Sony or HP laptops, are either good choices?

[jess_g]

I am wondering if people here like either brand for a laptop? I have read some reviews on amazon and hp and compaq had good reviews while gateway and dell were mixed. I am trying to decide what brand to get and then I will decide which one. I think Sony has some good deals on referbished laptops but I don't know anything about them. I realy want a macbook but don't think we can afford one now.

Thanks,

Jessica.

[WatchingThemGrow]

We only do Dell. My husband's IT company only does Dell - well, except for the one guy who lives and breathes all things Apple. Actually, I think he left for a dream job at Apple.

ETA: I forgot about my mom's HP or Compaq - can't remember which it was -one of these. It died after 1.5 years, and it was only minimally used. She wasn't even a BBB user or anything ;)

[ahrimie]

i've had both and can only recommend the sony. our HP kept having problems and good thing we bought the extended warranty from best buy. they finally said the last fix would be too much so we got store credit instead and our computer was 2 yrs old at the time. we bought it for $900 and got credit for $800! so i highly highly recommend the warranty program from there. i almost always use it with laptops.

for the sony, i had one of their higher end models and had no problems whatsoever with it. and for the money, you get a lot. but, i did have a friend buy one of their lower models (this was like 8 yrs ago though) and she had tons of problems with hers.

my bro recently bought a high end dell laptop and has had a million problems with it. but, their service has been awesome.... parts sent within 24 hrs, techs came to the house, etc.

personally, i'm a mac lover... i've had them for 4 years and never a single problem. i've called apple support twice but both were easy fixes.

[khm]

My husband and I both have widescreen HPs from the business section of their website. I've heard unfavorable things about their home laptops, but I've loved our business ones. My home does has a home desktop and it has been fine for years. His is 2 years old and nary a problem. Mine is about 6 months old.

I was always a Dell girl, based on our good luck (my husband's small company used them) and on a friend who was the IT guy for the county. He SWORE by Dell..... until they had about 2 dozen desktops crap out within a year of their purchase date. Bad batch of motherboards apparently. He wasn't impressed with their CS on the matter, so he's no longer a Dell guy.

A friend had crappy Dell-luck, so he got a Sony and it was great for years. When it died, he got another Sony. It crapped out in record time.

In short, I think they all change suppliers so often that you really can't trust anyone else's experience! It's a crap shoot. Pick the one that is the best deal and consider buying the warranty.

[Drag0nflygirl]

We've had our HP 17" laptop for a year now and it's been great. It's our first though, so I have nothing to compare it to.

[KrystalS]

I have a Sony and I absolutely love it. I've owned several computers and this is the only one I've never had problems with. It's 2 yrs old. Currently have a HP desktop that DD uses to play games. We've had tons of problems with it. Luckily my uncle works for an IT company and he always fixes our computers when we have problems. It's 4 yrs old and we've had to replace the hard drive twice. My husband has an HP laptop and we've had tons of problems with it too. It's about 2 yrs old now but when it was about 6 months old the hard drive burned up, luckily it was still under warranty so they had to replace it. I will never again buy an HP.

[mytwosons]

When I bought this laptop (Toshiba) about 1.5 yrs ago, the Geek Squad guys from Best Buy told me they have the least problems with Sony. I think they also rated highly in consumer reports.