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What brands of laptops are good/bad?
I know some people say that there's not that much difference, but I generally hear better things about one brand or another.
What brands do you think are better/worse than others, and why?
Comments
I like Toshiba. It's a good brand
...It's the only brand I've used, mind you...
Do not buy HP. That's all I know.
^ Aw, damn, too late for that. What's wrong with HP, if I may ask?
I'm mostly talking about their laptops; I've had more success with their less-portable products. The laptop I had, though, wasn't able to run without overheating and killing itself unless I turned its settings way down, and then it literally fell apart.
Ah. I have an overheating problem, but that only happens when I'm not using the cooling fan I have, which is usually when I'm at dad's and don't feel like lugging it around. Haven't had to fuck around with settings or anything.
My HP laptop constantly runs extremely hot, but it doesn't seem to actually suffer in performance.
Still I'd probably go for another brand if I were to get another laptop.
I'd advise not ever buying a computer from The Source, but iirc they only operate in Canada so that doesn't apply to GMH's situation.
It more depends of the class of laptops than brand. Business class laptops while more expensive tend to have better build quality and can take a beating. Lenevo Thinkpads are the topend and are well known for the build quality. HP and Dell's business class laptops are also decent.
Consumer class laptops are a different story. This is where to reduce costs, corners are cut. HP gives no fucks about build quality in their consumer line. The rest are all kind of the same it all depends on what was cut to reduced cost.
From the Toshiba laptops I've used, the keyboard on them tends to be fairly good.
A Best Buy salesperson says that he recommends ASUS, Toshiba, Samsung, Sony, and Lenovo, and says that HP, Dell, Acer, and Gateway see the most issues that require tech support. Another one said that there's not that much difference between the label brands and what's inside matters more. (A third one whom I asked about processors said that AMD processors runs hotter but faster than Intel processors.)
I haven't used HP laptops before, but I have used HP printers, and two models of desktop inkjet printers--in fact, two instances of one model and one instance of another--have turned out to have technical problems. Canon, on the other hand, is much more reliable; a Canon BJC1000 was used by my family for about ten years (albeit with some minor problems in later years). That said, I also saw that a lot of the big laser printers at schools are HP LaserJets, so maybe you're right in that their business-class stuff is good but their consumer-class stuff sucks.
That said, what counts as business-class and consumer-class for laptops?
Well, the person who said amd processors ran hotter but faster had no clue what they were talking about. Intel processors out preform amd processors by a large margin, talking about the cpu only. The integrated graphics that tends to come with amd processors are actually decent.
I kind of agree with the first best buy sales person about what laptops are good, the dell and acer might be more of a numbers issue, but acer tends to cut a lot of corners.
To tell what is business-class and not, go to the manufactures website, find the business section and see what is there. Also business-class laptops tend to favor function over form, so they would likely be uglier for lack of a better term.
edit.
Looking at laptop failure rate statistics Dell is actually decent while ASUS, Toshiba, and Sony have the lowest failure rates. Acer is does have issues.
Well, the way the salesperson explained the AMD/Intel thing was that AMD runs at full speed or activates all of its capacity or something when you first boot it up and Intel doesn't, so that's why AMD is faster, but as a consequence, it's also hotter. There's also something about it giving more performance than an Intel processor of comparable cost, in part because of this? And then Intel doesn't run at capacity but takes longer to go up to capacity when you need it, but generally runs cooler because of this.
How much truth is there in this?
I can vouch for Acer to be a good workhorse if you don't mind slight heating and battery limitations. Since this thing uses intel iCore i5 and can get really hot when you're running multiple applications or a high edge game, I'm not sure how it stacks to an AMD.
I run an Acer. I haven't had any major problems with it, apart from everything running a lot slower if I leave it on for more than a day or two without restarting it.
I think they are running off either outdated information or has no clue how cpu's work. One heat is as much a function of the processor as it is the design of the laptop. The Tech spec for the cpu you should be looking at is TDP as a general idea of how hot the cpu can get. The higher the TDP the hotter it might get.
Two both amd and intel processors have turbo boost where depending on a few factors the clock speed can be boosted for more preformance. They also have the ability to underclock when the laptop when there is less of a need for the power. The thing is you cannot use clock speed as a general speed comparison across cpu models. A 1.6 GHZ intel i7 would be much faster than a 1.6 GHZ amd A8. It cannot be used even between an i7 and i5.
Three, the performance cost ratio has been leaning to intel processors since they came out with the second gen core i processors. They are just that good.
My Acer netbook isn't by any means great for heavy tasks (unsurprising, since it is a netbook) but it's served me well so far, I like it.
My Dell XPS works fine for me, as have other Dell products.
Whatever brand you get, do remember to get a fan for your laptop.
I just recently bought a Lenovo of about $500, and it's pretty great so far. Runs Oblivion better than my old PC ever did.
I can also vouch for Lenovo, I got my laptop for just under $800 that can play every modern PC game (except Crysis 2, Battlefield 3, and Metro 2033) on high settings and has zero cooling issues.
My recommendation is to buy directly from their site though.
Good: Mac
Bad: Everything else
Okay seriously, I'd steer away from HP and Acer. Most of the others are fine; Lenovo and Toshiba are generally the best.
@Firebert: an external fan (like a USB lap desk fan thingy)?
I chose Acer because my Toshiba heated itself to death. XD
^^ Correct. They really come in handy.
nthing Lenovo.
I'm thinking of buying an ASUS. Any opinions on that, those of you who haven't mentioned it yet?
@ninjaclown: Is the Acer any better?
My brother likes his ASUS a lot.
What does he like about it?
I don't know tbh. I guess it just doesn't have any particular problems.
My friend had an ASUS laptop, he could barely use it because of overheating problems. Though if you're not using it for intense gaming you probably won't have that problem.
I'm pretty sure my brother games on his. I don't know what model it is, though.
I recommend Acer, not because it's the absolute best, but if you're looking for a budget computer with a decent battery life and sheer processing and RAM power, it's a good deal. Maybe the others are better, but they are certainly more expensive.
Here's an odd thing:
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-NP300E5C-A03US-15-6-Inch-Laptop-Silver/dp/B0083S3KVW/ref=sr_1_6?m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1342918885&sr=1-6 - i5-3210M processor with Intel HD Graphics 4000 integrated
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Dell+-+15.6"+Inspiron+Laptop+-+6GB+Memory+-+500GB+Hard+Drive+-+Moon+Silver/5619907.p?id=1218674142961&skuId=5619907 - i5-3210M processor with Intel HD Graphics 3000 integrated
Isn't integrated graphics like...already built into the processor?