eMachines make decent Laptops?

[Kelemvor]

Not really sure what forum this fits in but here it is anyway...

I saw this laptop at BestBuy this afternoon...

eMachines Notebook with Mobile AMD Athlon? XP-M Processor 2400+ Model 5312

It's listed as $1249 with a $250 rebate for a final price of $999. (bb.com has a higher price.

I have no experience with eMachines at all but the person I spoke with said this laptop would be his next purchase and ranked emachines with Toshiba as their top brands.

Anyone know anything about these and this model in particular? Wife is looking for a laptop that would NOT be used for gaming but rather, email,w eb pbrowsing, desktop publishing, etc. And for the specs and the price, it looks like a darn good deal.

That combined with Best Buy's financing deals, make it great.

Any feedback would be welcome.

Thanks.

 

[PaveHawk]

For years, eMachines has remained lower in owner satisfaction levels, but recently, they've changed warranty policys and hardware suppliers, and now build a decent desktop computer at super low prices. I don't know how long they have been building laptops, but I believe it hasn't been very long.

Actually, I think eMachines have done a fair job digging themselves out of the 'poorly' built computer rut. I would have to say that laptop probably is as good as other comparable laptops of its speed. So, if you are happy with the terms that you've found, then take advantage of it.

Good luck

 

[Kelemvor]

Yeah I knew they were the "budget" end of desktop PCs a few years back but I didn't even know they made laptops until today. So I wasn't sure on what they used inside or anything about them.

 

[Snoop]

Nice specs/price on that lappy .

edit: and if your worried about the thing giving you any trouble, buy the BB extended warranty, then you should get at least two years with no worries.

 

[Acanthus]

their PCs sook, so i dont see their laptops being much better imho.

 

[BD231]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
their PCs sook, so i dont see their laptops being much better imho.

Shat-up asshat.

The new E PCs are great and so is there customer support. I can't comment on the lappys, but I've owned and known others who have owned an e-machine and they've been nothing but great.

 

[drag]

asshat? Wow. what language.

Older E-machines sucked, didn't they have some sort of bastardized version of windows or something installed with them normally?

I wouldn't trust them now, based on their track record. Laptops are such weird little things anyways, I wouldn't trust most any manufacturer exept the big guys for laptops, high-end makers, but for low-end... I don't know.

Just my opinion.

 

[jhu]

i think there was a story 1-2 years ago in wired how most laptops "made" by the major manufacturers (dell, hp, compaq, toshiba, even apple!) are actually outsourced to taiwanese companies. thus the fact that emachines now sells laptops is a moot point with regards to quality since they're all pretty much the same.

 

[Baronz]

Originally posted by: jhu
i think there was a story 1-2 years ago in wired how most laptops "made" by the major manufacturers (dell, hp, compaq, toshiba, even apple!) are actually outsourced to taiwanese companies. thus the fact that emachines now sells laptops is a moot point with regards to quality since they're all pretty much the same.

Yeah, i would venture to guess any laptop you'd buy was made in one of the same 3 factories. Only difference is the features + the design.

IBMs are built like rocks though, much better than any of the brands IMO.

 

[arsbanned]

I just picked up a Dell 1100 for my daughter undrer the Small Business deal for $599.00 after $250.00 rebate. Nice machine for the money. 14.1" screen, Celeron 2.4, 20 gig HD, 256 MB RAM, DVD combo drive, XP Home, rated 4 hour battery life(! HUGE a** battery) I agree that most laptops are outsourced and rebadged.
I'm sure the emachines is fine. Do you know if it's a mobile Athlon they're using or a desktop chip?

Edit: I checked out the link, it is the mobile chip. Pretty nice machine, for the money. You could buy 3 of those for the cost of one IBM. Just depends on what you're lookign for.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: BD231

Originally posted by: Acanthus
their PCs sook, so i dont see their laptops being much better imho.

Shat-up asshat.

The new E PCs are great and so is there customer support. I can't comment on the lappys, but I've owned and known others who have owned an e-machine and they've been nothing but great.

Even if E-machines did clean up their act, i wouldnt trust them at all with the track record ive had with them.

 

[blodhi74]

a friend of mine just got one 3 months ago and it works as advertised ... he has been happy with it .... e-machines had a very poor track record in the past and I looks like they have cleaned up their act .... still will recomend an extended warranty

 

[Kelemvor]

Definitely considering the warranty. We'll have to see if I can get BestBuy to reduce the cost of the laptop to throw in the warranty. Since I'll probably be dropping about 2 grand total (also getting a digital camera and accessories) maybe they'll have the Christmas spirit. Heh. WIsh me luck.

 

[blodhi74]

good luck

 

[Ionizer86]

Specs look awesome. The Barton (2400+, 1.8GHz 512K) combined with the ATi 320 chipset makes for a very fast system that should be fast too. Huge hard drive and tons of ram at that

 

[Dulanic]

I think this is even a better deal... Lappy

Faster by a slight bit, HD is a slight bit smaller... but its cheaper too... $1150 with $250 MIR to bring it to $899. Dunno what their financing options are on lappys, but I know if you all but ask and say BB has financing they can add 12 months no intrest if it doesn't already have more then 12. Atleast since it won't be used for gaming... if so I might take the E-Machines.

 

[Ionizer86]

The HP only has USB 1.1 and one firewire port. It's over 7lb's too. I'd say a viable third option would be to check out hpshopping.com for Athlon XP lappys. They have good deals when there's a 10% off floating around.

 

[Kelemvor]

EDIT: Heh, yeah. what he said...


Also he wider screen is awesome too.

I guess we'll see how I'm feeling on Saturday when I make the final decision. heh heh.

 

[Dulanic]

Originally posted by: Ionizer86
The HP only has USB 1.1 and one firewire port. It's over 7lb's too. I'd say a viable third option would be to check out hpshopping.com for Athlon XP lappys. They have good deals when there's a 10% off floating around.

True didn't take a good long look at it... just did a quick browse, and I guess it depends what you overall need and if it's worth a $100 difference... me myself Id take the emachines so I could do some gaming if I wanted too, but if it was more for office type use I might grab the compaq.

 

[vegetation]

Get the widescreen if user will be mostly web browsing and that sort of thing (non-gaming). It's much better suited for such tasks. The display on the emachines is just incredible ( I opened one up to inspect for a xmas gift ).

 

[Kelemvor]

Originally posted by: vegetation
Get the widescreen if user will be mostly web browsing and that sort of thing (non-gaming). It's much better suited for such tasks. The display on the emachines is just incredible ( I opened one up to inspect for a xmas gift ).

Oh yeah... to "Inspect" it... Right... heh heh.

 

[Ionizer86]

More info on laptop.

 

[vegetation]

Originally posted by: FrankyJunior

Originally posted by: vegetation
Get the widescreen if user will be mostly web browsing and that sort of thing (non-gaming). It's much better suited for such tasks. The display on the emachines is just incredible ( I opened one up to inspect for a xmas gift ).

Oh yeah... to "Inspect" it... Right... heh heh.

Ok you caught me, I ended up playing around with it a few hours before wrapping it under the tree. Couldn't resist. But seriously, it's a sweet system with an incredibly bright display. Makes my 3 year old Dell laptop look pitiful