Best Laptop Brand

I was just wonder what you guys think the best mainstream laptop brand is? I would like to keep within a budget of $1000

You'll never go wrong with lenovo or IBM. second option is DELL.

if you talking about quality go with Apple and Sony VAIO, just a little pricy laptops but they are great! Believe me, I got both of them

quality?=sony? don't think so.. how many times their product were taken off the shelves?

yes apples are always good and yummy too!

I think a Good HP will suite you well, I have had bad experiences with dell laptops, and advise that nobody buy them.

HP are great laptops, and they are least likely to come to me to get fixed, because they don't break as much, the majority of computers we get are dells and Macs.

go with apple or sony VAIO, and yeah HP is also good

If you can have extra $ to add to your budget, go VAIO with a blue-ray drive



wtf? you dont even know what you are talking about...


This post has been edited by trapp17: Mar 26 2009, 01:03 PM

This is a very subjective topic.

Dell's are branded as budgetary laptops, but I wasn't too unhappy with mine. I used to own a Dell Inspiron 8600... not a bad machine, but I don't like how they lock down the BIOS so that you can't do anything with the hardware, and I don't like how Dell has their super-secret-squirrel keyboard shortcuts that you need to call tech support with. If you're a little tech-savvy, I would try another brand, but Dells are not bad. I also hear decent to good things about the XPS line and their Studio line. The customer service is decent, but I don't know how it's like today. (The only things I've done with tech support would include trying to restore a hard drive and ordering a new keyboard, both of which were okay experiences.) I am now currently using my girlfriend's Dell Inspiron i1501, and after a few coffee spills, a replaced keyboard, a supposedly-dead battery/faulty power supply that I fixed later on with ease, it still runs decently for a "cheap laptop."

I love HPs because I own two of them, and I haven't had too much to deal with concerning hardware issues. I bought a Pavilion zd8000 back in the day mainly to do laptop gaming (of course, right before they started beefing up graphic capability in laptops), and besides the known heat issues, the zd8000 has suffered through one dead battery (due to the heat) but nothing else. I usually leave it plugged in anyway and keep it raised to promote airflow to get as much life out of the laptop as I can (as it is classified as a desktop replacement). I also bought a tc1100 tablet PC back in the day on eBay with nothing else included... and the resulting call to tech support was actually quite pleasant with getting Windows XP TPC edition and driver CDs shipped to my house. Quick and to the point... but of course, that was my experience.

I'm working off of a company Toshiba Satellite Pro A6100, and I'm surprised that it isn't dead yet. The onboard power board is faulty as it isn't able to charge the battery at all (which I tried to fix myself with no avail), the keyboard's mouse nub likes to trail in random directions with age (even after having replaced the entire keyboard), the battery might be dead (I don't know if it is or not), but the darn thing still works. I haven't talked to tech support at all because it is a company laptop serviced by our super-competent IT guy but hey, I can't complain too much... until I have to push out mission-critical stuff off of a 6+ year old laptop.

In all reality, if you want the best bang for your buck (and I don't mean the most amount of power for the least amount of money), look at the design of the laptop itself. Scrutinize it. (It really helps if you have the laptop in hand before purchasing it.) Heat is a component killer. The reason why I think Toshiba sucks is because of the critical component failure rate... people love to complain about hard drive failures, but on closer inspection, some Toshiba laptops house their battery near their hard drive bays. Poor airflow will result in future problems later. See how many fans the case has, and see if the fans are even producing an effective airflow that actually takes heat AWAY from the system. Make sure that heat-heavy components like the CPU or the GPU aren't close to the hard drive, and it's best if they're near the outer part of the laptop layout as opposed to being located moreso internally.

Of course, if you're not very tech-savvy, tech support might be something you should look into. The only way to actually research this would be by peer reviews, but remember that peer reviews create a skewed outlook on things because most people will go online to post complaints rather than praise the company they bought from.

Also, when you finally make a choice, do research on common issues with that make and model of laptop. My zd8000 was known for heat, especially near the right palmrest, and knowing that I elevated the laptop, snagged an external keyboard, and had an oscillating room fan blowing on that thing 24/7. (But I'm ghetto like that.) Research problems that you're GOING to have and take preventative measures accordingly. (I never had any real issues with any of my Dells or the HP tc1100... except for losing the pen tip to the stylus for the TPC. And if you buy an older model, be prepared to pay more for hard-to-find parts.)

In the end, I think that for the most part, you'll be happy with your purchase IF you do your research. Brand names can be important as far as quality goes, but every company has a few lemons. Avoid the lemon and make as educated of a purchase as you can.

Well first don't go near allienware! They charge just for there badge, If its for design or travel then a Mac Book would be handy for you as the Mac Book pro has 8 hours battery life. But you should really be more specific on what Brand you want for a category. I have a HP had it has been working for 4 years with no problems!

AlienWare is Dell. They bought/merged a while ago.

AlienWare is usually associated with high performance, but with that performance comes top dollar prices. I can actually relate AlienWare with anything Apple: you won't find either brand with new products for under $1000, I don't think.

From what I'm hearing and have heard about Apple's computers and OSX, it can be a viable solution, but not one that fits your budget. If having OSX and/or snagging the latest trendy gig is a priority, I would look on eBay to see if you can find some Apple laptops for less than $1000. I haven't looked at Apple laptops at all because they are cost-prohibitive to me, but they may boast good hardware design. (Read my previous post.)

Another potential issue that I would think would exist with AlienWare is heat. If you're looking to buy into AlienWare performance (and the logo, as Ash-Bash mentioned), performance generates heat, which demands a good cooling solution and laptop design/layout. (Again, read my previous post.) But again, as with Apple, I don't think you could find any AlienWare products new for under $1000 unless you shop around for used laptops on eBay or wherever else.

yes Apple is good for buying a laptop. personally I think you would be better off with it. I hate windows and i hate Windows wanna bees. Mac has an operating system that blows other OS's out of the water. PLus the Laptop is in a better more operable shape then any of the other laptops that conist windows on it.