who makes the best laptop besides IBM (way too expensive) or does it matter?

[eshtog]

?

 

[Rainsford]

I've had good luck with anything made my Dell. The company I used to work for used Dell servers, Dell desktops, and Dell Laptops. Which means I've worked with a lot of them. They seem to work pretty good, just don't try messing with them too much, they're more prone to problems than desktops, but that's true of many laptops. I'd say Dell makes the best stuff I've worked with so far.

 

[Gunbuster]

Toshiba is known for solid laptops

 

[HalfCrazy]

I got a Compaq Presario 1247 laptop my self. It's not the fastest thing in the world but it sure runs Win2k pro without any problems. Not too bad since it's only a K6-2 400mhz processor /w 160mb ram. What's even better is I bought the thing for only $50 bucks at the time. The only thing that was wrong with it was a bad hdd. So I ordered a new hdd for it and I was set to go.

 

[Stealth1024]

I am using a Dell Inspiron 8100 (1GHz Pentium M, 256MB RAM, 15" 1600x1200 LCD, 40GB hd, DVD, 64MB ATI Radeon 7500 Mobility, dual Li-ION batteries, integrated 56K 10/100 Ethernet, wireless ethernet card...) and I love it. I spent a little over $2200 around Christmas but it was worth it...

 

[CJZ]

IBM has an ebay store where they clear out older machines (currently t21, a22, & t22 models). The prices are pretty good.

 

[SuperSix]

I would lean towrds Dell or Compaq, simply for the ease of service SHOULD something go wrong. I think Toshiba is the #1 laptop sold. It would come down the service after the sale for me.

 

[AluminumStudios]

Working in academic tech support I've worked on a lot of laptops. I like Dell because they make decent products and really stand behind them. I prefer the Inspirons over the Latitudes. They seem faster and I like the way the drive bays, etc. are arranged. The Latitudes are more for business and are less flexible with fewer features (and seem slower.)

I've also found Compaq laptops to be decent (even though I dislike their desktops). Toshiba also has a good rep, but I haven't worked on too many of them.

It's pretty safe going with big names like Dell or Compaq so that would be my biggest piece of advice.

 

[bacillus]

one name springs to mind,Dell!

 

[Motero]

I'd say Dell and Toshiba...although Toshiba is more expensive...

 

[andrey]

As you can see from my signature, I have IBM Thinkpad and from my personal experiece, it is really worth its money. It is light (4.1 lbs), fast (P3@1GHz with 512 MB of RAM), has long lasting battery (~3 hours) and very durable. I've installed Windows 98, Windows XP and Linux RedHat and everything worked right away with absolutely no crashes. My Thinkpad has been so good to me, that I even find myself lately using it more than my P4 2GHz Desktop computer.

 

[hans007]

I personally like HPs. I am biased since my dad works for one of their ODMs and we have a bunch of HP laptops. However i do use them, and they dont break. they arent slow, and they work fairly well. I once got a customer return machine with a bad usb port however. I just called tech support, and they had fedex pick it up. 3 days later it was fixed. and their phone support wait is pretty short like 5 minutes max. what does suck though is their support is not toll free. i forgot to mention they give you real CDs for your restore unlike compaq and their restore partition crap (found that out when i had a presaro 1700 for a while . that laptop sucked, it heated up all over and burned your hand on the wrist rest).


for the record, sony from what i've heard has the worst support out of any notebook company. so if you buy a sony notebook dont break it.

 

[|TOAST|]

Dell and Toshiba and Sony if you're ruling out IBM... the last Company I worked for bought exclusively from Dell and before that IBM... Hadn't seen a problem with either that wasn't fixable with a new hard drive (3 year old machines that get abused by unknowing users that drop tehm constantly, make things break easily). Surprised teh LCD screens didn't break... I was shocked at the speeds of the P3 1GHz that they bought several months ago... those things cooked despite the reviews I read about the CPU running at an average of just over 700MHz when they heat up or whatever... The newer more recent Gateways (of a 1.5 month ago line) didn't seem to be quite as snappy yet they should have blown away the 1GHz P3 Dell machines. The Dell's had the nicest or equivalently nicest screens of any Laptop I've seen (other best was Sony Vaio) and they seem to cost less than the those.

 

[Degenerate]

Dell, toshiba

 

[eshtog]

^

 

[Mltsao]

I have heard good things about Dell, Toshiba and Compaq laptops/notebooks.

Many other people recommend these brands as well.
I myself have used three HP laptops which have been ok.

 

[Sunner]

Compaq's Armada line is very good.

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

DELL!!!!!!

 

[flyerI]

Toshiba. I won't but anything else.

 

[VBboy]

Dell

 

[CJZ]

According to many usenet posts, Dell appears to be on a major downswing when it comes to customer support.

 

[Cat]

My biggest complaint about Dell laptops is the physical build quality. They suck in that respect. The screen is mounted to the keyboard/chassis area in such a manner that the panel covering the keyboard often begins to break. (3700 Insprion series, for example, is horrible )

They also just feel flimsy.

Component-wise, the Dells are nice though.

I'd choose these as the top 3 types (no particular order)
Sony VAIO
Toshiba
IBM

 

[Nack]

"who makes the best laptop besides IBM (way too expensive) or does it matter?"

IBM at a discount. See if you can find someone who will let you use their employee number so you can get one through the employees and friends purchase program (EPP). Also check ebay for last years (but still very fast) IBM models at big discounts. IBM sells them there, direct to consumers.

Nack