Should I stay away from HP laptops??

[donfm]

I've been looking for a laptop and reading the suggestions on this website. One thing I've noticed is that nobody recommends HP laptops for the most part....and not many Acer recommendations either. Both these brands have some pretty good sales so are they just too cheap in quality or are they ok? What is your opinion?

[kleinkinstein]

Lenovo T and W series

[Zodiark1593]

The higher end HP laptops tend to be quite reliable, however, the budget segment of both brands is where issues are most common, and since the budget end laptops are the most popular, you can kinda see where this is going.

Anyway, what is your budget, and what are you looking to do with your laptop?

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

HP ProBook is cheap and excellent in terms of build quality.

I've sold more than 50 of them at my store and I've gotten nothing but good feedback about them.

[biostud]

I've been very happy with my probook 6360b, although it's not an ultrabook. It's very sturdy build and very easy to replace parts.

[Phynaz]

Displays on the Elitebooks are horrible. Build quality is ok.

[Bonesdad]

I bought an HP HDX16 about 3 years ago, still running fine. There were a few niggling problems at the beginning, but workarounds helped. Had to replace the HDD, though that was my fault.

Now I have a Thinkpad T430. I like it much better, especially because of the non-gloss screen and chassis. I freakin hate gloss...

Thinkpad is excellent, I've heard good things about some of the ASUS and Samsung models. I'll never own a Dell or an Acer.

[nardz84]

I purchased a dv6 earlier this year when the 3rd gen i7s came out. I was very impressed with the price/performance and the matte 1080p screen is fantastic. But, I'm on my 2nd one because the first had absolutely horrible build quality, the current one was much improved but I'm still disappointed compared to the HP I bought a couple years ago. My next laptop will probably be a Lenovo but whatever it is, I'm going to make sure I see a model in person before ordering.

[corkyg]

Condemning brands is unwise. Every brand has good and bad models, I have had HP and now have Lenovos. No problems with either. I also note there are users who seem to have a reverse Midas touch with any brand.

[donfm]

Thanks everyone for the input. I see deals on HP's all the time and was just wondering if they were reliable. As I said I rarely see anyone recommend HP in the message boards. Not sure why but I was always under the impression Acer was junk as well. Perhaps I am wrong about that.

[frozentundra123456]

Originally Posted by corkyg

Condemning brands is unwise. Every brand has good and bad models, I have had HP and now have Lenovos. No problems with either. I also note there are users who seem to have a reverse Midas touch with any brand.

I would agree with you that it is mainly luck of the draw as to any major defects. I had excellent results with an Acer desktop, but have never had an acer laptop. My son and daughter got identical HP laptops a few years ago, and both had problems with them.

I tend personally to favor Asus.

Edit: I really dont trust the reliability of any laptop as being close to a desktop. Unless you are extremely careful with them and watch carefully for overheating, they tend to not have the longevity of a desktop IMO.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by donfm

I've been looking for a laptop and reading the suggestions on this website. One thing I've noticed is that nobody recommends HP laptops for the most part....and not many Acer recommendations either. Both these brands have some pretty good sales so are they just too cheap in quality or are they ok? What is your opinion?

I've owned both and didn't have any problems. I don't think Acer has as easy a warranty to deal with as Dell, not sure about HP but I would guess its more like Dell.

Lots of people like Lenovo, I don't have personal experience so that's why I don't have an opinion about them.

[Sheep221]

Originally Posted by donfm

I've been looking for a laptop and reading the suggestions on this website. One thing I've noticed is that nobody recommends HP laptops for the most part....and not many Acer recommendations either. Both these brands have some pretty good sales so are they just too cheap in quality or are they ok? What is your opinion?

I owned 3 Acer laptops, and they were crap in the past but they definitely went up with quality and reliability, past 3 years. I had one from 2006, which was utterly bad design, bad cooling and bad hardware inside(too hot and weak). But then I got the 2009 and 2010 ones(almost same types) and they were rock solid since then, quiet, fast enough for office and internet work and definitely more durable than previous generation.
Some of acers had problem with broken webcam cable which both of mine are also affected, but since I don't use it I don't bother fixing it, if you are buying laptop via retail store, you don't need to bother with warranty in case of failure yourself, the law requires store to resolve warranty within 30 days so you just return it. I got mine back within 2 weeks fixed and OS reinstalled.
I would definitely don't skip on Acer these days for sure, however be sure to check the online reviews before buying anything.

[Yazoo]

HP reports massive $8.8-billion charge; shares plummet

[cl-scott]

Originally Posted by corkyg

Condemning brands is unwise. Every brand has good and bad models, I have had HP and now have Lenovos. No problems with either. I also note there are users who seem to have a reverse Midas touch with any brand.

Oh sure, go and be all reasonable! Now how are people supposed to make irrational sweeping generalized statements based on little more than the brother of a friend of a friend of a friend might have had a bad experience 10 years ago?

Spot on about the inverted midas touch though. I speak from experience, since part of my job involves dealing with such people. There is a bit more to it, based on things I learned when I worked as a repair tech for a national retail chain, but some might think I'm trying to bash the competition if I outlined a few things, so out of respect for the moderators here I'll leave it at that.

[Tushaar]

Personally, I'd always recommend a business notebook, even a budget one. I got a second hand HP NX7300 a couple of years ago (manufactured in 2007) with a T7200 PDC processor and 1 GB RAM coupled with a 120 GB HDD for around $100.

Still runs like a champ for everything I throw at it (movies, heavy browsing, documents etc). Granted, my use isn't very taxing on the processor, but it has been on for around 18 hours every day for its entire life. Upgraded the RAM to 4 GB DDR2, 500 GB HDD. Fallen multiple times, people have sat on it and it even fell off a bike once. Very few scratches and the matte display is a breeze.

Anyway, that's me rambling. I know quite a few people who bought refurbished or new business laptops and they've always held up brilliantly. Dell Latitudes, Probooks, Elitebooks, NX series laptops, Lenovo Thinkpads, Lenovo's B line of business laptops - they're all long lasting. If you need power, opt for a decent new business laptop. You won't regret it.

[Zodiark1593]

Originally Posted by Tushaar

Personally, I'd always recommend a business notebook, even a budget one. I got a second hand HP NX7300 a couple of years ago (manufactured in 2007) with a T7200 PDC processor and 1 GB RAM coupled with a 120 GB HDD for around $100.

Still runs like a champ for everything I throw at it (movies, heavy browsing, documents etc). Granted, my use isn't very taxing on the processor, but it has been on for around 18 hours every day for its entire life. Upgraded the RAM to 4 GB DDR2, 500 GB HDD. Fallen multiple times, people have sat on it and it even fell off a bike once. Very few scratches and the matte display is a breeze.

Anyway, that's me rambling. I know quite a few people who bought refurbished or new business laptops and they've always held up brilliantly. Dell Latitudes, Probooks, Elitebooks, NX series laptops, Lenovo Thinkpads, Lenovo's B line of business laptops - they're all long lasting. If you need power, opt for a decent new business laptop. You won't regret it.

Business laptops do tend to be just shy of bullet-proof. I want one, yet I'm a gamer, so I need lots of GPU horsies and I want them by the truckload, nothing a buisness lappy provides.

[bamx2]

After a bad experience with 2 HP DV6 laptops no more, HP LTs for me . Their business laptops might be better but I am not willing to take a chance.

[Blain]

Originally Posted by donfm

What is your opinion?

Lenovo or Asus and you're good.

[donfm]

Well I'll just keep my eyes open for the best combination of price and performance I guess since it seems there is no brand that is hands down considered a winner. Thanks all for your helpful comments.....