Laptop Build Quality

Who builds the best quality laptop computer across the board?

I asked this question yesterday and was informed that I was asking for War and the responder was probably right, so let me explain a little further.

I guess the reason for my sort of general question regarding build quality is that you can find/build an HP, Dell, Gateway, Sony or Mac (just to name a few) with basically the same CPU speed, similar hard drives specs, displays, etc. and they will have widely varying prices. Is there a quality disparity between brands or can you go with the cheapest because the quality is the same as the most expensive one?

I need to purchase two computers this year. One for myself and one for my wife. I use my computer for business use almost exclusively and I travel throughout the country. I am in the printing business so I do occasionally have to send, receive and open large graphic files, but mostly I use typical business software applications. My wife primarily uses her computer for pictures and general internet use and will most likely never leave the house with her computer, but would like the mobility of the laptop so that she can move around the house instead of being stuck in the office with her desktop computer.

My goal is to purchase Laptops that will last for several years with as few hardware problems as possible.

Thanks.

Dell XPS series (I have had experience with both a Studio XPS 16 and XPS M1710) seem very well built, unlike the non-XPS dells that I've seen.

lol, this question is tough to answer and what you said will help me prove that


My experience is almost the opposite. I've used my brother's Dell and my friend's Acer. The Acer felt like it was made out of cheap plastic and it flexed when picked up. The Dell on the other hand felt more solid and sturdy. I'd like to also throw Sager into the mix for quality units.

I still swear by the macs, they are soild built computers. And for a person in the graphics business the mac is the the gem for it. I have used dell, hp, acer, toshiba and mac in my time (3 years) and hands down the best build and the best computer in my view is a mac.

It's well built and it's got great support and such 90% of repairs if you should ever need one is done in a mac store near you in 1 to 2 days typically. Which is nice to know if something should ever happen. Not to mention you can pick up a refurbished with full warranty for 25% off to keep costs lower.

I have an Acer Laptop from about 2006, and I feel it is a very nice laptop and I got it at a decent price. The overal appearance of it isn't as stunning as that of an HP laptop. I also have a HP laptop purchased last year. It also feels quite sturdy and looks nice with tribal type artwork printed on the back of the screen. Dell prices are typically cheap, almost too cheap, sometimes. A friend had an older Dell laptop (had windows XP preinstalled). He barely moved it around, maybe occaisionally for work, and it experienced a hard drive malfunction and broke. I was not as impressed with the build quality. Although it did not feel like I could snap it in half, it felt cheaper and the casing, very thin.

So overall, I would stick to a nice respected name brand like Hewlett-Packard (HP), Toshiba, or even Acer or Lenevo. Dell would be a budget option. I am not saying I would never buy a dell, (maybe a desktop), but I like the design and builds of other comapanies.

Good Luck with your choice.

Macbook Pro with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD with Windows 7 and OSX Snow Leopard installed either as dual boot or with Xen :-)

Poo, that's not my choice cos I'm poor :-(