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General discussion

IBM or Dell?

Mar 31, 2005 9:05AM PST

I like to have the latest in gadgets whenever I buy them and I have not bought a laptop since a long time. First of all my uses on laptops would be Windows XP home, MS Office, Internet surfing, burning a few CD's and maybe watch a movie sometimes on it.

I am in the process of choosing between an IBM ThinkPad R Series Model 1842PPU and a Dell Inspiron either 6000 with the pentium M 1.5, 60 gb hard disk and 512 mb ram or a Dell 700 the small laptop with almost the same specifications.

The IBM comes with only 256 mb ram and 30 gb harddisk.

But I have heard bad reviews about Dell laptops.

Both the Dell's which comes with a higher configuration than the IBM almost cost in the same range of $1000. But IBM being a pioneer in laptops is what i think I wanna buy even though it comes with a lower configuration compared to dell at the same price.
Do you think I should buy an IBM or a Dell?

Discussion is locked

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IBM or Dell ... but what about HP or Compaq?
Apr 1, 2005 1:12AM PST

Granted IBM is generally a very solid brand ... I've been using Thinkpads at work for years (T20s & T30s), and they rarely have hardware trouble, but they have never possessed what I would consider cutting-edge features or capabilities.

I have minimal experience with Dell, but my wife has one for work and it is a really sweet machine ... far cooler than my T30, but she hasn't had it long enough to say much about long term reliability.

We also have an HP Pavilion zv-something-or-other laptop we bought last year ... it also is a sweet machine, but again, we haven't used it long enough to say much about long-term reliability ... although I have owned several HP Pavilion desktop machines over the past 10 years or so and have never experienced any problems with them.

If I were in your position, I would go with whatever looks coolest for the least money ... really, it all boils down to $$ when you look at it.

Addendum: you should be aware that buying IBM may be risky in that IBM has sold their entire PC-operation to a Chinese company (Lenovo). I would seriously question whether quality of support or manufacturing will remain the same as the business operations are transitioned out of IBM's hands.

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Thank You
Apr 1, 2005 4:51AM PST

Thank you very much for your feedback. I agree that since IBM is taked over by a Chinese company we dont really know how good the performance of if would be from now.
I will definetely consider other companies before I buy one.
But like you said.....in the end its all about the $$$.

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IBM definitely
Apr 1, 2005 2:29AM PST

I have used Acer TravelMate 291LCi, HP Compax nx7010, Toshiba Satellite A60, Satellite A40, Acer TravelMate 4050, TravelMate 4052, and now IBM ThinkPad R51 (2887K2G).
After having used all these notebooks, believe me, overall IBM ThinkPad R51 is the BEST. Its tough/solid, reliable, fast and has lots of features. Who says it lacks in features? A superior performer. You may not fall in love with it at first sight, but then you gotta test drive it to get the feel and start respecting it.
I have friends who brought in either Dell Latitudes like D500 and D505, both with dead batteries or flickering LCDs. I dont entirly blame Dell or any other brand bt its true the problem ratio is higher in more models of Dell or HP Compaq. I would recommend Toshiba, Acer amongst the other reliable brands.

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Thank you
Apr 1, 2005 4:49AM PST

Thank you very much for your feedback. I will consider other laptops like Toshiba or Acer before I buy one.