What are the Decent Brands of the moment?

Acer are not really that bad. I've not had much problems with them in the past. Their laptops are really very good.
 
My experiences with laptops (when working in PC repairs) are that the best brands in terms of quality are Lenovo, Sony, HP (business machines only, and some of the 5xx) and Fujitsu Siemens. Acer, Dell (particularly their home user orientated pap), Medion, Advent etc. are among the worst in my experience. I've posted this before, but the Acer build quality on most of the off-the-shelf high st machines is appaling, and their warranty and support is the worst I've ever used. That said, some of their machines are OK, and you usually get quite a good spec for the money. Toshiba Satellite Pro (and only the Pro!) are half decent, as are their Tecra range, but again, the high st stuff is lacking in quality.

Now if I were to buy myself a laptop, it'd be a Lenovo or Sony, depending on what I'd be using it for. For work, the Lenovo Thinkpads win hands down, though for home, the Vaio range would have something perfect I'm sure.
 
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I disagree about Acer, I've not had any problems with their support. At least its English....
I've recently started working in PC repair and I've dealt with 2 Acer laptops so far (as well as my uncle having one at home) and the build quality is fine imo.
 
Well I'm just speaking from my experiences of repairing them from both a software (usability) and hardware front. It probably doesn't help that most of the Acer laptops I've dealt with are faulty and usually low-end models. From what I've seen they're designed to last a year and no more, unless you pay for a more expensive model, which I still wouldn't recommend.

I have had several customers of the repair business report terrible problems getting their laptops replaced, and have dealt with returns on Acer desktop machines where it has taken up to a year to get back a working one from them, which is inexcusable.

Of course, your experience may vary!
 
yeah, we all have different experiences. Having said that, I've had similar problems to what you described with Sony.
 
What issues have you had with them? I'd be interested to know as I often recommend them and don't want to seem a fool! I certainly find Sony machines to be one of the best quality brands, is the support lacking?

EDIT: Actually had a conversation with a guy in a Sony Store the other day about the laptops, he had no idea about what was 64-bit compatible and what wasn't (he claimed models weren't when you can buy them with Vista 64!). He also said: 'Have you tried Windows 7?', so I replied 'Yes, beta and RC actually', which he followed up with 'Shocking, isn't it?'! 'Erm, no...' I said. I didn't get him to elaborate as I thought it'd probably be a waste of time asking any more questions.
 
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the support was less than satisfying, although this was 2 years ago. Not sure if its the same now, but it took so, so long to get my vaio fixed. They sorted it eventually, but it took the best part of 3 months
 
That is way too long for a RMA. I guess there are isolated cases of this with all manufacturers, I've had problems with Fujitsu Siemens, who are usually first rate, so it can happen I suppose. I just say what I do about Acer because I've dealt with so many in for repair over the years, I guess it's the quality of the machines too.
 
I would avoid Dell, I'm seeing lots of RAM related issues with them.

My preference has always been IBM/Lenovo, these things are bullet proof, but are expensive.

Work just gave me a HP HDX18, 4Gb RAM, Vista 64 and all, only had it a day or so, so far so good, looks like a good quality build.
 
This is seeming to be really confusing......

Some of you especially Alexhull24 say that Acer are to be avoided at all costs. Others including my Uncle say that Acer are fine and that some of their laptops are very good.

I'm not touching Dell, simple as that ! But i'm feeling Macbooks, Sony or perhaps Acer
 
Acer are very good value for money, particularly the the higher end models.

Build quality on Acers varies from model to model, but the high end stuff is very good. If you want value for money Acer is a good option
 
BUSH said:
i've got a december 2008 15 inch 2.4ghz one, and its eaten up everything i do, although i don't do photo editing or gaming on it, so i don't really push it that hard. But i believe plenty of people do, you'd be best to look in the apple hardware forum for photo editing/gaming performance.

they are expensive undoubtedly, but i don't think they are particularly overpriced given the quality and how good OSX is.
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I have this model, it plays everything but Crysis and these days Fallout 3. This laptop has been powered on for most of the time since I got it, and not one problem - even with beer and fag ash being spilled on it. They do get really hot tho.

It's about on a par with my old corporate issued stinkpad, and beats my corporate HP. Had a Dell XPS and that was flimsy. Sony laptops are a bit flaky and have really bad driver support. Everything else i've used has been junk.
 
Goose500 said:
This is seeming to be really confusing......

Some of you especially Alexhull24 say that Acer are to be avoided at all costs. Others including my Uncle say that Acer are fine and that some of their laptops are very good.

I'm not touching Dell, simple as that ! But i'm feeling Macbooks, Sony or perhaps Acer
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If you think Dell are bad then you go by what people say about Acer being bad. I think Dell are awesome when it comes to laptops. My Dad has one which has been going solid for about 10 years I think. Only just now has the DVD RW packed in which means we can't reinstall Windows.

For the money and what you want it for I would say go with a Macbook. At least you know you will have good support with it. (Never thought I would tell someone to go with Apple, I feel dirty)
 
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