Buying a new laptop

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Nereus
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Re: Buying a new laptop

Post by Nereus »

I have an Acer as posted previously, now over 1 year old. Only a couple of small software problems with it that Don sorted out, and once at the Acer service agent in Hua Hin. It replaced an Acer Travelmate that was over 10 years old, and only then because it was getting too slow to use with the XP OS system.
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Re: Buying a new laptop

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I've purchased 5 Acers in the last 12 to 15 months. Each one has had minor problems (well within Buksi's ability to rectify himself).

3 of them had loose connections, which needed re-affixing - each with weeks of purchase. One has been nobbled by power surges (twice) and lost it's boot path. 1 had a bad install of Windows, which just required a re-install. Outside of that, I'm well satisfied. For budget machines, they are working very well. For a no thrills laptop they are perfect.

My previous laptop was a HP. Nothing but trouble - would never go there again.

In my last job I was responsible for all of MOD's laptops (yes thousands of the beasts). We used Dell. Nice when they were working, but our exchange pool was always being called upon. Not sure if it was just shoddy massed produced workmanship for MOD. I know personal home users who swear by Dell.
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Re: Buying a new laptop

Post by VincentD »

Bought an Asus 11" touchscreen model just over three years ago, only 2G RAM but I wanted a larger alternative to my smartphone that would not go to the mobile-enhanced website that some places make you do. Came pre-loaded with Win8 and unfortunately could not change OS. Touchscreen is now wonky, only works some of the time.
Am now using a 5 year old Acer 14" laptop that is a hand-me-down from my son, has been upgraded to 12G RAM, much easier to use but not as portable as the Asus. I'm comfortable with this one. Win some, lose some.
My wife also has an Acer, totally touchscreen, no touchpad(!!) that is a piece of #*%@#!
So your mileage may vary even within the brand name itself.
My son has gone on to get a Windows Surface computer, very slim, very portable, and a fairly large dent to my pocketbook..
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Re: Buying a new laptop

Post by hhinner »

I have two Asus laptops. One is coming up to 5 years old and is the main one I use. It's fast (i7) enough even now. The other one is 10 (or more) years old, bought when Vista was the pre-loaded OS. This one is used mostly as a file, printer and DLNA server, and is powered on at least 6 hours every day.

I guess no matter what you buy you can end up with a lemon, but ASUS seems to have been good for me.

Anyhow, I reckon Dell would be a good choice, especially with their on-site service as an option.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

Maybe also consider buying from InvadeIT which seems to have a good reputation.

Cheers.
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Re: Buying a new laptop

Post by 404cameljockey »

I've had a few HPs/Dells lappies and found them fine. One HP needed a screen replacement after around a year though. I still have one of each brand as backups.

I bought a top-end Sony Vaio a while back (just as they closed the line!) and had bootstrap trouble out of the box (took my money back).

TBH I would never go for Acer, maybe a bit of prejudice but I've seen people have big issues with them out of the box.

My last purchase was 2-3 years ago, a top end Lenovo Yoga Pro 2 with a very high res screen (can cause difficulty with some software that can't display but I was always an early adopter and prepared to work around issues). I've found the Lenovo to be excellent, and have even stopped worrying about the Chinese building spyware into their hardware too.

I've gone Chinese for my smartphone too now. Huawei for China! :D
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Re: Buying a new laptop

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Reading the responses then it looks like a lucky dip when buying laptops, I kinda figured this anyway and guess I just haven't been that lucky.

Looks like it'll be a Dell, though nobody has mentioned Toshiba or Samsung.

Looked at Invadeit but their prices were higher than elsewhere and selection lower.
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Re: Buying a new laptop

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buksida wrote: Thu Nov 09, 2017 2:08 pm Looks like it'll be a Dell, though nobody has mentioned Toshiba or Samsung.
OK, on your own head be it, but I reckon our exchange rate was probably >10%, but that wasn't helped by the very high tech security regime they were operating under. Personally I had 3 in 2 years.
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Re: Buying a new laptop

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Well I'm certainly not going back to Acer or Asus, been burnt with both.

If you've read the replies you'll see it is a lottery.
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Re: Buying a new laptop

Post by bsdk1960 »

my wifes asus 7 years ,mine 5 years no problems at all :D :D

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Re: Buying a new laptop

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buksida wrote: Thu Nov 09, 2017 2:42 pm Well I'm certainly not going back to Acer or Asus, been burnt with both.

If you've read the replies you'll see it is a lottery.
I agree that it's a lottery, but I doubt there's anybody outside of US that has dealt with so many Dell machines - even your average Dell dealer would be thousands behind me. Whether any other brand in the hands of squaddies, jolly jack et al would have fared better I don't know. As I said, I know many casual home users who swear by them. One even lasted a couple of years with my brother, which is a bit of a record :banghead:
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Re: Buying a new laptop

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:shock: :shock: :shock:
best laptop.jpg
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Re: Buying a new laptop

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....and Fujitsu. I used them exclusively in my PC days and never, ever had a problem. I have two small 9" screen Lifebooks in the drawer upstairs that are 15 years old running Windows NT and they still work, although little used for the past 10 years. They are premium machines and imagine the price reflects that. Pete :cheers:
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buksida
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Re: Buying a new laptop

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I realise now I shouldn't have even posted - asking about laptop preferences is like asking what everyone's favourite car or breed of dog is. Someone says Asus are awesome, mine imploded after 18 months, the Acer lasted 3 years and cost me a fair few thousand to repair, I refused to spend any more on it.

And I won't even rise to that Nereus. :twisted: :guns:
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Re: Buying a new laptop

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buksida wrote: Thu Nov 09, 2017 3:48 pm And I won't even rise to that Nereus. :twisted: :guns:
:lach:
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Re: Buying a new laptop

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You're a heavy user Buks, and I imagine some who are recommending this or that may use theirs a few hours a day and primarily for the internet. Under those conditions anything may last a decade. :shock: I imagine you are on one 6-8 hours a day banging away. :D Pete
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