Laptop Manufacturer Choice

[mortstar]

In the past I've always purchased Toshiba laptops. I'm really happy with the support we get from XMA regarding warranty repairs, pricing etc. I'm more annoyed at Toshiba who have ridiculously short product-life (I just cannot order identical model if the order is more than 3 months apart) and the build quality of the laptops certainly seems to be going down with recent models.

 

I'm looking at other manufacturers and was wondering what EduGeekers' thoughts were on the matter. I've had quotes for HP and Dell laptops. I've always had good support from Dell on our servers, I've had no experience with HP. I also see Lenovo mentioned on the board, what are there benefits over the other manufacturers? These are laptops for teachers and so, in theory(!), don't need to be student proof (though as we have had a laptop run-over here in the recent past, perhaps the students would take better care of them...)

 

Thanks as always

[broc]

All our staff laptops (& most student ones too) are DELL, approx 300 in total. We tend to buy DELL Latitude systems with 3 year onsite NBD warranty.

 

DELL support for their 'business' class kit (ie Latitude) is generally very good; we have to jump through hoops when reporting a problem... is it plugged in, switched on, have you tried this/that/other but once you convince them it's broken they send an engineer out next day to fix. Occasionally for something like a duff HDD they will just send the parts.

[Batman]

Woo a chance to express my opinion;)

 

I'll echo that Dell laptops are excellent value for money and are usually pretty sturdy too.

 

Our favourites are HP and Toshiba. We have a large number of HP 6710b laptops (which sadly you can't buy any more) and they have been rock solid, very reliable. I'm sure their current equivalent will be just as good. It's funny to hear you say you're looking to move away from Toshiba because we've just started buying them instead of Samsung. I agree that Toshiba do have a variable build quality depending on what model you buy (based on previous experience) but personally I think they've improved recently. I'd not have bought one for myself two years ago, but I'd be happy to now.

 

We've had quite a lot of Samsung laptops which seemed great to begin with but 6 months on staff seem to be a little less happy with them. We've had a few strange problems with the VGA ports. Overall, I wouldn't recommend them, they're nice but there are plenty of better choices. Fujitsu Siemens are another to avoid, cheap and nasty.

 

For durability IBM were always unbeatable in the past, but it's a bit hit and miss with Lenovo.

 

Sony would be great if they weren't so fiddly to service (and expensive). If you have to remove much more than three screws to change the hard drive on a laptop then it gets a black mark from me! That said, we have some that are at least 4 years old and are still going strong despite much student punishment which is more than can be said for the Fujitsu Siemens models we have!

[TronXP]

We buy nothing but Lenovo, and had no major problems with them, support is great but stick with the Thinkpad business class not the series aimed at home market. We are using R60's, R61's, T60 and T61's we must be near 150 now. We really like them for the build quality they are just so solid.

[localzuk]

We switched from Toshiba and Fujitsu-Siemens laptops to HP about a year ago. They have been solid as a rock, and support has been first class when one has had a glitch (even the cheap ones we bought) - ie. go to their support site, fill in the form, they send confirmation and a bloke comes out with a box. They whisk it away, and in a couple of days it is back again.

 

Compared with 8 weeks for one Fujitsu-Siemens laptop...

[Netman]

Lenovo or HP here... we've tried everything but always come back to those two.

[FN-GM]

Dell & HP. I agree with what people say about Dell there systems are A+ all of our 900 clients are Dell and we are very happy with them.

[teejay]

Dell here, really good support plus they are really easy to get o/s images working properly, plus they keep the product line going for ages so you can keep buying the same model.

Have some oldish Lenovo R60's which have been reliable but are now starting to fail. Did try a couple of Lenovos recently but had real problems with imaging them.

On our permanent blacklist are Acer and HP.

Most here have had good dealings with HP, we didn't and the unhelpfullness when our complaint was taken further up the food chain was unbelievable, so no more being purchased.

[Batman]

My experience of "permenant blacklists" is that they often result in one's eating of humble pie:D. I would cite Sony Vaio as an example, in the early days of Vista they were the worst to downgrade, no XP drivers available for any new models. I went round telling everyone how rubbish they were and then suddenly they changed their policy and started offering all drivers for each machine in a single download, a policy better than any other manufacturer!

 

Similarly, NTL customer service used to be awful but their broadband was the best you could get so it was worth some pain to get the product.

 

I think you should take HP off your blacklist, although I agree with you on Acer, they're not world beaters they're designed to be cheap and cheerful on the whole. Who knows though, they might improve one day

[teejay]

@Batman

The HP on permanent blacklist is from SLT. Can't really go into details why but they won't be coming off, to be honest quite deservedly.

[mac_shinobi]

All our staff laptops (& most student ones too) are DELL, approx 300 in total. We tend to buy DELL Latitude systems with 3 year onsite NBD warranty.

 

DELL support for their 'business' class kit (ie Latitude) is generally very good; we have to jump through hoops when reporting a problem... is it plugged in, switched on, have you tried this/that/other but once you convince them it's broken they send an engineer out next day to fix. Occasionally for something like a duff HDD they will just send the parts.

 

Had to do that when I was working at a school and in the end I just got them to email me with all the possible hardware diagnostic key things so that I could get into the diagnostic mode myself and do all of that before hand ( obviously depending on the issue ) and did all the possible stuff I could before calling them that way when I call them I would just explain everything I did including there diagnostic bootup mode they have and letting them know what error code it gives you as well as the other things I have tried and that way they cant come back and say

 

have you tried x, y or z and the answer / reply you get is either the one you want or they arrange for an engineer out.

 

I also only dealt with one person at dell that way once I got to the relevant department ie there is one person who asks for an asset tag and then they pass you through to the laptop department for latitudes or w/e laptop you have and then I request an email address from that person because I can normally contact that person via email and its a lot easier and faster.

[SYNACK]

@Batman

The HP on permanent blacklist is from SLT. Can't really go into details why but they won't be coming off, to be honest quite deservedly.

 

We have a simmilar ban in place for Dell.

[mac_shinobi]

We have a simmilar ban in place for Dell.

 

If you dont mind me asking - why dell ? what happened ?

 

As long as its not apple it cant be that bad lol j/k not trying to start a flame war or nothing

[john]

HP for me, but am very temped by Lenovo and Sony, with Sony being VERY well priced for us in schools now tbh so much so they are exceptionally competitive.

[SYNACK]

If you dont mind me asking - why dell ? what happened ?

 

Aweful sales depatment when the specific school attempted to get quotes. Forty minutes on hold to get a we're not interested reply is not endearing. Vast and comprehensive issues when they brought and ruined Alienware in one hit along with the hardware performance.

 

I'm sure that they do fast machines but my personal experience with every Dell that I have dealt with is that given the hardware they are way slower than they should be. I'm not sure whether it is just a case of bad motherboard hardware on the systems I have had the misfortune of dealing with but performance wise I have only ever found dells to be rubbish.

 

We go for hp stuff in general, we have tried Lenvos ( workstations ) but again their hardware does not seem to be as robust as the hp offering.

[Batman]

@Batman

The HP on permanent blacklist is from SLT. Can't really go into details why but they won't be coming off, to be honest quite deservedly.

 

Ouch! Must have been bad. Isn't it weird how people's experiences can vary so dramatically?

 

I guess you have Heinz Ketchup in the canteen then?

[Soulfish]

But thats the funny thing in this job, just takes a bad experience with one manufacture and they loose out for life. Will never touch Toshiba kit for this reason.

 

Toshiba have been blacklisted by SMT here. Too many faults that they weren't willing to repair, or when they did repair kept coming back! They didn't seem to be interested in our complaints/problems so we'll be taking our business elsewhere.

 

Currently looking at moving to Dell/HP as the most cost effective option.

[HTCIT]

We have been with Ergo 4 years now. Just switched to Hp for some reason.

[synaesthesia]

Toshiba have been trying to remedy their issues: with a warranty offer that means if your product fails in its warranty period and it's down to manufacturer defect/fault they replace the product *and* refund the purchase price.

 

However I'm siding with HP a lot more recently for a combination of price and service reasons, I've always had a far better support from HP (oddly!) than Toshiba.

[SYNACK]

HP, for speed and durability along with propper documentation on how to open the things, smartpin charging technology (universal chargers) and general physical rubustness. Our teachers very very adept at dismanteling brands like toshiba by accident.

 

Just to add, we get next day onsite techs with hp to and they will even fully replace the laptop if the problem is unresolvable with parts swaps.

Edited July 24, 2009 by SYNACK

[tmcd35]

HP = nice kit, terrible support. Unless they up their game I won't be buying again in a hurry.

 

Ergo = First class support, Prices are a little on the step side! £600 for a 1Gb Celeron - no thanks.

 

Dell = Great support. They send an engineer on site next day . Good prices. Good quality kit. Wouldn't answer the phone when I tried to buy from them last

 

Been buying Lenovo's of late. Support is very good. prices are nice. no probs with build quality.

 

Actually buying Toshiba next. Only reason is I want 64bit and VT for future proofing (in case I find I have a need to run XP-Mode under Win7). Unfortunately Intel processors with 64 and VT seem to be a little pricey and you have to do some digging to check which models support it, grrr. All AMD processors are fine. Can only find HP and Tosh with AMD processors (perhaps I'm not looking hard enough?). Won't buy HP in a hurry (see above), so Toshiba it is!

[localzuk]

HP, very good pricing. Very good support (next day collect and return warranty, a bloke comes with a box, whisks it away and so far for the 2 out of 20 we've had to send away both have been back in 7 days).

[tmcd35]

@localzuk - you're obviously getting through to someone different at HP than I am.

 

I've found if I try phoning I get bounced between pillar and post for 10-15min while they decide which 'department' actually wants to deal with the call. I've learned the hard way that it's best to submit a case online and wait a day or two for someone to call me.

 

When I do finally get the right person I have to spend the next week re-testing and fault finding every last little possibility - even though I've already done this and submitted the details with the initial support request - before they ever agree to uplift anything for repair.

 

Ergo on the other hand. Phone up - "it's gone wrong" - paper work emailed within the hour and lappy picked up for repair next day, no arguments!

 

Lenovo - submit case online, confirm details on phone, picked up next day for repair.

 

Dell - (only tested support with desktops) local engineer onsite next day.

 

How can HP get it so very wrong and make me jump through so many hoops when we both know they end result is the lappy going back to them for repair?

[localzuk]

@localzuk - you're obviously getting through to someone different at HP than I am.

 

I've found if I try phoning I get bounced between pillar and post for 10-15min while they decide which 'department' actually wants to deal with the call. I've learned the hard way that it's best to submit a case online and wait a day or two for someone to call me.

 

When I do finally get the right person I have to spend the next week re-testing and fault finding every last little possibility - even though I've already done this and submitted the details with the initial support request - before they ever agree to uplift anything for repair.

 

Ergo on the other hand. Phone up - "it's gone wrong" - paper work emailed within the hour and lappy picked up for repair next day, no arguments!

 

Lenovo - submit case online, confirm details on phone, picked up next day for repair.

 

Dell - (only tested support with desktops) local engineer onsite next day.

 

How can HP get it so very wrong and make me jump through so many hoops when we both know they end result is the lappy going back to them for repair?

 

I've never phoned them. I do all my support requests via their online helpdesk. No hassle. Log a call one day, a bloke appears the next with the box (unless they want more info, then you get a response quickly (in the case where they wanted more info, they emailed 2 hours after my request)).

[sted]

HP, very good pricing. Very good support (next day collect and return warranty, a bloke comes with a box, whisks it away and so far for the 2 out of 20 we've had to send away both have been back in 7 days).

 

i sent mine back a while ago approx a month old took them 2 months + to get me a laptop back. Repeated calls just got me wound up as they seemed unwilling to do anything they were waiting for a part but how long is a reasonable turn around time. In the end they replaced it but not before id started phoning them at least once a day to chase it up