TOSHIBA .. A reliable brand?

biohaiid

Hi!
I need to buy a new laptop for college, and I'm really interested in Toshiba.
My last laptop was acer and I hated it. Some other brands in the family are Asus and Sony and I can't say I'm a fan. I've heard terrible things about DELL, and something about toshiba just attracted me.

I'm just wondering if the following seem good quality, suitable and good value for money?

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/5087626/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7COffice%2C+PCs+and+phones%7C14418968/c_2/3%7Ccat_19780850%7CLaptops+and+netbooks%7C14419039.htm

http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/TOSHIBA-Satellite-L850161-156andquot-Laptop-White/310313/301

http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/TOSHIBA-Satellite-C850D107-156andquot-Laptop/311436/301

Which one would you recommend?
I really like the one from argos but I'm not hugely informed on this laptop business.
Also, do most laptops come with only free trials of Microsoft Office and that?
I know the argos one says only free trial, but the PC world ones says software inculded.

Any help appreciated.

stevek93

Was just about to recommend Dell, on my 3rd laptop with them never had any trouble except the usual battery loosing charge over the years. You are right about Acer like something you'd pick up in a pound shop utter rubbish.

Torqay

They're all rubbish.

You do not want to spend more than 400 yoyos and and up with an AMD Fusion or Intel Pentium processor. 2nd generation Core i3 is the minimum you should expect.

And whatever they say at PC World about "free software", it certainly doesn't include "free" Microsoft Office 2010.

Overheal

My Techs have basically told me they see a lot more Toshibas in than anything. Could be market share, but mainly most of them are the cheaper Toshibas, like the C-series. Again, we sell a lot of these, but for the most part too they are cheap plastic crap. This gets back to my emphasis on the importance of build quality. On one side of the spectrum you have really cheap plasticy PC laptops and on the other you have psychotic machined-aluminum unibody designs that hold up much better and have far fewer issues. THEN talk about performance.

Of Dell, I've heard good as well as bad. Same with HP. You can't judge such huge companies in any one lump category. In fact pretty much anyone who comes into my store who says "I will never buy another HP" will pretty much always answer in the affirmative if I ask them if it was a) bought between 2007 and 2009 and b) whether it had a nvidia GPU in it. That was a big recall situation, which barely had anything to do with HP, especially as nvidia tried to play a massive coverup with just how widespread the problem was. The problem effected millions of sold laptops. It affected mine. But mine was repaired and it still works, and im typing on a new HP ultrabook right now.

Of acer and gateway, they were always cheap muck. They tempted me with their Iconia tablet, and that turned out to be a disappointment as well.

Other brands to consider: Lenovo (IBM) and Samsung. But I'm really an HP guy at heart.

Torqay

There must be plenty Tosh lemons in South Carolina then, because on average they don't fare too bad...



HP guy at heart?

Cork24

Toshiba are good,

The only Problem that i have or can find fault with them is their Cooling System for their Laptops,

I paid over 1000 only for the cooling System to fail, it would have cost me over 300 euros to replace the System in town, i had no choice but to dump the Laptop,

Toshiba parts are hard to come by i was looking 6months for the parts to do it myself. Just make sure you Check up the web on the Toshiba Laptop your looking at any issues with them coming off the product line..

og2k7

I would be going for Asus (without even looking at that chart). I have found Toshibas poorly designed (ergonomics) and they always had overheating problems.

Recently my dad got one of those Asus laptops and is happy with it so far.

As for the Office I would recommend Open Office - sure it would have a few different options then MS Office, but comes for free and supports all the MS files.

Cork24

og2k7 wrote: »

I would be going for Asus (without even looking at that chart). I have found Toshibas poorly designed (ergonomics) and they always had overheating problems.

Recently my dad got one of those Asus laptops and is happy with it so far.

As for the Office I would recommend Open Office - sure it would have a few different options then MS Office, but comes for free and supports all the MS files.

why no just use Google Docs,

Asus and all the cheap brands are very good, its not who makes them but whats inside the computer is all that Matters !

Look at the Lidi computers they get once in a while, they have more or less the same spec as an Alien Ware PC.

Torqay

og2k7 wrote: »

As for the Office I would recommend Open Office - sure it would have a few different options then MS Office, but comes for free and supports all the MS files.

It's not that simple. While OpenOffice can handle most MSO files and save files in the respective formats, if you need 100% compatibility, there is no way around MSO. Complex documents with tables and spreadsheet formulae don't translate well.

Capt'n Midnight

Torqay wrote: »

It's not that simple. While OpenOffice can handle most MSO files and save files in the respective formats, if you need 100% compatibility, there is no way around MSO. Complex documents with tables and spreadsheet formulae don't translate well.

, if you need 100% compatibility, there is no way around using the same version of MSO.

The latest Libreoffice is less compatible

advice is to download the portable versions to find one that works best and then install that version

If you don't use scripts , extensive formulas and don't need to rigidly use someone else's templates it's not an issue.

Capt'n Midnight

Overheal wrote: »

Of Dell, I've heard good as well as bad. Same with HP. You can't judge such huge companies in any one lump category.

This really gets my goat.

A lot of manufacturers have separate consumer and business ranges.

Before HP took them over I would have rated Compaq business laptops as some of the best and Compaq Armada's as muck.


It's like rating David Browne and Lamborghini compared to other vehicle manufacturers without saying whether it's supercars or tractors.

Overheal

Torqay wrote: »

There must be plenty Tosh lemons in South Carolina then, because on average they don't fare too bad...



HP guy at heart?

That chart is about 2 years old at this stage and has been tooting around the internet for some time. Which is considerable given it's a "3 year" datasheet. Havent seen a revised datasheet yet.

In fact the above data would include the nvidia recall problem. Newer data would not as likely include failures resulting from that issue.

Capt'n Midnight

Overheal wrote: »

That chart is about 2 years old at this stage and has been tooting around the internet for some time. Which is considerable given it's a "3 year" datasheet. Havent seen a revised datasheet yet.

In fact the above data would include the nvidia recall problem. Newer data would not as likely include failures resulting from that issue.

IICR it also includes software problems and in the US people usually have a 30 day no fault return period

and 1 in 10 hardware failure rate would have driven every company in the graph bankrupt

Overheal

And my experience in retail tells me software problems aren't software problems they're "I want a new laptop because this one is acting funny. No, I didn't run all the updates. Why should I have to do that?!"

B0X

I've had a Toshiba for two years now and no problems with it. The touchpad is a bit old fashioned but I think they've since updated them.

cherryghost

Toshiba used to have horrible issues with their entire Satellite range, ie some capacitors would randomly blow and the failure rates on those are still climbing. The new models fare much better as they've exchanged their capacitors for more enduring ones.

To be perfectly honest, since the Intel i series has been introduced, all laptop manufacturers have upped their build quality imo. Lenovo have been and still are top though

jclally

I got six years out of my Toshiba laptop. It slowed right down near the end because I had so much on it and probably lots of viruses too, but it never needed to be repaired once

Capt'n Midnight

cherryghost wrote: »

Toshiba used to have horrible issues with their entire Satellite range, ie some capacitors would randomly blow and the failure rates on those are still climbing. The new models fare much better as they've exchanged their capacitors for more enduring ones.

All the big brand names suffered over dodgy capacitors

Dell took a $300 million hit on desktops
Samsung monitors.
I've two satellite receivers that were brought back to life.

It's got to the stage where replacing all the large value electrolytic capacitors on the motherboard / power supply unit of consumer goods is a likely fix for stuff having weird problems


http://www.badcaps.net/pages.php?vid=4

Ardennes1944

had 2 tosibas, first one went after around 3 years, screen went half blank and generally just went bananas. this one an equium a300d is 3 years old now and still running great. they do need a health check every so often as they slow down quite often for no apparent reason and the cooling system is quite poor, but overall id buy another. but for my own laptop im buying an asus

Capt'n Midnight

cherryghost wrote: »

Lenovo have been and still are top though

I'd love if they still had the build quality of the IBM thinkpads though.