Recommend your laptop!

buckeyechik

It looks like we'll be in the market for a new laptop very soon and I'm starting to do research.  Here at work we use Lenovo ThinkPads (formerly IBM), so I know they're good, but pretty pricey.  I think anything will be an upgrade from what we have now (got it in 2003 and having some major internet connection problems).

So what brands and/or stores have you had good (or bad) luck with?

Thanks!

k&d2006

We always get Dell. DH uses it for engineering work, so its loaded down, but he always checks and usually buys from their refurb section because you still get a warranty with it. HTH!

AmberOH

We're on our 2nd Compaq Presario laptop, and have been very pleased with both. 

Manday

I have an Acer, and have had no problems. (and they are a less expensive brand).

According to DH, Dell and gateway are way overpriced for what you get. He recommends HP or Compaq if good support is important to you, and Acer or Sony if it is not important.

But really the most important things to look for now is a dual core processor and plenty of RAM.

MustangGirl75

Whatever you do... do NOT get a Toshiba. It was shipped to us from the company broken. By the time we recieved it, the computer was already over the return time from the company (Circuit City). So they told us to get it fixed at their service provider. Long story short, it was the Motherboard. It was fixed three times and still would not work. Toshiba's customer service is absolutely horrible and would not do a thing for us. DH spent a good month trying to get this resolved. He spent a good 15+ hours on the phone before finally speaking to a manager who hung up on him (DH did not us any bad lanuage or anger). He even filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and was offered a $50 gift card to Toshiba's website for our broken $1000 computer.

In the end, a manager at the Circuit City in Dublin said that as long as we exchanged it for a computer of equal or greater value, she would do it. This took several calls to several different stores before finding someone to help us. We found out from the people at that store that this is a common problem with Toshiba.

We now have an HP that we love.

&d&m&y

I got a Lenovo ThinkPad last fall...the T61 or T62 or something like that. I too thought that they were usually more expensive than others like Dells and HPs, but if you don't hit a really good Dell sale, they are super expensive for what you get. This was going to be our main computer, so I wanted a system that wouldn't be too outdated too quickly, so I didn't really qualify for like the $599 specials you see Dell offering sometimes.

Plus, if you google for discounts, you can save a ton on Lenovos. I think mine was originally $1,600 or so, but then I found a realtor discount and a teacher discount (and I'm not a realtor or a teacher...I just entered the coupon codes I'd found) and used those together, and paid something like just under $1,200. And I couldn't configure a comparable Dell for less than $1,400.

I've been really happy with it. It's not as cute as some of the colors that the Dells come in, but that's not a big deal. HTH!

MrsKing

I just got a Macbook (regular, not Pro), I LOVE it! Apple ships really quickly, too, it came really well-packaged. I like it, since you can segment the hard drive and run Windows on part of it and the Mac OS on the other, and it comes with some really neat software on the Mac side!

wacissej2

I've had great luck with the ThinkPads and highly recommend them. At the same time I tell everyone I know to steer clear of Dell laptops. I've had several through work and hated them all. I have a brand new one right now and it's already got issues. The Dell desktops are great, just not their laptops (IMO).

I also think you get what you pay for. You can find great deals on laptops now but they may not last long or a year down the road you may be kicking it because it doesn't run fast enough. So if you want one that will last I suggest spending the extra money on a speedy system with lots of memory.