Okay... So what company makes the LEAST crappy laptops?

[Alfred Chicken]

For what it's worth I've recently bought an Asus netbook and I'm thrilled with it. It was the cheapest netnook around but it's got a lovely matt case and runs well. I run puppy linux on it via a usb stick and it's blisteringly fast.

 

[tris4992]

sony, their viao series is great from what I hear (if your prepared to pay for it)

 

[CrustyOatmeal]

i have an asus and i love it

 

[Tdc2182]

I have an HP that is almost exactly a year old.

Great internet reception, blazing fast (For me at least), and rather user friendly.

Except the battery life is batshit stupid. In the time that it took me to type this message, I'm now at 96% battery power. In about 30 minutes my computer will be dead.

When you unplug it from a power source, do you wait until the battery is about to die before plugging it back in? If not, then that's probably the reason for the poor battery life. It could also be your performance settings.

That may be the problem, I have heard of letting the battery life die completely before using it again. I think I may try that when I get home.

 

[zoulza]

Touchpad? Subjective?
Have you ever used the touchpad in mac? This thing works like a miracle.

Well yes I have. And honestly, I didn't think it was any diffrent from any other touchpad worthy of notice.

Basicly, it's like saying that the 360 control is better then the PS3, it's all a matter of taste.

Agreed. I've used both Macbooks and PCs, and of all the differences in quality I've noticed, the touchpads weren't one of them. Neither was bad, and neither was orgasmically good. They're a little different, but both work just fine.

 

[Dys]

A little under a year ago I bought an Asus G73JH, at the time they were supposedly the most reliable. I know it's still early days, but other an update breaking killing floor (in that it will no longer run stably) I've not had any issues (and it was fine before the last patch, so I'm guessing it's a software fault).

I bought this...its been in the "shop" for the last 6 months...still in the shop .<

eugh, that sucks....hopefully I can dodge any major issues along those lines

Id go with msi. No idea if they are reliable or not but they look good is taiwanese and hopefully isnt big enough so that you can never get anything fixed in a timely matter.

The overwhelming majority of laptops are Taiwanese anyway.

 

[DTWolfwood]

The overwhelming majority of laptops are Taiwanese anyway.

says something about laptop quality don't it, so buy taiwanese they is good! XD

p.s. to the mook who started the tread, ask yourself if you want a full numpad too. if you do I'd go with ASUS as well. Those behemoths of a laptop have nice backlit full keyboards. (If you decide on their gaming series, Get a good mouse to boot. the touchpad buttons are stiff as hell)

 

[Mana Fiend]

Currently on an Advent laptop. It's okay, but I seem to occassionally have really bad problems with it. When I first got it, the disc tray wouldn't eject, it kept memory-dumping (which I still don't understand), and you can't turn off to tap the sensitive mousepad to click, meaning that I could be typing and accidentally hit the mousepad, causing my cursor to start me typing elsewhere.

I went out and swapped it for a replacement, assuming these were all problems with this one particular laptop. The disc tray was fixed, but it still occassionally memory-dumps (esp. when I'm gaming) and I can't turn off the tapping mousepad problem. I got an actual mouse and started turning off the mousepad entirely, which has fixed that problem.

All in all, Advents suck.

As for best model, I had a Toshiba before that, which lasted me close to 4 years. Those, for me, are the best.

 

[New Troll]

Retail = Toshiba (or Sony)
Custom built = Asus (or MSI)
Expensive bragging rights = Alienware (or Apple)

 

[Terminal Blue]

I have an Acer running on Vista. And I must have the devil's luck because anything that can go wrong has not.

I got my ACER about six years ago and I'm typing on it now, it's getting a bit ornery but never needed hardware replacements or anything. I used to game on it all the time back when games would run on it, so it hasn't even had an easy ride.

By contrast my Dell desktop is two years old and breaks all the fucking time.