new 13" laptop and extended warranty?

[xSauronx]

So the girlfriend is looking to buy a new laptop...ive built dekstops and bought used laptops so this is a semi-new thing to me.

First, when are extended warranties worth it for new laptops? Shes looking to spend ~$800 on this and wants to count on having it for 2 -3 years.

Also, anyone want to chime in on what models to look at? The Toshiba R705 looks really nice but is best-buy only...and im not a best buy fan. The anandtech reviews on some of the new Asus 13" models are good, and they seem to have great battery life, but they're selling out quick and often at newegg.

Where else is worth shopping for a laptop that has good customer support? I buy all sorts of stuff on amazon but im not sure that its where id want to get a laptop from.

Any input is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[metalmania]

Toshiba is not good anymore. The 13" Lenovo ThinkPad X301 is pretty good. Extended warranty is a waste of money. I have 5 laptops, the oldest one is 7 years old, still running fine.

 

[johnny.dacu]

Well i've always been pleased with Toshiba products. I've bought a Satellite about 3 years ago. Even now il like new...

 

[Brainonska511]

Toshiba is not good anymore. The 13" Lenovo ThinkPad X301 is pretty good. Extended warranty is a waste of money. I have 5 laptops, the oldest one is 7 years old, still running fine.

The X301 is still way overpriced and using old tech. I do agree that extended warranties are a waste. Just pay with a credit card that doubles the warranty (up to another year in most cases) and you get at least 2 years. The extended warranties can carry a pretty hefty cost compared to the cost of a notebook, particularly the <$1000. As for customer service, after ~30 days, you're going to be stuck dealing with the manufacturer, so where you buy it isn't going to matter too much.

Some Asus notebooks are coming with 2 year standard warranties plus 1 year of accidental damage protection.

The Acer TimelineX series are a pretty good set of consumer-grade, lightweight notebooks. We got one for my mom (14" one for her) a few weeks ago. Lots of junkware installed at first, but after it was cleaned up, it's rather nice.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-231-_-Product (13" one; note: no internal optical drive)