Buying a laptop - future tech support?

luckat

A friend has asked me to advise her in buying a laptop.

She's damningly rejected my suggestion of a Mac on the basis that this is a religious choice, so it's a PC.

She would probably like to spend around €700 or €800; I would imagine that she'd need a reasonably speedy machine (what's speedy right now?) with maybe a 150GB or 200GB hard drive and 1.5GB RAM, and a DVD+/-RW.

It's for home use; she'll be getting broadband at the same time.

Now, a couple of days ago it was simple; I was going to ring up Dell and talk to them about what she'd need. But she's since talked to various friends, neighbours and relations who have bought Dell laptops, and heard some nasty stories about unhelpful tech support, or lack of tech support.

First, would Boardsies have any suggestions for a good machine - it's ages since I've bought a laptop - and second, what firm gives the best tech support as aftersales service?

(My friend is not the kind of person who phones up with silly queries - she just prefers to have a machine that workes properly and doesn't require any tech help.)

TempestSabre

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,3483,00.asp
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/electronics-computers/desktops-laptops-tech-support-605/index.htm

alan4cult

Apple have well known support simply because their products are completely Apple and support is less complex as with varying computer brands. I have always found HP to have excellent support as well as their Live internet support. I have solved a lot of laptop problems using their internet support. I think for the kind of laptop you require, your price range is low. This laptop is quality with 2GB Ram and 120GB Hard Drive but it is expensive.

Flankerb

QUOTE=luckat]A friend has asked me to advise her in buying a laptop.

She's damningly rejected my suggestion of a Mac on the basis that this is a religious choice, so it's a PC.

It's for home use; she'll be getting broadband at the same time.

Hi Luckat, I agree with you on the Mac I hear nothing but good things about their customer support. What do you mean by home use. If its just a bit of surfing, watching dvds word and excel why not buy 2nd hand or refurbished. With the extra she could buy a large external hardrive or external DVD RW philips are doing one now for 90 euros. I have bought 2 ibm t20s(250euros) and my brother got a x31(free no hardrive). All 3 had 256meg of ram which is more than sufficient for any surfing or home system. People get caught up in the whole faster is better but dont realise faster is a lot more expensive.
If she needs it for video editing or photoshop then go for the highest spec she can thats where you need the power. When I look at a spec sheet Ram is nearly always my first check. Ask her again what she really needs it for then post it up and the lads will be able to advise her.
regards Karl

Tom Dunne

luckat wrote:

Now, a couple of days ago it was simple; I was going to ring up Dell and talk to them about what she'd need. But she's since talked to various friends, neighbours and relations who have bought Dell laptops, and heard some nasty stories about unhelpful tech support, or lack of tech support.

TBH, you will hear horror stories about all makes of PCs/laptops. Personally, I have advised three members of family to purchase Dell laptops over the past 1-2 years and have never had any problem with them (though admittedly have never had to call Dell tech support, which in istelf is a good thing).

luckat wrote:

First, would Boardsies have any suggestions for a good machine - it's ages since I've bought a laptop - and second, what firm gives the best tech support as aftersales service?

You won't beat Dell on price, simple as that. But Dell is the Ryanair of laptops - you get what you pay for. If you want to spend that bit more on a "quality" brand, consider looking at Sony, or my own personal favourite, IBM/Levono. Toshiba are apparently up there too, but HP and Compaq (same company) don't have as good a reputation.

luckat

Thanks for these good answers. If she were to get a Toshiba, IBM or Sony, where does one buy them? (She's now thinking, hmmm.... maybe a Mac *would* be good after all, but I'm a bit worried for fear someone would give her a camera or scanner and it wouldn't work with Mac.)

Jo King

I have had an experience with a sony-vaoi laptop recently. i would not want to repeat it. They have no parts in ireland and the machine needs to be sent out of ireland for repair. Repair shops don't seem to haver a clue either.

Shiminay

luckat wrote:

I'm a bit worried for fear someone would give her a camera or scanner and it wouldn't work with Mac.)

You're not making sense there, Macs have USB ports too... How could something like a scanner or camera not work? Not that I'd advocate buying a Mac

thebman

I've had two Dell's. One broke and it was out of warranty so tech support had the problem solved instantly if I was willing to pay.

The problem was that costly, I decided to get a new laptop. I got another Dell and its been going 2-3 years now with not one problem.

If you buy a bargin basement laptop from Dell, you can't expect it to be top quality. Top quality laptops cost money. Look at the Latitude range of Dell's.

Basically what some Apple users told me is relatively true. Apple computers look expensive but to get the same quality laptop from another manufacturer costs around the same amount of money.

Cheap Dells use cheap plastic. If you do your homework you can still get a good deal though. Just don't expect it to survive a heavy knock if its a budget Inspiron model.

As an example of this my original, cheap Dell fell once and broke from my bed side table. With my Latitude, I have been knocked off my bike with it in my bag and landed on it and other than a few scratches, its fine.