ANNE NEIGHBORS wrote:
> The last laptop I bought was a Toshiba; had a lot of problems with it
> and when I asked for a replacement, I was told by their tech support
> Toshiba has a no replacement policy. Something to keep in mind when
> you're considering which to buy.
Generally speaking, there's a big gap in quality, service quality,
replacement policies, etc between the consumer grade laptops and the
business level laptops.
The consumer level laptops at the lower-end of a manufacturer's price
range use cheaper components, aren't engineered as well, change specs
frequently, and the manufacturer will probably not offer very good
support. But if you move up to the business class laptops, you can get
3-5 year warranties (including parts+labor), the machines are better
builds, and they're designed for 3-6 year lifespans.
We have half a dozen Toshiba Tecras at the office, a Thinkpad, and some
Apple laptops. My 4.5 year old Toshiba Tecra 9100 is finally starting
to show its age (there's a loose connector inside that causes blue
screens when I travel) but up until the last few months, the only issue
has been failed hard drives.
I think we spent about $2500 on the 9100 back in early 2002 when we
bought it. After the 3-year warranty ran out, I've spent about $250 to
get the DVD, keyboard, and mouse buttons replaced. When I finally
upgrade in a few months (probably costing $1800-$2400 for a new system)
I'll put this unit into the shop and see if they can refurb it for a few
hundred (backlight, loose connector). If they can, we'll use this unit
as a spare laptop for a few more years.
The NOSPIN Group is now offering Free PC Tech
support at our newest website:
http://freepctech.com
|