Laptop recommendations? Took the leap!

[ANISAHDANCER]

Hopefully I am posting this in the right spot.......

My HP laptop just took a crap, after way too much fussing, and finding
out there was a recall and I got screwed---long story, but I am not
buying another HP!

I would love some input and recommendations from all of your experience,
plus I know we have some experienced "computer people" here too!

I want a "entertainment-driven" laptop, to play lots of video and music,
a fast processor, lots of memory. (What are the "numbers" I need to be
looking for when I shop?)
Lower on my priority list are weight and screen size--I am open on those since I use it at home most of the time.

I can find my way around the programs on my computer, but I don't know
what I need when it comes to buying!

Thanks!!!

[Acenith]

My hubby works in IT and I can tell you from both his experience and mine, that for quality, dependability, and support Dell or Toshiba are the way to go. My Toshiba is 6 years old and still kicking! His company only supports Dell after all the problems they had with other brands over the years.

The nice thing about the Dells, is that you can customize them to your specifications, too. :)

[laura 2]

I have a Dell Inspiron 1525, and I love it. It's very reliable and runs like a dream. I have 4GB of memory and a 250GB hard drive, and am running Vista (although I have heard really good things about Windows 7 too).

[badriya_al_ahmar]

I have a Dell Inspiron 1525, and I love it. It's very reliable and runs like a dream. I have 4GB of memory and a 250GB hard drive, and am running Vista (although I have heard really good things about Windows 7 too).

Conversely, I have had a horror story with Dell over an Inspiron 1525, which was purchased for my husband to do music composition and recording on.* Ironically, its problem was that it could not play music without skipping and jumping, whatever the music source (CD, mp3, audio track to a YouTube clip, Media Player file, anything). Dell's customer support was terrible, and I was only able to get any kind of resolution after writing directly to Michael Dell and copying a couple of relevant VPs. At that point they allowed me to exchange my lemon for a factory refurbished Inspiron 1525, which turned out to have the same problem. At that point, sad to say, I gave up in frustration, so now we have a very expensive netbook that can't play any kind of audio.

Dell, I think, is very luck of the draw. I have also talked to people who run IT departments who use Dell exclusively, and they say the corporate customer support is an entirely different animal than the home customer support. It's very clear which kind of account Dell cares about more.

Just my experience...

*I know, why didn't we just get a Mac, but my husband has a somewhat steep learning curve with computers and has been using his PC music software for years.

[indigostars]

My friend had major issues with Dell. They kept doing weird things with her order.

I've heard excellent things about Toshiba, though.

[bdlana]

I know your hp just crapped out, but I just got an hp and I love it!!!! It's a pavilion entertainment PC and is running windows 7. I got it at Costco, actually. Comes with a 2 year warranty. My only complaint is I could totally live without the bubbles (AKA bullet holes). Good luck whatever you buy. I think its just luck of the draw. We have had lots of issues with our Dell desktop. To be honest, I really wanted a mac, but it was just too expensive.

[ANISAHDANCER]

That's the exact one that I had trouble with!! Hopefully the newer ones have all the issues resolved.
I was only a few months out of warranty when it started and still got screwed. I wish you luck, I've been informed that the lifespan of these are 2-3 years max, which is all I got out of it.
I hope it works out better for you!

[zorba]

HP.

[bdlana]

EEEKKK...I hope this one does work out ok. I had another HP pavilion that I bought in 2001, and it actually still ran pretty well...it just needed a battery replacement in all the time I owned it. SO we'll see....

That's the exact one that I had trouble with!! Hopefully the newer ones have all the issues resolved.
I was only a few months out of warranty when it started and still got screwed. I wish you luck, I've been informed that the lifespan of these are 2-3 years max, which is all I got out of it.
I hope it works out better for you!

[ANISAHDANCER]

Gotta have faith!!! I absolutely hope it's great for you!

[aziyade]

Whichever one you get, be sure to get the back-lit keyboard option. It's cheap and it comes in handy A LOT when gaming. I didn't get it but my husband did, and I could just kick myself that I didn't buy that option.

[showtime]

Love my Sony Vaio. I also have a HP that is a workhorse.

[raqFariha]

i love my ibook. it's old, from 2006. and even though my dog jumped through the screen causing it to bounce/whiplash and the to casing warp it still works like nothing happened! ::knock on wood:: i had to get a new battery this winter and the speakers are kindda crap, but that's it. the models that they're selling now probably have better speakers.
also, it comes with Garageband, which is the easiest fricken way to edit music ever. i use it every time i cut a set together.
my brother went through two dells in the time i've had this computer. i think they've improved since the model's he bought, but i'm never gonna try them again since i have yet to see one last more than 3 years. in my own experience macs are more expensive but they last way longer and you end up with more bang for your buck in the long run. (your mileage may vary ^_^)

[rassicahl]

Love love love my Mac laptop. I've had Dells in the past and will never go back to them. Customer service sucked with the Dells. Problem with the Mac, which I haven't had in the 3 years I've owned it, I'd take it right back to the Mac store and they fix it.

[ANISAHDANCER]

Thank you all so much for your input!
I ended up having to go today---so I took the plunge and got a
Toshiba!

Wish me luck! So far(typing on it right now) it's fantastic.

[Darbla]

Dell, I think, is very luck of the draw. I have also talked to people who run IT departments who use Dell exclusively, and they say the corporate customer support is an entirely different animal than the home customer support. It's very clear which kind of account Dell cares about more.

Just my experience...

*I know, why didn't we just get a Mac, but my husband has a somewhat steep learning curve with computers and has been using his PC music software for years.

I've got a $2500 dead POS Mac, and I will never buy Apple again. It died 3 months outside the warranty I paid extra for, I read where others of the same machine were having a very high failure rate, the support techs were denying any knowledge of high failure rates, and Apple was getting cheap Chinese parts at the time. I was just one of the unlucky ones whose machine waited until after the warranty expired to die. Apple is not as reliable or as honest now as they might have once been.

Just my experience....if I can get what I need done from a machine that costs half as much as an Apple product, I'm better off.

[Antigone]

Apple is not as reliable or as honest now as they might have once been.

Just my experience....if I can get what I need done from a machine that costs half as much as an Apple product, I'm better off.

I totally agree. I was thinking of getting a Mac but then decided to get a Sony Vaio instead. I absolutely love it ! ..g.:

[raqFariha]

I've got a $2500 dead POS Mac, and I will never buy Apple again. It died 3 months outside the warranty I paid extra for, I read where others of the same machine were having a very high failure rate, the support techs were denying any knowledge of high failure rates, and Apple was getting cheap Chinese parts at the time. I was just one of the unlucky ones whose machine waited until after the warranty expired to die. Apple is not as reliable or as honest now as they might have once been.

Just my experience....if I can get what I need done from a machine that costs half as much as an Apple product, I'm better off.

i think it depends on where you are. i've heard great things from my classmate about the mac support in Albany, i also had good experiences despite the language barrier in Osaka, but for me in Syracuse it's always what you described: "no, mac's are perfect. if there's something wrong with your computer it's because you're too dumb to use it"
i have a friend of my family fix me up when i need it (since he's in Tokyo and im in syr, it's good that it's not that often, :knock on wood:). for me personally the good things about it outweigh the bad, but i really hate it when people get on the "mac's are perfect" cult stuff. ^_~

[*Shira*]

I had a Gateway that performed well for me, but its motherboard crapped out after about 2.5 years and its hard disk crapped out after 3 years. I had it under a Best Buy service contract, so I didn't have to pay for the repairs, but the inconvenience was really annoying, plus the death of the hard drive meant I had to reinstall everything.

I had an ultra-portable Sony Vaio which is still performing well after 4 years. I've handed it over to my husband after replacing it with a newer Vaio which also performs well. The caution on Vaios is that if you want to watch DVD's from other countries that have region codes, a Vaio's DVD drive won't let you use AnyDVD to bypass the region code. It makes sense, Sony is a media company as well as a technology company, so it's logical that their computers would make it difficult to bypass the restrictions on DVD playback that their media arm wants to impose.

[Darbla]

I'm a computer programmer in an IT dept, and honestly, with what all I see happening with the PCs we have at work and my personal experiences, they are all failing more and more quickly these days than they did several years ago. Just like my experience with Apple; I bought the most expensive, top-of-the-line machine they had on the market at the time, and it still crapped out on me. The cheap PC I had before that lasted me 8 1/2 years, cost half as much, and had less going wrong with it at the end of that 8 1/2 years. The expensive Apple lasted 3 years and 3 months.

They are all basically disposable now. Don't count on too much longevity, be prepared for more problems, and make sure you are keeping regular backups of your data. If you can get a less expensive machine to do what you need, then you are better off.

[Antigone]

The caution on Vaios is that if you want to watch DVD's from other countries that have region codes, a Vaio's DVD drive won't let you use AnyDVD to bypass the region code. It makes sense, Sony is a media company as well as a technology company, so it's logical that their computers would make it difficult to bypass the restrictions on DVD playback that their media arm wants to impose.

That's strange as AnyDVD software works perfectly on my Vaio laptop. But this is maybe because it has a Blue Ray disc drive instead of just a dvd drive ?

[*Shira*]

That's strange as AnyDVD software works perfectly on my Vaio laptop. But this is maybe because it has a Blue Ray disc drive instead of just a dvd drive ?

Interesting. Your Blue Ray theory is plausible. I have an older Vaio ultra-portable from before the Blue Ray era. AnyDVD works great on my old Gateway, but on my Vaio it refuses to play any DVD's that are non-region-1. It says that the Matsu****a drive is one that it is unable to override.

[ANISAHDANCER]

They are all basically disposable now. Don't count on too much longevity, be prepared for more problems, and make sure you are keeping regular backups of your data. If you can get a less expensive machine to do what you need, then you are better off.

That's what I heard from everyone when I was researching what to get and
asking around.....quite a few times I was told that 3 years is considered
average lifespan for a laptop!
But technology changes so quickly, I guess in 3 years it would be seriously out
of date too! LOL

[steffib]

We're an Apple household, my husband is professor in Human-Computer Interaction, in his department Apples are common, and I am a former sys admin who owned a bunch of NeXT machines and, like him, have a background in applied AI/Intelligent Systems.

We have mixed experiences - all our PCs pooped out ungracefully on us: I had two Sony Vaios die (both unfixable, one a project machine, one my own), he has an Inspirion that has inexplicable problems. He uses his PowerMac around the clock, as do I. Mine has been dropped repeatedly, had wine spilled over the keyboard, and has seen whatever abuse one can imagine, from dirt to a cat trying to unhinge the monitor. Vincent seems to have good hardware karma, I am on my third motherboard for a 2005 computer (one was a superb warranty experience, the other I paid for myself).

In terms of time of use compared to hardware failure rate, the Macs are way ahead of the PCs in our house. In terms of usability, both the HCI professor and the sys admin love their Macs.

[Jenn]

I have a great Toshiba, except it's not really portable - the battery only lasts about 45 min and I have to run a cooling pad under it or it will literally melt the motherboard. Most of my day to day stuff, I use my Ibook G3 - it's ancient, but does most of what I need it to - just doesn't do any flash application very well though.

[ShoshannaQ]

I'm a total Apple-head - Never have had anything but a Mac. I've never had one crap out on me - oops once, and they replaced the logic board free. They've lasted and lasted. I only replaced them when I wanted more current hardware and I could afford it. Still on my trusty Imac from 4 years ago, and I use my husbands old iBook G4 for portable uses. PC's drive me nuts! Everything is so much harder to find, harder to do - when I have to use a friend's PC for anything I want to throw it out the nearest flippin window!

[SaNoorah]

That's the exact one that I had trouble with!! Hopefully the newer ones have all the issues resolved.
I was only a few months out of warranty when it started and still got screwed. I wish you luck, I've been informed that the lifespan of these are 2-3 years max, which is all I got out of it.
I hope it works out better for you!

Sorry about your trouble. Hopefully my HP (w1907) desktop lasts longer, got it in Dec 2008

[Darbla]

I get an IT industry trade e-zine, and this was in a recent one:

"Apple's run at limiting iPad/iPhone development to Apple-only tools smacks of that old-time arrogance Apple used to be known for --- and it sucks. Ultimately, Apple customers will suffer the most, what with a world full of innovative developers barred from creating innovative software."

Not directly related to laptops, but at their current customer service attitudes and practices. They've already got $2500 from me and all I have is an ugly doorstop, and this on top of it doesn't improve my opinion of Apple right now.