Compaq and HP NOTEBOOKS.. Are they reliable?

[WayneTeK]

I'm looking into two laptops right now, but i can't seem to find any huge differences.

I was wondering if anybody could give me an honest feedback about COMPAQ & HP laptops. Are they like DELL's where they break down after a year? Reliable?

These are the two i'm looking at.

HP NOTEBOOK

Compaq NOtebook

 

[cheesehead]

Hp and Compaq merged years ago.
Although the quality varies between laptops, they're generally not bad. I just bought a HP laptop, and could'nt be happier.

 

[mparr1708]

Originally posted by: Cheesehead
Hp and Compaq merged years ago.
Although the quality varies between laptops, they're generally not bad. I just bought a HP laptop, and could'nt be happier.

Useless tidbit of information for you: If I remember right they merged in 2002. I could be wrong but I think i'm close.

As far as Dell vs HP goes:

Ive worked with a ton of Dells but my personal notebook is an HP DV4000. Overall I've been pretty satisfied with my purchase. I purchased the DV4000 because I wanted something capable of gaming and a 15.4" screen was as large as I wanted to go. Dell didnt offer anything that i wanted that matched my criteria better then the DV4000 so thats the way I went. I have found the build quality to be about the same as Dell and the service to be a bit worse actually. Just my 2 cents.

 

[alent1234]

most laptops are built by a few companies who sell the barebones kits to HP and Dell who then customize them. You get what you pay for in most cases. I spent $1300 back in may and I have a Dell Inspiron with 512MB RAM, Ati x300 graphics with 128MB RAM, the 9 cell battery, 3 years support, etc and I love it. It can play games, battery lasts 6 hours during basic use, etc.

My mom just looked at a few cheapo laptops and the battery life is very short and a lack of other features.

 

[unfalliblekrutch]

most laptop quality between OEMs is about the same. This is because all laptops originate from a few companies mostly located in Taiwan, called ODMs, who actually manufactor (and for the most part, design) the laptops. They then sell these models to OEMs (HP, Dell, Gateway, etc), who puts in the harddrive, ram, etc. Sometimes, the OEM has a little say in how the laptop is manufactored, by requesting the ODM to use certain materials, or by assisting in the design itself. However, for the most part, quality is not a matter of which OEM, but which ODM.

The exception to this is IBM/Lenovo, who builds certain models of thinkpads in house, IIRC