Lenova vs Toshiba

[Anonymous]

Looking for a laptop around $500. See many on sale: toshiba, HP, Lenova,
Gateway, etc. Thinking Lenova probably is best for what I want?

I need something that will easily multiboot and load OS's including
linux, windows and possibly BSD. My experience is that linux and
probably BSD also is often a hassle to install due to hardware
incompatibity issues and poor support by linux of the various hardware
packages.

Need your opinions on best laptop for this project. Thanks.

 

[BillW50]

On 10/12/2010 10:13 PM, Anonymous wrote:
> Looking for a laptop around $500. See many on sale: toshiba, HP, Lenova,
> Gateway, etc. Thinking Lenova probably is best for what I want?
>
> I need something that will easily multiboot and load OS's including
> linux, windows and possibly BSD. My experience is that linux and
> probably BSD also is often a hassle to install due to hardware
> incompatibity issues and poor support by linux of the various hardware
> packages.
>
> Need your opinions on best laptop for this project. Thanks.
>

Well according to 2009 Consumer Reports, Toshiba. Oddly enough Lenovo
and Dell were dead last with the worst repair history.

And good luck with Linux. Finding one that will work is just one hurdle.
Although there aren't any applications worth using was the big show
stopper for me.

--
Bill
Gateway MX6124 ('06 era) 1 of 3 - Windows XP SP2

 

[John Doue]

On 10/13/2010 10:08 AM, BillW50 wrote:
> On 10/12/2010 10:13 PM, Anonymous wrote:
>> Looking for a laptop around $500. See many on sale: toshiba, HP, Lenova,
>> Gateway, etc. Thinking Lenova probably is best for what I want?
>>
>> I need something that will easily multiboot and load OS's including
>> linux, windows and possibly BSD. My experience is that linux and
>> probably BSD also is often a hassle to install due to hardware
>> incompatibity issues and poor support by linux of the various hardware
>> packages.
>>
>> Need your opinions on best laptop for this project. Thanks.
>>
>
> Well according to 2009 Consumer Reports, Toshiba. Oddly enough Lenovo
> and Dell were dead last with the worst repair history.
>
> And good luck with Linux. Finding one that will work is just one hurdle.
> Although there aren't any applications worth using was the big show
> stopper for me.
>

Bill, do you believe the results of Consumer Reports should be taken
seriously? I am not sure the reports of this magazine are representative
of the real world, given the limited audience I believe - right or wrong
- this consumer magazine has.

This is not to belittle the results of their own tests, that is a
different story.

I would have expected Acer to have the worst results, at least based
upon my experience with their mini-desktops; admittedly a different
beast, but not that much considering the size of their motherboards.

I tend to believe Lenovo's results might be very model dependent.

If I had to decide and go by the seat of my pants, I would go for Lenovo.

--
John Doue

 

[Bill]

In message <[email protected]>, John Doue
<[email protected]> writes
>If I had to decide and go by the seat of my pants, I would go for Lenovo.

I've had good Thinkpads in the past and like the old Lenovo N100 that
I'm typing this on.

Well, within the last few months I've bought and Acer Aspire 5536 (AMD
dual core) and a Lenovo G550 (Intel 1-core). 64 and 32 bit Win7
respectively.

The Acer has this weird problem that may or may not apply to many AMD
based laptops. I've been unable to find anyone anywhere in the world
prepared to test. The problem is....
Connect a usb 1.1 audio interface that has asio drivers directly to the
machine and use it with an audio app that uses asio. Dreadful
crackles/gaps in audio can be cured by inserting a usb2 hub (powered or
not) or opening the Recording tab in Win7 control panel. Microsoft think
it's a hardware issue, but everything works perfectly on the same
machine in XP and Vista.

The G550 is OK but feels like the cheap laptop it is. But Windows Media
Center won't run full screen on it. Make it run in resizeable mode and
expand it to full screen and it works fine, but at the same size in
Media center full screen mode, the screen won't sync up. And I've found
that if you ask a question about a G550 on a Lenovo forum the Thinkpad
owners look down their noses and ignore you. Logging on via face
recognition is good, though, but you have to remember the password for
after a rough night.

And these stupid wide screens and the offset touchpad are a real pain.
You now have to have a huge machine to get a sensible screen height or
pay extra for a small neat machine. Which is why I'm still using the
older machines here.

..What was the question again?

--
Bill

 

[BillW50]

On 10/13/2010 8:11 AM, John Doue wrote:
> Bill, do you believe the results of Consumer Reports should be taken
> seriously?

Nope, not really. Usually better than most though.

> I am not sure the reports of this magazine are representative
> of the real world, given the limited audience I believe - right or wrong
> - this consumer magazine has.
>
> This is not to belittle the results of their own tests, that is a
> different story.

I wrote about this before about 4 years back. I did between then and now
subscribe to Consumer Reports once again, but it had lapsed once again.

http://groups.google.com/group/comp...q="Consumer+Reports"+BillW50#a54bcbc427c5fe37

> I would have expected Acer to have the worst results, at least based
> upon my experience with their mini-desktops; admittedly a different
> beast, but not that much considering the size of their motherboards.
>
> I tend to believe Lenovo's results might be very model dependent.
>
> If I had to decide and go by the seat of my pants, I would go for Lenovo.

I don't see Acer or Lenovo machines too often, so I don't have enough
personal experience to add much here. But going by most of the posts I
read, that is pretty much the consensus.

--
Bill
Gateway MX6124 ('06 era) 1 of 3 - Windows XP SP2

 

[computerguy]

Personally, Lenovo is the best. Toshiba will wear out faster. Gateway is one of the lowest rated and trusted brands; they are just cheaper HP's.