Before i buy my first laptop, people always ask me goes branded one like acer, toshiba, sony and others... So, I was lookin for a best laptop, once and for all... so do less further upgrade in the next few years.

Some people also keep on asking me, buy clone den what kind of brand is clone? is clone better and cheaper? Hyundai? Is branded provide me a better functions and quality? All this are maze in my mind!

My frens bought an Acer TravelMate 8200 model-one of the latest model , after few days, the hardware something like SMART chip burn , den send to warranty in Singapore. They said is hardware problems and faulty something like that. Toshiba is gud brand, i always like it, juz the prices is higher than a normal laptop with same spec. So...

What shud i buy?
clone or branded?

Try IBM, hardly spoilt.

Take my word, dont buy clone laptop, I experience on clone laptop (assembly in Malaysia) the quality is so bad, they broken down easily (I have seen many customer come to service).

Branded laptop, categories to 2 classes. First class = IBM, fujitsu, Sony and Toshiba. Second class = Compaq, Acer, Dell, Twinhead, HP and etc.

Third class = clone laptop, new and unpopular brand (You guess)

Buying laptop is not like buying PC, you will need support internationally, so buy something which having the better support.

I am not a fanboy but I can share some of the experience I have.
ACER = Cheap, Higher Specs, Moderate quality
TOSHIBA = Higher Price (Not very expensive), Medium Specs, Good quality

You did mention about HDD Smart Failure, that doesnt mean that the laptop is bad, remember ACER doesnt manufacture HDD, they assembly component. If you get something like battery failure, dead pixel, casing crack, mainboard spoil and etc then you can said that brand is bad.

agreed with what karising said . Brands like Toshiba, Acer, Fujitsu and etc doesn't manufacture their own HDD, CD-ROMs and etc...

To me, the things that i go for is; price, specs, after sales services and international warranty (coz i used to bring my laptop to overseas for studies)...

ever thought of getting a Apple MacBook Pro?

This post has been edited by goliath: Mar 10 2006, 12:00 AM

yearps...go for branded notebook! build quality,after sales, peace of mind

IBM rox

i'm using acer laptop now...but still din face any hardware problems yet.....

i'll give a thumb for acer...

How long have u been using?

Acer user ere too. Have been using it for 15 months and still it is good in performing tasks. Been using it to play games like Warcraft 3 (RoC & TFT), NFS : U2, FM2006 and more as well as programming such as C/C++ and Matlab..

This post has been edited by goliath: Mar 10 2006, 06:00 PM

good.what model is it?

ibm design is quite boring...for me..toshiba is the best..compare with its perfomance price ratio....fujitsu...good quality..but price..expensive
...acer..nice also...esp ferrari

Acer TravelMate 8005LMi. Can consider an antique now , since the introduction of Intel Core Duo and DDR2 and PCIE thingy

aslong its working,its worth it.
after all,technology are going reall fast,theres no way we could catch up.

For me... I'm a Toshiba user and have used 2 Satellite notebooks. The older ones have a more solid build quality compared to the newer ones. Newer ones have a nice CSV screen and are lighter.

Clone laptops you have to choose properly, there are some that are more durable and some that feel like they may fall to pieces at any time.

get branded ones so that you have good after sales service especialy for RMA

It all comes to how much u wanna pay ... the more u pay the better u get ... juz my 2 cents.... hehehe

Acer not bad one la .... my sis use acer (lupa wat model) 6 years ... pentium 2 ... till now still watching vcd and online wit it ... (rosak HD once) only ...

6 years people !!!!

actually it also depends on ur luck ... sometime u buy tat time got some problems and stuff...

This post has been edited by jamezco: Mar 12 2006, 01:49 AM

wow.. 6 years is a long time..

as long as u take good care of your laptop, sure it can last long... except u run out of luck buying laptop with so many problems...

that's true.
bad luck,get a laptop which has faulty or defect.

Bought an acer ferrari 4002WLMi... Nvr looked back since Only the dual cores make me sad abit la but nvm haha!

Only thing thats inevitable is that u gotta watch the heat... Especially with laptops with graphic cards like my ATi Radeon x700 mobile. Generally the more heat, the shorter the lifespan of my parts

So, i must control myself... A good cooler pad goes a long way.