Hardware geeks, your advice please

November 1, 2006 3:38 PM

Hardware geeks, your advice please: what models of laptop can handle being used at a steep angle most of the time? Please help me before I kill another laptop.

I use this with my laptop, say, 8 or more hours a day, and then on a flat surface while I'm sitting up practically the rest of my waking hours. Between the heavy usage and the steep angle I've had things simply come loose internally several times on two Dells so far, leaving me with expensive repairs and long stretches of Internet withdrawal exacerbated by having little other to do besides stare at my bedroom ceiling. Google tells me this is because of inferior hardware. Since it looks like I'll be in the market for a new laptop soon (yes, another component came loose) I'd like to see if there are any brands that can handle this treatment particularly well. Thanks, hive mind!

posted by Soliloquy to Computers & Internet (28 answers total)

Panasonic makes Toughbooks.
posted by lee at 4:14 PM on November 1, 2006

Specifically, what is coming loose? I suspect it's more an issue with Dell than with the steep angle. I have an old Powerbook from 8 years ago that's still in use as a DIY digital picture frame. It sits at a 60 degree angle and has been running like that for the last 6 years.

The only failure point I can think is the harddrive. Panasonic and perhaps Toshiba have a line of more rugged laptops under the Toughbook line. They're supposed to be more shock resistant.

Since your current laptop is dead, try having a friend open it up and fiddle with all the wiring. You might get lucky.
posted by Cog at 4:20 PM on November 1, 2006

Second to Toughbooks in overall durability and build quality are ThinkPads. (For Windows laptops, that is.)
posted by jjg at 4:31 PM on November 1, 2006

If you're just sitting still with the machine at that angle all day -- that is, not subjecting it to a lot of jostling -- it's likely a question of build quality, an area in which Dell is notoriously suspect. The durability of a Toughbook would be great, but probably overkill for your needs and not worth paying a premium for.
posted by jjg at 4:36 PM on November 1, 2006

Thinkpads
posted by maelanchai at 4:44 PM on November 1, 2006

Pretty much every laptop on the market with the exception of a Dell will withstand your intended usage without incident. Dells, however, have abysmal build quality. I suspect your Dell would have fallen apart even if you customarily used it in a more conventional position.
posted by majick at 5:22 PM on November 1, 2006

I have a Thinkpad which seems to survive lots of abuse. I have never been impressed with Dell laptops (good desktops though).
posted by caddis at 5:57 PM on November 1, 2006

Buy a thinkpad.

Honestly though, I abuse the crap out of my Latitude D620. I have dropped it twice from 3' onto concrete. It gets thrown around in its bag when i get home, when i put it into the car. its on pretty much 24/7. At work its always at a 60 digree angle in one of those funky dell docks. When it isnt docked, its on my lap at at 30 digree angle.

Not all Dell's are created equal, but the business line is solid. Get the 3yr onsite warranty and any breakage is fixed next day for free.
posted by SirStan at 6:07 PM on November 1, 2006

ThinkPads. (For Windows laptops, that is.)

ThinkPads, period.

There used to be a Cupertino-based company that made extremely high quality laptops with build quality and QA that was easily as good as Thinkpads. But they completely blew it on the MacBook Pros. Between mooing noises, improper thermal compound application, random shutdowns, keycaps that wear out prematurely, and a whole assortment of other problems with no end in sight, Apple is doing its best to make Dell look decent.

Apple's support programs are truly outstanding. The rate of machines that have to be supported is appalling. The willingness of Macintosh users to put up with this is amazing and a serious tribute to the loyalty inspired by 20+ years of brilliant marketing.
posted by toxic at 6:18 PM on November 1, 2006

I second (fourth) the "the problem is the Dell" sentiments.
posted by krisjohn at 6:32 PM on November 1, 2006

MacBooks, period. (Just had to cancel out toxic there. :)
posted by trevyn at 6:44 PM on November 1, 2006

Dell, incidentally, sells a docking station which keeps laptops at exactly that angle -- so you're not exceeding the specifications, at least. That's just Dell for you.

(I'm on my second keyboard and second set of hinges on my D600 that's a bit over a year old.)
posted by mendel at 7:20 PM on November 1, 2006

fifthing (or whatever) thinkpads here. I have a thinkpad X30 which i carry around with me and use heavily every day. I did have the hard disk fail that came with the machine: it was used when i bought it, and it started in with I/O errors at something like 4 years old.

But the big drama: several months ago, i was at a friend's house, had left the laptop, closed, on the floor in a place i thought was out of the way... my friend was literally climbing up a bookshelf to get something, jumped down from several shelves up, and landed smack on the machine. The screen was usable but clearly damaged, but the rest of the machine was completely intact.

I replaced the screen with a spare part from eBay for relatively cheap, and it's worked like a charm since.

a computer that can withstand being jumped on by a full-grown adult gets high marks in my book.
posted by dkg at 7:25 PM on November 1, 2006

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've heard that Thinkpad quality is not what it used to be, since the Lenovo branding took over. I don't have any first hand experience, FWIW, but this is what I hear. I'll also chime in with direct experience that Dell makes shitty laptops. It's rare to come across a laptop that doesn't break at some point early in its life...
posted by knave at 7:29 PM on November 1, 2006

SirStan has it right : Not all Dell's are created equal, but the business line is solid.

Lotta Dell hate in this thread. If you buy the discount machine for 400$, what do you expect? I use Dell's Precision series laptops and they are bomb-proof and ultra-reliable, and the support has been great. I also use my machine almost every waking hour and beat the crap out of it, and it works like new.

Just buy from Dell Small Business.
posted by fake at 8:18 PM on November 1, 2006

For sturdiness you can't beat a thinkpad. One time I was going down some stairs and tripped, dropped my thinkpad about five feet onto concrete, then landed on top of it. Not a scratch. It's about 6 years old and still gets daily use. This was before the sale to Lenovo, so I can't vouch for the current models.

(I pretty much tell this anecdote at every opportunity, but I'm still kind of amazed to this day how well those little tanks hold up.)
posted by Hildago at 8:19 PM on November 1, 2006

Lenovo were making Thinpads for IBM for quite a while before they bought the whole company. My understanding is that the Thinkpad level Lenovos are essentially the same, but the new 3000 series might not be.
posted by markr at 10:44 PM on November 1, 2006

Ditto on the Thinkpads. The "tougher" versions are the "T" models. The "Z" models and 3000 series don't seem quite as rugged.
posted by SteveInMaine at 8:28 AM on November 2, 2006

I've heard that Thinkpad quality is not what it used to be, since the Lenovo branding took over.

I have one of the last IBM branded T42 units. I bought it because I was concerned that the overall quality would go down after the buyout. There was a lot of fear and hand-wringing about this when it happened, but as it turns out, it was unfounded worry.

A good friend of mine supports a fleet of about 3000 Lenovo built T43 (44?) units. His experience with them, and my experience using one of his, suggests that Lenovo is doing an excellent job with the Thinkpad line -- at least among the T series and X series, which are aimed at business users.

His company sent about 2% of their previous T23-series thinkpads back to IBM for service at some point during their three year lifespan/warranty. So far, he's sent exactly 3 Lenovo units in.
posted by toxic at 12:13 PM on November 2, 2006

MacBooks, period. (Just had to cancel out toxic there. :)

Thanks for proving my point about the brand loyalty bit.

Apple offers a meager 1 year warranty on MacBooks and MacBook Pros, unless you purchase an extension through AppleCare (this is the same as Dell offers on its home units, which everyone seems to agree are pure shit).

Apple's last quarterly report suggested that they'd serviced almost 9% of the Intel-based laptops that they'd shipped (and none of them are even a year old yet).

Think about that again. Almost one in ten MacBook/MacBook Pro users has returned their laptop for service already. They've been on the market a total of 9 months.

That's an awful track record, and it's a relatively new development for Apple (the powerbooks and {T}iBooks weren't sent back for service at nearly that rate). It's also likely to get worse as the first batch of machines ages.


If IBM had ever shipped me a Thinkpad that had factory related hardware problems in it's first 6 months of life, I'd probably never buy another one, and I'd certainly not recommend the brand to someone who's looking for a machine suitable for heavy usage at interesting angles (read: angles where cooling might be less efficient).

But then again, the PC hardware market is competitive. If Dell sends me crap, my next machine can be a Toshiba, and I can still run Windows (or Ubuntu, or whatever) on it. If I'm a dedicated OS X user, and Apple sells me shit, I can't look elsewhere for my hardware.
posted by toxic at 1:19 PM on November 2, 2006

Thanks for proving my point about the brand loyalty bit.

You're welcome, as if anyone needed proof that Mac users are loyal.

But it's not the advertising, it's the whole experience.

It's also likely to get worse as the first batch of machines ages.

Unless the reason for those repairs ended up being fixed by firmware updates, which, hey, look, they have.
posted by trevyn at 2:20 PM on November 2, 2006

Apple's last quarterly report suggested that they'd serviced almost 9% of the Intel-based laptops that they'd shipped

Could you provide a source for this? The 10-Q for the period ending 7/1 has not yet been filed, and the one ending 4/1 doesn't appear to contain anything to this effect.
posted by trevyn at 2:33 PM on November 2, 2006

Could you provide a source for this?

Not an online one.

It's in the research summary that my financial advisor sent me within the last month or so (I'm an Apple shareholder). I assumed it was based on the warranty cost sections from the 10-Q, or one of the analyst or earnings calls. I've since chucked it, or I'd go back and look at it in more detail.

The closest I can do is point you at the Macintouch reliability survey results, in which 13% of surveyed MB and MBP machines were repaired at least once.
posted by toxic at 4:10 PM on November 2, 2006

Please, let's not have a Mac vs. PC debate here; while I hear only (well, mostly) good things about Mac hardware, it isn't an option for me because it can't run my voice recognition program of choice. So it looks like my next computer will be a ThinkPad.
posted by Soliloquy at 4:14 PM on November 2, 2006

Understood, Soliloquy, I apologize.

But, uh, you do know that the Intel Macs can run Windows, right? I have one that runs only XP, and it does it rather well.
posted by trevyn at 5:19 PM on November 2, 2006

My apologies as well.
posted by toxic at 6:45 PM on November 2, 2006

Trevyn, I asked about running it with Windows XP on the new Macs, but the guy at the Genius Bar said I'd need drivers in order to access all the sound functions or something, and the program I use is no longer in development.
posted by Soliloquy at 7:20 AM on November 3, 2006

It sounds like he just meant you have to install the (free) Boot Camp drivers CD. I use my iMac with XP and a headset for voice chat with no problems. Any drivers you have for a special device (USB, etc.) will install just like they will on any other XP machine.
posted by trevyn at 3:00 PM on November 3, 2006