[chevelle]

Originally Posted by kooldude

I am not sure about the warranty so you might want to check that with Toshiba. If weight is really an issue for you then the dell inspiron series are pretty decent and light weight too. You got anything against Hp that you don't want to go for it. They got pretty good laptops and are very nicely priced.

I checked with Toshiba, they have mail in service. Not worth the effort. If i have a spare laptop it makes sense, but the only laptop could cause problem since its a wait of minimum 3 weeks.

I have seen/played with many HP laptop (4 to be precise) which are less than a year old, their battery conks out, left and right panels come out, hinge gets misaligned, screen is very reflective. I have come across many HP laptops (5 to be precise) which are between 1 and 3 years old (out of warranty), apart from above, they overheat (intel c2d processor), RAM goes bad, wi-fi doesn't work, hinge cracks and need i say, hp customer care doesn't help.

So i would say 9 laptops around me are enough to convince me that i should stay away from them. And yes, they also have mail in service. On site service costs a whopping $150, comes free with Dell and Sony for first year and for second and third year its just +/- $118.

YMMV

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by chevelle

I have seen/played with many HP laptop (4 to be precise) which are less than a year old, their battery conks out, left and right panels come out, hinge gets misaligned, screen is very reflective. I have come across many HP laptops (5 to be precise) which are between 1 and 3 years old (out of warranty), apart from above, they overheat (intel c2d processor), RAM goes bad, wi-fi doesn't work, hinge cracks and need i say, hp customer care doesn't help.

I would say that you have had a spate of bad luck with HP. Even though I am a die hard fan of Thinkpads, I have seen a lot oh HP laptops behaving perfectly. My son bought an HP two years ago. That design had a flaw; there are a lot of discussions on the net; it would overheat and conk off. HP service in Delhi is excellent. You just drop the laptop at their service centre and they repair it. If it is in warranty well and good, out of warranty they repaired my son's laptop free as it was a documented design error (they replaced the MB!)
Design flaws are rampant in today's laptop scene. My younger son's brand new Apple Mac book Pro would overheat and stop if the graphics card was enable. He sent it to Apple at least five time, before the problem was solved. There fore I am against buying a brand new design. Better to wait six months for reviews, design flaws identified and then buy. After all if you are going to own it for three years how does six month older design matter?

[chevelle]

Originally Posted by Aroy

I would say that you have had a spate of bad luck with HP. Even though I am a die hard fan of Thinkpads, I have seen a lot oh HP laptops behaving perfectly. My son bought an HP two years ago. That design had a flaw; there are a lot of discussions on the net; it would overheat and conk off. HP service in Delhi is excellent. You just drop the laptop at their service centre and they repair it. If it is in warranty well and good, out of warranty they repaired my son's laptop free as it was a documented design error (they replaced the MB!)
Design flaws are rampant in today's laptop scene. My younger son's brand new Apple Mac book Pro would overheat and stop if the graphics card was enable. He sent it to Apple at least five time, before the problem was solved. There fore I am against buying a brand new design. Better to wait six months for reviews, design flaws identified and then buy. After all if you are going to own it for three years how does six month older design matter?

What you are referring to is a single laptop design issue. while here i am talking of as many as 7 different models of HP series having reliability and working issues. All with different processors, ram, mb and the likes. While its understandable that a couple of laptop were having some bad luck. But as many as 8-9 laptop having similar or different problem is a bit of hard to digest. don't you think so. I wouldn't term it as bad luck, i would term it as bad quality on HP's part. In similar environment, i have seen more than 10 Dell laptops, couple of Sony laptops and they haven't given any problems. In case of any problems, the service is fast, at home and without any questions asked.

Its totally different issue which you are referring too. If its a design flaw, i expect any company to honor it, be it HP, Dell, Sony or Apple.

[dhanushs]

Originally Posted by dhanushs

I need some opinions within a day.

I got myself a Sony VAIO VPCEA33.

Core i3,
320GB HDD,
3GB DDR3 RAM,
512 MB ATI RAdeon HD graphics,
14"
Windows 7 Home edition loaded.

Price: 42,990

Got a Logitech Keyboard, Mouse, a 4GB USBdrive, and a VAIO original backpack.

Thanks for your suggestions.

- D

[null]

Got this HCL ME Netbook from futurebazaar.com :

HCL N455/2GB/250GB/10.1in/802.11bgn/Win7 Starter/Office2010 Starter + Seagate Freeagent 500GB (2.5in) USB HDD + 501rs gift voucher for Rs.15490.

Nett price would would work out to be 11k for the Netbook with 2GB & original Win7. The battery is 6 cell & lasts for ~5 hours of normal usage (browsing).

FYI - Check and buy if interested (as I found this to be a good deal)

Having bought it, any feedback from existing HCL netbook users? anything that I should explicitly check now itself?

[nirmaljusdoit]

Null - The specs & price is nice ! I too was evaluating the Future bazar option of getting myself an Acer netbook. Some of the prices are killer prices !

Can you please share your experience of online buying ? Most of the reviews i checked online about Future bazar weren't so good !

[nirmaljusdoit]

Just picked up an Acer Aspire one 533 netbook from the Acer Mall in Manipal centre today !

- Atom N455 with 320GB HDD & 2GB DDR3 RAM. 10.1 " glossy LED screen.
- Windows 7 starter preloaded along with 60 day trial of MS office & Mcafee.
- 6 cell battery with claimed life of 8 ~ 10 hrs.
- Nice keypad, i was anticipating problems with typing but got used to it pretty quick !
- Lovely red color it comes with, only problem is that the surfaces are finished with a glossy coating, attracts fingerprints like crazy !
- Good build quality with even shut lines & nice plastic finish, doesn't feel cheap.
- Blue tooth, Wifi & adequate number of USB ports.
- Cute charger.

Overall im pretty happy with it considering it suits my requirements perfectly of net browsing & occasional use of Office.

Came to 18,500 incl. of all taxes, with one year warranty.
Freebies included were an optical mouse & headphone with mic (very average quality)

[Mpower]

Guys

Whats is the general reliability of Acer Laptops. Anybody having issues in the long term?

I am looking to get this

Acer 15.6", Intel® Core™ i5-450M Mobile, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 500GB Hard Drive, Windows 7 - AS57453428

[dhanushs]

Not sure about Acer reliability, but if I may ask, whats the price for the mentioned configuration?. Does it have a graphics card?.

[khoj]

Originally Posted by chevelle

I thought of getting new McBook Air, but as per reviews its not worth $1000. That's why this confusion.

Why don't you pick one up during the upcoming 'Black Friday' sale. You are bound to get a neat deal.

Originally Posted by chevelle

And a technical question: Is it ok if we put laptop upside down on floor or carpet? Will the LCD get affected? The reason i do is if i put it base down on carpet, due to processor running and fan running it will absorb dirt and misc things for carpet thereby causing problem. So is the upside down a good option? Please advice

It is perfectly all-right to place the laptop upside down. However do note the direction of air flow is outwards from the machine, so it is not going to suck anything inwards. Best would be to invest $10~20 and get one of the cooling pads. I have used Belkin earlier and am using Logitech currently, excellent products both.

[chevelle]

Originally Posted by Mpower

Guys

Whats is the general reliability of Acer Laptops. Anybody having issues in the long term?

I am looking to get this

My friend owned a Acer laptop. I don't remember the model number but he was happy for 1 year 3 months and then it conked off. It started having heating issues, hard drive won't work properly, OS won't boot, laptop body squeaked a lot and wi-fi would switch on/off on its own.

If you can get extended warranty, that would be good.

[chevelle]

Originally Posted by khoj

Why don't you pick one up during the upcoming 'Black Friday' sale. You are bound to get a neat deal.

It is perfectly all-right to place the laptop upside down. However do note the direction of air flow is outwards from the machine, so it is not going to suck anything inwards. Best would be to invest $10~20 and get one of the cooling pads. I have used Belkin earlier and am using Logitech currently, excellent products both.

The Air is very new to the market, i doubt it will be part of 'Black Friday' sale. Still will keep eyes and ears open for the same. As of now a base 11 inch Air cost me $950 plus tax. It has a meager 1.4 Ghz C2D processor, i am getting a much better config 11 incher in Acer, Dell and Lenovo for less than $700. So still fighting whether its worth getting Apple or not.

I have thought of getting cooling pads, somehow haven't been able to order one. I ordered cooling balls but still haven't got a chance to try them. But thanks for the info.

[Dry Ice]

Hey guys, want to upgrade the RAM of my laptop. Any pointers for the brand to go for?

[devarshi84]

Originally Posted by Mpower

Guys

Whats is the general reliability of Acer Laptops. Anybody having issues in the long term?

I am looking to get this

Acer has come a long way in build quality over the years. It still lacks against the better makers though.

A little bit care should see your acer last a few years easily. I do not see a reason to not buy it at a nice price if you are not after the brand image.

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

Hey guys, want to upgrade the RAM of my laptop. Any pointers for the brand to go for?

Does it support Dual channel memory?

[anku94]

Has anybody seen the new Dell XPS ? All Aluminum, Skype-certified cam, 1080p, awesome display, nvidia GeForce 435M, Blu-ray, 640GB HDD, i7 proccy, 4GB RAM, all this at Rs. 69,000.

There are many positive reviews about this on the net.