Miscellaneous laptop discussions forum: dell vs. HP vs. gateway

You'll have to narrow it down to more specific models to get a good answer here. Certainly no one maker save Apple has this area wired.

Bob

Many of those have options for RAM, hard disks and OS.

I think I wasn't clear enough. There is no winner in this group with you listing what could be over 100 models. I don't think anyone will sift through that many for you.

For me, today I'm on the fence with these 2 in the next category. Some Macbook Pro with a bootcamp to XP. Can't decide to go 15 or 17 inch yet.

Bob

I don't have any experience of Gateways, they don't sell them here anymore.

HP's are the best built out of the lot I think, surpassing Apple. I like the mix of build quality and conservative engineering. Dell is about the same as Apple - you might get a faultless one, you might get a lemon, it's the luck of the draw - but generally speaking the Dells tend to be more reliable because they're more conservatively built. Apple is more on the bleeding edge in that their laptops need a much higher build quality to work/look properly in the first place and in my experience that's not there quite often. Every single one of my Apple laptops has some issue or another than my HP/Dells don't have or don't exhibit as noticeably.

I really like Dell's support in case of failures, especially if you go for the support uplifts. A few bucks extra at purchase can really help you out when your machine is kapowed. I haven't had any grounds for complaint there. Apple ranks lowest in my book for support. A lot of people get all fluffy about the Apple Stores but I don't like having to book an appointment several days in advance, heading out to town, forcing my way through the scrum and paying extra for the privilege (Procare) because Applecare is too damned slow - especially when a Dell engineer can be with me the following day after something goes wrong.

The US may be the world for some, but not me.

They bugged out of their non-US operations a while back - didn't know they were back (in a very limited way).

I stand corrected. Although a supermarket and a toy shop as the sole stockists is not encouraging...

i cant tell you about the newer ones but i currently own two older laptops a gateway mx6455 and a hp dv4000 on any day i like the looks the weight the battery life the speed and the reliability of the gateway over the hp on the hp i enjoy the the volume buttons being above the keybored on the hp i hate having to scroll down an adjust the volume on the gateway but the hp has had so many problems hardrive crashes mainly i cant find much else to like nothing has gone wrong knock on wood with the gateway ive never owned a dell but my mom has a dell desktop that honestly seems like a virus magnant ive reloaded windows like 40 times on it ive owned one apple a 2001 power pc apple laptop but it was terrable becouse of its age i wont judge apple by that computer my gf owns a 2007 mackbook that crashed rite after the warranty wore out i found out it was the hardrive so for now shes runningopensuse linux of the disk so ill just stay with gateway

I've have a dell laptop that my work issued. After two years of travel it had some pretty big cracks in the laptop. The dell has all the plugs in the back which is just a pain. The new one they gave me still has most of the plugs in the back. Also Dells power supply is a big brick that you have to carry around.

Gateway- I bought a gateway m210 for myself and love it. The one youre looking at the NX860, Battery life is 9.5!!! 2GB of memory. Man, I want one. um can I be your kid?

HP-I had bought my girlfriend an HP desktop. When it got stolen I dealt with a bunch of people from India. She bought an HP laptop, afterward which was pretty nice.

Mac- Buy a mac if you want something that was in a cool commercial because thats all you get. I looked at a friends and it does have a neat break away magnetic plug. Actually, it has a couple of magnets- hey werent we suppose to keep magnets away from out computer? From what Ive read, Boot camp means you still need to spend $200 for a licensed copy of windows XP or Vista, unless youre stealing a copy from somewhere. You can dual boot any PC to Linux for free (Linux is really what Macintosh new operating system is)! If you want to play games please read CNETs article on Macintosh and games. Battery life 6 hours. 1GB of memory. Small screen good for travel bad for doing work. Even my artsy uncle bought a PC laptop the other year; he used to be a die hard Macintosh person.

If I was going to be studying with it at school, Id want the HP model or the Gateway model because of the 17. This not a good idea if he is traveling every week, but fine if you are in school. I plan on buying the Gateway model you mention or the new version in the summer of 2008 when I go back to school to get my Masters in Intelligent Systems.

I bought the Kensington version for my flight from Hawaii to Naples. Unfortunately none of the flights had the airplane outlets and the dell laptop wouldnt work because it needed a 120 watt power supply. Hopefully this new dell, they issued me will work with it.

I'd say the Hp Pavilion dv9000 is better overall

i hear al the time their CS is aweful. For some reason i just dont like HP

I was surprised to find out that Apple's extra warranty is the only one that does not cover accidental damage. "This warranty does not apply: (a) to damage caused by use with non-Apple products; (b) to damage caused by accident..." In fact, statistics will tell you if a laptop is defective, you will find out in less than a year. Warranties that do not cover accidental damage are not worth more than a year. Since I am a good friend with a statistician, I get to learn things like that. I have had first hand experience with Dell's "craptacular" tech support, but their business laptop warranties are first rate. Dell offers a 3 years on-site and accidental coverage for $248. Sony has a 2-year on-site and accidental coverage for $199. Finally HP's 2-year plan is $249 and Gateways is $259. I think Dell's home office series has the worst coverage. A 1-year on-site and accidental coverage costs $209, but this includes LoJack. In the city I will be living in, a stolen laptop is the least of the police's concern. All of these plans are on-site, so you just tell the company to send someone out and hope they are competent. I do not call the company for tech support. I am a student and most colleges have an IT department. When I am no longer a student, I will just rely on CNET. So far every one of my questions is answered on CNET for free. In closing, the only reason I am buying an extended warranty is for the accidental coverage.

The HpPavilion is the laptop i've been configuring for the pass days on www.hp.com, That is the laptop am going to buy and pf course i love hp i got an hp desktop

Out of four Toshiba laptops purchased since December 2000 two have had to be replaced due to component failure, (one in the first week, the other after eighteen months), and one has spent 29% of it's life in for repairs! The fourth, a Satellite 2800, is still going strong - a 75% failure rate.

Apple, Dell , and HP all have better support than Toshiba.

I don't have any knowledge on Gateway or Sony.

my grand parants own a toshiba satalite and it gets way to hot to the point it burns. that seems to be commen since i walked into walmart and saw they had a recall on some toshiba laptops becouse they got so hot the batterys would explode

i have a macbook and have so far had no probs at all!