Which company makes the worst laptop (in your opinion)?

[MickMcGeough]

Originally Posted by Traditional_Ale

ACER is the President's Choice of laptops.

GATEWAY is the Pinto.

HP is the KIA.

DELL is the Ford Escape.

LG is the Toyota Tacoma.

TOSHIBA is a Subaru WRX.

APPLE is for phags.

Worst post I've seen in the tech forum for quite awhile.

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by MickMcGeough

Worst post I've seen in the tech forum for quite awhile.

Hey man. They all suck. It was an attempt at humor. Too bad you couldn't see that, but then your username made me laugh.

Inevitably when someone asks who has the best or worst laptop/car/insurance blah blah blah it ends up being everyone sharing their good and bad experiences.

[MickMcGeough]

Originally Posted by Traditional_Ale

Inevitably when someone asks who has the best or worst laptop/car/insurance blah blah blah it ends up being everyone sharing their good and bad experiences.

That's the point, isn't it?

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by MickMcGeough

That's the point, isn't it?

[REDVAN]

FWIW, I bought a Samsung from Bestbuy about 6 months ago. I was going to buy it anyway, but the tech kid told me that in his 2 years of working there, he'd never seen one Samsung or Toshiba in the geek repair area, but he saw a lot of hp and the other brands.

No real issues with my machine for the last 6 months, and I figure it I can get a few years out of it i'll be happy.

[metal_geek]

I've fixed all of the popular brands at some point..

Acer is definitely the worst.

Toshiba used to make quality machines but in the last 6 years they've almost as bad as acers.

HP are generally ok but they ALL have heat issues. If you keep it clean and change the heat sink compound at about 18 months you'll be fine.

Lenovo's are good very few hardware problems, but generally lack "bling" if thats what your looking for.

Dells run the whole gambit, generally they are respectable machines at comparable price ranges to all the other brands. Problems in dells usually run along model lines so if you machine is good the whole line is good.

Asus usually have good specs but build quality is an issue at times.

Emachine = junk

Apples have good build quality but tend to run like the dells in that certain ones have specific problems.

LG seem to be all over the board, real crap shoot. One will be perfect and the next one off the line is terrible..

MSI = junk

Thats most of the "common" ones, but I've seen dozens of other brands as well. If you have a particular brand or model I can tell you my experience in repairing them..

[metal_geek]

Originally Posted by REDVAN

the tech kid told me that in his 2 years of working there, he'd never seen one Samsung or Toshiba in the geek repair area

He don't spend much time in the back if he's never seen a toshiba back there..

[TSXCman]

I've had experience with 2 Acers so far and find them fine. only complaint is very low speaker volume on one. they are a bargain brand though.

After doing some coupons and stuff, I got the kinda stuff that a 1200$ mac would have for 400$. But its missing a glowing apple on it

[-TC-]

Business -wise, I'd only ever buy a Lenovo Thinkpad. Legendary reliability and quality.

For home, I dunno, but I know it wouldn't be an Acer, an HP or an Asus. Right now my daughter has my old Toshiba and it just runs and runs and the display is excellent, so I'd probably start there...or maybe a Sony.

[OldDutch]

Seriously, the only good things I have heard across the board is Apple. I think all PC makers have lemons in their product lines.

This is coming from a VAIO owner. My VAIO has it's own issues as well.

[secol]

Originally Posted by metal_geek

I've fixed all of the popular brands at some point..

Acer is definitely the worst.

Toshiba used to make quality machines but in the last 6 years they've almost as bad as acers.

HP are generally ok but they ALL have heat issues. If you keep it clean and change the heat sink compound at about 18 months you'll be fine.

Lenovo's are good very few hardware problems, but generally lack "bling" if thats what your looking for.

Dells run the whole gambit, generally they are respectable machines at comparable price ranges to all the other brands. Problems in dells usually run along model lines so if you machine is good the whole line is good.

Asus usually have good specs but build quality is an issue at times.

Emachine = junk

Apples have good build quality but tend to run like the dells in that certain ones have specific problems.

LG seem to be all over the board, real crap shoot. One will be perfect and the next one off the line is terrible..

MSI = junk

Thats most of the "common" ones, but I've seen dozens of other brands as well. If you have a particular brand or model I can tell you my experience in repairing them..

samsung r580?

[chalms04]

First laptop was a Compaq, lasted 4 years, was a tank until it fried from the AC plug becoming loose from the mobo.

Second was a Toshiba provided by my school, build quality was crap. Screws would randomly fall out, fan sounded like a jet taking off, and the dvd drive was off balance.

Latest one is an ASUS, and it's been running like a gem so far. *knock on wood*

[MacGruber]

people who are dissing acer dont know what theyre talking about and put too much stock in brand recognition.
Edit: this is just recent tho. acer was junk 3+ years ago but not the case any longer

HP is actually the least reliable laptop and has the most repairs in industry.

Sony and ASUS are the top rated for this.

I bought my mom an acer recently and it's a fantastic laptop at a great price.

[dissentowner]

Before I had my Mac I had an HP, it lasted 3 months. What a POS that thing was!

[peter12]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Before I had my Mac I had an HP, it lasted 3 months. What a POS that thing was!

Too much porn, probably.

I'm sorry to be an Apple fanboy, but I've had a Macbook for ... 5 years, and I've only had some minor problems with the casing and the screen. It still runs like a charm. I'll probably never switch brands.

[TylerSVT]

Originally Posted by OldDutch

Seriously, the only good things I have heard across the board is Apple. I think all PC makers have lemons in their product lines.

This is coming from a VAIO owner. My VAIO has it's own issues as well.

Probably because most Mac users are pot smoking hippies who think Apple is gods gift to the world.

I dont think ive ever met someone with an Apple laptop that didnt think it was the greatest invention ever and that god himself crafted it out of diamonds. Just goes with everything else the Apple fanboys use. Iphone is a perfect example of this.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by TylerSVT

Probably because most Mac users are pot smoking hippies who think Apple is gods gift to the world.

I dont think ive ever met someone with an Apple laptop that didnt think it was the greatest invention ever and that god himself crafted it out of diamonds. Just goes with everything else the Apple fanboys use. Iphone is a perfect example of this.

Not sure about iPhones, but maybe it's because the products are actually rather decent?

Don't get me wrong, I went through a whole bunch of iPods a few years ago. Apple isn't perfect.

[Igottago]

Originally Posted by TylerSVT

Probably because most Mac users are pot smoking hippies who think Apple is gods gift to the world.

I dont think ive ever met someone with an Apple laptop that didnt think it was the greatest invention ever and that god himself crafted it out of diamonds. Just goes with everything else the Apple fanboys use. Iphone is a perfect example of this.

Its because they are great. Bottom line. Apple creates devices that are easy to use, functional, stylish, and cutting edge all at the same time. I'm gonna go spark one up and listen to Bob Marley now....on my Iphone.

[Hack&Lube]

If personal experiences are all this thread amounts to:

I've actually had a great experience with Acer Netbooks and have been satisfied and even impressed by their build quality. My only issue has been with a shoddy bios on an Aspire One. I suspect Acer build quality may have gone down when they sourced production of netbooks from Quanta to Compal.

All the ASUS models I've had were steller despite some wonky design choices for stuff like an ASUS UMPC. Build quality was great.

My barebones Compal that I built for University was excellent.

Gateway was a cheesy annoying underpowered thing but it did the job and never broke down aside from the battery nolonger holding a charge after 4 years.

I'll have a new Clevo notebook tomorrow.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by TylerSVT

Overall its just a big piece of crap, i wouldn't ever buy an HP laptop ever again, their customer service is atrocious.

If i ever get a new laptop, its going to be a Sony, Dell, or Toshiba.

You can't classify these things by the brand on the sticker. Many of these are made by the same ODM (original design manufacturer). You have to classify by product lines and specific models and the kind of support you get. Every company has a bad model or two, some with more than others but most companies also have good or great models themselves.

The thread is only flawed because people don't understand that there are only about a dozen companies in the world (based in Taiwan, manufacture in China) that make virtually all the notebooks for all the other companies that you see.

For example, the Taiwanese company Quanta makes notebooks for Acer, Apple, Dell, Gateway, HP, Alienware, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Sony, Toshiba, etc. If you think Acers suck, remember that Macbooks and Acers are often both manufactured by Quanta depending on the product line. Quanta, Compal, Wistron, Asus, Arima, ECS, Clevo and MSI are the big ones. If you're buying a Sony, Dell, HP, or Toshiba, or even Apple chances are that depending on the model you buy, they might even be made by the same company. I think that just Quanta, Compal, Wistron, and Asus together have like 80% of the world laptop market manufactured by those four companies. Acer (bought Gateway) has ones made by Quanta, Wistron, Arima, and Compal. Dell has ones made by Quanta and Wistron, etc.

Personally I prefer to buy unique ODM designed notebooks instead ones specifically designed and branded for a big contract manufacturer like Dell, HP, Apple, Sony, Toshiba, etc. I've had straight up Compal units in the past. I just bought a Clevo.

The way to make sure you don't get a lemon is to do thorough research on a specific model. Every big laptop brand has had lemons and recalls throughout the years.