Which Laptop Brand the Best?

[jakeyang]

I'm thinking of buying a laptop but there's so many - which brand is the best, meaning the most reliable? Sony,Toshiba,Compaq?

[RT Wolf]

I love Toshiba's.

It'd be a better idea to find a laptop you like, get the model number and look up reviews for that model. Every brand has lemons. just type in "(model number) review" into google.

[tobyhede]

I've got a MacBook Pro and I love it. I use both OS X for my daily software development work and have Windows on it for games ...

[JJH]

You can't go wrong with a MacBook Pro! Mac and <cough> windows on one machine...

[impaul99]

I've had 5 Fujitsu's in a row with no problems. They kick butt.

I've seen so many HP's go back for warranty it's not funny. I don't much like HP or Compaq. IBM look too clunky.

Toshiba are not bad, and considering they invented laptops you can't really go wrong with them either. However, my vote is still Fujitsu. THey always pack the most useful stuff into their systems.

[JoeKinley]

I would defenitely stick to the ThinkPad brand. Either way the old ones from IBM (through ebay) or the new ones directly from Lenovo. Great brand and nice and robust notebooks.

[skinnyninja]

I agree that Fujitsu and Thinkpads are both good options. My dad and I both have Fujitsu ultraportables. They rock.

Sure there are some lemons out there, and most companies don't even make their own laptops (such as HP and Dell). But an HP or a Dell might be right for you, especially if you are buying on price. There are coupon deals online that allow you to get a really fast machine for $600-$800 from these retailers.

Toshiba is strong as well and they do make their own hardware. Good luck with your purchase.

[Ellesse]

I've always been a Thinkpad fan. It's quite hardy though much costly than other models. But I'll rather pay more for a better laptop than to having to send it for repairs every now and then. The last T43 that I've had for the past one and half years has never once failed on me.

[ZenDude]

I've also looked around for laptops and I decided to buy an MSI laptop. I've read that they're pretty good. In my experience with them, they are.

Good luck.
And if you can, test out the keyboard and weight, that is pretty important for most people.

[Redline21]

What kind of work will you be doing on the notebook? You can really narrow it down based on portability, programs frequently used, OS...

I agree with you there are just way too many choices and hard to discern the differences!

[zeroone]

HP, Gateway (emachines), or Macbooks are some of the machines I've had good experiences with. They had the lowest return/repair rate.

BUT, whatever you do, do not get a Sony. They break easily and have horrible support.

[nvictor]

Jakeyang,

do you know the Mac Operating System? If not forget about all those macbooks suggestions.

And by the way, HP and Gateway are very good. They offer best customer support.

[Mayo]

Lenovo ThinkPad, i have cheap R50e and it's stunning how robust it is, but next one will be X60s series with only 2.5 pounds of weight and a battery power-pack that can run on battery only for over 8 hours. Oh i forgot about trackpoint ... it is something that will shift your view about pc mouse.. or even a standard laptop touchpads...

[trekr5]

whatever you do don't get a compaq/hp...they are rubbish

[Damara]

I have had a Thinkpad and now I have a Dell. I will be going back to Thinkpad.. ASAP..

[Dimitry]

Depends on what you want. IBMs are sturdy as a rock but are more business user oriented. Lots of companies, groups, businesses use them.

If I were to buy a personal/small business one right now, I would go Dell. Customize one to your needs, great support. I would pick up their extend warranty to 3 years. Well worth the extra price for it. Their warranties are great.

[aussieNickuss]

In my work I deal with Macbooks and IBM/Lenovo thinkpads on a daily basis. The Thinkpads are sooo SLOOOOW compared to equivilent spec machines. Sure, they're robust and your can pretty much trow them out of a moving car and they still work...but trust me....they are slow. I don't know why, but I manage about 25 R50's and a couple of R60's and each one is very sluggish and slow compared to even older spec'd machines....from new out of the box. Also, their screens only go up to 1024x768 resolution which is pretty limited these days.

Being an Apple fan, I would of course highly recommend the MacBooks (or Pro), but if you are tied to Windows (which the new Macs also run), I'd be looking at Acer's, HP's or Compaq's.

Edit: Oh and by the way.....if you are scared of Mac OS X.....it is a beautiful and easy to use operating system. It doesn't take long to master...and once you switch....its hard to go back.

[Dimitry]

I do agree about the speed, they aren't the most optimized machine for that for sure. On mine I do have to disable a lot background IBM running services and then it speeds up a bit better.

Mac yeah, my buddy tried it. It does look great and would be ok if at the moment you just browse the net and use Office. Otherwise it is unfortunately not available.

Like I said originally, hope on Dell's website and see what kind of computer you can pick up for your budget. They have some great deals on there usually (imo).

Originally Posted by aussieNickuss

In my work I deal with Macbooks and IBM/Lenovo thinkpads on a daily basis. The Thinkpads are sooo SLOOOOW compared to equivilent spec machines. Sure, they're robust and your can pretty much trow them out of a moving car and they still work...but trust me....they are slow. I don't know why, but I manage about 25 R50's and a couple of R60's and each one is very sluggish and slow compared to even older spec'd machines....from new out of the box. Also, their screens only go up to 1024x768 resolution which is pretty limited these days.

Being an Apple fan, I would of course highly recommend the MacBooks (or Pro), but if you are tied to Windows (which the new Macs also run), I'd be looking at Acer's, HP's or Compaq's.

Edit: Oh and by the way.....if you are scared of Mac OS X.....it is a beautiful and easy to use operating system. It doesn't take long to master...and once you switch....its hard to go back.

[Jack]

I think Toshiba is best...

Also i want to say that,i heard that Sony notebooks are made by Asus...(but they look beatiful i think)

[Thomas Jensen]

I've bought a Toshiba and am very happy with it. It seems Toshiba are recognised as an accomplished laptop maker and few people have bad things to say about them.

[Gerald]

Toshiba's great as well. Anything from Japan for that matter.

[Matthew4682]

As much as people say bad things about Compaq - I think it does the job just fine. Certainly not aesthetic or high tech by any means, but it gets the job done. Economical if that's what you're looking for.

[Gene]

Originally Posted by Matthew4682

As much as people say bad things about Compaq - I think it does the job just fine. Certainly not aesthetic or high tech by any means, but it gets the job done. Economical if that's what you're looking for.

In the last two years I have purchased several HP laptops. I assume since they and Compaq are both HP brands the quality and user experience would be similar. I recommend the HP laptops.

[Lychee]

Toshiba, Lenovo ThinkPad.

[aabukar]

East or west Toshiba is My best i like to call it survivor cause it survives all difficult circumestances

i bought my laptop 3 years ago while I was preparing my thesis to get Master degree in computer science

this required making over 16000 experiment (i am serious i did all these experiments ... automated of course) i had to run Matlab neural network for 3 months ... anyway ... my point is that i had to keep the laptop running and working for three months without turning it off ... i used ot run experiements at night and in the morning check results ... change code ... re-run experiments ...etc that was difficult time

yet my dear toshiba survived all that ... adding to it my misuse when i open and close the laptop i was careless ....

then i worked as an instructor and i had to carry it with me all the day ... plug it to a data show and work on it day and night and one day the Motherboard just crashed ... because i have an international three years warranty i paid 0 $ and i got a new mother board , new FGA card and a new monitor from toshiba ... they even called me from Germany (i live in Jordan middle east) to check if everything is ok

bottom line my father bought a toshiba laptop for himself and another one for my sister so what can i say we are toshiba family