O T: Laptop

IME, company-owned laptops have rather short lives too. I think this is a combination of them being rather fragile and carried around (verses desktops which are not fragile and not moved much), and also due to the lack of upgradability, people find the only way to keep a current laptop (year or two old at most) is to ensure it doesn't last much longer than that;-)

My suggestion at a previous company where this was an issue was to decide what the write-off period for a laptop should be (probably 3 years), and failures prior to that would be fixed by supplying a replacement of roughly the same age/specification, and not rewarded with a brand new one.

I would give another vote for Acer. We have supplied a some of these to customers recently, and they have been very pleased. The current range seems to be very well specified and equiped, and look like good value. They (unlike some of the "noname" brands also have backup and support).

A read through various Notebook forums might suggest that said backup is likely to be needed... But obviously people are more likely to complain than praise.

Lee

In article , Christian McArdle writes

FWIW I've heard two large network admin types recommend them now so if that's any help?....

In message , Tone writes

Which is great if they go wrong and no one in the UK recognises or will touch your laptop with a barge pole, even if they should - you just have to take another holiday

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In message , Tone writes

And no need to download masses of binaries either

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Hi,

If you want better service try John Lewis, though they don't always have the latest models they'll match other high st. retailer's prices and AFIAK include a 2 year guarantee.

cheers, Pete.

I've just bought a Lappy direct from Acer (an Acer- obviously!) having done quite abit of research,- wouldnt touch any of the others!

Tim..

I would like to thank everyone for their comments, they were most useful. It has been decided to get 4 of the Acer 1362WLC Laptop from

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

I've bought stuff from Dabs, novatech and simply all before and they are good firms.

If I were buying a laptop I would pay the extra for a HP or an IBM thinkpad and definetely stear clear of compaq (they are very good machines but all the proprietry stuff is v annoying). Many companies buy these in bulk. Thosiba make robust stuff.

I recently bought a second hand thinkpad, becuase its a massive seller so I find spares - batteries etc very easy to find. Also IBM's website is v.comprehensive e.g I've downloaded the complete user manual and specs for my machine. I can recommend

Also remember when specing out a machine - that unless you do loads of graphic stuff, number crunching high end gaming you rarely max out the processor. So compromise get a lower speed proc and more - fast memory and a bigger and faster HD. Having more memory and if possible 2 HDs (one for windows swap file the other for data/programs) which are fast speeds up normal applications more than a faster processor would.

Also make sure it has the latest bus technology you are interested in e.g. the latest hardware version of USB or firewire.