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Dell / HP or Lenovo Business Notebooks

W

WildViper

Senior member
I am looking at these three companies and all have similar price laptops that I need.

I am looking at the base Core Duos with all 3 companies and 1 gig ram plus a minimum 80gig HD. Not too concerned about the Videocard.

What I want to know is if anyone has any experience with tech-support? I have read about Consumer side support and the hell people go through. However these 3 companies brag about their support to Business consumers.

Also, will I be able to upgrade any of these for sure to the Core2Duos when they come out?? Will I be able to do it myself?

I am asking a lot of questions these days, but it is time for me to buy. Thanx for all help. Btw, my budget is $1400-$1500.
 
I'll jump in...why not try calling the business tech support numbers for the companies that you list and ask them about the option of CPU upgradability? That way you can answer your question and gather empirical evidence regarding the quality of their tech support.

Thinkpads and Latitudes are good machines, hard to go wrong with the new generations of either one these days. If ultraportable is not a necessity Dell's xps m1210 is a powerhouse.

Hope that this helps.
 
I've had a lot of experience with Dell and Lenovo business support; both are top notch. Dell generally includes their "Gold" tech support with Latitude notebooks, which is what makes their tech support so nice; anything below you are asking for trouble. I've only had one or two problems with my Thinkpad T42 that have required service; I have the base 3 year warranty and their accidental damage coverage. One time there was an issue where the system would randomly turn the LCD off and become unresponsive. Called it in, I had a shipping box at my door next day, send it out the next day, got it back the day after that. Lenovo makes every effort to ship the machine back to you the same day they get it.

HP I've not had personal experience with, but let me make a risky move and share what others have experienced. One guy I know personally bought an nx6325 (Turion) with 3 year warranty. He sent it in to check the screen and possibly have it replaced because the brightness & quality was sub-par to him. While HP has no reason to replace the LCD for him under those circumstances if you ask me, when the machine was returned to him they had changed his notebook's configuration. He had a lower end CPU and I think lost Bluetooth as well. He contacted them and sent it back. At this point, they were negotiating with him to change to a different (Intel-based I believe) notebook and refused to even return his notebook as he originally purchased it. Quite literally, the CSR told the guy to accept his offer of a Pentium M notebook or he would consider the case closed & just return the nx6325 as the guy had last received it (modified). The general gist I get from this and other HP support experiences, is that it is less than stellar.

Take all of this with a grain of salt; there are good and bad experiences with every company. But Lenovo, Apple, and Fujitsu were at the top of the list for Customer Support Satisfaction in a recent survey; and for good reason. Dell is brought down a lot by their consumer guide, which the basic support sucks for. Gold Tech Support is a-ok tho
 
Originally posted by: jonesthewine
I'll jump in...why not try calling the business tech support numbers for the companies that you list and ask them about the option of CPU upgradability? That way you can answer your question and gather empirical evidence regarding the quality of their tech support.

Thinkpads and Latitudes are good machines, hard to go wrong with the new generations of either one these days. If ultraportable is not a necessity Dell's xps m1210 is a powerhouse.

Hope that this helps.
Click to expand...

And they'll all say that CPU upgrades are unsupported if you get an answer at all -Regardless of if it's in the same CPU family or not.
 
I did just that....I called up Dell Business Tech and the guy spend 30 mins on my phone looking at everyhing...From CPU upgrades to HD upgrades to ExpressCard info.

He wasn't worried about getting off the line.

Haven't done so with HP or Lenovo though. Will see.

Dell guy said CPU is not soldered in and should be upgradeable as long as it is the same footprint.
 
Originally posted by: WildViper
I did just that....I called up Dell Business Tech and the guy spend 30 mins on my phone looking at everyhing...From CPU upgrades to HD upgrades to ExpressCard info.

He wasn't worried about getting off the line.

Haven't done so with HP or Lenovo though. Will see.

Dell guy said CPU is not soldered in and should be upgradeable as long as it is the same footprint.
Click to expand...
It can be upgraded as long as they release a BIOS recognizing Merom. TDP isn't far off and avg power consumption might even be lower, so thermals shouldn't be an issue; esp in a larger chassis.
 
Sorry for butting in with my own question, but what is Dell's XPS customer service like (for the Home XPS M1210)? Is that the same as their business "Gold" service that is being talked about here?
 
Originally posted by: WildViper
I did just that....I called up Dell Business Tech and the guy spend 30 mins on my phone looking at everyhing...From CPU upgrades to HD upgrades to ExpressCard info.

He wasn't worried about getting off the line.

Haven't done so with HP or Lenovo though. Will see.

Dell guy said CPU is not soldered in and should be upgradeable as long as it is the same footprint.
Click to expand...

But it will void your warranty. 🙂
 
My experience with Dell business-class support for Latitudes has been excellent. But they don't break very often. The D620 is a very good computer.

 
Dells are a mixed bag. The D620's predecessor, the D600, was a nightmarish piece of crap. If you don't get super-top-awesome level support (and pay the big bucks for it,) expect a lot of headaches.

I would know; I've done work on them. Crappy heatsink, and the "thermal epoxy" was used in a similar manner as Duct Tape on the red/green show.

I own a HP/compaq EVO NC4010. Their tech support, from what I have heard, used to be iffy, but from recent dealings they've been quite good. I own a buisness-model laptop, and my turnaround time on repairs was astoundingly good. I even sent a letter to the tech support guy's supervisor on one occasion praising him.

I've yet to have needed to deal with IBM tech support; by the time that they need a repair, they're usually out of warranty anyway. High quality, high price.

Apple may also be a consideration, as they have only ONE model of laptop at each given price point, wheras everyone else has several. With the iBooks, upgrading within a series (G4 powerbooks, G3 ibooks, G4 ibooks, etc.) usually only involved replacing the motherboard, as everything else was completely the same. This standardization is not a bad thing for buisness; if your laptop is crushed under a bulldozer, you can take your last image of the hard drive (you DID back up, right?) and install it on to a shiny new iBook. On the other hand, you would need to buy exactly the same laptop for everyone; although the MacBooks are excellent laptops, some people might need less power and portability than the 17" MacBook Pro offers, but need a bigger screen than the standard MacBook.

Just my two cents.



 
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