# Best brand of laptop



## fender64 (19 Jul 2012)

I am thinking of one of those laptops....I am wondering which would be the best model? I know little about laptops,so am hoping for some advice...Thanks!


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## mandelbrot (20 Jul 2012)

I've got an Acer quite like that one, nearly 3yrs old, couldn't be happier with it.

Have never heard anyone complain about Acer.

My previous desktop computer was had a samsung hard drive, and I was getting blue screens randomly from day 1...

So I recommend the Acer, but no doubt there'll be someone somewhere who's had the opposite experience..!


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## Jazz01 (20 Jul 2012)

personally speaking - you get what you pay for BUT proper use of the laptop - in how it's handled physically with regard to where it's stored, dust, rough handling to keeping it clean from viruses, disk defrag when needed, cleaning out the hard disk etc & keeping up to date with patches, laptops should last you years...

It's down to what you want to use the laptop for - fast processor & large RAM size is what to look out for really...


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## fender64 (20 Jul 2012)

Thank you both for replies......I am leaning towards the Acer after some googling...


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## Sue Ellen (21 Jul 2012)

+1 on the Acer from Argos too.  Your second link doesn't appear to work so just wondering if has gone out of the catalogue because of the new one being released to-day.  They sometimes do a clearance so you might get lucky


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## fender64 (21 Jul 2012)

Yeah the Acer seems gone...That had a second generation processor as well..The processors on the new ones dont seem up to much.Thanks for the post..The search goes on ;-)


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## Complainer (22 Jul 2012)

I don't think that there is any 'best brand' of anything - laptop or car or jeans or whatever. It all depends on what you want to use it for, and what your budget is.


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## fender64 (23 Jul 2012)

I think you are right...It depends on the experience you have with anything....I got the Acer in Argos anyway.Thanks all !


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## Frank (23 Jul 2012)

I have had a dell for the last 5 years. Bought a good spec to start ram hard disk and turned out HDMI port is very handy.

Touch wood it is still working well despite being dropped a few times. 

My father has a dell from 2005 still doing the job. I upped the ram put in a bluetooth adaptor and still doing what they want.

Again touch wood.


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## confide (24 Jul 2012)

I've got a Dell, and I've had a Toshiba in the past. In my experince, Dell's service is great. If there's an issue, they'll come to fix or collect your laptop once it's still within the warranty period. 
The same was not the case with Toshiba - several times I had to package it up and send it off to the UK.


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## zealot (24 Jul 2012)

+1 for the issues with Toshiba - I buy a lot of systems for friends and family and currently have a 15 month old toshiba with a dead hard drive. As its out of warranty they have advised to just go buy and fit a hard drive as the most cost effective option which i am ok with though a little annoyed that the drive failed so early in its life. however as they did not send a product recovery (Windows) CD with the system they want to change over €30 for recovery media  
As it is an OEM licence I dont think I can use a retail copy of the CD to install the OS.
I've not had similar issues with other manufacturers in the main (Dell / Samsung have been great) but beware HP/Compaq - their service requirements seemed to be very complicated and time consuming for the one time I had to deal with them to have an AC adapter replaced.


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## Mumha (26 Jul 2012)

confide said:


> I've got a Dell, and I've had a Toshiba in the past. In my experince, Dell's service is great. If there's an issue, they'll come to fix or collect your laptop once it's still within the warranty period.
> The same was not the case with Toshiba - several times I had to package it up and send it off to the UK.


 
+2 on Toshiba. I had heard great reports on Toshiba laptops, and as I work with computers I spent over €900 on a new one a couple of years ago (500GB, Core I7 etc), only to discover that there is a known fault where the fan overheats because there isn't enough room for the dust to escape. By the time the machine started to shut down, it was out of Toshiba warranty and my extended warranty with PC World required them to send it over to England (BEWARE, they don't fix it in Ireland) for up to 5 weeks.


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## michaelm (1 Aug 2012)

zealot said:


> . . currently have a 15 month old toshiba with a dead hard drive.


On the off-chance that it's not actually a failed HDD try changing the HDD/IDE (SATA/AHCI to ATA) setting in the BIOS.  Although it doesn't really make sense this, ultimately, worked for me with a dodo Toshiba that crossed my path which wouldn't even boot on an Ubuntu Live CD.


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## Protocol (1 Aug 2012)

Two people mentioned "being out of warranty".

Note that warranties are on top of your statutory rights.

Say you have a 12 month warranty, and a component of the laptop fails after 15 months.  As long as you didn't cause it, as long as it's faulty, then you have rights.

It's thanks to the 1980 Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act.

See here:

http://www.nca.ie/nca/faulty-goods


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## Protocol (1 Aug 2012)

Mumha said:


> +2 on Toshiba. I had heard great reports on Toshiba laptops, and as I work with computers I spent over €900 on a new one a couple of years ago (500GB, Core I7 etc), only to discover that there is a known fault where the fan overheats because there isn't enough room for the dust to escape. By the time the machine started to shut down, it was out of Toshiba warranty and my extended warranty with PC World required them to send it over to England (BEWARE, they don't fix it in Ireland) for up to 5 weeks.


 
In this case, the warranty period is not relevant.

Key questions is: how long would a reasonable person expect the machine to last for?  If it breaks before that, you have rights.


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## Protocol (1 Aug 2012)

zealot said:


> +1 for the issues with Toshiba - I buy a lot of systems for friends and family and currently have a 15 month old toshiba with a dead hard drive. As its out of warranty they have advised to just go buy and fit a hard drive as the most cost effective option which i am ok with though a little annoyed that the drive failed so early in its life. .


 
Again, the warranty is not relevant here.

If the HDD has died 15 months after you bought it, and as long as you didn't cause the damage, then you have rights to a repair, replacement or refund.


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## michaelm (1 Aug 2012)

Protocol said:


> If the HDD has died 15 months after you bought it, and as long as you didn't cause the damage, then you have rights to a repair, replacement or refund.


I wouldn't be blinkered by the warranty either and I'd expect a HDD to last for min. 5 years.


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## Spidey (5 Aug 2012)

Hi why send to uk on the toshibia . BMS greenhill road dublin are tos , samsung and sony repair centre for Ireland. acer great product but warranty is in uk. I sell a lot of laptops, all are same price give ir take. Sample Acer may cost 350 but hp will cost 400 all the differance is price and brand as spec is similar.


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## Kkma (26 Sep 2012)

Hi looking for a new laptop with 8GB RAM, checked PC world, Argos and Harvey Norman so far, cheapest is Lenovo G560 in Harvey N at €450. Has anyone seen any other options? Any general advice is welcome.


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## bq67ie (26 Sep 2012)

Strong recommendation for Dell computers, whether desktop or laptop. Don't look as cool or flashy as some other brands, but very reliable, and very good value for money. Also their website makes it very easy to customise your purchase.


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## Kkma (26 Sep 2012)

Thanks bq, have had a couple of Dells and found them good, haven't done a price comparison so will do!


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