5 ms·
I have had or maintained at some point: * An almost 2 year old dm1z netbook * A 13" Pavilion laptop from late 2010 * An EliteBook 8540p * Two older Pavilion
by sspiff 14y ago
I have had or maintained at some point:
* An almost 2 year old dm1z netbook
* A 13" Pavilion laptop from late 2010
* An EliteBook 8540p
* Two older Pavilion notebook, late 2006 and late 2007
And I am very happy with the quality of their machines. The EliteBook is a tank that can compare with ThinkPads in reliability. The Pavilions are sturdy and decent for consumer notebooks. The netbook is brilliant for a $400 device, and has survived multiple drops without any serious marks.
One of the Pavilion's screen broke down in warranty, and HP's support and repair service have been a painful and infuriating experience. I can say the same about any warranty claim I have tried to make as a consumer rather than a professional client (having dealt with Lenovo, Sony and HP).
I wouldn't go near this thing (shitty screen and battery life and subpar compontents for this price level), but I wouldn't say bad things about HP's products in general. Except for their printers, those are just evil.
- meaty 14y agoHP warranties and support are just as bad for corporate customers. It's easier to just buy parts from Misco and fix it yourself most of the time. That goes for everything from desktops to high end servers. Sony service stinks as well. Lenovo have been ok for corporate support from experience - they bend over backwards for us although we occasionally get a bad rep which needs threatening a bit :) As for HP's other products, their calculators are a bit crappy (made by chinese outfit Kinpo), their printers are shit I agree and their best line of kit (test gear), they spun off to Agilent so the HP brand wouldn't take them down.
- sspiff 14y agoI've only had one ThinkPad break, and I had it for less than a year at the time. Three weeks before the laptop turned 1 year old, I called Lenovo, and was redirected to an Irish support guy who had limited knowledge of my native language. After trying to make clear what was wrong with the machine, he told me my warranty had already expired (though my invoice was dated less than a year before that, and the EU requires consumer electronics to come with a minimum of 2 years of warranty). The issue was never resolved, and I performed the needed repairs myself.
- meaty 14y agoWe've had similar issues. You usually just threaten to "come to fucking <insert country> and burn the support center down" and they will escalate it to the right people and it will get resolved. Fine example: Sony just replaced my spare TV which was 2 years out of warranty. As for my ThinkPad, I bought two. If this one fails, I will just get the other one out and use it whilst repairing this with bits from eBay for not much money at all.
- madoublet 14y agoI have had no problem with the quality of HP machines. But, their support is horrible. I purchased a computer in late 2010 and in 2012 when Windows 8 came out, I could not upgrade it because they did not offer drivers for it. Their official policy (http://www8.hp.com/us/en/ad/windows-8/about-upgrading.html http://www8.hp.com/us/en/ad/windows-8/about-upgrading.html) is to only provide drivers for computers purchased after October 2011. A one year support window for products is completely unacceptable in my eyes.
- meaty 14y agoContrary to this, I'm still getting driver updates for my 2007 ThinkPad T61.
- sspiff 14y agoI've bought many laptops, and regretted it every time I didn't buy a ThinkPad. That's not to say the others are bad. It's just that ThinkPads are in a class of their own.
- UnoriginalGuy 14y agoJust install the Vista/Windows 7 drivers. The majority of them will work without issue.
- meaty 14y agoThat is true apart from Intel Graphics.
- UnoriginalGuy 14y agoRight, but those are supplied by Intel, not HP...
- meaty 14y agoHP doesn't write or supply any drivers - they are all 3rd party packages rewrapped by HP.