Notebook Suggestions

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  1. #1

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    May 2005
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    Notebook Suggestions

    OK I need to get a new notebook for home use. I don't want a brick with a Celeron inside and I don't want a 17" widescreen with a GeForce 9999999 with 10GB of video ram either. I'm currently looking at the Dell XPS range and am open to suggestions from first hand experience. None of this "Sony's are great" or "Toshiba is King". I would consider a MacBook but her highness has put a damper on that which makes it "easier" by reducing the options.


  2. #2

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    First thing is whats your budget and what will you be using it for?


  3. #3

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    Less than HKD10k and everything I can think of that I can do at home.


  4. #4

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    I got mine in Singapore about 9 months ago, so its probably outdated and I won't bore you with the specs. What was advanced then is probably standard now. It is a Dell Inspiron widescreen Centrino and I took most of the hardware and software upgrades - RAM, hard disk, XP Professional, Office etc. Its a desktop replacement, so a bit heavy with DVD writer etc and not great if you have a job that requires you to walk with it all day. But it comes in an excellent Dell backpack, in which you can pack a few other things as well for a flight.

    The light weight ones are more expensive and have less hardware and they probably won't qualify as "everything I can do at home". I did check out almost everything else that was available including the small notebook discounters at Slim Lim square and I couldn't beat the "price to features ratio" of a Dell at the time.

    All in just over 2K Sing and I am pretty happy with it. Did need a telephone service in a 3rd country (wasn't the computer's fault, but the networks). Called up dell service from the yellow pages and they checked the serial number were quite helpfull and ran through the diagonistics with me.


  5. #5

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    True there's no denying Dell's value for money. I do want to steer away from a desktop replacement as I can forsee a need for mobility sometime down the line.


  6. #6

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    personal preference for me is Fujitsu notebook.
    i bought the first set 1 year ago before i came to hk, chiefly because I was unable to get a Thinkpad within the 2weeks i needed to (purchased it under student discount scheme).
    but having gotten used to it, found it good and reliable and bought a 2nd set for my wife's home usage in august.
    the latter is an AMD model, 1.8G i think, with memory upgraded to 750MB thereabout, fairly standard stuffs, DVD writer i believe. fairly portable. not super light weight but for the screen size i think its nicely optimised. cost about 8.4k HKD at windsor, with an optical mouse thrown in. 8-P


  7. #7

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    Thanks. Are there any student promotions on anywhere right now?


  8. #8

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    sorry the one i got was in sg.
    not sure about hk. i think they do have student promotion but you'd need to be a student in one uni or another.
    the AMD i bought was just a open public promotion though. so you can get it without any student card.


  9. #9

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    Sep 2004
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    Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I would recommend anything BUT a Dell. Having just spent 5 months fighting with them over a non-functioning (brand new) notebook which they sent to my mother. If your notebook arrives functioning from Dell you are probably OK, but heaven help you if you need to call customer service. Problems I encountered

    1. Impossibly bad customer service...different person each time, different answer each time...no records, no history
    2. Poor techical assistance...impossible for my non-tech mom to figure out
    3. Refusal to simply "replace the laptop"...continuous insistance that it was "user error" (the fact that the laptop blue-screened everyday, couldn't load software, constant error messages & reboot, from the moment it arrived...obviously meant nothing)

    The way I ended up solving this problem was (after 3 months of non-response from Dell) flying to see my mother and debugging the laptop myself. Turns out the Windows installation was faulty and needed to be redone. Fought another month to get the installation disks from Dell and finally got the thing working.

    After my horrible experience did some research on the net and found that since ~mid-05, Dell has lost been blasted for particularly poor customer service in both press & blogs....See these for a sample:
    http://www.itworld.com/Comp/1181/050816dellrating/
    http://news.com.com/2100-1042-5162141.html
    http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/cat_dell.html
    http://www.consumeraffairs.com/computers/dell_svc.html
    http://www.wattfarm.com/blog/archives/000861.html

    Sorry for the long post...just don't want anyone to make the same mistake I did with my mother. By the way I used to be a huge Dell fan 2-3 years back...not anymore!


  10. #10

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    Sep 2004
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    Oh...and I would recommend Thinkpad or Mac. Not exactly sure how Lenovo takeover has affected Thinkpads, but have been very happy with mine at work last 2 years. Hubby switched from PC to Mac last year and always teases me about the fact that his Mac never crashes (which I have to admit it doesn't).


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