<p>Which is the better laptop brand: Lenovo or Dell?</p>
<p>Reputation-wise, I’ve found that people tend to think of Lenovo as more reliable than Dell, especially when looking at Lenovo’s thinkpad line. I don’t have personally experience with Dell, but I know people who have Dell laptops that have lasted 5+ years. I also know people who have said that their Dell laptops have died after 1-2 years. I don’t know the specifics of what computers they got (or even whether or not they took care of it).</p>
<p>You know, I agonized a lot about buying a laptop for my daughter when she was starting college. Mac or Windows? What was the best brand? How fast a processor, and how big a hard drive? What features would she need? Were there features that she wouldn’t exactly need, but she’d appreciate having them?</p>
<p>In the end, I bought her a slightly low-end Dell. I spent money on RAM and maybe hard drive size, and I paid to upgrade to a better processor than she’ll ever need. I didn’t think Dell was the best manufacturer, or that I was getting her a really fabulous computer. But I got a pretty good price.</p>
<p>And you know what? It’s been fine. It’s satisfies all her academic and personal wants and needs. (Well, her computing wants and needs. She might tell you she has a lot of wants I have still not met.) It still works. She’s pleased with it. But I kind of regret the money I spent on the processor, and I wish I could get back most of the time I spent worrying about what would be the “best” computer for her.</p>
<p>If you’re just using your computer to use the internet and to make words–to write papers, to make Excel sheets or Power Point presentations–just about any computer you buy new will be more than enough computer for college.</p>
<p>But a laptop for college is one of the very few purchases for which I’d give serious thought to buying the extended service plan. With damage protection.</p>
<p>Does anyone here have a Lenovo T430? If you do, how do you like it?</p>
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<p>My experience as a user and as someone who works on computers…including laptops for a living is that most of the problems with Dell notebooks tends to be with the lower-end consumer grade models like the Inspiron/Vostro notebooks.</p>
<p>While the quality control has slipped on their higher end Latitude/XPS models since the early-mid '00s, the slippage hasn’t been as dramatic though I’ve had a few latitudes dumped on me by clients/bosses who didn’t want to bother with repairs…even if it’s merely replacing an admittedly cheaply made plastic fan. </p>
<p>The Lenovos have seemed to be great all around. Have a low-end lenovo dumped due solely due to client being fed up with dealing with virus issues caused by his HS kid. Serves as one of my main testing laptops now. :)</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies!</p>