laptop manufactuers

[kramer]

I want a laptop willing to spend about $1,500. Which company is best besides dell. I was thinking like sony or toshiba. Are compaq and hp good. I'm not to sure about the apple thing. Are there any advantages to an apple.

[bailey]

I have a toshiba, and my daughter has a sony vioa, both very good as far as I am concerened, and the dell is good also, I would pick any one of these over a hp or compaq.

[colecifer]

My dad really likes his toshiba laptop now. He has had two. The old one is a pentium with an 512 mb hard drive and windows 95A. It still runs today, the battery is worthless it has no cd drive, but it runs. Thats pretty impressive to me. It still works like when he got it, a little slow compared to today but same speed as when he bought it.

I know this might be a little controversial seeing as how this is a pc forum but i really like the mac powerbooks and i know many other people do too. I'd consider this if i were you.

[damontgo]

funny you should ask- i just bought a Toshiba 2nd hand, one of their Portege Line, and I have got (reluctantly) admit that it was arelatively painless switch from OSX to windows. I love this machine, plain and simple. I've heard good about Sony Vaio, but whatever you do dont' buy HP, they're worthless. My g/f has one, and she's just counting the days till she can buy an iBook- Oh how silly of me, if you're not committed to Windows Platform, certainly check out Mac laptops, small powerful, and definitely better looking.

[mb26]

my brother has a Toshiba and has had numerous problems with it.. (screen didn't work at full brightness [now fixed under warranty- i think it was just an incorrect bios setting?]; screen will no longer 'stay up' on its own, 'mouse thing' (not a touchpad, the things which sit inbetween a couple of keys and they act kind of like a tiny joystick?) only works horizontally, dvd drive no longer plays DVDs... however it has had very heavy use, and i'm not quite sure about the DVD drive issue.
my dad has recently brought an Acer aspire 2010 series, and is very happy with it.
dells latitudes are OK apparently but the dimension (?)s suck.
sony, along with IBM, make good, yet expensive laptops.
if u want decent battery life, look towards a pentium M. (celeron Ms (not to be confused with celerons or mobile celerons) have almost as good performance, but lack speedstep so battery life is shorter).

a lot of laptops are reviewed ('professional' and customer reviews) at Cnet reviews.

Mac Vs others... well, Mac OS users will tell u that Mac OS is better, windows users will say that windows is better. if u want to use it for very specific things then Mac OS is fine but if u want max flexibility then windows has more software. that sounds a little harsh as all major things work on Mac OS.. just not all the little quirky things u can get for windows. IMO theres nothing a mac laptop can do that a windows based laptop can't.

[kstatefan40]

Stear clear of HP and Compaq. I have had more trouble with them than you could imagine.

Example: I called in for a repair request, and was notified that I no longer had a warranty and that they would not fix the machine. Funny thing is, last October, I bought a 2 year hardware warranty extension on this machine for $100. Somehow, this purchase "slipped through their database" and funny, I was charged for it. I have to fax them a reciept, which I never got because the purchase was made over the phone, or give them a case number. I have neither. I am going to have to dig through my past bank statements and fax them a copy.

I've had various hardware troubles with this Compaq in the two years I have owned it:

• Modem Broke
  
• Keys Sticking
  
• LCD casing cracked
  
• Ethernet Jack broke
  
• Floppy Drive will not write to floppies
  

I'd suggest Sony Vaio or IBM. IBM is overpriced for the speed, but their quality and reliability are unsurpassed. Sony Vaios are overpriced also, but they have better performance for the price than IBM, yet are not as good quality wise, but still pretty dang good. Good luck on your purcahse!

[mbossman2]

while IBMs are pricey (altho there are several in you price range) I can personally attest to the quality and ruggedness of these machines. over the last 5 years, I have had Toshibas, Dells, and IBMs....the thinkpads have both made it to end of lease with no problem...the toshibas are pieces of junk, the hard drivees/processors both overheat and burn out...the Dells are just not rugged enough for day to day movement (screens go bad, h/d head crash etc)

[Hi Ho]

If you want rugged get one of THESE. You can literally drop it on a concrete floor and it will keep going like nothing ever happened. I read an article telling how one of them actually took a bullet for a soldier in Iraq. It didn't work afterwards but it saved his life.

Anyway, I concure with everyone else here. I will add Asus to the good list although they are pricey.

[kram 2.0]

Toshiba makes good laptops but often a bit bulky - I own one myself and I have to say though it is versatile in its use, it's a bit hard to call it mobile. Another brand I highly recommend is Dell - I'd have to say quality wise, Dell laptops are pretty good. Not too entirely fat but pretty sturdy although you've voiced opinion against it.

If you don't mind going outside the Windows Environment, I would fullheartedly recommend the Apple PowerBook...that's as slim and versatile as a laptop can get.


kram

[dragonxx4]

Heh guess Im the only advocate for HP Notebooks. The one in my sig has treated me well the past 4 months. Does all the business work I need to do and plays most games pretty well. As for sturdiness. I try to avoid testing it. I can vouch for HPs since I have one. They are good laptops ans come with lots of features for the money.

[nubbler]

If you want rugged, I agree with Hi Ho, get the Toughbook-29. But be careful what other ones you get from Panasonic cuz some of the models have had pretty nasty reviews.

Otherwise, if you don't need a quite so rugged one, get a Sony, they are expensive but there reliable, A friend of mine got one second hand and the thing don't quit. Also they wer rated #1 in reliability by PC mag in a survey where they ask tons of people evry year.

[damontgo]

one OS X benefit that Mac has over everything else is lack of viruses. If you don't want to hassle with norton or symantec, etc. go OSX, and I'm gonna go with kram about the power books. The stupid things work better than my desktop now...

[Floppyman]

IBM...IBM...IBM

(Yes, I'm biased... )

[pc master]

i bought a toshiba SA60-108 it is bulky buy extremely fast and reliable it has a good battery life of 3 hours

[mrmister1]

Definitely check out the IBM Thinkpads. Although they are expenxive, they are very well made.

[Statica]

A vote for Toshiba, and maybe the Apple thinkpads if you want extreme portability (hard to beat the size of an Apple).
I've had bad experiences with Sony's, and bad customer service with Dells.
While a number of people also recommend laptops that arent made by the big name mfgers, I've had bad experiences with some of them (heard of Trogon anyone?) - driver issues, lack of support and company going out of existence

There are a number of options out there, and so are the numbers of opinions, you have to realize that our opinions and our experiences could be anomalies. Of course it's widely accepted that HP/Compaq are brands to stay away from. Choose the laptop that satiate your needs.