Ok so I am looking to buy a new laptop (if I can't fix my mother n laws dell laptop)

So she has a dell.....ehhh to it

Trying to look at options, ie the title.

Computer is mostly used to look at pictures, go online, simple word processing, etc.

from a cost/quality I am doing my homework and narrowed down to these three brands. leaning towards a MACbook but wanted some opinions.

6/8/2010 9:31:09 AM

ooh

another laptop thread

6/8/2010 9:31:47 AM

Quote :

"MACbook"

6/8/2010 9:31:58 AM

well considering the other thread was not helpful...

6/8/2010 9:43:47 AM

well considering the other thread was not helpful...

6/8/2010 9:43:47 AM

If thats all you are doing with the laptop, save yourself like 500 bucks and just get a decent 500-700 dell laptop. You don't really need much, look for a dual core CPU and ideally 4GB of RAM.

6/8/2010 9:48:17 AM

well considering the other thread was not helpful...

6/8/2010 10:01:13 AM

For what you said you need, a $300 netbook would suffice.

Personally, I buy Mac for myself and Dell at work (mainly because they have the best price point to customer service for what we need which isn't much). I'll never buy a Sony. They have Mac prices with eMachines quality imo.

6/8/2010 6:54:32 PM

If you are going to spend the money on a Sony then get a Mac instead.

If you don't want to spend $999+ get a Dell.

6/8/2010 6:55:58 PM

cheap and worst quality: dell
more expensive and best quality: sony
most expensive and middle quality: mac

(price & quality relative to these three manufacturers)

[Edited on June 8, 2010 at 7:06 PM. Reason : .]

6/8/2010 7:03:52 PM

Quote :

"most expensive and less reliable route: macmade-up route: wdprice3"

6/8/2010 7:05:47 PM

^no.

3 year failure rates:

Sony: 16.8%
Apple: 17.4%
Dell: 18.3%

[Edited on June 8, 2010 at 7:08 PM. Reason : .]

6/8/2010 7:07:48 PM

source?

6/8/2010 7:08:56 PM

squaretrade reliability report

6/8/2010 7:09:31 PM

Consumer Reports says you're wrong.

6/8/2010 7:10:43 PM

and their findings are?

6/8/2010 7:11:17 PM

consumer reports is shit

6/8/2010 7:15:30 PM

CR had their annual laptop reviews within the last two months, so you can probably find a copy of the print edition somewhere.

I can't locate stuff freely available on their website, since specific ratings are behind a pay wall. However:

http://www.katu.com/news/problemsolver/consumerreports/93466984.html

Quote :

"Apple's tech support is tops in Consumer Reports' survey on the "Best and Worst for Tech Support." More than 7,000 subscribers who needed tech support in the past year participated in the survey. The survey asked about online support, as well as phone wait time, whether the staff was knowledgeable and communicated clearly, and of course, whether the problem was solved. Acer, which owns Gateway and eMachines, got the lowest marks by far. They rated much worse than others for solving problems. When it comes to computer reliability, another Consumer Reports survey covered more than 137,000 computers bought in the past five years. With desktops, Apple shined again, needing the fewest repairs of leading computer makers. But when it came to laptops, no company excelled."

So ok, I backtrack on CR saying you're outright wrong. However they accurately back my original correction of your statement earlier.


More reading:

http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/consumer-reports-takes-a-shine-to-apple/

http://www.macworld.com/article/133293/2008/05/consumer.html

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10467112-37.html

6/8/2010 7:21:02 PM

And from 2009:

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2009/05/05/consumer-reports-loves-those-macbooks/

Quote :

"In an embarrassment of plaudits, Apple (AAPL) swept all three laptop categories in Consumer Reports' latest study of personal computers. The reader survey, published Monday, is the cover story of the magazine's June issue. In all, five Apple notebooks made the cut. In one category --13-inch notebooks -- Apple won the top three places. In that category, the 13-inch aluminum MacBook was No. 1, the solid-state MacBook Air No. 2, and the white plastic 13-inch MacBook No. 3. The 15-inch MacBook came in first in the 14- to 16-inch notebook category. And the 17- to 18-inch notebook category was taken by the 17-inch MacBook. The 17-inch HP (HPQ) Pavilion made famous by Lauren De Long in the first Microsoft's (MSFT) Laptop Hunter ad, came in fourth in this category behind Dell (DELL) and Lenovo machines. Apple also took first place in tech support. Its desktop machines did not fare quite as well. The 20-inch iMac came in second after the Dell XPS One 24 in the standard desktop category. The Mac Mini also made this list."

6/8/2010 7:25:12 PM

There's not nearly enough information in the SquareTrade report to make any judgements. First of all, what's the avg. price per manufacturer? You're probably going to have a much higher percentage of more expensive laptops covered in this warranty so that doesn't tell you much about their low-end stuff. They also only give an overall percentage for defects vs. accidental. That makes a pretty big difference. What if 75% of Dell's failures were accidental while 90% of Apple's was because of defect?

*edit* shit, I'm an idiot. I've looked at that report 20 times and somehow never noticed the "excluding accidental damage" so I guess that pretty much voids my 2nd argument.

[Edited on June 8, 2010 at 8:22 PM. Reason : idiot]

6/8/2010 8:15:04 PM

who gets square trade warranties as opposed to the manufacturer warranty?

6/8/2010 9:31:59 PM

Manufacturer's warranty is typically 1 year while ST is 2-3 years. ST also covers accidental damage whereas Manufacturers (other than Asus?) do not. It's also typically less expensive than other "extended" warranties like AppleCare or BB's Service Plans.

6/8/2010 9:46:10 PM

I'm a Lenovo fan, for what it's worth.

However if you skip the sony and mac you can almost get a new laptop every 18 months for cheaper. Get a nice laptop now (like the 17" full keyboard deal) and then in 18 months get a netbook or thin/light. Still cheaper than padding Jobs' pockets.

6/8/2010 9:49:46 PM

What's the point in that? Buy a "real" laptop now and then buy something less capable in 1.5 years when the machine you already have is also less capable? That makes no sense to me. In 2 years you have 2 laptops that are pretty equal except one is big and the other one is small?

How about you just buy a Mac, sell it in a year for 10-15% less than you paid for it and buy another one? That's my preference. Hell, between what I sold my 2009 MBP for and what I bought my 2010 MB for, I'm actually ahead (Sold MBP for $50 less than I had in it after RAM/HDD upgrades & bought MB for $100 under Retail thanks to pricing mistakes).

6/8/2010 10:45:28 PM

well looks like there is a lot of support in here for the macbooks....time to start looking at prices.

6/9/2010 9:20:58 AM

there are no good laptops. There are ok laptops you will always wish were better, and there are really bad laptops.

6/9/2010 9:40:51 AM

if it's for your mother in law, you will save yourself countless hours in support if you get her a mac.

6/9/2010 9:44:59 AM

yup^

6/9/2010 9:51:57 AM