Re: experience with late model laptops?
On Thu, 2003-08-07 at 08:44, Xavier Maillard wrote:
> Micha Feigin <michf@math.tau.ac.il> writes:
>
> > My experience with sonys, is that they are relatively pretty (not
> > anywhere near macs though >;) ), but the battery life isn't very
>
> Macs ? Cute ? Don't think so.
>
> > good. Most stuff usually works with linux, although tends to be
> > eratic and they have no official support (once had a hardware
> > problem, mentioned by mistake that the exact details were found under
> > linux since I didn't have the tools under XP and got the imidiate
> > reply that linux isn't supported and they didn't even bother with the
> > rest of the email). On the other hand, their support is non
> > existent. Their support team can't answear an email properly, apart
> > from the template ansear, with less then three repost and some harsh
> > language, and then they tell you to call in since they can't solve
> > they problem over email, no matter how simple. Then they tell you to
> > send in the laptop for repair, do a poor job, and do their best to
> > avoid the warranty. They charged me 250$ for what should have been
> > warranty work last time, and nobody could give an answear worth
> > anything when I tried to inquire about it. I have very good
> > experience with IBMs though, although they are not as pretty, and not
> > the cheapest option.
>
> This related story doesn't encourage me in buying my VAIO Z1 ! I plan
> to buy one but if all you said is correct, I can't imagine buy somthing
> about 3000€ here if I can't be sure the tech team is correct.
>
> So what would you recommend other than Sony with a good Linux support
> preferably a centrino based technology and with a good tech team ?
>
> My taste for a new notebook are these: centrino, HDD of 40Go (minimum),
> 256Mo of RAM, good Linux support, good tech team, less than 3000€.
>
> Thanx,
>
> zeDek
>From personal experience and quite a few people I work with, IBM seem to
be a good option. I don't have personal experience with other brands,
since all the people I know use IBM. As for centrino iirc it still has
some problems under linux, at list with wifi.
You could get away with the sony if you get store warraty (that is, you
don't have to deal with tech support yourself) or even better, if you
don't run into problems with it. Mine burnt a cpu after 2 weeks though,
so ...
You could try testing the quality of support for the different brands by
making up a problem and call them for assistance. It would help if you
get a serial number to give them just in case if they want. Doesn't have
to be for the model you are interested, just some laptop from the right
manufacturer.
That story is only my experience, but I know of more. Don't know about
sony in UK (guessing from the currency), but heard from quite a few
people having trouble with sony US, and sony Italy, and a company I
worked with that had to pull quite a few strings to get a reply from
Sony France.
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