[simonls400]

Hi there,

I currently have a Toshiba Satellite L300 laptop, but it is about 4 years old now, and I fancy something new. I have a budget of £400 - Can anyone please recommend the best laptop for the price (all round ability). I hope this isn't too much of a broad question!

[Old Rich]

I usually reccomend Dell notebooks . . their quality is about on par with everyone else, but their support is top of the heap! !

[Snagglegaster]

As much as I hate to disagree with Old Rich, I still disagree. I've done contract installations and service work for Dell for several years, and I still find dealing with their support annoying. There are just too many times when I've been connected with a "tech" who doesn't have either an adequate support script or a real grasp of the problem. If I'm dealing with a hard drive that has something like 25,000 bad sectors, or isn't detected in the BIOS, I don't think I should need to connect to a supervisor to resolve the issue.

I would buy Acer, Asus, or Lenovo. Even HP.

[Old Rich]

I don't find any other phone support to be better . . I was thinking more about ease of driver and documentation downloading . . some of the others are terrible

[Snagglegaster]

I'll certainly concede that point regarding software updates. And if I had done any contract work for Asus, et. al. it's certainly possible my assessment of their support might be equally negative. Still, much of my work for Dell left me pretty frustrated, but that's not reason enough to assume a better outcome from other vendors. For better or worse, all I can say is that I'm predisposed to dislike Dell hardware.

[Old Rich]

We all have our personal preferences . .

[Snagglegaster]

Originally Posted by Old Rich

We all have our personal preferences . .

Yes, yes, personal preferences we all have. Irrational they may be, but still having them are we. Sorry Rich, but you should know I can't pass up a cheap joke.

[Hughv]

I'm a huge Dell fan, especially after my experience this week with three different machines and three different issues. I've been recommending and servicing their machines for over 10 years and am completely satisfied.
It's often helpful to buy from the business division, as the support is a bit better for what is usually a small difference in cost.