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

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saanil (Post 2326735)

Toshiba is still a minor laptop player in India. But their products are extremely VFM. I happened to go their stall in a trade exhibition in Mumbai about 2 months back. The laptops looked solid with neat pricing. But I was not sure of their after sales support. I think Dell is better than Toshiba in that repsect. Can any existing Toshiba user shed light on the after sales support of Toshiba. I ask this because even I am looking for a new laptop for my family.

My dad uses a Satellite Pro from Toshiba. Recently the battery fizzled out and we could not get one in ready stock locally and no clear answers were forthcoming on the time period involved. Hope that partly answers your query.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saanil (Post 2338374)

Has anyone bought a Laptop from Lamington Road in Mumbai. Many of my friends buy desktops from there saying that all the latest graphic cards are available at good price. Even the laptop rates were quite cheaper compared to CROMA and Vijay sales. But someone told me that Lamington shops may sell refurbushed laptops to you and should avoid them? Anyone with such experience?

A friend of mine is in the IT resale business and yes he too buys both kinds of machines and other peripherals from Lamington. So for walk in customers it can be a tricky buy, unless you know someone on the inside.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saanil (Post 2338374)

I have no experience of Lamington Road, but in Delhi there is Nehru Place full of all kinds of establishments, starting from authorised retail outlet to hole in the wall establishments. If you are an unsuspecting buyer looking for a deal too good to be true, that will be so. If you are a discerning buyer you will bargain to the last paisa, but will ask for and get manufacturer's warranty.

In my experience there are large dealers who work on large volumes and extremely thin margins who give the best deal, as they get their supplies (after confirmed order) from the authorised distributors (there by bypassing the dealers and retailers). I have bought at least six laptops over six years where the margins were as low as Rs.500/ on a 1L+ laptop (at least 5-8k less than the lowest quote from the retailers).

One ploy used by retailers to recover money lost in bargains, is to load your purchase with taxes, where as the MRP includes all the taxes. Another one if you buy with Credit Card is to charge 2% or more for the card. Most of the large establishment pay less than 1% as charges, but recover more from you.

Got myself a new lappy!
Its a Samsung NP-RV509i Do more for less - NP-RV509I - Everyday - Notebook | SAMSUNG

It comes with DOS so I got Windows 7 Home Premium additionally installed.
Price without Win7 is Rs.35990 but I paid a total of ~41k incl Windows.
Specs are quite good:
Intel Core i5 480M
3GB RAM
500 GB HD
15.6' screen
Intel GMA HD Graphics

Will post a complete review in some days!

Quote:

Originally Posted by StrangeWizard (Post 2341949)

If you want a licensed version of Windows, it's always cheaper to buy a model which comes pre-installed with Windows rather than buying Windows separately. When it's preinstalled, it comes at the OEM price which is much less than the retail price.

The one advantage of buying Windows separately however is that you get a Windows Installable CD.

Quote:

Originally Posted by carboy (Post 2342218)

Actually I had downloaded and installed a cracked version of Windows on my old PC and it worked fine so I thought that I'll do the same thing this time also. But the cracked version didn't get installed on the laptop properly and was creating activation problems so went and bought a new Win7 Home Premium CD from the distributor.

I want to know, is it just me or anyone who has an HD screen on their laptop- is the battery charge last for around 50% of what an equivalent non HD laptop battery does? I have a Vaio E series with HD Screen - looks great and works great except for the battery which lasts for only 1 hr. and thats been the case from day 1.

Quote:

Originally Posted by manolin (Post 2342610)

I think that when you use the HD mode the dedicated graphics card is switched on, this consumes more power. In normal mode the display uses the MB card.

Was looking for a portable laptop for the road, and the only affordable options seemed to be underpowered netbooks. But now with AMD's Fusion lineup, the HP dm1 seems to be an excellent budget option for around 25k. Has anyone used the dm1, as I am a bit apprehensive about buying HP after a bad experience with an old dv2000 which heated up like a toaster (blame the defective Geforce 8400GS card in that).

Also, are there any other portable alternatives below 30k. I don't think the Thinkpad X120 has been launched in India, else that was another possible alternative.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saanil (Post 2326735)

Been using TOSHIBA ever since 2002 or near there. Been thru 3 machines maybe 4. In total purchased 6 (kids included). Never had a problem, with hardware, in 9 years. The dealer is a friend, so service IF needed is never a problem. Had to once be sent to TOSHIBA as the hard disk crashed due to some serious virus in my Kids lappie. 3rd day I had the machine back, as good as new.

Cheers

Hi,

I have a three year old Dell Studio 15. For some reason, when I connect my two external hard disks, I can browse through the contents of only that hard disk, which I connected first. The second disk does not get listed in My Computer. However, when I click on the USB Eject icon, I do see both the disks listed.

What could be the issue? I would really like to have both the hard disks getting listed in My Computer.

Details of Hard Disks:

1. Seagate externally powered 320GB
2. Seagate externally powered 1TB.

:thumbs up
MaSh

Guys is this a good buy for someone who would only use the laptop to connect to the net and to download pics from a digital camera and upload them on facebook?

eBay India: DELL INSPIRON 1525+120GB+2GB RAM+ABSOLUTELY NEW COND. (item 390311577457 end time 12-May-2011 20:07:51 IST)

Is the price/ configuration ok?

Quote:

Originally Posted by deky (Post 2348288)

Its good for your needs, but brand new ones(with warranty) in similar config are available for 23-24K (check out toshiba). If you want Graphics card(useful for watching HD videos), you need to spend 26K approx.

If you want something just to upload stuff to facebook and do web surfing, a netbook will work out much cheaper.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tsk1979 (Post 2348310)

Thanks for the quick reply Tanveer. If there is a difference of only 2-3k for laptops having same configuration I think I will definitely want to go in for a new one, because of warranty. A few more questions

I somehow dont like netbook as the screen is very small, hence it gets a bit cumbersome scrolling up and down. Plus it also doesnt have a cd-drive. My mom uses one and somehow I dont enjoy it hence looking for a notebook.

Also tell me, is Toshiba a good brand? I was more inclined on this as I thought Dell was better, Am I right here?

Thanks and regards

Quote:

Originally Posted by deky (Post 2348288)

I think it is not a good deal. Intel Celeron is an outdated processor for me. This laptop seems to be too old. RAM size if alright for your use but the hard disk size is too less. I think it does not have warranty also. Instead you can get a netbook for that kind of money. However I am not too sure about the performance of netbooks. They will be light and will offer high mobility too. If you want bigger screen and will be multi-tasking a lot then kindly stretch your budget to 27-28k and get a new laptop.