Which brand of laptop to buy?

[Boomy]

I'm looking for a new laptop. I want something that will be less crappy than the others. I say this because the build quality seems to all be similar, and I'm not sure if any one make will be more reliable than the others, so I'm looking for one that will have a good warranty and support. A friend of mine told me to go with Toshiba, but I just wanted some more opinions. I'm not looking for anything high end, and my budget is around $800.

I would like solid wireless performance, and gigabit ethernet would be nice too. I'll be using Windoze on it for work and Ubuntu for pleasure. I'd like at least 160 gigs of storage, and a remote would be sweet.

I know HP's laptop support is not so good. We had to send one off for repairs at work and it took 3 weeks to receive the shipping box from HP to send it off to get the display repaired. Not good. Acers seem to have great specs for the money, but I hear their service is shoddy as well.

[LaRoza]

Try a Lenovo ThinkPad.


For a R61i

* Very reliable and solid.
* For me, wireless worked out of the box
* New Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 2 GB RAM
* DVD Player/Burner, didn't work in Ubuntu
* Compiz doesn't work

Although I had those too problems, I wouldn't have bought another.

[jrusso2]

Try a Lenovo ThinkPad.


For a R61i

* Very reliable and solid.
* For me, wireless worked out of the box
* New Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 2 GB RAM
* DVD Player/Burner, didn't work in Ubuntu
* Compiz doesn't work

Although I had those too problems, I wouldn't have bought another.

Those are a bit more then the $800 the OP specified. For that price I would look at Dell

[climatewarrior]

Dell pc's and laptops with ubuntu pre-installed, really cheap

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/linux_3x?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

[LaRoza]

Those are a bit more then the $800 the OP specified. For that price I would look at Dell

Well, $900 for me. I was looking for something in the 500 - 700 USC range, but I figured it would be work it in the end to pay a little more for the durability, and the extra features.

[Cappy]

The/My Toshiba A135 works out of the box on Gutsy.The only problem with it is sound and there is a one line fix for it. Everything else including wireless, suspend, hibernate, compiz .. all work out of the box. I would recommend it.

There are different models - I have the cheapest which was $450 for a 1.6GHz "Dual Core" (Pentium M) with 40GB. I am not sure which of the A135 would be best for $800.

[Boomy]

I was looking at a Toshiba A200 and an A210 today at Office Depot. I was ready to buy one of them, but the incompetant idiot that was working there couldn't give me any specs on the A210. He couldn't even log me on to one to look up the specs on the net, so.... no money for Office Depot!!! Unbelievable... I'm considering Dell, but I'd rather look at what I'm buying first than buy online.

[jimrz]

ThinkPad

[daynah]

Asus!

My Asus is more stucturally sound than my toshiba (read: I can't bend it). Asus overall is vory creative... though you can't build your own, Asus has come out with a wide variety of far more creative things than you average select you part laptop brand (Dell, Toshiba, HP).

Don't try to fight them on the Windows, though. There's no custom of anything, hardware, or software. It helps them keep the prices low (Though a company that does customization but wont give you a clean comp is not saving money by keeping you fram that last custom bit.)

I haven't needed to send my Asus in for support (only 6 months used) so I can't tell you about service. I can tell you that if that's important to you, Dell has THE best customer support period. My friend breaks his laptop before the end of his warrenty and gets a new one everytime. But you pay for that support an arm and a leg. And Dell computers suck (probably why they don't mind giving them out...).

160 is a lot for $800. Can you go for 120. I mean if you have a desktop, cant you keep your media on that and keep your lappy clean. I've never used more than 50 on my lappy including music.

ALSO Remember if you only have $800, include the warranty. Did I mention that Dell's warranties are ungodly expensive?

[Dimitriid]

Dell pc's and laptops with ubuntu pre-installed, really cheap

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/linux_3x?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

Thats highly misleading when competitor systems have similar or better specs for $120 less or more.

[Sawta]

You can always give System 76 a try :)

http://system76.com/index.php?cPath=28

They even have their own support section on here, if you'd like to see what their response time is like and how happy/displeased people are with them.

Personally, I think I'm going to be getting an Asus Eee when Christmas rolls around (through a relative, or money I receive) since I'm just planning on using it for a bit of net surfing away from home, but I'm not sure what their support is like. Just a suggestion.

[arkangel]

I have an Asus A6va

all worked out of the box , except the video card, I had to install the drivers but it is not an issue

very happy , $ by $ the best buy i did , dell or ibm are also good, but Asus is manufacturer (the quality is good , I 've seen myself ), so it is cheaper for the same specs (I wouln't recommend Sony , toshiba , HP these are IMO overpriced ).


Whatever buy try to find something with nvidia

[newbie2]

http://lxer.com/module/db/index.php?dbn=14
;-)

[Cee415]

Have you checked out Alienware? Now those are some high end products.

[rax_m]

I've got a Toshiba P100 and have had issues with sound, the GPU fan as well as suspend or hibernate (on Ubuntu Feisty). So wouldn't recommend the Tosh esp since the company doesn't seem helpful at all in supporting Linux.

[Warpnow]

the Thiinkpad R is actually starting at $680

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087&current-category-id=52A252555D554F338EB4B3178B3B6554

[DutyDuty]

Around US750 got me a nice Toshiba, and while the battery sucks, if that's an issue, otherwise Toshiba Satellite series is a good direction to look. Mine is an A105, but I don't think they are sold anymore, at least not in stores...a newer version might be good for the same price.

[Denn1s]

never never never never an ACER, please never, im still repressing memories