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.

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