Dragon Posted June 4, 2013 Posted June 4, 2013 I am looking for a lot of laptops this year. In the past we have gone for HPs but I have had a look at the Stone laptops. Have any of you bought and used them in school and how did you find them? Were they robust enough?
TheScarfedOne Posted June 4, 2013 Posted June 4, 2013 Yep, got a lot of them here. 90 from 2 years ago for staff, and 30 more recently for students. Expecting to get 45 more soon as well. Warranty and service great. PM me if you want to chat offline about it...
SBennett Posted June 4, 2013 Posted June 4, 2013 We have stone laptops here for staff. Very well built and have lasted a few years with some bad teachers. Support is excellent and the engineers that come out are friendly as well
Dragon Posted June 4, 2013 Author Posted June 4, 2013 Are yours the NT310? I got an eval last week and I wasn't that impressed with the quality, seems quite flimsy plastic.
FN-GM Posted June 4, 2013 Posted June 4, 2013 I wouldn't go for them. We have some here and they are not as robust as the Dell's. We have parts literally fall off ours.
Chris_ Posted June 4, 2013 Posted June 4, 2013 I've had some of the Stone laptops and netbooks, cheap OEM laptops branded with Stone badges. Had a bad batch of netbooks, about half had the motherboard replaced. Laptops, the build quality was poor and staff abused them. Fortunately they weren't too expensive to repair. Now I only buy branded laptops.
FN-GM Posted June 4, 2013 Posted June 4, 2013 Hmmm a mixed response so far! i think that is down to the fact they are just re-badged laptop. Its a lottery depending on what they pick to re brand for your order.
EvLPhenom Posted June 4, 2013 Posted June 4, 2013 We have alot of stone laptops. We haven't really had any problems with them and when we do the service and engineers are quick to get any problems fixed. The only problem that we had with a batch was someone had forgot to plug in the WIFI card and had an engineer out to come and plug them all back in. Apart from that they have been excellent. 1
TheScarfedOne Posted June 4, 2013 Posted June 4, 2013 The NT307, 309 and 310 are all own built on at their factory in Staffordshire - not rebadged anything. Ive not used the 310s yet - I have 307 and 309's. Ive been impressed with the build quality and the support. Like others - the engineers are quick to be on site and repair any mishaps... usually damaged screens or keyboards; or failed HDDs. HDDs are my usual fault - which would happen with any machine. 1
Edu-IT Posted June 4, 2013 Posted June 4, 2013 The NT307, 309 and 310 are all own built on at their factory in Staffordshire - not rebadged anything. Ive not used the 310s yet - I have 307 and 309's. Ive been impressed with the build quality and the support. Like others - the engineers are quick to be on site and repair any mishaps... usually damaged screens or keyboards; or failed HDDs. HDDs are my usual fault - which would happen with any machine. I was under the impression too that they're not rebadged now.
SovietRussia Posted June 4, 2013 Posted June 4, 2013 (edited) I was under the impression too that they're not rebadged now. The 310 is a Clevo W545EU - http://www.clevo.com.tw/en/products/prodinfo.asp?productid=415# Correction: Its a W550EU Edited June 4, 2013 by SovietRussia
VeryPC_Tom_B Posted June 4, 2013 Posted June 4, 2013 The NT310 is this with a nice badge; CLEVO - Products Our VeryPC ThinBook is the same but with the awesome IPS Screen https://www.very-pc.co.uk/products/mobile/thinbook/
ICTDirect_Dave Posted June 4, 2013 Posted June 4, 2013 Big plus 1 for Lenovo here! I can do you a great deal on some Thinkpad T410s perfect for staff and students alike! http://www.ict-direct.co.uk/lenovo-t410-refurbished-core-i5-laptop.html
Norphy Posted June 4, 2013 Posted June 4, 2013 There are very few companies in the world who are large enough to design and manufacture their own laptops. Even the likes of Dell and Apple use Quanta, Pegatron and Foxxconn to build their kit. We have Stone badged Clevo laptops too. They're not the best in the world, they're obviously built to a price but they're OK for what they are. I've seen worse laptops from Clevo in the past so I'm happy enough with them. The thing that differentiates them (imo) is their warranty and support. In an ideal world, I'd like to get Dell Latitudes or Lenovos but we'd never be able to afford them with an equivalent warranty.
Dragon Posted June 6, 2013 Author Posted June 6, 2013 I am still undecided. To get something that is robust is going to push the budget too far, I do like the fact I can get a 5 year on site warranty for the Stone ones, though having said that Samsung are currently offering 5 year RTB warranty FOC for just under the cost of a similar Stone laptop.
Norphy Posted June 6, 2013 Posted June 6, 2013 (edited) We've bought Samsung laptops before. As personal machines, I'm sure they're fine but we had all sorts of oddities with them when we were trying to manage and build them. They were VERY fussy about booting from the network (for example, they refused to boot from a gigabit switch, we had to attach an old 10/100 switch to the network to get them to work and even then, they usually two attempts to get into Windows PE) and the management software for things like the keyboard and screen brightness was awful. And a RTB warranty is a pain in the backside compared to the next day onsite you'd get from Stone. Given the choice between a rebadged Clevo from the likes of Stone/VeryPC/Whoever or another Samsung, I'd take the Clevo. But I'd still be coveting the Dell Edited June 6, 2013 by Norphy
FragglePete Posted June 6, 2013 Posted June 6, 2013 Get in touch with Stone and get an Evaluation unit. They will be more than happy to oblige. Pete
Dragon Posted June 7, 2013 Author Posted June 7, 2013 I have already, that's how I know what the quality is like.
Edu-IT Posted June 7, 2013 Posted June 7, 2013 Are yours the NT310? I got an eval last week and I wasn't that impressed with the quality, seems quite flimsy plastic. If it breaks through ordinary use, surely it'd be under warranty?
StoneGroup_Community Posted June 11, 2013 Posted June 11, 2013 Hi all @SovietRussia is right, it is the W550EU. Just to clear up a few things: There is no lottery with any of our products, whether Desktop or Notebook. We have a robust testing process undertaken in our Stafford based R & D department prior to any product being signed off and formally accepted into our range. Just to give you an idea, all notebooks: - Have the chassis and components run at 100% over multiple days in a 35 degree ambient chamber to simulate the highest intensity the product will face in its life - Are subject to data transfer testing (e.g. all the components communicate correctly) - Are hinge tested - this tests the reliability of the hinges repeatedly testing the flipping of the lid and its connectivity to the C Panel of the laptop Also, in terms of field testing, we undertake pretty thorough product evaluations of samples with our existing customers prior to launching any revision. The NT310 is codenamed "UltraNote" from Clevo, as it has an Ultrabook style thin and light chassis. But as it's not branded an "Ultrabook", OEMs don't have to comply with the strict Intel rules on what consistitutes a "Ultrabook". These means you get a bespoke device, custom built to your requirements for considerably less than a similar "Ultrabook" branded device. It's got more flexible plastic due to being thinner and lighter. This is a durable plastic that won’t break or shatter unless mistreated. As @Edu-IT rightly points out, if the device breaks through standard operation, then it will be covered under warranty. However, we go through all the steps highlighted above to make sure this happens in line with what we can support through our field engineers. We can't have any rogue products in the line up! Cheers Daley 1
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