Laptop brands-do they matter?

[Poizen22]

I liked hp until the year I worked at a computer store, and we had call backs on all the laptops by hp we had sold in the year. most people who have an hp I know of have at least 1 problem with it, and they don't own the cheep models either. for laptops I like Gateway and Lenovo, don't think you can get better quality then that. sony is nice to. i recomend all of these over other brands for price, and durability.

 

[Harper]

As the saying goes.... You get what you pay for.

Also another word of warrning is this. If you see a notebook that is going unbelievablly cheap, I would be asking the question if it came from a "FIRE SALE". I know of dirty truths about Apple and whatt they do with the DOA hardware or newly returned stock. And I get some rather dirty looks from sales people when i do ask the blunt question of "The price is unbelievably cheap. Did this stock from the Fire Sale"

Effectly it the sale of referishbed good and a cheaper price. But it's sold has brand new, not refirbished. I think my father got stung twice with such a deal. He still had the orginal warranty, but he had problems with the hardware.

I would name names on which of my Apple Reps told me about the fire sale, but sadly he refused to go down on record for that that.

 

[emuobo]

Hello pips,u've been wonderful.actually i'm considering a acer aspire 4720 4gb ram,2.0ghz amd x2 and one nvidia gpu of 256 dedicated-which is all the specs i need.i dont know,would the house of tech forum give a go ahead ,or prefer another BRAND like a lenovo or gateway with same specs?i really like the design of the acer,and my college is populated with hp pavs and toshiba sats.i need something different in design but still good spec.thanks 2 u all.

 

[Harper]

Hello pips,u've been wonderful.actually i'm considering a acer aspire 4720 4gb ram,2.0ghz amd x2 and one nvidia gpu of 256 dedicated-which is all the specs i need.i dont know,would the house of tech forum give a go ahead ,or prefer another BRAND like a lenovo or gateway with same specs?i really like the design of the acer,and my college is populated with hp pavs and toshiba sats.i need something different in design but still good spec.thanks 2 u all.

I would be leaving Acer well alone.

Why not look at the MSI GX630 if you are looking for some thing AMD Powered, but still having some grunt.

 

[emuobo]

MSI...
I havent tried an msi spec b4.i'll lay my hands on one.

 

[Jorsoft]

I would be leaving Acer well alone.

Why not look at the MSI GX630 if you are looking for some thing AMD Powered, but still having some grunt.

I would second that, definitely. Acer is well left alone in my experience. MSI is a brand I have a lot of confidence with.

 

[Lexluethar]

Wow seems like everyone has covered most of everything.

In short brands do matter, just like any other product you purchase. It is all about what you are looking for, I have had my HP for 5 years now and haven't had to replace one part. In contrast I had my compaq for about 4 years and had to replace a hard drive and ram about 3 times.

HP is what I recommend, but again you get what you pay for most of the time.

 

[Harper]

Oh.... if there is a cash back offer or cash back rebate. Here's a word of warning....

Why do manufacturers offer the cash back on laptop. If there is $200 off rebate, why not just take $200 off the orginal price of the laptop.

Reason is simple.
1. Obvious one is so they can put you down on record to start sending junk mail and other marketing stuff.
2. Warranty. They no the exact date when you purchased laptop. That so end of Warranty Period + One Day Later, they don't have lift a figure to help you.
Seriously, if you know what to say, who to talk to and maybe had the copy of MS Word handy, i have been known to extend warranties by a few months or so. That is how i got my Toshiba back in 2008. Mainboard died about 1 month after the warranty expired. They settle for a new laptop instead. Meanwhile, I told toshiba that it was old stock when the customer purchased it and showed a dodgy invoice done under MS Word showing that i purchase the notebook at 11 months ago.

It got fix under warranty.

However it's one reason why I never register my hardware purchase or claim cash backs.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Wow seems like everyone has covered most of everything.

In short brands do matter, just like any other product you purchase. It is all about what you are looking for, I have had my HP for 5 years now and haven't had to replace one part. In contrast I had my compaq for about 4 years and had to replace a hard drive and ram about 3 times.

HP is what I recommend, but again you get what you pay for most of the time.

You do know HP and Compaq are the same company and have been using the same parts in most there laptops for some time now right?

 

[Lexluethar]

Do they use the same parts? I know they are the same company, but HP is the higher-end of the two brands.