New Lenovo Laptop

[The Stoic]

As a store manager at a computer retailer/tech shop I have seen both sides of the computer. So here's my .02.

-NEVER buy an emachine

-NEVER buy a Celeron, its a rip off, wikipedia processors and take a look.

-In my experience, aside from emachines, pretty much every laptop can be reliable.

-Check out the design and then the specs, each brand can have a poorly designed model.

-For the most part HP's are ok but they do not have the best built chassis.
IMO Sony's are nice but if you are going to spend that much money get a Mac and put XP on it alongside OSX (use parallels so you can run both at the same time).

-Refurbished machines are fine just get an extended warranty if available, usually $40 or so more and you are still saving a bunch of money.

-Acer's may not be the prettiest but are the easiest to do self repair and in general are built solid enough.

-Mac Air is cool but note it does not have an optical drive and only has either a 64gb or an 80gb Hard drive. (you can use another computers cd drive)

-Always get a backup external drive

Just some thoughts from the tech side, can't wait to quit and go to OCS though.

 

[phrogpilot73]

NEVER buy an emachine

Agreed wholeheartedly. While the price is attractive, I've had two (desktop & laptop) and both went hard down. The desktop appeared to simply be a power supply that failed, but it fried my motherboard on the way out the door. Poor build quality at best.

NEVER buy a Celeron, its a rip off, wikipedia processors and take a look.

Agree again, and to save you some time and effort looking it up - the big difference is the cache. The performance loss you will experience won't balance out the price point.

For the most part HP's are ok but they do not have the best built chassis.

Especially the lower end ones. The power socket's attachment to the motherboard is poorly designed, and there is nothing that supports the plug. They have a tendency to have that as their single point of failure. If it's in warranty, no problem. If it's not - it turns out to be an expensive fix because it's a motherboard level repair. Low-end HP's are disposable laptops. If you want to know if it's a good HP or not - just wiggle the power cord where it enters the laptop. If it has ANY play laterally, it's one of their notoriously bad connectors...

Refurbished machines are fine just get an extended warranty if available, usually $40 or so more and you are still saving a bunch of money.

With the exception of my HP, all of my laptops recently have been refurbished. It allows you to get more computer for less, and it might not have even been returned for repair. It could have been returned because they didn't like it.

 

[IrishNavy05]

So does anyone have a decent recommendation for a deployment to an unfriendly mountainous country? A good balance between cost/reliability/performance would be nice. I'm in the market for one to take the place of my issued HP, which besides being a POS has been tapped for operational purposes (it's now on the SIPR roster).

I was actually going to ask the same question. Except replace "unfriendly mountainous country" with "nice hotel for a VQ JO on first deployment".

I've been looking at the online NEX's deals, and it seems like their Dell's are pretty great deals. The Inspiron 1420 ($659)and the XPS 1330 ($899) in particular. The XPS 1330 is a 13.3 inch, 4 lb guy with pretty much all the specs I want. Anybody have any experience with these models, or with Dell's in general?

Plus the XPS also comes with a FREE! Navy logo backpack, so it'll definitely help you be the coolest guy in school

 

[phrogpilot73]

Anybody have any experience with these models, or with Dell's in general?

Good Dells are good, bad Dells are bad. I probably won't buy a Dell, only because of my experience with the ones they sold the military. Any company that is willing to put their brand on those pieces of crap, isn't going to get a dime from me. Their customer service (Dell's not NMCI's of course) is very good.

 

[Rasczak]

I would never buy Dell. I worked in one of the manufaturing plants for a while, and the way people treat the hardware is horrible. Throwing HDDs into the trays, lots...and I mean A LOT, of hardware is dropped on the floor and sent on.... They had poor control over that aspect of the manufacturing process.

 

[phrogpilot73]

Just got our hands on PSW's new Lenovo. The design and build is SWEET, especially for the price. Highly recommended for anyone, great for deployment.

 

[nugget81]

Anybody have any experience with these models, or with Dell's in general?

My college had a laptop program and we used Dell Latitude's (I forget the model number). I never had a problem with the two different laptops I had while there, but I knew several people who lost hard drives a few times. I suspect it was because they left the computer on in their backpack while traveling to/from class. Again, I never had a problem with the Dell's I used.

BTW, I use a HP tx 1000 now and was much happier with Dell

 

[SailingSkyHawk]

Just got our hands on PSW's new Lenovo. The design and build is SWEET, especially for the price. Highly recommended for anyone, great for deployment.

That's a great computer - I can't seem to find the dimensions, is it one of those ultrathin thinkpads?

 

[MettGT]

My experience with Dell is that they make a great PC, but not so much for their laptops. I currently have a Lenovo ThinkPad T61 and I love it.

 

[Lightning26]

I have owned a couple of Dell Desktops and have never had a problem with them. I have also been looking into buying the xps M1330 and the reviews look pretty good from other users. I have attached a couple dell outlet coupons that I received in my email. They are one time use coupons so just be sure you want the computer before you use it. Use a calculator if you want to estimate the discount.

15% off any refurbished Inspiron™ or XPS system.
Enter coupon¹ code at checkout:
43W5QQT$SSM1MW

Enter coupon¹ code at checkout:
GH5TKVVF5VCFBV



Expires 1/28. Online only.

10% off all refurbished
Dell printers!

Enter coupon² code at checkout:
1X3M9V676MS94H

Enter coupon² code at checkout:
T??$G0626N24T3



Expires 1/28. Online only.

Please post if you used the code, so someone else doesn't waste their time.

 

[phrogpilot73]

That's a great computer - I can't seem to find the dimensions, is it one of those ultrathin thinkpads?

Not ultra-thin, but no desktop replacement. In the middle. Here are the dimensions:

14.1" x 10.3" x 1.42" (Closed)/1.14" (Open), 6.4 lbs.

 

[SailingSkyHawk]

Not ultra-thin, but no desktop replacement. In the middle. Here are the dimensions:

14.1" x 10.3" x 1.42" (Closed)/1.14" (Open), 6.4 lbs.

You got a real deal, that's a great laptop. Thinkpads last forever too.