Team-BHP - The Laptop Thread: Configs, deals & questions

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Originally Posted by ashthedivx (Post 1488009)

My complete cover warranty on Dell Studio is about to finish in a day or two and I was shocked to hear that dell is selling 1 year complete cover warranty for 8,500 Rs and 2 year complete cover for 16,500 Rs. :Shockked:

Do we have any other choices or we need to indulge ourself into the service scam going on where in a reputable company like DELL charges outrage premium for warranty extension ??

warranties are a big stream of revenue for any company. It's upto the customer to weigh the cost and benefits. It's like insurance which keeps getting adjusted depending on how many people actually opt for the service and hence to total cost to the company.

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Originally Posted by cpyder (Post 1482208)

@MrinalSinha, Sorry for such a late reply. Got busy for a while. As I said, you can pay a visit to Dell's website. Pretty neat and clean layout. You can customize your lappy to a price/configuration level you need.

I just had a cursory glance, it appears that a similar spec laptop with Dell is also priced 41k. So, I .. err.. sort of.. eat my words. But if I were to choose between Acer and Dell, it would be Dell for sure. Best part is, they do not come with preloaded junk softwares. But if you spend sometime, you can get a good configuration/price ratio. After you finalise that on the site, make sure to speak to the customer care and 'bargain'. I could get rs 2k off.

That said, please make sure you have a good look around comparing the meat of the matter - like the processor, HDD, RAM, OS (windows 7 upgrade), Graphix card. Once these are compared, then you can see how much of gimmicks like gridvista(acer) or trulife (dell) actually matter to you.

Oh, before I forget, dont just buy it because you can/or you are getting it cheap. Compare the specifications with your requirements. No point in buying a Volvo truck for price of a Nano if all its got to do is be parked and nothing else.

Thanks for the advise buddy. It would have been good if you would have provided the link to the Dell product you are referring to. I am unable to configure a laptop in that price range. The cheapest I am getting is for 46K.

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Originally Posted by ashthedivx (Post 1488009)

In USA too, warranties are expensive

1 year goes for $150 and 2 years for $250. this is quite high here. am not comparing with India. but it is same here too.

as Vivekji said, its upto customer to determine what's best for him/her. i felt no point paying so much, so i didn't go for it on my Dell Vostro 1500. its you who is the best judge for it.

IMHO, aftersales service is the biggest issue here (More than the quality / value for money issues). Here's my story:

I bought a Lenovo R61 six months back, and I have abandoned the multiple follow ups only because my time is precious.

Background: I bought the R61 Laptop from a Lenovo Vendor, through the Lenovo Service personnel assigned for my office. Didn’t go for much research as I thought I could trust the Lenovo employee at my office.

Some of the issues (I don’t remember all issues, I have sort of abandoned the complaints after multiple follow ups. They keep on beating around the bush with some thing else for my questions.):
1. The Configuration that I got doesn’t match with the Configuration that was promised (Promised RAM speed – 800 MHz but Delivered 667 Mz, Promised CPU speed – 2.43 GHz, but Delivered 2.4 GHz.). The laptop was couriered to me, so I was able to find out the specs only after I accepted the courier (Some properties such as RAM speed wouldn’t be listed in the bios, you would need to install third party software such as CPUz to find this out.
2. They boasted that battery back up is more than that of other laptops (promised 5 hrs). But I am actually getting only the same as other laptops (3 hrs). When asked, they claim that 5 hrs back up would be got only under ideal conditions (that is, after booting the laptop, I need to close the laptop and not open it for 5 hrs)
3. There is no provision for splitting your hard disk in the original OS. You need to work with only c:\ drive. If you need to split your hard disk to d:\ and e:\ drive, you need to reformat your disk and install (pirated?) OS. [You may ignore this point, some peope told me that this is the issue with all laptops. You need to use third party software to split your disk.]
4. The laptop doesn’t come with a Driver CD. They say it’s embedded in the Harddisk. If you re-format the hard disk for splitting the disk or for changing from Windows Vista to Windows XP, the drivers would be lost. I tried the free download of drivers from the Lenovo website, but you need to install the drivers in a particular order which is not given in the web site. You need to open the read me for each driver and find out the prerequisite drivers (some times more than 2) that needs to be installed before each driver. Now I need to pay them again for installing the drivers.
5. They promised 3 years Warranty. But for Warranty, you need to register in the Lenovo site with the lap top serial number. When I registered, I got warranty only for 2 years 8 months as per the site. They won’t even respond to your queries if your lap top is not under warranty (you need to renew the warranty after expiry).
6. I wanted a configuration of CPU speed above 2 GHz and RAM around 4 GB. They said it is available as the default configuration in R61 model, but it’s just that the Lenovo website is not updated with the correct info (claimed that site was updated long ago). What they actually did is - added 2 GB ram to the existing default configuration of 2 GB to make it 4 GB. But it is mentioned in the Lenovo website that the hard ware / software supplied with R61 Model would only support a maximum of 3 GB ram. I asked why I was tricked into paying for 4 GB ram, beating around the bush continues…..

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Originally Posted by vivekiny2k (Post 1488181)

I second this. My point is that extended warranty on Laptops are critical, since the only worthwhile components of a laptop are the screen and the motherboard and each cost about 35% of the total value of the laptop.

While the laptop is functioning well, u might consider that the warranty has gone waste, but once the screen or mobo needs repair or replacement, its a cost of about 10K each. Paying that kind of money will not be worth it and u'll even start considering a new purchase. However a single warranty will take care of the cost of the entire laptop. I have even got the entire laptop replaced for free with a later model since the laptop needing repair was out of production and the parts were out of stock as well.

Prajwal

OK, here is one bit of info, and mind you, it may come as a surprise. We all know that all brands (HP, Lenovo etc) are, basically assemblers. But many of 'so called' manufacturers do not even do that. The assembly part is contracted to other firms (esp to factories in SE Asia) which is given a QC stamp by respective manufacturers and sold to you.

Ergo, If you are visiting these places, and look around carefully enough, you might find a laptop at less than half the price - ofcourse with no warranty whatsoever. Pretty much like factory outlet sales.

That ofcourse does not mean that everyone is doing the same thing, Dell, for example, manufactures their units right here in India whereas afaik, samsung builds lappys for other brands as well!!

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Originally Posted by cpyder (Post 1502863)

If we go by your logic then everyone of us could be buying only chinese/taiwanese stuff instead of going by brand. It is not the place where it is manufactured which matters but the quality assurance offered.

Having said that buying extended warranties are _usually_ not worth for big reliable brands and in these days of fast paced technology outdated-ness.

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Originally Posted by zaks (Post 1508387)

Perfectly agree to that. In fact all that quality assurance/publicity etc is what finally adds to that bigger price. Loosely compared, you can find the 'original' Lee/Wrangler stuff from shops in Tiruppur, perhaps intact with labels at less than half the price. Whether one wants to live with that little defect or not, is one's own choice. After all they do sell. Many of them sold even in swanky shops.

In any case picking up these things (laptops) from such 'factory outlets' would definitely need one to be savvy with the technology, secondly, one should know where to find them.

What I presented was not a logic to go and buy these things instead of branded stuff. It was an info that I had and I shared.

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Originally Posted by zaks (Post 1508387)

Having said that buying extended warranties are _usually_ not worth for big reliable brands and in these days of fast paced technology outdated-ness.

Agree to that as well - but with a little 'half exception'. Buying extended warranties (read AMC) would be a rather wise decision for firms/companies which have more than a couple of these pieces and would not be upgrading that often. Not much use for personal use though.

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Originally Posted by nandishpal (Post 1508479)

guys, i am on a look out for SD ram for my good old laptop.i think this is also known as DDR1.currently i have 2 slots to onsert the ram.i have a 256 currently.can i get a 1gb ram for this?2 rams will make it 2 gb.i enquired in bangalore & it costs 3.5k for 1 512mb ram.please help.

Hi,
Yes you can definitely add up 2 modules of 1GB each. If you are in Bangalore you can try to purchase the modules online at Computer Warehouse Online - Buy Computers, Computer Parts, Computer Accessories, Laptops and Electronics or you can visit ComputerShop at Brigade Road, he offers a good deal on any equipment. 1GB module would cost you about 2350 INR.