Best Laptop?

+3

+4....I laugh and curse the work Dell on a daily basis (its really an MS O/S issue). The mac's just work. 3 years not one issue (i just jinxed myself). Oh and you can use Google docs for any MS word, excel, powerpoint needs (free)

Lenovo, or Asus are the only choices for laptops for me.  To me they are no frills laptops designed with Tech's in mind.  Simple, less crappy software to crash on you (lots of that free software is junk).  I'd take an Apple, but like you said, the price is scary.  But they have awesome displays and simple designs that make me like them a lot.  If your looking to save some money, get a desktop.  Some really cheap deals these days on them!

Get your data back off the old system?  If ya need help, lemme know

did ya get the $350 apple care?

and then there is this guy....

 http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/why-i-think-apple-are-crap/ab2e3825f0b6ef3ae3c9ab2e3825f0b6ef3ae3c9-308976812152?q=apple%20computer%20crash&FORM=VIRE3

Response to this guy: Whatever.  The internet is a great tool, even for any tool who can sit at home in his robe & make a video griping about anything. Plus, he really seems more irritated with the "Cult of Mac" than the actual products themselves.

My real world experience is that they work. Not perfect, nothing is. Personally, I have had problems with mine but all were resolved fairly quickly without much hassle other than having to go down to the Mac Store. I did purchase the Applecare warranty & did use it the very last week because the keyboard button gave out - I suggest using a mouse to cut down on clicks, although the new models don't even have a button anymore. Not sure how much the keyboard replacement would've cost without warranty but it was probably at least a wash.

I also had a hard drive issue that revealed itself after the warranty expired but was replaced without costing me a penny, because it was defective; they'd had problems with it but pretty much kept it on the DL, obviously for PR reasons. I don't really care because they did, in fact, replace those drives if they failed. I wouldn't buy the first production year of any new model. From what I've seen, they often have glitches that tend to be worked out by the second year.

IMO, that's one of the benefits of Apple; they actually look at past problems and improve upon them, and incorporate innovative solutions into new designs (like completely eliminating buttons that tend to wear out).

Oh, by the way, always back up your data externally no matter what kind of system you have. I knew better but kept putting it off and ended up losing data, including photos, with the defective drive.

The "Reek Squad" at "Worst Buy" suck!
They took us for 500 bucks on a repair job that got the computer working again but they lost most of the hard drive data including my i-tunes library and 4 years worth of photos/video
They are morons and i won't be back
Tad
 

Lenovo, or Asus are the only choices for laptops for me.  To me they are no frills laptops designed with Tech's in mind.  Simple, less crappy software to crash on you (lots of that free software is junk).  I'd take an Apple, but like you said, the price is scary.  But they have awesome displays and simple designs that make me like them a lot.  If your looking to save some money, get a desktop.  Some really cheap deals these days on them!

Get your data back off the old system?  If ya need help, lemme know

+1 for Lenovo and Asus.  If you must have a Dell, the latitude series are decent.

I have never spent more than $500 for a laptop. Generally replace them after three years..rinse and repeat. Recently got a gateway with an intel i5 processor and all the fixins including hdmi out for $485++tax. There are good deals out there if you know what you want and have a little patience. Black Friday is rolling around and there should be some good deals this year.

No problems with viruses since I'm pretty careful with where I go and what I download online.

Lenovo

+1

Haven't bought one for a couple years, but my son's has held up like the old ones. The are known for durability.

My Toshiba is 6(?) years old and going strong. Got one for the other son (UC Engineering student) No problems for the past three years.

Recently got a gateway with an intel i5 processor and all the fixins including hdmi out for $485++tax.

I was eying this, it seems like an excellent value. Laptops are like disposable razors, generally. Most often out-of-warranty repairs just aren't worth it. This Gateway seems to fit the bill. If it pukes on the 13 month, what was lost? How do you like it, Ben? Where did you get it?

These things are also like fishing poles. You could do almost all your fishing with a couple hundred bucks worth of ugly sticks, but not many of us do  , so Apple fits in that regard.

Ben

I was eying this, it seems like an excellent value. Laptops are like disposable razors, generally. Most often out-of-warranty repairs just aren't worth it. This Gateway seems to fit the bill. If it pukes on the 13 month, what was lost? How do you like it, Ben? Where did you get it?

online a few months ago..i think from the microsoft store when they were having a special sale of some sort.  repairs are pretty much never worth it unless you need to get some data off the HD.  i think of computers as a commodity these days and treat them accordingly.  buy em cheap, abuse the heck outta them and get rid of them when the time comes.

Basically if they call it a repair for Software, your gonna get ripped off    Most hardware components do not just break on their own, or wear out easily, unless they are of poor quality. Hard drives generally are the worst component, and fail the most.  But that said, i have dozens of old pc's and hard drives (to recycle) that still work to this day

Great Advice guys...

  Thanks!!!!


 I like the bmb approach...  makes the most sense, even though, I am a romantic with my laptop....

  and want the best....  but if it's just going to break my heart every time...  think I'll have to step down to the beer goggle computers... 

 and As any baseball player will tell ya...   "You always get more action in the minor leagues...." 

Quote, Bob Roberts....  Movie..  "Faternity Vacation"...

Most hardware components do not just break on their own, or wear out easily, unless they are of poor quality. Hard drives generally are the worst component, and fail the most.  But that said, i have dozens of old pc's and hard drives (to recycle) that still work to this day

For me it's been a mixed bag. NICs have, by far, the highest failure rate ... in the old days it was modems. Replaced the hard drive in my laptop (forgot about that) after 6 years, and the power supply in my desktop (after 5 years) within a week of each other this year. But, ya, hardware, by and large, isn't generally the culprit.

It only takes a few disciplines to make computing relatively painless.
1) Keep the original disks/files of sh_t you install
2) Make regular backups of what's important to you. Use an automated on-line service like Mozy Home, if that's what it takes. Mozy is usually free, thumb drives are cheap, there's no excuse.
3) Use a decent anti-virus. Avast is one that is free for personal use.
4) Avoiding porn sites will reduce your exposure to nasty bugs, at least that would be the indication based on some systems I've rebuilt 

At the only place I do on-site work, there is one guy who is a PC killer. He just installs *everything* his heart desires, doesn't give any thought to keeping the original files/disks. He accumulates malware no one else in the office of 20 pcs finds, in spite of good anti-virus software. He tells me he turned two PCs at home into boat anchors, and doesn't understand why. His Apple "solved all his problems" ... but "there isn't as much software available online".   

Ben

It only takes a few disciplines to make computing relatively painless.
1) Keep the original disks/files of sh_t you install
2) Make regular backups of what's important to you. Use an automated on-line service like Mozy Home, if that's what it takes. Mozy is usually free, thumb drives are cheap, there's no excuse.
3) Use a decent anti-virus. Avast is one that is free for personal use.
4) Avoiding porn sites will reduce your exposure to nasty bugs, at least that would be the indication based on some systems I've rebuilt 

Very, very nice summary there Ben   You captured nicely the essence of safe computing and it is so true! 

One other thing I thought I would mention is Restoration.  Most computers, except home built basically, have a way of restoring all the software to the same state it was when you purchased it.  So if over time you system starts to misbehave because you installed some crappy software thats causing it to crash, using the restore function would allow you to start over, completely!  This is sometimes a CD/DVD or more often these days a partition on the hard drive that you boot off of and it does the rest. 

Since most people do not know how to do this, I suggest that when you purchase a new computer you immediatly try the restore function, that way you have an idea of what to do when your system bugs out. 

I've had a long succession of Dells, never had a hardware issue, but I'll probably never buy another.  While there is some buyer beware issue here that was my fault, all I'll say is their promotions have more strings attached than the worst backlash I ever had to cut out of a reel, and the incessant phone calls to extend the warranty, etc.

So up to the last one I bought they seemed bullet proof and competetively priced but I don't like they way they run their online consumer business.

Dale, I like Dell computers too...when they work. Like you, Customr Support was horrendous. I'm on my second Dell machine. My first Dell had the DVD burner crap out, and I could never get Customer Support to respond to replace it for free as they advertised. Three days after the warranty expired, C.S. notified me they couldn't replace it because the WARRANTY HAD EXPIRED!!!! Wrote a nasty letter to the owner Michael Dell...got the drive replaced 2 weeks later. That was several years ago...holding my breath on the new machine. If this one craps out on me too, I will stay exclusively with Macs.

so more or less, they all work, they all break, get what you can afford comfortably.