Notebook Quality And Reliability

[Crushdepth]

My boss wants to 'standarise' notebooks and just buy one brand (we don't buy enough to get a bulk deal out of anyone). So I'm wondering what brands of notebook people think are the most reliable, in terms of quality and durability.

My personal experience to date is as follows (please feel free to make smart alec comments about Mac books if you want :

* Acer: Cheap but also low build quality. A lot of things go wrong down with them, particularly as they age. I avoid.

* IBM Thinkpad: Not so cheap, but the most rugged laptops I've used. We've had a few problems with them but nothing serious.

* Dell: Not so cheap, but seem to be fairly reliable even in old age. Personally, I hate the cheap 'feel' of them but that's me.

* Fujitsu: A bit expensive but seem to be reliable (haven't used these as long) but they can't seem to get the cases right (scratch like hel_l).

Others? Quite curious about what people think about Asus and HP.

[raro]

I just made some market research for laptops as I needed one for me and the wife...

Acer is the best deal in the market. You can buy them together with a 3-year warranty that costs 2,990 Baht extra. So if anything goes tits-up, Acer will fix it for free.

After 3 years any laptop is anyways outdated and ready for the trashcan...

Second best would be Lenovo, but I didn't like their rugged design...they look a bit like a tank.

Any other brand was more expensive, the Fujitsus you mentioned about 50% more for the same specs and they have only 2 years of warranty. NB, my beloved HP died after exactly 2 years and a month...

We have a 4720Z and a 4315 respectively. Both are under 20,000 Baht (+ VAT) and do the job very very well.

[Theyreallrubbish]

I had a Fujitsu that at exactly the year and a day mark the screen began flickering and going dark. About 2 months later it began to overheat and shut down after about 20 minutes use

I had a Toshiba that had the screen flicker thing after about one and a half years

I have an IBM thinkpad now that is rugged, but is so loaded with IBM crap software that it runs slowly. You can't even format and reinstall as the installation software is on a partition you can't get to and it prevents any attempt to modify the operating system. Lenovo also released a software update on automatic update that killed mine and many other's laptops before they pulled it. Took days to get it working again. So don't turn on automatic update!

[Christopher84]

My boss wants to 'standarise' notebooks and just buy one brand (we don't buy enough to get a bulk deal out of anyone). So I'm wondering what brands of notebook people think are the most reliable, in terms of quality and durability.

My personal experience to date is as follows (please feel free to make smart alec comments about Mac books if you want :

* Acer: Cheap but also low build quality. A lot of things go wrong down with them, particularly as they age. I avoid.

* IBM Thinkpad: Not so cheap, but the most rugged laptops I've used. We've had a few problems with them but nothing serious.

* Dell: Not so cheap, but seem to be fairly reliable even in old age. Personally, I hate the cheap 'feel' of them but that's me.

* Fujitsu: A bit expensive but seem to be reliable (haven't used these as long) but they can't seem to get the cases right (scratch like hel_l).

Others? Quite curious about what people think about Asus and HP.

i will the same as rario.. acer is the best deal on the marked. i gott an acer aspire 4520. bought it for 19 000 bath. upgraded the ram to 2Giga. costed me 800bath extra. i had an acsident when my dog run in to the cable and the computer felt down on the floor. i didnt say annything and delivered it in to acer service senter. 3 days after i had it back. it was the mainboard who was broken. they changed it for free and no questions asked:) realy great support will I say. expect that i havent had anny problems.

[surface]

I have an Acer 5920G now which is a good laptop BUT I don't travel with it. Best price for the specs though and lots of service centers around.

When I was working with them on a steady basis, the Dell Latitudes frequently died within a few months of the 3 year NBD warranty expiring.

Lenovo does put a lot of software on the Thinkpads (some very useful, some not) and you should probably remove most of it, but I have never had a user bring one back dead. One time I had to replace a hard drive that sounded like it was about to die, and Lenovo sent me a new one, but HDD's in laptops are the first thing to go. Those Thinkpads can sure take a beating.

[malcolmswaine]

I bought an acer 5053. Not great quality at all. Currently the DVD drive and manual wireless switch are both broken. Last month the cooling fan gave up, so I pulled it apart and WD-40'd it which seems to be holding up while I'm waiting for a replacement. When I first got the machine something went wrong with the BIOS and I had to wait about a month and a half before I got it back from Acer. Maybe I've just been unlucky. I'll go with HP or Dell next time.

[Jimmy in Bangkok]

I would have to agree with others regarding the Acer. I have an Acer 8204WLMi and it is fantastic. A fairly high end machine in the Acer stable but well worth every cent. The warranty has been awesome and I will admit to having this and other, earlier Acer models have their DVD RW fail nearly at a year but have always had them replaced under warranty with no problems at all. In all fairness I do a lot of burning as well. That has been the only problem besides a defective cooling fan which was also replaced under warranty and I've had no problems since. I'm quite happy to stay with Acer and find their products top quality. Just my opinion anyway. I do replace my laptops/notebooks every 2 years as I feel if you keep them any longer than this you are falling behind in the technology advantages. You also get a lot of bang for your buck I think.

Cheers

Jimmy

[Rice_King]

My two bahts worth...

The company I worked for issued me a brand new Dell Latitude C800 in late 2000. When I left the company threes years later my boss let me take the Dell with me. (At three years old, it was worthless to them anyhow.) The Dell made the trip to Thailand and back to the US several times before finally dying on me in late 2006. At the time, it was just one month shy of 6 years old. I had used it nearly every day in those 6 years and it had provided me with faithful service for every day I owned it.

Due to the lack of availability (at that time anyhow) of Dell notebooks in Thailand, I decided to replace it with an HP Pavilion. The HP is smaller and lighter (the Dell was a real "brick") and has provided near perfect service in the 20 months I have owned it.

Will the HP last me 6 years? Somehow I doubt it. The HP just doesn't seem to be rugged enough to handle the many "road miles" that the Dell did. The HP feels a bit too flimsy to me. I may be wrong. It may be that the lightness of the machine is just deceiving me. The HP may indeed have the heart of a tank. Only time will tell.

As for my old Dell Latitude... I just did not have the heart to throw it away. After letting it sit idle in my closet for a few months, I went on eBay and found a (used) replacement motherboard for it. After replacing the mobo, it worked perfectly again so I sold it at a very reasonable price. (The person was looking for a cheap, portable machine with which to do email, web browsing, etc., and the old Dell fit the bill.) The last I heard, they were still using it and were still satisfied.

I cannot attest to every brand of laptop / notebook out there. I was a happy Dell owner and I am (at the time of this writing) a happy HP owner.

[onethailand]

Had an NEC. Decent, but overpriced.

Replaced it with an Acer - which always peformed well for me but had occasional glitches.

Now I have an IBM/Lenovo. Agree with all the comments about the software, but that software has saved my ass once already. Other than a minor heat problem, I would definitely call this the best notebook of the lot.

[Gary A]

The first laptop I ever had was a Hitachi. I'll just say that that top of the line Hitachi is the last one I'll ever own. My second one was an IBM Thinkpad 600. It had no problems at all until it was about seven years old. The keypad gave up but with a remote keyboard, it worked fine. I gave it to a Thai friend of mine and he is still using it. I then came by a second hand Toshiba that is now old and VERY slow but it still works. I bought a Lenovo (IBM) T43P with all the bells and whistles. It is about two years old and works fine. If this Thinkpad holds up like the last one, my next one will be anoyher Lenovo Thinkpad.

[tominbkk]

I've had my Compaq Presario for Two years now......love it, and it has withstood the mean treatment I give it and stayed steady.

[nikster]

I had a Fujitsu that at exactly the year and a day mark the screen began flickering and going dark.

I am happy to hear that Why? Because my MacBook Pro just pulled the exact same stunt on me. Weird screen problem appeared exactly on the day the 1 year warranty expired, a week later the screen was a goner. Precision engineering, nothing less :D

The 3 year warranty for this computer costs $350. And they know why they charge so much.

[sibeymai]

Nothing but Lenovo, and a Thinkpad even better. I'm typing this on an IBM R50 which I bought 4 years ago. Never a problem. Wish I could say the same for Windows. 3 years international warranty. Can get it fixed anywhere. IBMs/Lenovo are as bullet proof as you can get. And they're not any more expensive. R61s selling in Pantip with 3 year warranty for 17,000bt ex. operating system.

[nikster]

I would have to agree with others regarding the Acer. I have an Acer 8204WLMi and it is fantastic. A fairly high end machine in the Acer stable but well worth every cent. The warranty has been awesome and I will admit to having this and other, earlier Acer models have their DVD RW fail nearly at a year but have always had them replaced under warranty with no problems at all. In all fairness I do a lot of burning as well. That has been the only problem besides a defective cooling fan which was also replaced under warranty and I've had no problems since. I'm quite happy to stay with Acer and find their products top quality. Just my opinion anyway. I do replace my laptops/notebooks every 2 years as I feel if you keep them any longer than this you are falling behind in the technology advantages. You also get a lot of bang for your buck I think.

Cheers

Jimmy

Unfortunately, Acer doesn't make anything like the 8 series right now, don't know why. The very high end acers are all consumer class Aspires.

I also have an 8204, which I bought after having the 803 a few years back. The 803 was the best laptop ever - never had a single problem with it. Nothing! Only laptop I have owned where I could say that. The battery lasted 4 hours or more, as promised. It was dead silent and cool. It just worked. The 8204 is great too in terms of build quality. I had the fan replaced too, and the HD once, but nothing since. HD is not really acer's fault IMHO, and the HD mount inside the 8204 is excellent. The battery is kaput now but no wonder after 2 years and a few months.

I also had a cheapo TM 4600 inbetween. This computer showed me that Acer service is excellent as it was in the shop half the time I owned it. Core problem was it was simply way too hot so component after component failed. A lemon. But Acer's business line is very good.

The 8204 is now my backup machine, and getting heavy use now that the MacBook Pro is being repaired... I am glad I have it

[Digitalbanana]

If you buy in Thailand its HP or Compaq for me now... I've owned Acer, Dell and Toshiba in past and all pale in significance rgds value for money and quality as of late. Sony, Fujitsu and the like have always been too feminine and overpriced for my tastes so I have never touched them!

[sibeymai]

My experience with HP/Compaq in Thailand when the company bought a new laptop....

the main board failed after less than 3 weeks. HP's response: it's a new model. we don't have any parts yet. 8 weeks to fix.

Hardly a recommendation.

Edited July 18, 2008 by sibeymai

[jackspratt]

I did a lot of research on this subject before I left Oz to live in Thailand. The clear winner was ASUS, which I duly bought one of, and have been happy with ever since.

Asus make a lot of the hardware which is installed into other brand name laptops and PCs, and also manufacture laptops which are sold under other (well known) brand names.

[sjaak327]

Another vote for Dell latitude, they do seem to be able to withstand me throwing and abusing it

[sibeymai]

Another vote for Dell latitude, they do seem to be able to withstand me throwing and abusing it

But can they withstand the TG/TW throwing and abusing it ?

Lenovo/IBM give you 1 year accidental damage/loss/theft insurance as well.

[youngkiwi]

You can't go past the build quality and robustness of IBM/Lenovo. They are made to last. The Dell laptops I have owned had overheating issues not to mention problems with case quality. Acer's are widely known to be an entry level brand, despite being the third largest computer manufacturer in the world. I know of many people who have had major problems with Acer laptops, mainly motherboard and power supply problems.

Edited July 18, 2008 by youngkiwi

[sibeymai]

You want quality you have to pay a little bit for it. IBM/Lenovo have HDD "air bag" protection built in (parks the HDD heads when movement is detected...can save you from a HDD crash), have a "preload" partition from which you can reinstall factory loaded software including you operating system and data (yes, it does take up disk space but when you need it you'll be very happy) and the warranty and parts support you need anywhere you are. If you want real robustness go for a T series with a titanium chassis, not plastic. It's not the best laptop in the world for nothing.

In February this year I rolled my Toyota Vigo at 100k/mh and the only thing I had to replace was the screen on my laptop (it's an R series = plastic chasis) The rest of it is still working fine. The car though was a write off.

If you think another brand can do better then pay your money and take your chances.

Edited July 18, 2008 by sibeymai

[Crushdepth]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention our experience with Compaq. We had two, and flaky bits of rust (yes, RUST) started coming out of the vents. They were much loathed and despised by the people that had them, who switched to Thinkpads and stopped complaining thereafter.

[britmaveric]

Asus would be my recommendation - bit more, but dosh well spent.

[teej]

Nobody has mentioned Sony.

I've had 2 Vaios each dropped not less than 5 times on marble flooring and working. The one I'm typing on right now is totally obliterated from the outside, cracks in every corner, but it's still kicking.

I also repeatedly hit them against walls, plane seats, people, etc. when my messenger bag swings around in tight spaces. Not a problem.

Many people do say that the Lenovo/IBM units are built for some brutal use. They may be right.

[bazmlb]

I did a lot of research on this subject before I left Oz to live in Thailand. The clear winner was ASUS, which I duly bought one of, and have been happy with ever since.

Asus make a lot of the hardware which is installed into other brand name laptops and PCs, and also manufacture laptops which are sold under other (well known) brand names.

Asus gets my vote too, mines had a rough life never one problem, all my friends with acer have had nightmares with them, breaking down a lot and not very robust.

[TomBrown]

I vote for Acer. Never had a problem with them and always been happy.

As it so happens, I'm currently selling my Acer Aspire 9502WSMi 17" notebook. I don't travel around much now so recently bought a new mini tower replacement... Acer again of course.

With convenient service centres in Thailand if you ever do need to use them and good specification / features for the price, seems like the logical choice in my opinion.

Edited July 18, 2008 by TomBrown

[cobra]

If your application is going to be more in the field instead of office environments,

Panasonic ToughBooks are the most reliable, (they're spec'ed for the military),

Not cheap, but if there's a premium on the value of the data you'll be carrying, this is the only serious choice.

Available only on-line, (did I say they are not cheap )

[Jimmy in Bangkok]

I would have to agree with others regarding the Acer. I have an Acer 8204WLMi and it is fantastic. A fairly high end machine in the Acer stable but well worth every cent. The warranty has been awesome and I will admit to having this and other, earlier Acer models have their DVD RW fail nearly at a year but have always had them replaced under warranty with no problems at all. In all fairness I do a lot of burning as well. That has been the only problem besides a defective cooling fan which was also replaced under warranty and I've had no problems since. I'm quite happy to stay with Acer and find their products top quality. Just my opinion anyway. I do replace my laptops/notebooks every 2 years as I feel if you keep them any longer than this you are falling behind in the technology advantages. You also get a lot of bang for your buck I think.

Cheers

Jimmy

Unfortunately, Acer doesn't make anything like the 8 series right now, don't know why. The very high end acers are all consumer class Aspires.

I also have an 8204, which I bought after having the 803 a few years back. The 803 was the best laptop ever - never had a single problem with it. Nothing! Only laptop I have owned where I could say that. The battery lasted 4 hours or more, as promised. It was dead silent and cool. It just worked. The 8204 is great too in terms of build quality. I had the fan replaced too, and the HD once, but nothing since. HD is not really acer's fault IMHO, and the HD mount inside the 8204 is excellent. The battery is kaput now but no wonder after 2 years and a few months.

I also had a cheapo TM 4600 inbetween. This computer showed me that Acer service is excellent as it was in the shop half the time I owned it. Core problem was it was simply way too hot so component after component failed. A lemon. But Acer's business line is very good.

The 8204 is now my backup machine, and getting heavy use now that the MacBook Pro is being repaired... I am glad I have it

Yes I am looking around at the moment for a suitable replacement as this one is due to be upgraded and am extremely disappointed with Acer's seeming change in model direction. I did find something similar but I can't remember what Acer site it was. It certainly wasn't the Thai one anyway and the specs were a bit disappointing as well.

I am not a fan of the Aspire series either and have always used the TravelMate models and apart from the couple of small problems mentioned previously have been very happy with them. I have a mate with an Asus and I must admit it does seem like a fairly good machine but only time will tell of course. As with all things you will find that there are good and bad and everyone will have a different experience to impart.

Cheers

Jimmy