maintain a marginal lead IMO. That and the construction quality is much better than compaq and some of the cheaper Dells.

it's a trade-off really... the complete care costs a bit more, but you get that piece of mind. But if you're good with your stuff, and want to save a few sheckels, other manufacturers offer better deals.

But then again, remember that there are tradeoffs for going cheap too... my compaq laptop has a crappy glidepad, is finickey with some software drivers, and if you pick it up with one hand, you risk accidentally hitting the battery release button and having it land on your foot. not to mention the cheesy plastic construction.

then you get to my IBM (now lenovo) laptop, and sure, it's about $500 more for the same hardware, but it's smaller, lighter, longer battery life, better pointer device, and it's been dropped several times without any issue. After having owned and having to live with both, I would rather save up a couple extra pennies and buy a mid-range thinkpad over the cheaper "high end" features of their competitors..

same applies to apple laptops...and if they're using intel processors now, you could even get windows running on them to be able to play with all your friends... in fact, I'd love a mac notebook myself... they are beautiful machines.

[j3rt]

okay so here are some others, some guy at a computer store said the best one i can buy is fujitsu (which i didnt know made computers) and the next is LG and then aesus..but i know not enough about this stuff to know if those are really good or not. who knows maybe its the ones he carried.
i know i will never buy hp but other than that i am pretty open..and i know ibm is good but their laptops are a bit ugly...and well i am a girl and while looks are not THAT important, i still have a preference

[mo_focus]

darkpuppet,Sep 5 2006, 08:34 PM Wrote:then you get to my IBM (now lenovo) laptop, and sure, it's about $500 more for the same hardware, but it's smaller, lighter, longer battery life, better pointer device, and it's been dropped several times without any issue.  After having owned and having to live with both, I would rather save up a couple extra pennies and buy a mid-range thinkpad over the cheaper "high end" features of their competitors..


[right][snapback]205509[/snapback][/right]

If you want a Lenovo(IBM), let me know. My wife gets EP pricing. the old ones like T-42, 43's are very good. Their new line 3000's are compatiable with Toshiba's and Dell's
Either way let me know

I got a toshiba A70. Hate it. I have signeed numerous petitiones for recalls. Hate is not a strong enough word :(

I can't put in on the ground for a sec, if i do, it shuts down. I can't charge the battery without playing with the cord for 1/2hr.

Hate it. Hate it. Does anyone know if there is a warranty still on it if its more then a year old?

[Drivesthebeast]

I have an A70 Tosh as well, and it's been both good and bad, but more good overall. It lacks a bit in speed now (only has 512mb internal ram right now) when it comes to stuff thats high demand on the memory or video card. I can usually multi-task mine out the wazzoo, except with running a program like Limewire or playing a hi res game like NFSMW Black Edition. It's been pretty reliable overall since it's been to Afghanistan for 6 months, was involved in a rollover in a Bison 8x8 APC, etc. I've never had it in to be serviced or even cleaned for anything. I just used an air duster a couple times, and do the cleansweep and defrag at least once per month on both the laptop, and my external hardrive.

I purchased it from my local Staples Biz Depot in Pembroke, and bought the 4 year additional warranty on it. I can basically return it to the store destroyed and get a new one if I wanted to.

Toshibas have always been very highly rated for a Windows driven unit. I've not any experience with Apple stuff in a long time, so I can't say anything about them.

Hope this helps

[NefCanuck]

j3rt,Sep 5 2006, 04:37 PM Wrote:okay so here are some others, some guy at a computer store said the best one i can buy is fujitsu (which i didnt know made computers) and the next is LG and then aesus..but i know not enough about this stuff to know if those are really good or not. who knows maybe its the ones he carried.
i know i will never buy hp but other than that i am pretty open..and i know ibm is good but their laptops are a bit ugly...and well i am a girl and while looks are not THAT important,  i still have a preference
[right][snapback]205511[/snapback][/right]

Let me chime in here with a warning about LG notebooks, definately not top teir in terms of anything especially reliability and their warranty support is, sketchy, at best.

NefCanuck

[darkpuppet]

j3rt,Sep 5 2006, 04:37 PM Wrote:okay so here are some others, some guy at a computer store said the best one i can buy is fujitsu (which i didnt know made computers) and the next is LG and then aesus..but i know not enough about this stuff to know if those are really good or not. who knows maybe its the ones he carried.
i know i will never buy hp but other than that i am pretty open..and i know ibm is good but their laptops are a bit ugly...and well i am a girl and while looks are not THAT important,  i still have a preference
[right][snapback]205511[/snapback][/right]

I might stay away from LG... and I know that fujitsu used to make OEM laptops meant for branding by other companies... the same applies to asus (and acer which made the old IBM i-series if I recall correctly) as well.

if you want a pretty laptop, you may want to go Dell.. or apple. I haven't seen the latest Toshiba's in person, but a couple years ago, I'd recommend them for feature content, not style, as the stylish ones tended to be crappy...

[ZTWsquared]

I too can recommend Toshiba ... I've had two - never a problem with either of them and the old one is close to 6 years old and is still being used.

The Satellite 4030CDS I currently have is now three years old ... it used every day all day and travels extensively. It's never needed a repair and it's never even crashed.

This is neither the smallest nor the most stylish laptop, but based on my experience I'd say it can't be beat in dependability or durability.