Lap Top Recommendation - Dell - Toshiba

[Birdman]

I am looking for laptop for general home use, i.e. some work, email, web surfing through Wi-Fi, CD and DVD burning and MP3 (WMA) collection. Doesn't need to be super portable, but I would like to keep it under 7 lbs or so.

I am looking to spend around CDN$2,500 and I have been focussing on Pentium M - Dell 600M; Dell 8600; Toshiba M30 (?). This can get me about 512 memory (or 768); 60-80gb HD, CD and DVD burner, 802.11g, etc.

I am not particularly wedded to any of them but from browsing the Dell site and BestBuy, these seem to have all of the features (or can be configured to have all the features) within that price point.

I have done searches but would welcome any comments or suggestions.
TIA

[jbachandouris]

I work on Dells for a living. The machines are good, but the tech support is getting worse everyday. If you can buy the laptop through a corporate account, the tech support is US. Consumers get India or some other country. When customers say they want to return their Dells and ask for a recommendation, I tell them Best Buy, Circuit City or CompUSA. Why? Simply because there are onsite technicians and you won't spend hours on the phone with tech support from another country.

As I said, they are good machines, but the consumer tech support leaves much to be desired.

BTW my personal laptop is an HP bought directly from HP (instead of Best Buy), and guess what? Tech support fron Canada or...you guessed it...India! :cry:

[Dave Beauvais]

Basically if you order a Latitude notebook or an OptiPlex desktop -- even if you don't order through a corporate account -- you'll get fairly good US-based support. Inspiron and Dimension support is still based in call centers in India and the support is truly horrible. We had someone at work order an Inspiron and a 19" LCD for use at his desk. (We later found out that only Latitudes and OptiPlexes are covered by our contract and that order should have never made it past purchasing, but that's beside the point.)

The problem is, the 19" LCD that shipped with the system failed within six months. I called our Government & Higher Ed support number, but since the LCD was purchased with an Inspiron, I got shuttled off to the regular consumer support. I was on the phone with the tech for an hour and twenty minutes to get a defective six-month-old LCD monitor replaced. On the up side, the (refurbished) replacement was waiting in my office less than twelve hours after I hung up the phone.

Four weeks ago, the replacement LCD also failed :!: and I was faced with another round of Inspiron support. This call was "only" twenty minutes long, but it took five days for the replacement LCD to arrive. Every system we purchase has a three-year next business day on-site parts and labor warranty and the monitor took five business days -- seven calendar days -- to arrive.

If support quality is important to you, Dell systems are great machines, but don't buy Inspiron or Dimension systems no matter how attractive the pricing may be.

[Darius Wey]

Basically if you order a Latitude notebook or an OptiPlex desktop -- even if you don't order through a corporate account -- you'll get fairly good US-based support. Inspiron and Dimension support is still based in call centers in India and the support is truly horrible. We had someone at work order an Inspiron and a 19" LCD for use at his desk. (We later found out that only Latitudes and OptiPlexes are covered by our contract and that order should have never made it past purchasing, but that's beside the point.)

I think this is largely country-dependent. I currently own an Inspiron and I've never been sent to an Indian call centre. Neither have my friends who own Dimensions, Inspirons and Latitudes.

Personally, I think Dell are worth looking at if you're after a "pay-for-what-you-get" solution. I've found that many other big-name manufacturers tend to overcharge for their products, as all you're paying for is the brand name.

Also, order over the phone and try bargaining a little. I was able to bring the price of my order down, plus get some extras thrown in. ;)

[timcolling]

Based upon Toshiba's dishonest and shabby treatment of e740 buyers, I will never purchase a Toshiba computer again, and I recommend that you avoid Toshiba computing products.

- Tim

[jimski]

Don't want to give you more to think about, but have you considered an MPC (Formerly Micron Computer - www.buympc.com). These are the only machines I have owned or used for the past 10+ years. They are built in the U.S. and ALL tech/customer support is U.S. based. A good part of the U.S. government runs on MPC (don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing).

My current laptop (company owned) is a 1.7Ghz Centrino with built-in 802.11g, 60GB HD, 1GB RAM, 64MB Video, 15" Display, CD-RRW/DVD, built-in; ethernet, modem, card reader and six months ago it was under $2,500. I am sure you can configure something in your price range.

In all the desktops or laptops (about 15 so far) I have either purchased or configured for friends and relatives I only had a problem with my last desktop which sat in my non-air conditioned home office, running almost continuously for 3 years (something was overheating causing it to lock up). Although it was out of warranty, they found a flaw on the motherboard and replaced it and the CPU and shipped it back to me at no charge. Now my nephew has a nice reconditioned 1.8Ghz desktop and it only cost me $50 to get it repaired.

Unfortunately these folks don't get the respect they deserve, but I will never buy anything else.

[jbachandouris]

Sorry, I work on MPC also. I had a situation where the customer had sound only on 1 speaker. It took 3 system boards to fix the problem. But yes, the tech support is US AND they seem to be more competant than Dell.

[FrozenIpaq]

look at some hp pavillions, they have really good Wide Screens and speed, or go to cyberpower laptops for those hardcore laptops

[Vidge]

I'd say have a look at the Sony laptops. I have one that I bought last summer (model K27 - no longer on the site but with the similar specs to this one (http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start?ProductSKU=PCGK35&Dept=cpu_VAIONotebookComputers&CategoryName=cpu_VAIONotebookComputers_KSeries)) and I've been quite happy with it as my "play" laptop.

[famousdavis]

I have a Gateway desktop, which I'm satisfied with, and here's the Gateway 320X laptop that I'm pondering:

Rebate: $200 Mail-In Rebate (Limited Time Promotion -- not reflected in price)
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Application Software: Microsoft® Works 8.0
Processor: Intel® Pentium® M Processor 745 (1.8GHz) ........[ +US$140.00]
Hard Drive: 80GB 4200rpm Ultra ATA hard drive ........[ +US$30.00]
Screen: 15" Ultrabright XGA TFT Active Matrix ........[ +US$20.00]
Optical Drive: Integrated 8x Multi-Format DVD Writer (DVD±R/±RW/CD-RW) ........[ +US$69.00]
Extended Service Plan Including Limited Warranty: Notebook Value Service Plan -- 1 year parts/labor/no on-site/1 year technical support
Carrying Case: Not Selected
Battery: High capacity lithium ion battery with AC pack and 1 yr. limited battery warranty ........[ +US$20.00]
Integrated Wireless Networking Adapter: Integrated 802.11b/g wireless networking card
AntiVirus Software: Norton AnitVirus 90 day introductory offer
Mobile Technology: Features Intel® Centrino™ Mobile Technology
Memory: 512MB 333MHz DDR SDRAM (1-512MB modules)
Floppy Drive: Integrated 4-in-1 card reader
Expansion Slots: One type II PC card slot
External Ports: (4) USB 2.0, VGA, IEEE 1394 (FireWire)
Video: Integrated Intel® graphics with 32MB UMA memory technology
Keyboard and Mouse: Full-Sized Keyboard and EZ Pad® Pointing Device
Multimedia Package: Integrated sound and stereo speakers, headphone/speaker jack, and mic jacks
Speakers: External speakers not selected
Modem: Integrated V.92 56K modem
Network Adapter: Integrated Intel® 10/100 Ethernet Adapter
Internet Service Provider: Six months America Online® Internet access
Part Number: 1008310


All for a net cost of $1300 -- which includes both tax and delivery.

[Don Tolson]

You might also want to look at Fujitsu (not just because I work for the consulting arm of the company). I've had a couple of them now for years, and they are amongst the most reliable machines I've owned.

Jason uses one too I believe, so he may want to throw in his two cents about how they work for him.