# Which laptop



## alie (Nov 22, 2011)

Hi guys,

I was looking new laptop for day to day use and now i need your opinion about these laptops:
1. Lenovo U300s
2. Asus zenbook
3. Samsung series 7
4. Lenovo u400
5. Acer aspire S3
6. Dell XPS 15z
7. Dell XPS 14z

I was thinking to install FreeBSD 9 on the laptop


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## fluca1978 (Nov 22, 2011)

This is just my opinion and experience with the brands, not with the specific models, that will drive my initial choice:

lenovo bad
acer   good
asus   good 
dell almost good


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## sk8harddiefast (Nov 22, 2011)

> acer good


acer bad! Very bad!!!
I have acer timelive 3810T.
My battery died after 6 months,touchpad too. My hdd crashed on 7 months. Now Is always connected with the power and I use it with mouse. Laptop costs 600 euro. To change touchpad I must change mobo. Mobo costs 900 euro!!! A new battery costs 60 euro!!!! So. If I want to do it like the first days I bought it, I must pay ~1000 euro!!! Ok. Then I buy a new one! And not acer of course!!! I will buy Asus zenbook!!!!!!!!!


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## vermaden (Nov 22, 2011)

fluca1978 said:
			
		

> lenovo bad



You obviously haven't used a ThinkPad in Your life, have You?


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## sk8harddiefast (Nov 22, 2011)

+1 Lenovo has a good name on market


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## bbzz (Nov 22, 2011)

alie said:
			
		

> Hi guys,
> 
> I was looking new laptop for day to day use and now i need your opinion about these laptops:
> 1. Lenovo U300s
> ...



I always tell my friends, go either Toshiba or Lenovo/IBM if you can. ThinkPads have probably best keyboard all around. 
Asus as third recommendation. 
YMMV!


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## ramonovski (Nov 22, 2011)

I don't have any experiences with those particular models, but judging the whole brand in the Laptop area:

Asus : 5/5
Lenovo : 4/5
Acer : 3/5
Dell : 2/5

Based on my experiences (actually friend's notebooks).

I think I'm going to open a new thread in a few weeks asking for the same but with MSI, Fujitsu ant Asus.


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## tms020348 (Nov 22, 2011)

*due diligence*

You need to do due diligence with any laptop in looking at the build quality and specs.  I don't know why everybody these days wants to shortcut the selection process by pinning their hopes on just the reputation of the manufacturer.  All of the manufacturers that you mention make hundreds of different models, each engineered to a price point. It's a production process, and all production model processes have a limited time-line before they bring out the new models and rejigger their production processes again.  This is, imho, the reason why Apple stays at the top of the quality curve: They have very few models in production, and can afford to work out their kinks because they don't make radical changes to their production lines.  It's also why Apples last longer, and why they cost more.  But other manufacturers subsidize the cost of their high-end machine production processes with low-end consumer models that are mass produced in a less than "perfect" quality control environment. 

For instance, I bought two Dell Inspirons four and a half years ago. One was a 15 inch and the other was a 14 inch.  The differences were like night an day in terms of the build quality.  The 15 inch was plastic and lasted only a short time with moderately heavy use.  The 14 inch was magnesium and it's been dragged all over the world, through swamps, etc.  It's still running well. The two cost approximately the same, although the 14 inch was a refurbished machine.  So, if I were rating Dell, as a manufacturer, it would only get a 50% rating.  But the individual machines would each have their own ratings (0% and 100%). The build quality of the Inspiron 1420 (14 inch) was incredibly better than the Inspiron 1520 (15 inch). 

I've not had good luck with Acer. They aim for price points only. Asus machines seem well engineered, but getting parts or service has been a problem for me.  Lenovo high-end machines have proven their value, but again getting parts and service has been difficult in foreign lands. Though I'm a fan of some Dell machines, I stay away from those that are mass-marketed at the lower price points.  And Dell's service - although not stellar - is at least workable all over the world.  Replacement parts are easily purchased, and the machines are generally built for modular replacement. You can get a repair manual on-line, with step-by-step instructions, and most models are designed with a service tech in mind.

I'm currently thinking of replacing the old Inspiron 1420 (magnesium shell 14 inch) with the XPS 14z because of the build quality and value. I've already examined the repair manual, and it's a relative piece of cake (compared to Apple) to replace or upgrade memory or drive. My strategy is to wait until after Xmas when Dell will some refurbished models available at their outlet.  Why refurbished? Because they will analyze why the machine was returned, test and repair items that gave the original owner pause, and bring the machine back to warrantee level. Plus the price will be lower.  

Those are just my personal strategies. YMMD.


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## wblock@ (Nov 22, 2011)

I've actually been pretty pleased with Acer, but I avoid the large desktop-repacement systems, which might explain it.  Toshiba ACPI has been a problem for FreeBSD, but I have not tried recent models.  Wireless and video could be a problem with any of these.  Wireless cards can be replaced, sometimes easily, sometimes not.  Video you're pretty much stuck with.  Test before buying if possible.


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## aragon (Nov 22, 2011)

Dell is my favourite.

You're probably asking with FreeBSD support in mind, in which case I highly recommend creating a bootable USB stick to test in whatever you choose, before you buy it.


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## Carpetsmoker (Nov 22, 2011)

fluca1978 said:
			
		

> lenovo bad
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Both Lenovo models he listed are not Thinkpads, but Ideapads. This is a completely different series with different characteristics, price, design goals, etc.

I personally feel looking at just the brand-name is fairly useless. Almost all brands make both "good" and "bad" models. Not that there's such a thing as a "good" or "bad" model, a thinkpad is a great notebook, but be prepared to part from at least $1000 (And there are also some other disadvantages which may be show-stoppers).

Instead of offering very generic and typically useless advice, I think it would be far more useful if the OP would mention what his or her requirements are, for example, screen quality, battery life, CPU performance, graphics performance, and so forth. Only then can anyone say anything useful on the subject.

Edit: I just read that tms020348 already said most of what I've said. It's worth repeating though


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## kpedersen (Nov 22, 2011)

IMO, the laptops I have had most success with are the *60 range of Thinkpads

T60 (Overall)
R60 (Cheap)
X60 (Small)
Z60 (Fancy)

They have all worked beautifully from the start.

In future I won't mess around with taking chances with unknown models or brands, I will just get another of these.

Insight (UK) still sell the T and R.
If power is an issue, I have seen a T60 in the wild packed out with 3 gigs of ram but unfortunately they all use Intel GMA 9xx graphics cards.


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## alie (Nov 23, 2011)

Seems everyone like Thinkpad but is quite expensive for my pocket hahaha. What do you guys think about Lenovo non-Thinkpad like U300s or U400 ?


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## vermaden (Nov 23, 2011)

alie said:
			
		

> What do you guys think about Lenovo non-Thinkpad like U300s or U400 ?



Get ThinkPad, just used instead of new one.

But a REAL ThinkPad, omit ThinkPad EDGE like fire, they are not ThinkPads.

REAL ThinkPads currently are (as of 2011Q4):

T Series 
X Series
W Series


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## alie (Nov 23, 2011)

I am going to choose either ThinkPad X220, X1 or X120e


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## Carpetsmoker (Nov 23, 2011)

The X120e is a netbook, not a notebook, so be aware of the performance loss.

The X1 looks Ok at first glance, but it looks like they mangled the keyboard


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## vermaden (Nov 24, 2011)

Carpetsmoker said:
			
		

> The X1 looks Ok at first glance, but it looks like they mangled the keyboard



The X1 seem to be the X300/X301 successor, at least Lenovo tries to brand it as something like that, unfortunately, the new ThinkPad EDGE (read, not true ThinkPad) like keyboard makes it almost no different then a 'casual laptop' ...


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## alie (Nov 24, 2011)

I just checked CNET and they gives good rating for X1 hmmmm. Do you guys believe CNET ?


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## vans9 (Nov 29, 2011)

Seems you look for 'ultrabook', but those Dells are quite large. Any way I want to warn you (if you don't know this) about Nvidia's in current notebooks: most are Optimus one. And Optimus don't work with anything except Windows.
Sandy bridge graphics support is a work in progress. So, until (http://wiki.freebsd.org/Intel_GPU) is integrated into the main branch, you have to do little manual pathing or use VESA. Btw, patches seem to be rather stable by this time.


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## alie (Dec 1, 2011)

So hard to find good laptop that is compatible with FreeBSD 9 nowadays since most of them have intel HD3000. I am always having issue with GPU


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