HP not the brand they once were?

Wellywoo

I'm currently in the market for a new laptop and trawling through the web there seems to be a recurring theme of negative or bad reviews with HP machines? I was considering buying one but now I'm put off. Are these reviewers just being too harsh with massive expectations or has HP gone down the toilet in the last 10 years?

ED E

They're probably the most popular cheap laptop. People spending €300-350 on an underpowered AMD APU based system and then moaning I would suspect.

Their Pavilons are just as acceptable as Dells entry Inspirons. Spectre vs XPS then thats debateable.

Wellywoo

Gas it's the Pavilion I'm looking at, 499 but it's got what I'm looking for i3, 8gb, 1tb but it's the reliability factor I was concerned with. I just seem to see reviews with faults overheating etc. but to be fair that could happen with any laptop with HDD!

CosmicSmash

I got four HP laptops before, three for friends and one for myself from a HP dealer. Three of the four were deemed non repairable within two years, my own by the HP repair centre attached to the same dealer. This was a good few years ago now but based on my past experience I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole and would recommend others to do the same. Just because a laptop is not containing a top of the range processor it should be of a reliable build quality, HP in my eyes failed miserably at that.

bonzodog2

Many computer manufacturers produce a range of qualities. If you're paying 299 for a laptop in Currys or Harvey Norman, it aint going to be great!

Once upon a time, before the days of home computers, HP had a superb reputation for top-of-the-range quality lab instrumentation. Sadly the bean-counters took over.

The_Conductor

We've been using HP Elitebooks here in this house for years- no issue ever encountered (am typing this on an 8470p- my main computer is a quadcore 8770W)

Cheap laptops- are just that- cheap.......
I was a teamleader in tech support for Dell for a while- after that stint I've never touched one of their products ever again........

What do you plan on doing with the laptop?

Wellywoo

CosmicSmash wrote: »

I got four HP laptops before, three for friends and one for myself from a HP dealer. Three of the four were deemed non repairable within two years, my own by the HP repair centre attached to the same dealer. This was a good few years ago now but based on my past experience I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole and would recommend others to do the same. Just because a laptop is not containing a top of the range processor it should be of a reliable build quality, HP in my eyes failed miserably at that.

I've come across alot saying similar to you. I think I'll have to look again for an alternative, I know 500 isn't much for a laptop but it's not money I can easily part with.

bonzodog2 wrote: »

Many computer manufacturers produce a range of qualities. If you're paying 299 for a laptop in Currys or Harvey Norman, it aint going to be great!

Agreed 299 for a laptop in currys....you'd be better off burning your cash!

Wellywoo

The_Conductor wrote: »

We've been using HP Elitebooks here in this house for years- no issue ever encountered (am typing this on an 8470p- my main computer is a quadcore 8770W)

Cheap laptops- are just that- cheap.......
I was a teamleader in tech support for Dell for a while- after that stint I've never touched one of their products ever again........

What do you plan on doing with the laptop?

Worked in Dell myself years ago...maybe that explains why I'm reluctant to consider them (and being out of my budget!)

Very standard stuff, word & excel, social media, browsing, photos downloading movies etc. Nothing too heavy but it would get daily use.

Asus seem to be scoring second place to Apple on most of the tech sites.

CosmicSmash

Wellywoo wrote: »

I've come across alot saying similar to you. I think I'll have to look again for an alternative, I know 500 isn't much for a laptop but it's not money I can easily part with.

It should be able to buy you something reliable, not everybody needs a top spec laptop. I replaced mine with an ASUS at the time on a recommendation from a friend and found it was more than adequate for what I needed it for, cheaper too and it didn't stop working for no apparent reason either. So it's a +1 for ASUS from me.

bonzodog2

My main machine is a Dell that will be 9 years since first release this year. Its a E6400 Latitude, Core2Duo/DDR2. The build quality is excellent. Easy to get to the bits that need getting to, for fluff etc.
I have 4GB RAM on it and I have 2 windows open of SRWare Iron browser with about 15 tabs each, plus a ToR browser and a torrent client.

I'd personally recommend getting a secondhand machine that can take 8GB of DDR3 RAM, with a CPU with as much L2 cache as you can find. Get a bigger disk or use externals if you need, or get a SSD if you need speed.


Most people don't need the top-of-the-range cutting-edge tech.


Just my €0.02

mtoutlemonde

Sorry to hijack thread but I was looking for a middle of the road laptop - again I would only be using it for document creation / web browsing. I purchased a Dell Inspiron 15 3000 series (http://www.dell.com/ie/p/inspiron-15-3552-laptop/pd) because there was a flash sale on the Dell website. I would have bought the more expensive 5000 series but when I saw that the fan was underneath the laptop which put me off because my old laptop (Compaq) had its fan underneath and had many problems with overheating and had to have a noisy fan underneath it.

Anyway obviously because of my searching for laptops - an ad came up for a hp pavillon 15.6 for €519. http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/hp-pavilion-156-laptop-with-the-latest-7th-gen-intel-core-i5-processor-blue/334540/396.7

My first impressions of the dell is its a bit clunky - would the HP be better with the dell being more reliable? I see that the HP offers 9/9.5 hours battery life as opposed to 5 with the Dell. Although when I was in PC World, the sales person did tell me that the most problems with the laptop is the battery that usually fails after one/two years. Also, I wonder about HP products - my second HP printer packed up during the week so this is putting me off as well.

I don't know if I've answered my own question but I just need some advice/reassurance about the Dell because the reviews online all seem to be positive before my 14 day trial period is up. What would other posters say?

The_Conductor

Honestly- there are a few large outsourced suppliers who put together machines for a range of companies to defined specs. Your Dell or a HP is as likely to have been put together by the same company, as not.

There are certain things to look out for- such as the older processors, AMD and its overheating, integrated versus discrete graphics, the panel, the keyboard, the PSU etc etc.

There is no point in getting too excited for a machine that isn't going to be overly abused- i.e. you're not going gaming or using it for mad graphics manipulation (or CAD etc).

Personally- I'd look at hardware in various class types- rather than the offerings of specific manufacturers. I'd also look at some factors of importance to me- such as upgradability or repairability- alongside the availability of reasonable priced components.

E.g. for a HP if you get a 50 or 60 series- the BIOS is whitewalled- and upgrading can be a bitch (usually only really refers to a/c wifi cards). The Dells- I'd be very unhappy with some of their discrete graphics cards- whereas their cheaper integrated systems probably are a lot more reliable.

If you told me this morning I had a 500 Euro budget for a replacement laptop- honestly- I'd hop on ebay and amazon- buy a HP 70 series laptop, an Intel a/c wifi card, a nice SSD- and a replacement PSU- and be chuffed with myself.

Different strokes for different folks- but I seriously wouldn't get hungup on a particular manufacturer.

Also- I'd steer as far away from PC World/Currys/Carphone Warehouse- as I possibly could- the quality of their wares is the cheap as chips in pretty much every category.

ED E

Lenovo honestly provided some great value at the 400-600 price point before but after being caught with spyware three times in ~8 months (Dell had 1x in the same period) I cant ethically recommend them.

For new, Save On Laptops / Laptops Direct, they've low margins and wont push Bullguard Security down your throat.

The_Conductor

ED E wrote: »

Lenovo honestly provided some great value at the 400-600 price point before but after being caught with spyware three times in ~8 months (Dell had 1x in the same period) I cant ethically recommend them.

For new, Save On Laptops / Laptops Direct, they've low margins and wont push Bullguard Security down your throat.

I'd echo the Saveonlaptops.co.uk / Laptopsdirect suggestion- they have a section where they flog unboxed laptops- still with a full warranty- which gives you even better value than you might otherwise get. No issues getting them to ship here either- without the need for Parcelmotel / Addresspal shenanigans.

Wellywoo

ED E wrote: »

Lenovo honestly provided some great value at the 400-600 price point before but after being caught with spyware three times in ~8 months (Dell had 1x in the same period) I cant ethically recommend them.

For new, Save On Laptops / Laptops Direct, they've low margins and wont push Bullguard Security down your throat.

Spyware? Would that not be a crap anti virus issue more than the manufacturer or have I been thinking the wrong thing all these years

I actually ended up going with a Lenovo Ideapad....we'll see how it goes!!

Edit: I just googled it and now I see what you're talking about. Lenovo have a history of pre installing spyware. Wish I'd seen this before I bought it....f**kadoodledoo. I'm guessing my paid anti-virus won't pick it up then either. What a disappointment.

ED E

Its in the BIOS(UEFI) so its immune and invisible to any anti virus software.

They released fixes officially but if they're willing to get caught and keep at it and are owned by the Peoples Party of China its impossible to have faith in them.

Its probably fine, just dont work on any confidential product designs lest you see them appear on AliExpress 2wks later.

Wellywoo

ED E wrote: »

Its probably fine, just dont work on any confidential product designs lest you see them appear on AliExpress 2wks later.

:D:D Noted!

you can't generalise about a brand really - you need to do research for reviews on whatever particular model that you're considering buying. brands don't mean that much anymore especially when they have maybe 50 different laptop models across the range from budget to premium.
as posters have said these days lots of brands are outsourced so a lenovo and and a hp could be made by the same outsourced manufacturer in China.