Toshiba vs. HP: Quality/Durability

By unintentional
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Neowinian

Victors

Posted
Posted

I dont have any experience about toshiba but i have a fair amount of knowledge abt Hp products. I am a computer engineer and i hereby state that i will leave this profession if i am forced to use any hp products from now on. I always had terrible experiences with Hp.

Thanks to you guys i just orderered a toshiba laptop, a505 s6040 from amazon for $1150. Hopefully it turns out well.

Grand Master

TEX4S

Posted
Posted

I dont have any experience about toshiba but i have a fair amount of knowledge abt Hp products. I am a computer engineer and i hereby state that i will leave this profession if i am forced to use any hp products from now on. I always had terrible experiences with Hp.

Thanks to you guys i just orderered a toshiba laptop, a505 s6040 from amazon for $1150. Hopefully it turns out well.

LOL speaks volumes IMO

I was gonna say something about resurrecting an old thread - but I liked your comment.

  • 2 years later...
Neowinian

Delusional Insanity

Posted
Posted

I have very bad experience with HP. Although it was years ago (> 10) I promised myself never ever buy any products from HP. The only thing I have still is a scanner, which works... still, although crashes on every 3rd or 4th scan and has to be plugged out and plugged in again... and does not work on Windows 7 with official drivers, so I use it on Linux (works like a charm). My experience with Toshiba is very very positive. It all started years ago (> 20) when I first used one of the Toshiba's portable computers (it was portable something which looked like a laptop). From that time I had an impression that Toshiba was something that works very well and in 2008 I bought myself a Toshiba laptop (Satellite series). It worked just fine. I used it very much, leaving it switched on for days and nights to download torrents, used it for Photoshop work and programming under Windows and Linux. The only problems I had with it is (very seldom) the webcam did not want to switch on and I had to restart the system to have it working. In late 2011 it started to get a bit warm (the cooler needed cleaning, professionals say)... but still, never "died", all devices work still very well. When it got too warm it would just shut itself down and I had to wait for a couple of minutes until I could switch it on again. Although I think it's also partly my fault, since I did have it just laying on the table, not having it to have some air under. This year I have purchased myself another Toshiba and that one works like a charm. Although, I must confess, I liked the old Toshiba's design more and missed 1 extra USB port (my current laptop has only 3 - which I solved by buying myself an USB splitter, so all kinds of stupid devices like mouse, occasional USB cards and even the HP scanner goes through the splitter). Too bad the model I finally chose didn't have a FireWire and I think the screen on the old one was better. Apart from that, I have two external USB hard-drives from Toshiba, 1 Tb each and I will never change them for anything else. I actually plant to get myself another one of 2 Tb. By the way, when my old Toshiba laptop started to warm up I decided to put it on top of my external USB hard drives and... that worked very well. It didn't warm up that much and never restarted again since then. I use the old laptop occasionally now and it stays as a back-up in case if anything happens to my new laptop, the old one will still serve me well. Surprisingly the battery from old laptop didn't fit into the new one. Too bad, since I was planning to take the new one out and use the old one since I almost never carry it around... but, as I said, they were not compatible.

Apart from that, I have used MacBook Pro at work (I loved the hardware but truly hated the OSX) - for me it just does NOT work.

Friends of mine have bad experience with Acer laptops.

I only heard good things about Lenovo.

So, in general, from my own experience, I would advise you to get Toshiba. Bye a good (expensive) one though - as it will serve you for years (qua performance).

Grand Master

tsupersonic

Posted
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snip

Toshiba is a piece of **** company. Horrible tech support. I got a Toshiba laptop on Black Friday. It literally died one day before the warranty expired - the backlight went out. Instead of honoring my warranty, the Japanese tech support team was willing to fix the problem over the internet (for $35) because they thought I had a virus.

Yes, I realize this is a thread from the past, but /rant

Grand Master

ViperAFK

Posted
Posted

Sure Dells are noisy and stuff but hey... atleast the fan works. HP isn't too noisy... but all mine fried =/ Toshiba is pretty quiet and it still doesn't fry.

Yeah, I've seen far too many HP laptops with heating issues to ever recommend one to anyone.

EDIT: Didn't realize this thread was necro'd :p

Mentor

Keyboard Cowboy

Posted
Posted

Cold hard reality: every major OEM (Dell, Sony, HP, Toshiba, Lenovo) has different product lines for consumers and businesses. The business class machines will have more consistent quality, be better supported, and last longer. The simple reason is that if the OEM screws over an individual consumer with a shoddy machine that falls apart two weeks after the default year-long warranty, they might lose a future sale or two. If the OEM screws over a corporate customer, they'll lose tens or even hundreds of thousands of sales.

If you're looking for a disposable or secondary (to a primary desktop machine), that will experience its first hardware failure within six months and require major hardware replacement after two years, then go ahead and buy a relatively cheap consumer-oriented model. If you're looking to rely on this laptop for work through three, four, or even five years of school, then look to the business-class laptops: ThinkPads, Vostros, Latitudes, and Precisions, and the Pro/Elitebooks.

Also be aware that since you're now a college student (presumably some institution has accepted you), you'll be eligible for academic discounts, either through your school's computer store, or directly via the OEM website. You should easily be able to get ~10% off, or possibly more, depending on the OEM and the final configuration that you choose. I believe my Dell laptop had an up-front 700$ discount, and I managed to top that off with an additional 16% discount. Finally, if you're intending to rely on this purchase for several years, don't skimp on the warranty. Get at least three years. Laptop components are heinously expensive to replace yourself, and over the period of a few years, a couple hundred bucks invested in a warranty will pay itself off.

All the way this!

BACK FROM THE DEAD THREAD

Why on earth would someone resurrect a 2 year old thread as the 1st post ?

Not off to a very good start IMO

And this... :/
Mentor

abysal

Posted
Posted

It's a hit or miss with HP's and Toshiba's in that price range, and even some high end ones. The hinges break, or the plastic creaks and flexes around the unit. Last laptop I bought was an Acer that felt rock solid & had good lcd hinges, that was 7 months ago and the laptop is still in excellent shape. If I had to chose between those models you listed, I'd go with the HP, I looked over similiar ones and they seemed ok. That Toshiba is also a finger print magnet.

Mentor

abysal

Posted
Posted

BACK FROM THE DEAD THREAD

Why on earth would someone resurrect a 2 year old thread as the 1st post ?

Not off to a very good start IMO

Oh wow.. I just seen that... Posted 25 March 2010 - 22:32 .... Oh well. Hopefully he made the right choice!

Enthusiast

webdev511

Posted
Posted
HP sucks in general, i have a couple of firends with HP laptops and both of them had problems, one with the cooling fan and the other with the hdd, i would advise you to get the toshiba.

When I buy laptops, I only buy HP EliteBooks. Everyone's consumer grade laptops are made with consumer grade parts to consumer grade specs. In other words you get what you pay for. My EliteBook 8560w is a freaking beast and I LOVE it.

Grand Master

strekship

Posted
Posted

Everyone I know who has had an HP laptop has had it fall apart on them withing a year or two. Can't speak to current Toshiba quality, I don't know anyone who has one and the last Toshiba I used was a Satellite rocking a Pentium 166.

Edit: Didn't realize this was a necro thread.

Mentor

Inklin

Posted
Posted

The only Toshiba I owned was a lemon (Equium L20), after about 6 months the cable that links the screen through the hinge failed, got a warranty repair and then it went again just outside of warranty, by then I'd had enough of it.

I prefer HP laptops, though the one I acquired (HP G70) gets really hot, you could cook your dinner on the thing (fan does run normally and it's not clogged with dust). it's seems cooling is not HP's niche at all. Then also the black paint/finish around the keyboard is flaking off too.

Grand Master

PGHammer

Posted
Posted

OK - enough posting on this thread ! LOL

We all know HP sucks - this is a 2 year old thread that some duechebag brought back for his 1st post.

Maybe SOME HP portables suck - every brand of portables has had some lemons - including Toshiba. (I refuse to recomend any AMD-powered Toshiba portable; however, I unhesitatingly recommend several AMD-powered HP portables - such as the Envy dm4z.) Note that we're talking AMD vs. AMD - not Intel vs. AMD.

I've also seen several quality Intel-driven HP portables - one in particular I'm waiting for its owner to retire so I can claim it. (The portable in question is a dual-core nVidia-graphics-driven HP Pavilion dual-core that originally came with Vista Home Premium x64, and is now running 7 Home Premium (also x64); it's been everywhere (including both Iraq and Afghanistan twice each - the owner recently finished *her* last tour in Afghanistan as a Army Reservist, and is now back home). Once I get hold of it, I'll likely throw Windows 8 on it and use it as a productivity portable (the *major appliations* will likely be Office 2010 for now).

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