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What's the better laptop? Can't decide between dell and lenovo.

...

lenovo imo.

Not Dell.

dood wrote:which models? i can vouch for dell latitude series and thinkpad T series, both are business workhorses. i was giving the dell D610 and E5XXX by my company, dropped D610 MANY times, one time threw on concrete and still survived. i had the E for a shorter period of time but was reliable too. i currently use T400, it is also equally reliable, but the feel of the keyboard is not as good as the dell.

between the 2 doesnt really matter, all that is important is to avoid the el cheapo special from best buy....though 99% of them are fine, if know more than a few people who have devastating system failures at exactly the wrong time (i.e. right before lrw final memo is due, in the middle of a final, etc). pay extra $200 just to be 100% sure, IMO.

Have you ever tried finding a replacement part for a 3+ year old latitude?

vanwinkle wrote:

Why think different when you can take credit for something without thinking?

I'm a talking pear and Windows 7 was *my* idea!

dood wrote:which models? i can vouch for dell latitude series and thinkpad T series, both are business workhorses. i was giving the dell D610 and E5XXX by my company, dropped D610 MANY times, one time threw on concrete and still survived. i had the E for a shorter period of time but was reliable too. i currently use T400, it is also equally reliable, but the feel of the keyboard is not as good as the dell.

between the 2 doesnt really matter, all that is important is to avoid the el cheapo special from best buy....though 99% of them are fine, if know more than a few people who have devastating system failures at exactly the wrong time (i.e. right before lrw final memo is due, in the middle of a final, etc). pay extra $200 just to be 100% sure, IMO.

I was looking at the Dell Inspiron 14R. And for Thinkpad, i didnt have any models in mind, just something that will get me through law school.

Going with the Lenovo for sure.

Usually making a generalized judgment about a brand without taking into account the actual models in question is pretty stupid, from my experience and understanding...dell sucks.

Go with Thinkpad.

Ill be using a HP 11.6" netbook in class/library and a dell vostro 1400 hooked up to a monitor/keyboard/mouse at home.

It's almost impossible to buy a truly bad laptop these days. They all have plenty of power to do what you need for law school and will work fine as long as you take care of them.

nealric wrote:It's almost impossible to buy a truly bad laptop these days. They all have plenty of power to do what you need for law school and will work fine as long as you take care of them.

As far as computing power, true; as far as failure rates, some models/brands suck.

Don't buy any laptop from an American company except Apple.

MC Southstar wrote:Don't buy any laptop from an American company except Apple.

fixt

Thomas Jefferson wrote:

MC Southstar wrote:Don't buy any laptop from an American company except Apple.

fixt

I hate apple as much as the next logical person, but they have made relatively solid hardware up to this point, though it is obvious that quality is slipping now that they are the largest marketing department in the world.

I like Lenovo's because they've traditionally been the "business" computer. Although a brand like toshiba isn't bad either. I would just pick a decently configured Thinkpad

As far as computing power, true; as far as failure rates, some models/brands suck.

A few do, but they are quite rare. Every brand has it's share of "horror stories", but the vast, vast majority of models are just fine.

Unless it's a Dell.

Unless it's a Dell.

My Dell has taken almost 4 years of abuse including being dropped several times. I once dropped it 4 feet onto concrete. The screen was cracked, but one week and $80 on ebay later it was running like a champ with a new screen. I still see no need whatsoever to upgrade. The vast majority of Dells are fine. You hear complaints mostly because they are also the one of the most purchased brands. If Dell sells 1M computers and Brand X sells 500k, you are going to have twice as many disgruntled users from Dell even with the same failure rate. Moreover, other that the motherboard and internal power supply, there is nothing on a laptop that can't be replaced relatively easily if it fails.

Actually, you hear complaints because Dell sucks as a company from top to bottom.

If you buy a computer and it works fine, great. But odds are it will not, and Dell will basically tell you to fuck off.

Have any of you guys tried looking for replacement parts for a 4 y/o dell?

Dell doesn't keep these a stock of these parts for much after the warranty period on the last laptop sold with the particular part in it. In fact, most of the times, not even the techs know what parts your computer has.

MC Southstar wrote:

Thomas Jefferson wrote:

MC Southstar wrote:Don't buy any laptop from an American company except Apple.

fixt

I hate apple as much as the next logical person, but they have made relatively solid hardware up to this point, though it is obvious that quality is slipping now that they are the largest marketing department in the world.

You do understand that Apple doesn't make the laptops, right? Foxconn in China does - along with HP's, Sony's, and a couple other brands.

I don't think there are any mainstream laptop companies that make laptops in America.

ResolutePear wrote:I don't think there are any mainstream laptop companies that make laptops in America.

Boutique firms do, typically, but I doubt they qualify under your mainstream definition.

kalvano wrote:

ResolutePear wrote:I don't think there are any mainstream laptop companies that make laptops in America.

Boutique firms do, typically, but I doubt they qualify under your mainstream definition.

You know me all too well. iBuyPower kicks ass, though. For a gaming laptop, their entry level knocks the socks off the most expensive MBP... just not sure on that plastic.

Have any of you guys tried looking for replacement parts for a 4 y/o dell?

Silly, you don't get replacement parts from Dell. They are literally all over ebay for pennies on the dollar over Dell- even for 10 year old laptops. It doesn't ever matter if the techs know what's in your machine. Laptop repair basically goes like this (subject to a few diagnostics):

Do you have a virus, or is the computer just "slow"? ---> Format and reinstall windows
BSODs? ---> New Ram (run memtest to be certain), could be software, mobo, hardrive
Mobo dead --> Get new laptop (mobo replacement is doable, but I find it to be too much of a PITA due to the 25 types of screws laptop makers use)
Screen went black --> New Backlight
Windows not booting --> New hard drive
Weird grinding noise? --> New fan

All of the above are pretty much generic parts with the exception of the backlight and the fans (which are semi-generic).

Boutique firms do, typically, but I doubt they qualify under your mainstream definition

They are just parts aggregators. Every component inside will be made in Asia (with the possible exception of the processor which may be made elsewhere).