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Asus to surpass Apple in notebook sales: TrendForce

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Re: Asus to surpass Apple in notebook sales: TrendForce

#41
post #6

Quality wise who is better and reliable as a Windows or Linux machine manufacturer. Help me create a sequence: 1. Razer 2. Asus 3. Microsoft 4. Dell 5. Lenovo 6. HP 7. Acer 8. Sony (?) 9. Samsung Apple (?) Clevo (?) Toshiba (?) system76 (?) alienware (?)

Lenovo ideapad (cheap ones, superfish, avoid) and Lenovo Thinkpad (no superfish, mostly good) should be thought separate manufacturers. They're not comparable. For quality and reliability. This is astonishingly subjective and quite probably wrong :p 1. Thinkpad. Not as good as they were, but appear to be trying to improve again. Usually a fairly safe bet for BSD & Linux drivers. Support (UK) have been excellent. 2. D…

I recently got an HP Spectre, I would not recommend it (due to unresolved driver/hardware issues) but the build quality is pretty good! Keyboard is very nice with excellent travel.

Re: Asus to surpass Apple in notebook sales: TrendForce

#43
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can thinkpads reasonably be trusted after superfish though? Some security agencies don't even allow Lenovo hardware onsite, sort of implies something...

"Lenovo ideapad (cheap ones, superfish, avoid) and Lenovo Thinkpad (no superfish, mostly good) should be thought separate manufacturers. They're not comparable."

I'm a bit dubious of the idea that you can trust the parent company after the Superfish incident.

Re: Asus to surpass Apple in notebook sales: TrendForce

#44
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have its predecessor, the 303UB and on paper it's great, but it's not as nice as I expected. The 4K screen has a "faux 4K" pentile-like layout so smaller text and any type of thin line look horrid on Windows and stock Ubuntu (I Hackintoshed it for better multi monitor support and OSX anti-aliasing looks much better, making me wonder if Retinas have the same type of "faux 4K") The screen also has the same horrible y…

Isn't that the line with the Core M chips? They were a travesty for Windows 10. ~1000p on Passmark lol. Compare to an i7 6500U CPU, which has ~4500. TBH, 4K laptop screens are a total scam.

It's a i7 6xxxU (I don't remember the exact model off hand but I'd guess it's the 6500) with a GTX 940M...

Hi-Dpi support was so shoddy with multiple monitors on Windows and Linux that I sacrificed access to the 940M to Hackintosh it

Re: Asus to surpass Apple in notebook sales: TrendForce

#45
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can thinkpads reasonably be trusted after superfish though? Some security agencies don't even allow Lenovo hardware onsite, sort of implies something...

"Lenovo ideapad (cheap ones, superfish, avoid) and Lenovo Thinkpad (no superfish, mostly good) should be thought separate manufacturers. They're not comparable."

Except they're not separate manufacturers...

Re: Asus to surpass Apple in notebook sales: TrendForce

#46
post #6

Quality wise who is better and reliable as a Windows or Linux machine manufacturer. Help me create a sequence: 1. Razer 2. Asus 3. Microsoft 4. Dell 5. Lenovo 6. HP 7. Acer 8. Sony (?) 9. Samsung Apple (?) Clevo (?) Toshiba (?) system76 (?) alienware (?)

It doesn't work like that. Most PC "manufacturers" (including Apple) don't make PCs, and they all use the same Taiwanese OEMs/ODMs and Chinese factories. The main ones are Quanta, Compal, Pegatron (spun out of Asus), Foxconn (Hon Hai), Wistron (spun out of Acer), Inventec etc.

Quanta is probably the biggest notebook manufacturer, followed by Compal and Pegatron. Compal and Pegatron probably have the best quality overall.

Most PC suppliers use several manufacturers, sometimes as many as five (Dell, I think). Asus currently uses Pegatron, Compal and Wistron, so it's average quality should be pretty good.

It's a tough business because the number of viable contract manufacturers is growing while the number of viable PC OEMs is shrinking. (No more Gateway, Compaq, TI, IBM etc, except as brands.)

In addition, companies with large volume sales can afford to offer several product ranges aimed at different markets. Dell, for example, has different ranges for consumers (Inspiron is low end, XPS is high end) and for businesses (Latitude, Optiplex, Precision), plus Vostro for the SO/HO market.

So, it doesn't really make a lot of sense to compare, for example, Dell with HP with Lenovo. They all have multiple ranges made in different factories -- and they could all be using the same factories!

You'd really need to compare the same types of laptop (low-end, mid-range, high-end / consumer, business, enterprise) across different PC manufacturers.

If you don't do this, the "worst" brand is likely to be whichever company makes the biggest volumes of really cheap consumer laptops, especially if they don't support them particularly well. This used to be Acer. Today, it's probably Lenovo.

Conversely, the "best" brand is likely to be whichever company makes the smallest volumes of really expensive laptops ;-)

Re: Asus to surpass Apple in notebook sales: TrendForce

#47
post #6

Quality wise who is better and reliable as a Windows or Linux machine manufacturer. Help me create a sequence: 1. Razer 2. Asus 3. Microsoft 4. Dell 5. Lenovo 6. HP 7. Acer 8. Sony (?) 9. Samsung Apple (?) Clevo (?) Toshiba (?) system76 (?) alienware (?)

I've had a Fujitsu that lasted for seven years. Lenovos are also great but personally I don't trust them after what happened last year and I've heard good things for Dell and Toshiba. On the contrary I've heard horror stories regarding Acer, they're either hit or miss, mostly miss.

The thing is that most manufacturers have significantly raised the quality of their products especially in the high end range. We probably have to thank Apple for that which showed that is a huge market for high end laptops. Even HP builds quality machines these days.

Re: Asus to surpass Apple in notebook sales: TrendForce

#48
post #31
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly my thought, the build quality (plastic, stain resistance, etc) and screen resolution are on the cheap side, however if you're like me and you don't care about that sort of things (in favor of something affordable and "just works") I really suggest some ideapads.

Been running a cheap Ideapad for 4 years - waiting for it to die so I can upgrade but it refuses to do so.

Feel your pain, my daily driver is a 6 years old X201.

This laptop will probably outlive me, not even using it as a hammer managed to kill it...

Re: Asus to surpass Apple in notebook sales: TrendForce

#49
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Lenovo ideapad (cheap ones, superfish, avoid) and Lenovo Thinkpad (no superfish, mostly good) should be thought separate manufacturers. They're not comparable."

I'm a bit dubious of the idea that you can trust the parent company after the Superfish incident.

Why would you use preinstalled OS anyway? Every manufacturer installs ton of unneeded crapware. Just download pristine Windows iso and install it from scratch.

Re: Asus to surpass Apple in notebook sales: TrendForce

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lenovo ideapad (cheap ones, superfish, avoid) and Lenovo Thinkpad (no superfish, mostly good) should be thought separate manufacturers. They're not comparable. For quality and reliability. This is astonishingly subjective and quite probably wrong :p 1. Thinkpad. Not as good as they were, but appear to be trying to improve again. Usually a fairly safe bet for BSD & Linux drivers. Support (UK) have been excellent. 2. D…

Dell and HP have separate business and consumer laptop lines and they're not comparable in terms of quality. A Dell Latitude (historically good) is nothing like an Inspiron or XPS (inferior). Also one mustn't discount post sale service in evaluating options. The value of a particular laptop is more than the box itself. What happens if you have problems? How easy is it to get it fixed? How long will you be without it…

I did mention to separate the consumer and well made pro ranges for Dell and HP.

Had several Thinkpads, only one needed repair, was handled quickly and smoothly. Repaired first time.

HP and Dell have been OK, for me, with support.

I've had issue with individual products of theirs, but not laptops.

I didn't like how Dell handled a faulty monitor, but is it relevant to their pro laptop experience?

They're both harder to deal with than Thinkpad, in my experience, in my country.

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