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Who are the top laptop makers?

C

coolred

Diamond Member
Forgive me if this a repost, I searched for best laptop, and came up with nothing, as well as a couple other searches which returned a ton of results, i skimmed, and none appeared relavant. I am basically just wondering who makes the best laptops for the price, reliability, power, and just all around. If I t was within my power i would just build a laptop, but i feel that would be very very difficult if not impossible. From a lot of the posts i did read, it seemed to say IBM's were great, but a bit expensive. I have heard good things and bad things about toshibas, and all the other guys(Dell, gateway, compaq/HP) they always seem to have bad reps, but I think that may be more for thier desktops, which people around here generally think building a desktop is better then buying one. So what do you think?

Also are there any good websites about laptops in general?
 
Toshiba and IBM are the two best to me.

but most PC makers (IE Dell, Gateway) dont even make laptops, they buy them from other companies and rebrand them.
 
Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Toshiba and IBM are the two best to me.

but most PC makers (IE Dell, Gateway) dont even make laptops, they buy them from other companies and rebrand them.
Click to expand...

The impression I get about Dell is that yeah they don't make their own but they get so much control over the making of the notebooks that they might as well make their own.
Anyone know if my hunch is correct?
 
Originally posted by: Freejack2
Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Toshiba and IBM are the two best to me.

but most PC makers (IE Dell, Gateway) dont even make laptops, they buy them from other companies and rebrand them.
Click to expand...

The impression I get about Dell is that yeah they don't make their own but they get so much control over the making of the notebooks that they might as well make their own.
Anyone know if my hunch is correct?
Click to expand...

That is correct. About the only thing Dell does not do is manufacture them.

Think about it...if all Dell does is rebrand an existing laptop, wouldn't there be at least one other company out there with an identical laptop, just branded differently?
 
I heard IBM's were the best, but I never had any experience with them. I have had a few Dell laptop's - they worked just fine.
 
I like my Sony Laptop..
I've owned a Toshiba as well and it was rock solid with WINDOWS ME~!!!!

Used a Dell inspiron 41xx series... it sucked serious ass.
 
Best laptop manufacturer? Well, I'd have to say Apple.. But you probably are looking for a windows based PC... Compaq is pretty good (though I don't know how the compaq/hp merger effected their laptop division), IBM's are built very well but pricey, Fujitsu has some very snazzy small laptops but I don't know about their Quilty.. HP is crap (that's why they're so cheap), Sony looks cool but my sony laptop had fit and finish/ build quality issues (their warranty is great though - the sent me a shipping box overnight and got my laptop back in about a week.. Too bad it lost screws during the shipping process)... Hmmm.. From what I've seen/heard, dell makes pretty nice laptops.. If I was buying a laptop tomorrow I'd go with an Apple or a Dell (dell often has smokin' hot deals on laptops).. cnet.com has some pretty decent reviews.. Oh yeah, forgot to mention Toshiba.. My gf's sister has one and HATES it (it had two recalls lately) but they're pretty respected by the press.. My gf has an IBM and while it's an old, slow as hell computer, the fact that it is so old (6 years or so) speaks volumes of IBM quality..She's been waiting 3 years for it to break for an excuse to buy a new one.. Bastard works as good as new.. IBM's also smart in having a matte finish instead of the shiny look that a lot of other companies go for.. The finish on her laptop is perfect while my 1 year old sony is scratched up and even chipping in spots..
 
IBM Thinkpads have had the best build quality from my experiences. They're expensive, but you can always buy a used one.
 
I hear IBM's are great, yet they can be quite expensive, but i guess you get what you pay for....

i've had good experiences w/ dells, toshibas, and gateways....just stick to any major brand and you should be good to go.
 
IBM's are fantastic, but very expensive. toshiba's are also very nice...they always seem to have some really smart design ideas. of course if you want cheap though, you have to go the dell route. dell's aren't terrible, but they aren't great either. if you do get a dell, I would recommend getting a latitude, not inspiron.
 
Last winter, I had the option of going with a used IBM thinkpad T20 or a new Acer laptop (maybe it was HP, whatever one was like $600 AR from staples). I went with the used Thinkpad T-series and am very happy with it.

You cannot beat IBM Thinkpads. Great build quality, great keyboards, great components, plus I love the Trackpoint.

The only downside is they're laptops geared towards business activities. They'll do spreadsheets/email/office apps very well, but gaming on a Thinkpad won't be stellar, due to the lack of good graphics choices. If I wanted to play Doom 3 on my laptop, I'd get a Dell with the best chip I could get.

If money is no object, IBM all the way. If you want to game heavily or save cash, get a Dell.
 
1) IBM & Apple
2) Dell and all the others

Dell gives you the most bang for your buck however IBM & Apple's are the cream of the crop.
 
Originally posted by: Mani
Originally posted by: Freejack2
Originally posted by: Schadenfroh Toshiba and IBM are the two best to me. but most PC makers (IE Dell, Gateway) dont even make laptops, they buy them from other companies and rebrand them.
Click to expand...
The impression I get about Dell is that yeah they don't make their own but they get so much control over the making of the notebooks that they might as well make their own. Anyone know if my hunch is correct?
Click to expand...
That is correct. About the only thing Dell does not do is manufacture them. Think about it...if all Dell does is rebrand an existing laptop, wouldn't there be at least one other company out there with an identical laptop, just branded differently?
Click to expand...

The same manufacturer that makes Dells notebooks makes Gateway's notebooks. This is why I'm so bothered by people touting that dells laptops are better than Gateways - even though they're manufactured by th4e damn company!!!! :frown: When it comes to cheap laptops, Dell is better, but I've found that Gateway tends to have cheapers high end laptops.
 
Originally posted by: rbloedow
Originally posted by: Mani
Originally posted by: Freejack2
Originally posted by: Schadenfroh Toshiba and IBM are the two best to me. but most PC makers (IE Dell, Gateway) dont even make laptops, they buy them from other companies and rebrand them.
Click to expand...
The impression I get about Dell is that yeah they don't make their own but they get so much control over the making of the notebooks that they might as well make their own. Anyone know if my hunch is correct?
Click to expand...
That is correct. About the only thing Dell does not do is manufacture them. Think about it...if all Dell does is rebrand an existing laptop, wouldn't there be at least one other company out there with an identical laptop, just branded differently?
Click to expand...

The same manufacturer that makes Dells notebooks makes Gateway's notebooks. This is why I'm so bothered by people touting that dells laptops are better than Gateways - even though they're manufactured by th4e damn company!!!! :frown: When it comes to cheap laptops, Dell is better, but I've found that Gateway tends to have cheapers high end laptops.
Click to expand...

Having the same manufacturer doesn't mean anything other than that the laptops may be built in the same factory. Quanta and Compal manufacture most of Dell and Gateway's laptops, but every spec, ranging from fit tolerances and materials to sub-tier component sources are dicatated to them individually by both companies. Also, both do quality, compatibility, and reliability testing to varying extents so it is very concievable that one may be reported to be better than the other.

Quanta and Compal manufacture an enormous percentage of the world's laptops - in fact, Apple uses at least one of them to produce their laptops...so you can see that entirely different machines can come out of the same manufacturer.
 
Based on my experiences:

+ IBM make the best laptop especially its T series. The IBM technical support and services are very nice.
+ Apple seem to have quality control problem with its powerbook lines. Their support and services are also not very good.
+ Dell laptop quality is so so. Not bad but not good, just average. The D800 and D600 lines suffer from bad keyboard, heat, etc. while the I8500 and 600M have the (IMO) ugly blue color thing. Their technical support and services also become pretty bad nowaday.
+ Sony have great design but their laptops tend to be fragile. Their technical support and services also stink.
+ Toshiba make ok laptops. Technical support is ok but the hardware service is terrible.

If I have money, I would definitely go with IBM. With budget constraint, I would still go with IBM first, and then Dell or Sony.

Mocca
 
Here's my personal experience:

Dell- They're pretty good but FAR from perfect. I've come to expect that a new Dell will have problems from the start. After I got the modem replaced in my Inspiron 8200 I haven't had any real problems with it. It does however feel very flimsy. It feels like it SHOULD break under its own weight. We won't go into the problems I had with my Inspiron 8000 (I'm sure Rossman remembers 😉 ).

Sager- IMO they are utter crap. I recommended one to someone and that was a HUGE mistake. I'm now begging that person to get rid of it so I don't have to fix it anymore. Numerous parts have failed and it's had a bunch of weird problems over the years. Now I know why they are so cheap.

Toshiba- I think they used to be good but their more recent laptops are not very good IMO. About a year ago I actually recommended someone NOT buy one but they did anyway. I had a chance to work with it and I was glad that I recommended against it, as it was one of the most unimpressive laptops I've worked with. The battery life was abysmal coming in at a mere hour. It was huge and heavy. It had problems right out of the box, such as it would lock up when coming out of suspend to disk mode. The battery lost a lot of its charge in a few days even when the laptop was off. I just didn't like it at all.

Compaq- I worked on one for a friend of my mom's and it was sheer hell. Compaq has the worst web support in the world. I downloaded drivers for it and one just plain didn't work. The other totally destroyed windows to the point where it would not boot at all (it destroyed vmm32.* or something like that) and I was forced to reinstall windows on a computer that came with no drivers. Once I fixed it (that was a real miracle) I told her NEVER to bring it back to me again.

IBM- I have a friend who bought a used IBM Thinkpad 600X about 2 years ago and it is still going strong to this day (BTW, it usually runs 24/7). I only used it a little but its design is very impressive. I can't think of any complaints. I'm actually considering buying a Thinkpad T40 in the near future.
 
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