O T: Laptop

[troubleinstore]

Sorry to post something off topic but I hope sincerley that someone can help.

In the past I have always built my own PC's, but now, I am after a laptop, well actually 3, my brother and his sonwants one as well, so we thought if we all had the same we could help each other if things went wrong.

Question is, what is the best place to get one from?

Whenever you ask anyone Dixons, Currys, PC World or Tiny, they always shriek with laughter, so where do I get them from that should anything go wrong when you take it back the salespeople will know what they are talking about instead of giving you the old bullsit.

Thanks in advance

-- troubleinstore Email address in posting is ficticious and is intended as spam trap Personal mail can be sent via website.

my auction items on eBay & eBid:-

[tarquinlinbin]

have a look at

you might be able to nrgotiate a discount for three

also

joe

[Harvey Van Sickle]

On 20 Oct 2004, troubleinstore wrote

My tuppence; the mileage of others may vary.

Given that you've built and maintained your machines, you're probably going to know more about what might go wrong -- at least in software terms -- than any sales person you'll deal with. Personally, I'd treat laptops like buying any branded goods which will have been sealed at the factory: assume they're pretty reliable, but that if it goes wrong no shop is going to do much more than take it in and send it back to the manufacturer for repair/assessment.

I'm usually an advocate of buying from local geek shops, but it seems to me that the smaller places have less advantage over the large outlets when it comes to laptops: unlike desktops, they won't have assembled the machine themselves, and they won't know a great deal more about them than you do.

Personally, I'd not have any problem buying from one of the standard places -- other than Tiny, the service of which I've never heard anything (nothing at all) good. (From the rabid look of their sales people whenever I've walked in the shop to anything I've read about them, you'd never get me buying stuff there.)

I've got no problem with PCWorld when the price is right -- which it sometimes is -- and I've even had reasonable discussions with some of their sales people. (I bought my last CD writer from their "brown box" components range, and a wireless router and laptop card -- the choice of which was supported by one sales guy in spite of being 2/3 the price of a different one -- and both products were competitively priced.)

If I was buying three at once, once I'd decided the specification I'd work on price, by going to one of the big shops and driving as hard a deal as I could.

[Tone]

The Far East. In Bangkok (Panthip Plaza), Laptops selling for the £800 mark in the UK, sell in Bangkok for about £400-£450, In Singapore the deals are a little more expensive So you could have a Holiday in Bangkok, see the culture (or anything else) buy your laptops and still get them cheaper than buying them in Pissy World

[nightjar]

I have found Dell computers to be reliable and, on the odd occasion that something has gone wrong, the support has been good. Most of my office network is home built, but I used a Dell machine for the server.

Colin Bignell

[Bob Eager]

Your reply doesn't match the requirements! Talk to Dabs - he'll be lucky...

[Sam]

Beware, the screen hinge on my wifes Dell laptop has broken after 13 months and their attitude is that it's not covered under the warranty because it's "normal wear and tear". Note it's broken not just worn and loose.

We paid the extra for Dell because the machine was covered by 3 years next day on site warranty. Yet when the power supply failed it took over a week to get a replacement.

So basically we are totally underwhelmed by Dell's customer service and I doubt we will ever buy anything else from them.

Just tuppence worth.

Sam

[Christian McArdle]

I've always bought Acer for myself and on behalf of my parents. I can't remember exactly where from, but probably Misco. I just search through the lists and buy the cheapest one with a DVD writer and WiFi. The last one (a few months back) was under the 800 quid mark, inclusive. Paying more just gets you smaller (or a pointless few hundred MHz on the CPU). The spec is pretty excellent to begin with.

I can seriously recommend the Acers. They are cheaper than alternative makes, but are high quality, all mod cons and have proper touchpads (with software for instant scrolling, etc) rather than those horrible unusable twiddlesticks.

Christian.

[JK]

My stream of consciousness to add to the other fine contributions.

The first thing to establish when buying laptops is your budget, because you can pay 500 to 2000+ and get a huge variation of specs in that range. Then consider what specifications you need - size/weight, screen size, processor, memory, disk space, optical drives, ports, and so on. I presume you want a laptop over a desktop for some kind of space/portability reason, so bear in mind that if you're lugging it around a lot, 3.5kg (inc psu) is actually rather heavy. All these factors will go into a big trade-off calculation where you try to find what you need for your budget.

Then have a look at the main brands' websites and find reviews. The ones I've used and had no probs with are (in order of preference) Samsung, IBM, Sony, Dell, Compaq and Toshiba. Personally I would always pay for a

3 year warranty on a laptop. You almost always can't fix it yourself and you;re paying a premium over an equivalent desktop so treat it as an investment.

Almost all laptops are boxed off the shelf products. You might want to add extra memory, if so check there's going to be a SODIMM slot free and order your own from crucial, it will be cheaper.

Actually sourcing it will be the least of your worries - use comparison sites like

and once you've found the cheapest place, do a quick search on google groups to check they are reputable.

HTH

John

[Christian McArdle]

And ALWAYS pay by credit (NOT debit) card.

Christian.

[Set Square]

It's a long to take them back if they break!

[Set Square]

Try to find an "independent" which specialises in laptops. I don't know where you live, but Jade Computers in Warwick is quite good. I'm sure that there are similar places in other parts of the country.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I buy any equipment from the one place I know that gives me an honest answer to any question, always replaces stuff that has failed under warranty without question, and only stocks stuff that they know won't give them grief.

They are never the cheapest, but not the most expensive either,.

Having been burned on cheap laptops once, I won't buy from anywhere I don't feel confident in after sales service.

Three laptops, each faulty, each returned three times, and returned with faults unfixed, that were finally scrapped un used is an expensive mistake.

[pjdesign]

Is a very good place to look at if you are considering 2nd user laptops. Nothing but good reports. Baz

[Peter Stockdale]

"nightjar .uk.com>"

Yup - since Gateway went away somewhere obscure, Dell has been my favourite too. Regards Pete

[Alan]

The main reccomendation with a laptop in my experience is to stay with a "big brand" such as IBM, Compaq, Dell, Toshiba etc. I know of too many people caught out in the long run with the cheaper makes due to poor after sales service and terrible parts availability. Tiny wouldn't replace a battery on a 6 month old laptop for example as it's a "wear and tear" item in their eyes - and to buy a new battery was £160. Trying to get software drivers for a new OS for a small brand laptop is often virtually impossible - so getting XP to run on a 2 or 3 year old machine can be hard. The bigger brands support the older machines for far longer typically.

You get the idea...!

Alan.

[Tone]

Yeah I know but think of the fun you can have !

[Lee]

I know your question was about where to get one, rather than which one to get, but it would be sensible to do some research into what you need in a laptop and avoid buying on price - unless you do not plan to keep it long before upgrading to the next one. Most of the "cheap" laptops are poorly built, and designed down to the price with resultant reliability and performance issues.

Ok, so you are covered by various legislation, but that doesn't help if the machine spends more time being fixed than used, or you have to keep reloading a new or different machine ;)

It's also worth remembering that, with the exception of memory and HDD, laptops are pretty much non-upgradeable. So it pays to make sure it has everything you want when you buy it...

Lee

[Pete C]

Hi,

Are Toshibas that bad? I always thought they were pretty good.

YGM...

cheers, Pete.

[Lee]

Toshiba-made models are good, I have one, but the *cheap* Compal-made models are not as well built. They tend to be more likely to be the ones that have issues.

The more expensive Compal made models seem to be ok though.

Lee