Staff laptops?

[Blue_Cookeh]

Hi,

 

What do you guys get for your staff laptops?

 

Out of my recent Dell orders I've now had 3 arrive faulty... x1 physical with a broken hinge (and thus eventually bezel), x1 bricked after enabling the TPM and x1 faulty TPM that I couldn't take ownership of, reset, enable/disable etc. I'll be returning all the Dells I've ordered for this summer because of these.

 

I'm getting a bit fed up of them to say the least and am looking for alternatives around the £400 - £500 mark ex VAT.

 

Thanks!

[sparkeh]

For years I've bought nothing but Toshiba Sat Pro which have been rock solid, though now I am concerned that the build quality is dropping so ordered a @VeryPC Thinbook which has gone down a treat. Well worth a look.

[plexer]

VeryPC thinbooks great equipment and whilst yes they're built on the same chassis that a lot of system builders use they are well built and well supported at good prices from @VeryPC

 

Ben

[SYNACK]

Look at hp as well, they seem to have a mediocre rep with some on the forum but for us they have bested Dell on every single measurable metric.

[mrbios]

Lenovo.

 

Or if you want something cheaper, Novatech. (aka Clevo chassis)

Edited August 2, 2014 by mrbios

[snagrat]

Fujitsu have always served us well

[plexer]

Lenovo.

 

Or if you want something cheaper, Novatech. (aka Clevo chassis)

 

Which is the manufacturer of chassis that the thinbook is built on.

 

Ben

[Norphy]

And Stone and a million other vendors. Basically, if it ain't tier 1 or 2, it's probably a Clevo

[mrbios]

Which is the manufacturer of chassis that the thinbook is built on.

 

Ben

 

True, though I've yet to find anyone cheaper than novatech supplying them.

[Quackers]

We get Apple Macbook Airs for our staff now. Use to get Acer but they started to become very hit and miss and sometimes make absolute crud, other times make ok models, and the few models of HP we bought in the past have all overheated.

[Blue_Cookeh]

We get Apple Macbook Airs for our staff now. Use to get Acer but they started to become very hit and miss and sometimes make absolute crud, other times make ok models, and the few models of HP we bought in the past have all overheated.

 

How do you deal with Apple support? The one thing that was nice about Dell was the fact they'd come on site the next day with parts and fix the problem. I've got a few staff on MacBook Pros from a year or two back (but we just ended up sticking Windows on them for software compatibility...)

 

Thanks for the recommendations guys, I don't know how keen I am on the lesser known brands, but I'll give a couple of them a shout Lenovo could be a good one, my full time workplace uses T410/420/430/440 and they're rock solid... but might be a bit pricey.

 

We had a Toshiba tester from our LA a couple of years ago... I think it was the cheapest feeling laptop I've ever used!

Edited August 3, 2014 by Blue_Cookeh

[XiJ]

Supplied thousands of Toshiba and always been reliable. With you on the build quality tho recently. Not had any break but don't feel as solid

 

Fujitsu seem pretty good and decent support too.

 

If absolute bottom line budget pricing isn't an issue then I HIGHLY recommend a VeryPC thinbook with SSD. they've gone down great with teachers (well headteachers initially)

[truebluesteve]

Been using HP for a few years now and have found them to very robust and very reliable. The odd couple that have gone faulty have been fixed very quickly under warranty.

[robjduk]

My school had Toshiba and nothing but Toshiba for years however after years dealing with their after sales "support", we are never touching them again. You can honestly have 90 laptops all the same, 50 of them have the same bracket fall off within 2 months and apparently it is "the way we are using them".

 

Hate them and will never touch Toshiba again. Lenovo on the other hand.... now you could cover a tank in Lenovo products and they would still be there and working when the tank had rusted away.

[localzuk]

My school had Toshiba and nothing but Toshiba for years however after years dealing with their after sales "support", we are never touching them again. You can honestly have 90 laptops all the same, 50 of them have the same bracket fall off within 2 months and apparently it is "the way we are using them".

 

Hate them and will never touch Toshiba again. Lenovo on the other hand.... now you could cover a tank in Lenovo products and they would still be there and working when the tank had rusted away.

 

We had the same argument from Dell regarding a stock of Latitude's we had at my last school. Nearly every single one developed the same fault, and it was obviously a design flaw but they stopped repairing them saying it was our fault.

 

So, I only buy brands that I trust now, which limits me down to HP and Lenovo! Mostly HP at that. Support wise, and build quality wise, they've been flawless for the better part of a decade. Only their business quality laptops though. Wouldn't touch the consumer grade ones with a barge pole.

[XiJ]

It's funny because I lived Lenovo but the support when really down hill (although the products - laptops at least - we're still decent)

 

We find HP support terrible

 

 

I guess everyone has their own story!

[snagrat]

I guess everyone has their own story!

 

Think you've hit the nail on the head there

 

We've had big issues with Lenovo's hardware and support so avoiding them now.

[Roberto]

How do you deal with Apple support?

 

Apple might not do the on-site thing and that might well be a deal-breaker in some cases but in terms of sticking to what they say they will deliver and having a generally reliable product in the first place, I've had nothing but good experiences with Apple support as both a personal and business customer, and very good experiences with Toucan, who are our apple reseller of choice.

[Meldrew]

We had the same argument from Dell regarding a stock of Latitude's we had at my last school. Nearly every single one developed the same fault, and it was obviously a design flaw but they stopped repairing them saying it was our fault.

 

So, I only buy brands that I trust now, which limits me down to HP and Lenovo! Mostly HP at that. Support wise, and build quality wise, they've been flawless for the better part of a decade. Only their business quality laptops though. Wouldn't touch the consumer grade ones with a barge pole.

 

Me too. We purchased about 10x Dell 13z laptops and on everyone of them, the battery would move a fraction of a millimetre, cutting the power. Dell support said that it was our fault.

 

@Blue_Cookeh, you mention TPM module. If this is a requirement, the cheapest laptop we've found with a TPM module is from Stone. Their support is excellent too, call them today and tomorrow you'll have an engineer onsite to fix.

 

Meldrew

[VeryPC_Colin_M]

Hi,

 

What do you guys get for your staff laptops?

 

Out of my recent Dell orders I've now had 3 arrive faulty... x1 physical with a broken hinge (and thus eventually bezel), x1 bricked after enabling the TPM and x1 faulty TPM that I couldn't take ownership of, reset, enable/disable etc. I'll be returning all the Dells I've ordered for this summer because of these.

 

I'm getting a bit fed up of them to say the least and am looking for alternatives around the £400 - £500 mark ex VAT.

 

Thanks!

 

Hi @Blue_Cookeh,

 

Colin here from VeryPC. We'd be delighted to offer you an alternative to your Dells, and for the best Clevo system build on the market, look no further. For more information, pricing, and perhaps a sale or return evaluation unit to help you decide, please don't hesitate to get in touch when you're ready. I'm on [email protected] and would be very happy to help you.

 

Cheers,

Col

Edited August 4, 2014 by VeryPC_Colin_M
forgot to include poster

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Like Lenovo but not a fan of the warranties? No problem, I've got refurbished Thinkpad T410's, T420's and X220T they come with 12 months rtb warranty as standard with the option to upgrade for a second year. We always make sure you're up and running befefore collecting any laptops from you. Even if it means we send the replacement in advance. Plus you get to talk to me!

 

Drop me a pm/line for pricing.

[Blue_Cookeh]

Hi @Blue_Cookeh,

 

Colin here from VeryPC. We'd be delighted to offer you an alternative to your Dells, and for the best Clevo system build on the market, look no further. For more information, pricing, and perhaps a sale or return evaluation unit to help you decide, please don't hesitate to get in touch when you're ready. I'm on [email protected] and would be very happy to help you.

 

Cheers,

Col

 

Will be in touch shortly

 

Like Lenovo but not a fan of the warranties? No problem, I've got refurbished Thinkpad T410's, T420's and X220T they come with 12 months rtb warranty as standard with the option to upgrade for a second year. We always make sure you're up and running befefore collecting any laptops from you. Even if it means we send the replacement in advance. Plus you get to talk to me!

 

Drop me a pm/line for pricing.

 

You're tempting also! I use a T420 for my primary (non-edu) job!

 

Thanks guys

[jonawd]

In my experience, (ex Network Manager) it always came down to the price of the units. A £300 laptop from anyone was always less reliable than than the £600 laptop in the brand. We used a mixture of Tosh Sat Pro's, Lenovos (e520's) and Dell Vostro's at the time. They all developed various faults over time.

 

I did manage to by a T-Series Lenovo and Dell Latitude for some members of the school and to my knowledge they are still going strong now (4 years on).

 

I can't speak personally about VeryPC or Stone, but I have heard very good things about both their products and support.

[Blue_Cookeh]

Don't get me wrong, laptops always show the price difference... I wouldn't touch the consumer grade laptops Dell sell, but up until now I always thought the Latitude line was pretty reliable.

 

The problems we had have been with the Latitude 3330, if anyone wants to know.

[ICTDirect_Dave]

You're tempting also! I use a T420 for my primary (non-edu) job!

 

 

Then you already know how awesome they are!

 

Also have a batch of the Tablet X220's landing this week. (i5 2.5GHz, 4/8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, Touch screen) All for less than £300!