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> Would I pay a 'premium' price for a Lenovo? Possibly, but there's gotta be a bigger faith in the brand, and I don't have that right now.

Maybe you just didn't know, but the ThinkPad brand is highly respected in the business world for its quality and service (the latter of which IBM continues to provide).

I do know that. The article didn't seem to be talking about business-level stuff as much as non-business-focused decisions.

I did mention that Dell is used a lot by businesses for service, and I know many companies that go with Dell just because of the service. That's largely out of the realm of most consumer-level experiences with the Dell brand (my grandparents never had a Dell repairman show up to fix the hard drive, and I'm not sure Dell even had an option to pay $$$ to get someone to come out).

Also, I was speaking as an individual consumer - I could have said 'Dell' instead, but in both cases the issue's the same for me. As a consumer, my experiences with HP, Compaq and Dell have been pretty abysmal over the past decade, and I'm not hearing about any fundamental shifts in their businesses that would increase my faith that I'll have a better experience with their products in the future. A spec sheet touting low-power chips, increased wi-fi coverage, lighter screens, etc - none of those will bring me back as a consumer. For businesses, they'll pay a premium for top-notch support (and they do - Dell/Lenovo/others). For consumers, we don't really seem to be given this option.

I don't know anything about Dell, but Lenovo certainly offers business-level customer service to consumers. You can purchase a warranty plan (which I have) that will bring a Lenovo repairman to your doorstep within 24 hours.

This is just plain wrong. Dell sells warranties with in-home repair. Please stop spreading FUD.

http://imgur.com/uqBV8

"When buying a Macbook, I know I'll be able to get parts and service for it - often from a local Apple store - for several years. If I buy a Dell N5040 today, and need service for it 2 years from now, will I be able to get it?"

There's one other thing you're getting: resale value. I wrote a piece on how to buy a Mac: http://jseliger.com/2010/11/01/how-to-buy-a-mac/ and should probably write another on how and why to sell them. I first bought a PowerBook in 2004 and sold it for about 40% of its original value three years later, at which point I bought an iMac, which I sold about a year ago for half its value. My parents were amazed that computers could hold any kind of value at all; part of the reason Macs retain their value is because Apple doesn't sell really cheap Macs, but the other part is simple: buyers can actually figure out a) what configuration you're selling, b) its approximate age, and c) its approximate value. If you're selling a random Dell or HP with a string of numbers and letters after it, most people can't tell if you're selling a computer you bought six months ago for $3,000 or a computer you bought six years ago for $400. You can reinstall the OS quickly and easily.

Basically, no one save (to some degree) Lenovo with Thinkpads has any kind of brand recognition.

The extra one that should be mentioned (but only for used Macs, I suppose) is "what was the latest Mac Apple dropped support for in OS X, and how much newer is the Mac you're looking at?" I hear with Lion they burned the Intel Core Duo (i.e. 32-bit) CPU Macs. Which are probably still pretty solid machines if you get some other OS running on them.

When buying a Macbook, I know I'll be able to get parts and service for it - often from a local Apple store - for several years. If I buy a Dell N5040 today, and need service for it 2 years from now, will I be able to get it?

That has never crossed my mind. I always just assume I can get anything on the internet. And largely this is true. For pretty much any machine I have, even custom built ones, I can easily replace everything within a week or so.

While there are many positive stories about Macs on the internet, I wonder how close to reality that is.

I only have one experience - a 3 month old Macbook's USB ports all stopped working. I went into the nearest Apple store and they said it had "water damage". There was no sign of water damage anywhere around the ports, and when I opened up the laptop there was no sign inside.

When I asked how they knew, I was told they "had a method of testing", which they were not going to share with me, and that was that.

Sounds horrible. Did you try another store in case they'd make a different decision?

often from a local Apple store - for several years. If I buy a Dell N5040 today, and need service for it 2 years from now

Don't care. A decentish laptop runs $500-700 these days. In two years it's better to just throw it away and get a newer one with better specs for the same.

Sure my 5 year old MBP runs fine...but can I actually run anything on it but basic web browsing these days? Not really. So it sits in the corner collecting dust unless I need to break it out for random page testing.

This is nonsense. It's buying into the Apple mythology. Having supplied Dells at a previous company, yes, they stock parts for several years. They're reasonable PCs for the price point, but the build quality isn't great. At least with a dell you have the option of servicing it yourself - I've got half an office of mac users here who aren't too keen with the lead times on Genius Bar servicing. They all (well, mostly all) love Apple gear, but their stories about getting service are actually pretty mundane.

I say this as someone who grew tired of building my own desktops years ago, speccing out parts (and trying to find linux drivers for them during my linux years), and have gone more mobile.

Building your own PC these days is nothing like it used to be. Buy mobo+cpu+ram, buy gpu if you're a gamer, done. Everything pretty much just works together, not like the old days. Pretty much everything is on the mobo. Linux supports almost everything these days, too - almost gone are the days when you had to chime in with 'ah, but does it support linux?'

Would I pay a 'premium' price for a Lenovo?

I would. I love their laptops. They take a licking and keep on ticking. Unfortunately the dream run came to an end recently - I bought an x201 and the screen is absolutely woeful. The viewing angle is so narrow that I can't watch a movie without some of the blacks being wrong, despite sitting square in front of the screen. It's not so bad with non-blacks, but with the light bleed and visual angle issues... ugh...

"they stock parts for several years"

I have some experience buying servers from Dell and I gotta say that I don't believe their hype about being supplied with parts long term. We got hosed pretty bad when we couldn't buy power supplies. Their sales staff refusal to treat the place I worked as an educational institution (2 year accredited college) was just icing on the cake.

I guess the story is that service in most places kinda sucks. The mac guys in my office report losing their laptops - their business machines - for several weeks for what should be simple repairs (hard drive replacement and the like), with no replacement offered.

There was a study on laptop repairs done a year ago or so, reported on Slashdot, that said the repair rate was the same for Dell and Apple, both of which were the middle of the pack. The best laptops in terms of repair rate were Asus, Toshiba, and one other I can't remember - I don't think it was Lenovo. I can't recall who was the tailender for that study, either, sorry.

I can also say that while Toshiba make nice laptops, when you need support you really need a crowbar to get them to help you if you're out of warranty - they won't even talk to you (even "Where can I find a link to a manual" simple stuff) until you pony up money beforehand. At least that was the case ~5 years ago or so in Aus.

Is this the study you're referring to? http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/315387/asus_apple_pr...

Nope, that's not laptops - it was specifically a laptop study.

The slashdot story may have been representing this article, but I honestly can't recall http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/17/laptop-reliability-survey...

...x201 ... screen is absolutely woeful.

x220 screen is supposed to be nice. I'll know in a week.

My experience with Apple service has always been exactly mundane as it should be. I turn up and show them the device -- no receipts or other documentation -- and 2 minutes later, they tell me it'll be repaired by tomorrow under warranty.

I recently tried to get service for an Acer netbook power supply that just fell apart, and ended up being told that they couldn't be sure I hadn't broken it deliberately, I'd have to send everything (PSU and netbook) back to them, and then they'd decide whether I was going to be charged. Worlds apart.