Laptops

[TomW]

I'm currently looking to buy a laptop for about £400, and I'm just wondering if there are any suggestions of a good one to go for. I've never had a laptop before and don't really have much knowledge as to which makes are good or bad etc.
I just need something thats not too big that I can use at home and at uni. I also want to be able to do half decent recordings on it.

Any suggestions of a good one to go for, or any I should avoid?

Cheers

[Nadz1lla]

For around that price, I'd avoid Dell, but possibly think about Toshiba. I used to work for them, and even as an ex-employee I will say that I found them very sturdy, reliable machines, even at low-end. Some models even come with an option between XP, Vista and Ubuntu. I would seriously have a look at what they have to offer at the moment.
Don't have much experience with other laptops really, oh apart from Sony Vaio. When you strip all the pre-installed Sony cr@pola off them, they can also be very sturdy and reliable. Unfortunately, I think with Sony you might pay through the nose for the name, but they are fairly good, nonetheless.
I remember hearing some good things about Acer a while back, and I am given the impression that if you're on a budget, they can perform quite well and have a fair spec for that price.

My advice would be to go on to any independent review site and see what their customers have to say about each of the makes named above. Always good to do a little research with the owners, as they are normally the most scrutinous of critics.

[ailean]

Why avoid Dell?

I'd take a look at the Dell 'outlet' site, these are systems that can't be sold as new becuase they have been returned, but they are basiclly new. The list changes quickly and it's worth keeping an eye on.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/dfh/df.aspx?refid=df&s=dfh&cs=ukdfh1&~ck=betafrbsd

I also use these guys to buy stuff from at work, again they buy 'graded' stock, so returned items and end of line gear, but I've never had anything come through that wasn't in good condition.

CCS http://www.ccsmedia.com/
EuroPC http://www.europc.co.uk/

However it's always worth checking out PC world special offers, some of their prices are really good.

[Nadz1lla]

Because I know at least 3 people who have had a completely unacceptable time at the hands of Dell, their shoddy workmanship, and their even shoddier customer services. They have even lost a couple of laptops in the post when sending "repaired" ones back. I say "repaired", they always seem to ignore the root issue with the machine and just reinstall the software, or repair a completely irrelevant and unrelated part. Plus the quality of their cheaper models is hideous. Another person I know has had 2 replacements and on each one the colour on the plastic where you would normally rest your wrists wears away in a matter of weeks.

I personally wouldn't touch a Dell laptop, even if it was the last interent enabled computer on the planet and I needed to check my facebook. Their desktops are ok, but their Laptops are basically just expensive paper weights.

[_tom_]

I've always had good experiences with Dell, everyone in my family has one! Had my Inspiron 6000 for 3-4 years now and it still runs ok. Got Ubuntu on it now, runs better than xp and windows 7!

[ailean]

Because I know at least 3 people who have had a completely unacceptable time at the hands of Dell, their shoddy workmanship, and their even shoddier customer services. They have even lost a couple of laptops in the post when sending "repaired" ones back. I say "repaired", they always seem to ignore the root issue with the machine and just reinstall the software, or repair a completely irrelevant and unrelated part. Plus the quality of their cheaper models is hideous. Another person I know has had 2 replacements and on each one the colour on the plastic where you would normally rest your wrists wears away in a matter of weeks.

I personally wouldn't touch a Dell laptop, even if it was the last interent enabled computer on the planet and I needed to check my facebook. Their desktops are ok, but their Laptops are basically just expensive paper weights.

Fair point. I've had good experience with them, although that is with their desktops which we use at work.

[MDV]

My laptop, that I'm on right now, is a dell, and it has no flaws that cant be attributed to the modest-at-best spec.

Never dealt with their customer support, never had a problem with it.

I'm not recommending them though, because I havent sampled enough of the competition. But they arent bad.

[Andrew W]

Fair point. I've had good experience with them, although that is with their desktops which we use at work.

I'd second that.  We use Dell workstations at work and, granted they are the absolute top end in terms of spec, I doubt our tech department would buy unless they were confident in Dell as a company.  My current work machine has been absolutely thrashed 24 hours a day for two years and has never showed any sign of a fault.  Additionally, my dad has had a few Dell laptops (middle of the range ones) and he's never had any problems. 

I suspect that with any large manufacturer there are always going to be some lemons, both in terms of individual machines and people manning the customer support lines...

[Jonny]

My Dell laptop, I don't like, but when I did need to get it repaired an engineer came. All the way to my Uni room, fixed it up, had a little chat while he did it. Fixed it up, said bye and away he went.

So I don't think its that bad, but.. I can't really put words on what I don't like about Dell.

[Adam.M]

Dell WERE really horrible, i mean, atrociously bad.

But they don't seem to be anymore... 5 years ago i would have come up in a rash around a Dell PC but lately, they seem to be pretty good. I'm even considering buying one next time around, shocking.

I think they've really had to up their game because of all the really, really bad press they used to get.

Hell, half the problems Dell used to have was the people in front of the screens using them :| Dell customers also got bad rep... ^_^ just like AOL!

[MrBump]

Dell are OK.  I've had a Dell desktop for years, not mind blowing, but certainly not bad.

Good driver support etc.

In terms of laptops, I've had really good experiences with Acers.  Professionally, I'd vote for Toshiba - when I used to work with hardware, they were great.  Compaq/HP too.

Mark.

[AndyR]

Looks like I don't really need to add my opinion for balance, but I will anyway :lol:

Dell are good as far as I'm concerned - I'm typing on a 6 year old Inspiron. The firm I've been with for 10 years will not buy anything other than Dell. I've had something like 4 Dell desktops while I've been there - not a single one assigned to me has had hardware problems (there have been problems on others over that time, but you expect some breakdowns with that many). In fact, several of the companies I've worked for have used them.

My Inspiron's nearly on it's last legs, I think, but I was expecting it to die a few years ago. My wife's Toshiba laptop on the other hand died before she'd finished paying off the loan for it!! (It was just out of warranty funnily enough :roll:. It cost her nearly twice what I paid for my more powerful Inspiron 6-12 months later. We chucked the Tosh after we found it was pretty much a goner... literally... I let her actually throw it out the window :lol:).

Not saying Toshiba are any worse or better than Dell - it's just our particular customer experience... but it does mean we're "Go! Dell... whoohoo... Toshiba? No thanks ma-an..."

EDIT: She's working on her 3 year old desktop from, er, Dell - no problems experienced with that either, except for the odd problem caused by "user action"!! (mine, as well as hers, I have to admit)

[Nadz1lla]

Aye, Dell desktops are pretty good, never had a problem with them. 2 of the 3 people I talked about earlier are in I.T. One of whom told Dell exactly what was wrong with the machine before sending it off and they still returned it with the wrong part replaced! This was last year.

But anyway, all I can tell you is what 3 people have experienced. It's not to say they are all rubbish. But I had to start asking questions about their laptops when out of all the people I know who own one, a large percentage had a bad experience. Not to mention all the people who used to call us up at Toshiba and say "Oh don't talk to me about Dell, I had to buy this Toshiba because of them...." Doesn't do a lot for my opinion of them tbh.   

[ailean]

I should have said, we have a Tosh laptop, and while it's not astounding, it's perfectly good, so thumbs up if you can find a good price on one. Don't buy a Sony unless it's rediculously well priced as the are always priced about 10% over their actual value.

I think the main rule is compare specs with price, get the best hardware for your money and don't be fooled by software bundles as most of them are rubbish, particularly the anti virus as most of the time it's a trial version for a month and then you have to pay anyway.

Microsoft Works is not really compatible with MS Office so while it offers the same functionality it's a pain to port from one to the other (although I think MS have improved this somewhat).

You can download Open Office for free and that's a pretty good alternative to MS Office. I'd use this even if I had MS Works.

[Nadz1lla]

Aye I used to advise customers that if they had run out their free trial of MS Office and didn't want to pay for the full version, Open Office was a good alternative. I use it and it's damn good for freeware. There's a lot of good freeware around at the moment, all my AV, anti spy and malware stuff is free.

Agreed on the Sony thing, they overprice, and also agree on software bundles, usually they are disappointing. Try and get as OEM as you can with laptops, it's very rare that manufacturer softwaring DOESN'T slow the machine down at least 10%!