Manning

Compaq had some of the best commercial products around when we were activelly buying/upgrading computers at my office. The Armada series of notebooks is absolutely bulletproof. I can say this with pretty good authority since I am one of two people in my office who purchases and maintains equipment. This includes 9 servers, mostly Compaq, and over 120 desktop and notebook computers.

Regarding their durability, our consultants travel with them constantly and I rarely see any problems, other than the LCD panels fading out momentarily (not complete failure though) from time to time. This is a commom problem with ALL brands of notebook computer though and is usually related to a loose connector or bad ribbon. We have one consultant whose Armada was thrown across the security area at Hartfield in Atlanta by a TSA agent (she tripped and dropped it). The case split apart slightly, but in general the computer was fine.

That said, Compaq's consumer level product is known to be kind of weak for various reasons (high price, weight). The guys on the Screen Savers seem to like em to a point though. Edit Do bear in mind that commercial/professional level and consumer are two different animals.

IBM and Sony are nice.

Dell is OK, but their quality control is awful. They also tend to be inconsistant in what they send out from machine to machine as to what is actually spec'ed in each. One of my co-workers actually called to ask about memory for his girlfreinds computer and was told it should take 333Mhz DDR. Actually it could only use 266Mhz DDR at best. Great customer support there, huh? That is only one of many Dell customer support storied I can entertain you with. Also, while my local hardware supplier is an authorized Dell dealer, my rep prefers to sell anything but, due to the inconsistancy in specs and quality.

Gateway computers are mystery machines in that you never can tell if it will work right out of the box and you can never tell what will be in it from one machine to the next of the same model.

Invariably someone will point out how Compaq used proprietary this or that 10 years ago. Guess what, everybody does this, to this day. One of my coworkrs had either a Dell or a Gateway (I don't recall) that blew a power supply. He could not just grab one off the shelf because the connector to the main board was, you guessed it, proprietary to that brand/model of computer.

Also, many/all of the really light computers will require a mess of extra gear to make em work. in general the power supply is external and you will likely need a dock of some sort to be able to use any kind of optical drive, or plug in a monitor or keyboard/mouse for that matter. Once you put it all together you wind up with a pretty bulky package, even if the notebook itself only weighs 4 pounds.

A vendor we work with brought his tiny little IBM to our office to do a presentation. I took a look at the thing as I connected it to one of our podiums and noticed it had (obviously) no PS/2 ports and only one USB port. And, the VGA and audio connector were on this giant external lump. Whatever.

Brian McCoy

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by Manning:
<strong>Compaq had some of the best commercial products around when we were activelly buying/upgrading computers at my office. The Armada series of notebooks is absolutely bulletproof. I can say this with pretty good authority since I am one of two people in my office who purchases and maintains equipment. This includes 9 servers, mostly Compaq, and over 120 desktop and notebook computers.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Goes to show how inconsistant things are in the IT field. My company bought 25 Compaqs this last year, and there isn't a single one that didn't fail. The last one I worked on took about 4 days to repair, around 8 hours on the phone and they ended up sending out replacements for EVERY piece in the computer (instead of properly troubleshooting the issue in the first place). *shrugs* I didn't care because we ended up with a completely new (refurbished) computer and it's my job.... I'm a litle more leary of their home consumer products now that they've joined with HP... digestive problems and all.

Manning

I should expand the "had" in the first sentence in my post. We have not purchased any new computers in 2 years because of the sluggish economy. The last bunch of Armadas we purchased were P3 E500s. All have been trouble free. We have not purchased anything, other than iPAQs in that time, and certainly nothing since HP joined the fun. The newest Compaq notebook I have used however is my nephews, and it is less than 6 months old and it is ***** out.

So, your mileage may vary.

Bill

I have a Sony Vaio and a WinBook J4

I love the Sony. Great performer and rugged. It has traveled many a mile (Europe/USA) and has been used excessively without a glitch.

The WinBook is junk.

Manning

Oh yeah, one more thing. I would have to agree with SidVisious (referring to an earlier thread like this) about something. If you were interested in a desktop for home rather than a notebook, build your own. You can build EXACTLY what you are looking for versus get close with a commercially available unit and having to upgrade.

I built a pair of "budget" AMD machines for a friend of mine with 17 inch monitor two years ago for under $1200 total. And you would never be able to find a complete machine like the one I am on now for as little as I paid to build it.

CN

My company sells dozens of laptops. Mostly Compaq, Toshiba, IBM

Best quality, compatibility, features & performance for the dollar is Toshiba bar none. IBM is a close second. This comes from our experience repairing and returning notebook computers and also takes into account manufacturer service and support policy. I wouldn't touch anything else. (And I am a Compaq service authorised dealer). Sony is a nice unit but the company doesn't know how to support computer customers. They are also too proprietary for my liking. I wouldn't even consider a Dell.

UDPride

I believe Sonys come with shorter standard warranties than most other manufacturers.

Compaq/HP is hit and miss. We spend big bucks on Compaq/HP mainframes like Alphaservers and they will run flawlessly until the earth spirals into the sun. Compaq/HP consumer products though tend to be a different story. Weve had decent success with a Proliant server, but even that is more like Prosumer.

I agree WinBook is a joke. We bought one at the office a couple years ago because it was the most bang for the buck. Now it just makes loud grinding noises and isnt fit for a paperweight.

We had an old Toshiba Satellite from the PII days. Junk. But I hear theyve come a long way since then.

I hate IBM, but I will admit Im impressed with their laptops. Built like tanks. Just expensive. You are paying for the IBM name a bit too.

Dell is Dell. Their customer support is responsive but their responses are usually filled with ignorance like most of the Big Wigs. I agree on the other guy that quality control at Dell is sometimes less than to be desired. Ive had decent successon their towers though.

Actually, Ive had good feedback on Gateways recent laptops and Gateway turned me off 4-5yrs ago when we outfitted the office with Gateway towers and they were all crap. Their new stuff looks to be a major improvement.

I honestly think most of this laptop stuff is Pot Luck. Just avoid WinBook. Everything they make it crap. Everything else its just hit or miss so I wouldnt necessarily steer cleer of any of the main companies if the price and performance is what you want. If it stinks, give them hell.

I will say I did buy a refurbed Dell tower once and had NO trouble. Same warranty. Cheaper price. Many of them are simply open box returns on over-orders.

Devia

I prefer the MAC Ibook; with 256k upgrade, I actually was able to cut video with it, on Final Cut Pro 3. Nice little workhorse.

<a href="http://www.apple.com" target="_blank">www.apple.com</a>

- Julie

sweanders

I work in a company with over 200 Dell laptops and we hardly have any problems at all with them.

The few things that happens is when someone dropes them and cracks the screen but under normal use they are great.

Also if there is a problem Dell has got great deals for on site warranty jobs, I believe it's about $50 for three year on site warranty so if something brakes a technician comes out the next day and fixes it..

I can't really recommend anything else than Dell and I wouldn't even consider Compaq...

CurlyDE

My usual plug would be for a Mac ... I have had my Powerbook for about 1.5 years now and completely love it.

If you are planning on sticking with a PC (Windows based) machine, then I can only recommend Dell. Other than the case being a little flimsy ... they produce great, reliable products. My company passed out Latitude notebooks last year and short of the ones that were obviously abused (one had peanut butter in a disk drive because of someone's child) we have had no problems from them.

Powerbook first choice ... Dell second!

User 41221

After buying something more than 200 laptops for various employees over the last ten years, I think I am qualified to address this one.

#1 preference is IBM. The IBM's I have bought have lasted longer, performed better and required far less service than any other brand I have purchased. Yes, they tend to be pretty expensive up front, compared to some of the other brands, but its money well spent. There also appears to be a glut of reconditioned IMB Thinkpads on the market right now, I just picked up an IBM A21m with 700MHz processor for an employee for $399, complete with a 90 day warranty. Email me if you want the name of the place I got it from (I have no affiliation with the place, and am just trying to save you a few bucks).

#2 is Toshiba. Its consumer grade stuff, but its cheap to buy and tends to hold up pretty well. I haven't bought many of them, but none of them ever had a service problem, IIRC.

#3 is Dell. My first Dell machine was a nightmare for me, and I haven't ever really forgotten about it. Everyone says that Dell's service is great, well, that wasn't my experience. Since then, tho, I have bought more Dell's (I like their desktops better than their laptops tho) and have been treated better by their service department, but first impressions are lasting ones...

On the list to avoid are Winbook and Compaq. Buy those brands ONLY if you want to buy a new laptop every year, as thats the max I have ever had one last.

For my money, IBM is the way to go. My employees have done all the R&D testing for you, trust me, if there is a way to destroy a laptop, my employees have found it!

Regards,

st. smytherie

I've always had good luck (professionally and personally) with IBM and Toshiba. Dell is getting better. Compaq/HP and Gateway are non-starters in my experience, particularly in the consumer space.

Regarding specs, I would take a look at the new "Centrino" or "Pentium-M" notebooks. Even at 1.6 GHz, these machines are nearly as powerful as a 2.4 GHz desktop, and are more efficient than any previous Intel-based notebooks. They are going to enable vendors to make very small, very fast computers for not too much money.

Pentium-M is the processor, and it comes in speeds from 1.2 to 1.6 GHz. Centrino is the marketing designation for a computer that uses the Pentium-M, a specific Intel chipset, and an Intel wireless networking solution.

Anandtech.com has some nice writeups on the technology and the initial implementations from Dell and IBM.

Ceenit

I manage the IT standards and testing department for a large US based financial company. We buy about 15,000 notebooks a year. We are primarily an IBM shop, but regularly test and put the support organizations of all the Tier 1 companies though their paces.

For business use, especially if you travel outside the US...IBM is an industry leader in notebook technology, they have the best 'business' support model, and provide warranty service world wide.

For primary home or personal use, you will get more bang for the buck from Dell. I am not a Dell fan on the business side because of their inflexible support models....But they are absolutely the best in the home space when it comes to getting support. IBM runs a close second.

As far as HP (Compaq), and Toshiba. Both have fair products/services, but both have been losing market share in the US notebook space over the last 5 years for good reason. Sony has very neat consumer oriented multimedia add-ons (bells and whistles), but their support arm is relatively new and they tend to have less consistency (spot-buying) on their components.

Just my two cents. Lots of good opinions out there, but the only one that counts is yours when it comes to spending your money. <img border="0" alt="[cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" />

hitbyastick

Sony Vaios are cool

phantom309

My experience as an IT guy:
Dell = well designed, fast, cheap, not particularly well made or durable.
IBM = well designed, fast, expensive, superbly made, Mercedes-like quality, very durable.
Toshiba = low end units are absolute junk, high end rivals IBM quality.

Spend the money - get the IBM.