Re: [Thinkpad] Dell Vs IBM laptops

Well, here's some numbers from a Consumer Report
survey of desktop, not laptop computers:

http://www.consumerreports.org/main/detailv3.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id%20=305449

To save you some clicking: Apple wins for defects less
than 20% of machines having an issue, followed by Dell
and HP, then IBM, then Compaq, then Gateway and then
Micron with one third.

For quality of support, it's a huge win for Apple
followed by Dell and Gateway, with Sony, HP, Compaq
and EMachines getting the thumbs down and IBM for some
reason not listed.

A similar survey of laptops would be very interesting,
but I can't search to see if there is one, since I'm
not a subscriber.

As for Sony, I'm surprised by what you write here.
I've seen two people buy Sony's, have them crap out,
and then be _extremely_ unimpressed with the hoops
they have to jump through to get them fixed. It's
anecdotal, sure, but thier experiences were so totally
negative it's hard to imagine someone having a great
experience like many people report with IBM and Dell.

To put it another way: I have never seen a purchase
of a Sony laptop that wasn't a complete disaster, and
I've never a a purchase of an IBM laptop that was.

To add my own anecdotes to the pool:
My thinkpad 600E
- has had several problems fixed under warranty by
previous owner (that's good)
- has had problems fixed by me because of the
excellent support available on the IBM website (repair
manuals, FRU lists, drivers)
- is physically solid despite having been around the
block a few times, disassembled and reasembled by a
non-tech several times. It just feels like a solid
hunk of dependable ABS to me
- is almost as good to me as a $1500 laptop, and cost
me exactly $0!

Angus

From: "Jonathan Graham" <grahamj@virtue.cx>
CC: thinkpad@stderr.org
To: "sheldon bowles" <sheldonbowles@yahoo.ca>
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 22:40:44 -0500
Subject: Re: [Thinkpad] Dell Vs IBM laptops

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----- Original Message -----
From: "sheldon bowles" <sheldonbowles@yahoo.ca>
To: <thinkpad@stderr.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 6:54 PM
Subject: [Thinkpad] Dell Vs IBM laptops

> With all due respect, this seems like an
unreasonable debate.

In the sense that the majority of this is just pooling
anecdotal data?
I'd
have to agree.

Can we find horror stories about laptops? Sure. Any
laptop brand? It
would seem so. A simple google search returns people
talking about
some
models of Thinkpad with almost identical terminology
being used in this
thread. Multiple motherboard failures, poor screen,
bad keyboard.
Take
another company which people defend for high quality
laptops: Sony.
Sony
allegedly has a failure rate of less than 2% (Better
than Lexus ;-) ).
Can
you find people saying "I'll never buy a Sony
product?" Sure.

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Received on Sat Mar 13 03:58:49 2004