Advice on laptop brands

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m looking at buying a new laptop, nothing too fancy (13-14’', 16 Gb RAM, 1 Tb SSD: it is not intended for gaming) and wonder about which brands are currently to be recommended or avoided.
I found a fairly recent thread (Advice needed on laptop purchase) which is mostly about Lenovo, and I recall from an earlier thread that HP is to be avoided. But what about other brands: Acer, Asus, Dell, or others? Advice is welcome.

Note: I’m based in Europe so specific US only brands are probably not available here.
Note II: I already own a MacBook M1 which I love, but this laptop is for someone else who needs to have Windows, so no need to convince me of the advantages of MacBooks.
Note III: I’m also looking at building a desktop for which I’ll start another thread, so again no need to discuss whether a desktop is more suitable.

2

I don’t think it really matters which brand you buy. There are tons of review sites that compare the current offerings and will give the best recommendations for each price range – I would just take a look at that.

They all use the same underlying components (screens, CPUs, GPUs, memory, SSD) – it’s not like HP uses an HP SSD and Lenovo uses a Lenovo one.

I’m not sure why HP was deprecated – maybe because of all of the crapware? Is it more than other brands? Anyway, it takes ten minutes to uninstall all the crapware and you’re good to go.

I’ve had a bit of luck with Dell for customer service. And, Lenovos that I’ve seen are annoying in that they put two USB-Cs on one side and zero on the other, so the charging cable has to go in on that side, but otherwise, it’s a matter of style and features, not brand (to me, anyway).

3

HP has a reputation for the hinges breaking (there’s a meme in the IT industry that HP stands for Hinge Problem). Last time I bought one (which was a few years ago), it did also have quite a lot of bloatware on it - it was fairly easy to uninstall that though as it was all ‘HP [something]’ in the list of installed apps. One of the hinges broke some time after the warranty period was up.

Dell and Asus are the brands I hear the most satisfied noises about.

4

Buy an Intel MacBook which will run Windoze natively all day long.

5

Certainly the build quality on Macbooks is top notch

6

I hadn’t heard about the hinge problem. I’ve had a couple of HPs over the years with no issues, but sure, there are plenty of other brands to choose from.

7

You may find that the business models are better built than the consumer models. Among Dells, for instance, a Latitude notebook might be better than an Inspion notebook. I think the notebook computers from various manufacturers are all produced in the same factories. And you might want to pay for the warranty that requires next day onsite service rather than the lower cost option where you have to send the computer to them and wait a couple of weeks for the repair. On the other hand, if you keep your files outside the computer, you might not mind waiting for the repair.

8

What is the intended uses for the laptop? Is the laptop going to be used mostly for web-based applications, such as browsing, online office apps, etc? Or is it going to be used for working on local files, like software development, photo markup, graphic design, etc?

9

Word processing, e-mail, just garden variety laptop use, nothing heavy. Hence the CPU and GPU are not really important (I can work that out myself), but I want a durable machine and not something that breaks after one year. Hence my question on reliable brands.

10

FWIW, my Dell Inspiron (bought Sept 2017) is going fine, albeit a bit slow to launch. The one thing that 's gone wrong with it (apart from my own stupidities*) is that I had to get the charger input socket replaced a couple of years ago. Before that I had a Dell desktop for years, and in between an Asus laptop that didn’t last.

But now that I’m getting warnings about support for W10 coming to an end, I suppose I should think about upgrading.

*A mistaken attempt to stop the keypad from sticking, and trying to install the wrong drivers for a peripheral, which froze everything so I had to do a factory reset.

11

At one point some years back it got to where some people came up with a HP-dedicated debloat utility, but yeah, now it’s not too tough to get around that. And for some time there also was how HP’s consumer PC side was built up with many outside acquisitions (notably, Compaq) rather than in-house, so people were wary of exactly what were you getting in each product line. That also tied in with that in people’s minds it was still associated mostly with printers and instrumentation.

But the last one I got to start out-of-the-box (year 2023) was no worse than others of similar price range ($900-ish in US market) either in terms of visible build quality or bloatware or of ease of set-up or performance once it was set up.

Lenovos have given me no problems that are not related to apps and other software (both doing things I did not ask for and aging out of support for upgrades under their specs), and one of them is coming up to 9 years old.

12

For that usage, I’d probably save a few hundred bucks and get a Chromebook.

13

I would avoid Lenovo for sure. It has done some scary stuff with firmware that phones home to the PRC.

I like the 4 letter As. Acer is more of a modest price brand on average where Asus is more upscale.

I recently had a very bad experience with a Dell laptop. No one should even consider an HP.

14

I’m in the market for a replacement for my laptop, a Dell somethingOrOther. Before I retired my work laptop was an HP, and I really liked that. So, I might consider HP. For many years at work I had a Dell. My personal Dell somethingOrOther is about 12 years old and I need to put a bullet through its CPU to put it out of its misery.

15

Aside from accidental damage (dropping the thing or spilling something on it) few laptops are going to break that quickly. Even the cheapest ones should last several years.

16

Like RitterSport says, the brands don’t matter that much. If you want reliability, get a small biz laptop instead of a consumer one, and pay for extended in-house support (adds maybe 10 to 20% of the purchase price). That means ThinkPad and Latitude primarily, maybe a few others.

I’ve personally had terrible experiences with HP anything, Microsoft Surface, and Acer. But that’s just anecdotal.

Multiple issues with Lenovos too but they were always fixed next day by a tech coming out to my house (because of the extended support, which is way more important than choosing a brand).

A lot of these laptops are designed by the same few Taiwanese OEMs and manufactured by the same few Chinese factories using the same cheap parts surrounded by some plastic & metal.

You know this already, but sadly there is really nothing that comes close to the Macbooks in build quality or efficency. Even for the few Windows apps I need (GIS stuff, etc.) I run them in Crossover or Parallels on a Mac. It’s slower (emulated x86) but still a better experience than most Windows PCs…

17

Dell inspirons are inexpensive but I’ve had issues with keyboards and batteries on them. Im going to avoid these in the futures.

Meanwhile my 20 year old Acer laptop still works fine, other than a dead battery

18

I’m going to say instead I’m with @RitterSport and @Reply - the laptops from most major manufacturers are going to be functionally similar within the same price range, and any of them can have a critical component fail. Best is to choose among those that have the aftermarket features you want (such as an extended warranty or nearby/next-day service). Because almost all the rest is about anecdotes and personal experiences.

I’m not picking on @Wesley_Clark specifically, other than to comment I have had almost the exact reverse circumstances. I’ve had several Dell laptops that have never failed, though they have certainly aged out of being able to do much of anything! And yet my first Windows desktop was an Acer and it was a POS right out of the box 25ish years ago. Though that was (later) a known issue with that specific Acer product.

My advice, similar to other posters is that it is worthwhile to buy up a bit if budget permits, and get the models not so cheap as to be all-but disposable. Say, much less than $4-500 US (different people will put that threshold elsewhere). Since the OP is explicitly in Europe, I also have no idea how recent and coming tariffs and other political influences may affect the prices and the optics of owning particular brands, such as the ongoing issue with Tesla. No, I’m not currently aware of any US computer brands that are associate with such politics, but it’s worthwile to consider.

As for Macs - I had a lovely Mac Laptop and Desktop for years with lovely dual-boot systems. If the only use is browsing and word processing, and price isn’t an issue, then yes, you’ll generally have a higher base-line build and function, though generally at a much higher price. If you need to use productivity based software, then the generally higher costs of such are a minor issue. If you need to interface with Windows based enterprise systems for work or school, again, there can be minor issues, but nothing that would nix the choice IMHO.

19

Quick note about the Dells: The Inspirons are their consumer line, which is often cheap junk. Nothing inherently wrong with them, but they’re a race to the bottom like any other consumer laptop. You’ll also hear about their failures because they’re just everywhere… a lot of college students, cheap businesses, home users, etc. will have them.

The Latitudes are their small biz machines, which is slightly less cheap junk supported by better support (especially if you pay for on-site support: the only way to guarantee a US-based tech addresses your issue, comes to your home with parts in hand, and talks to you like a real human). If you buy an Inspiron, you’re going to spend hours, days, and weeks troubleshooting anything with their outsourced tech support.

The XPS line is their prosumer line, which sells more premium features (better screens, gaming stuff, etc.) but not necessarily any more reliability, and importantly, not necessarily any better support.

Lenovo has a similar setup. Their ThinkPad business machines with premium support addons are the most supportable, especially the T series workstations (as opposed to the X series superlights). The Thinkbooks, Lenovos, Yogas, etc are their various consumer and prosumer brands. But if you want “shit actually gets fixed” support, you have to buy a ThinkPad with the on-site addon.

Asus also offers global on-site support, I think, but I think their customer service in general is just poor. It’s a Taiwanese cultural approach to things, where they try to make a good product upfront but after that it’s buyer-beware, and their after-sales service attitude isn’t the same as the American companies (like Dell) or even the Chinese ones like Lenovo (who inherited their service culture from IBM). They make great gaming products, but I wouldn’t count on them for any business-critical workstation.

(Edit: Ah, sorry, missed the part where the OP is not in the US. Hiding the rest of this as irrelevant.)

This part only applies to US purchasers (click to expand)

Another option is to find a local computer store (if they still exist). Microcenter is really good, has great products (both first and third party) and they have on-site support at their stores.

Best Buy has gotten a lot better in recent years. Not sure about GeekSquad, but if you buy their extended warranty (or sign up for a Best Buy Total membership), they will replace anything that doesn’t work.

Costco is another option that will give you a longer warranty.

But the end principle is the same: Laptops are race-to-the-bottom commodities. The small biz machines are a little better, but not enough to prevent failures altogether. If reliability is important, having local support and/or a replacement plan that can get you a working machine back in a few days is critical.

Or… just buy the cheapest laptop you can find, put away the money you save, and buy another one when it inevitably breaks. That way you not only fix the problem but get an upgrade in the process too…

20

In the United States, Costco extends the manufacturer warranty on computers purchased through its stores to two years from the one-year standard. And similarly, some credit cards do the same for computers bought with those cards. I have no idea how much of a hassle it is to make a claim under these policies but there may be retailers or purchase options where you are that also extend the warranty.