Laptop reliablity

[Icemage]

I am looking for a laptop. Which of these brands have you found the most reliable.

Dell (insperion series)
IBM (A series, T series)
Toshiba (Sattelite series)
Fujitsu

Price range $2000 or less

Any feed back or recommendations on laptops would be a nice.

 

[Oyeve]

IBM, by far. Then Dell. All others suck.

 

[Gunbuster]

all the brands you listed are good just as long as you treat them with respect (no eating, sitting on, throwing, closing the lid with a pen on the keyboard, breaking/bending the power port)

 

[Workin']

Yeah, nothing breaks if you don't use it.

IBM is typically regarded as very sturdy. I have 2 old ThinkPads that are still running strong and undamaged after 6 years and 3 years of use.

 

[Lord Gwynz]

Out of those models, I'd go with the IBM T series followed by the A series. I used to hear a lot of good things about Dells but lately I've been hearing about some weird issues they've been having with some their latest units, like for instance something about the lcd screen rubbing up against the keys on the keyboard when the unit is closed, causing scratches on the anti-glare coating of the display. Wow, talk about poor quality control.

 

[LadyNiniane]

Current IBMs have a good rep for reliability. Older IBMs had some driver issues with earlier versions of Windows (especially NT) because of non-standard video and audio components, but otherwise ok.

Dells have had a good rep, but the last two we got at the office had some QC problems (drives and keyboards, IIRC).

Old Fujitsu's were supposedly OEM'd by the same manufacturer as the Hitachi Visionbook series, and Hitachi's were good machines (I still use mine and it's 3+ years old). Don't know about new Fujitsu's.

Old Toshiba's were suck - husband used to work on them and swore he'd never have one in the house; he liked the old Compaqs. Seem to have switched places lately, though - new Compaqs are trouble, new Toshibas seem to be better. Wonder if they switched suppliers...

Lady Niniane

 

[Icemage]

Serveral of my peers seem to think that DELL has poor durability. I like the features the offer for the price but if its not going to last that will be a problem.

What about a Sony Viao. Someone offered to sell me a 3 week old one second hand (He wanted to get G4 power book which I also think is very cool but I don't have anything to run on OS 9 or OS X) . Only thing its that the Viao's screen is only 12.1" (I was really hopoing for 14.1 or 15) and there is no CD drive (no floppy either but thats ok)