How did you buy your laptop?

Hey folks, I am curious about HOW you came about to purchase your present laptop so I prepared this poll:


What is your prime purchase consideration:

1) Computers are very personal. I need to touch it before I buy it.
2) Performance and reviews are everything so I ordered mine sight unseen.
3) I don't care much, I just get what's on sale.


Describe your laptop range, your purchase method and your happiness after one month:

1) Low end laptop bought after seeing it, happy with it.
2) Low end laptop bought after seeing it, unhappy with it.
3) Low end laptop bought sight unseen, happy with it.
4) Low end laptop bought sight unseen, unhappy with it.
5) High end laptop bought after seeing it, happy with it.
6) high end laptop bought after seeing it, unhappy with it.
7) High end laptop bought sight unseen, happy with it.
8) High end laptop bought sight unseen, unhappy with it.

I hope I am doing this poll OK. I don't seem to be able to see the poll preview. Feel free to chime in, it's my first poll

[edit] Never mind. It's a bit clunky but it should be OK. Do feel free to chime in on how to make my next poll look and work better

 

Ok somehow the top 3 add to 125% at the moment

 

How sight unseen is sight unseen, though? For example, I purchased an 8740w. Now, being an 8740w, it's rather difficult to manage to see it in person unless you know someone that has one, but I was able to see some very nice photographs from multiple angles, covering both the outside and inside (not a few thanks to Aikimox and m8o). With that, and with knowing that it was built to MIL-STD-810G, I felt confident enough in my purchase. If I hadn't been able to see everything I did, though, and if there hadn't been enough independent reviews on it, I might have skipped it (well, assuming there were alternatives. There aren't many in this category).

 

When I made the option of being able to make several selections (select 1 to 3 and 4 to 11), it also made it possible to select several within the same section, which could perhaps explain that phenomenon. perhaps someone chose option 1 AND option 2... When I wrote this poll, I expected to be able to have two separate sections...

 

That would be sight unseen, because you did not see the laptop perform in person. I mean, how can you judge an LCD panel from a picture? And the trackpoint, touchpad and keyboard... You can't try it at all!

Perhaps different wording could help... I struggled a lot to find something that I thought would be clear and concise enough...

 

You can't, directly, but you can in comparison to another one, which is what Aikimox's review provided (side by side shots of a M17x and an 8740w). And you know what they say, everything is relative... It also helped that HP has a pretty generous return policy, as well as support (on the business end, anyway).

 

I buy what I need and what is the best price/performance. Now Dell Outlet has interesting deals, sometimes you can get the base model and put more RAM/HDD space later on. I also try to get opinions of people who own the notebook I am interested in, and also read reviews (duh).

Course if I were a billionaire I would have a tricked out Sager...

 

I poked around the internet for a few hours looking for 1920x1080 laptops, found the HDX series, found a review on NBR, read them, and ordered within the week. I've been quite pleased with it ever since

It'll be a sad day when I have to replace it though

 

For me, first I set up the budget how much I wanted to spend and what kind of requirement I wanted, look for several laptop that were in my price bracket and read reviews, if not I would read user reviews about it such as battery life, heat, any issues etc.

After that I would select few ones which I think its suitable, go to shop so I could see it in real life, and it feels; how much it weight and feel on my hand, it looks and of course how comfortable the keyboard. After all of this and I pretty happy with it then I buy it

 

Definitely. Customer support from India is indeed stellar, however I found the repair workmanship at HP Canada to be mediocre at best.

In any case, it is a good idea to order several machines and return those that "don't make it". Of course you need to have a sufficient credit margin to do so

 

It's quite remarkable to see so many people buying 'the reasonable way' like I did (sight unseen). I would have expected to see many more responses of people buying what they saw in a store. It would seem from the poll that most people here could not find what they got in a store! Of course it could also mean that the people HERE are a special bunch that buy online, from specs...

Personally, I would have preferred to see my laptop in a store before buying, but none of my two current ones were bought that way: one was a one time black friday deal I had never seen before buying and I never saw any laptop of the caliber of my second one in any store.

I sure wish that stores would stock more machines instead of just the most common ones. It would help to get acquainted and to see whether you like the keyboard or the screen. But then again, even if you get a store laptop, sales people simply don't have the time and the knowledge to lay it all out anymore, and that's probably why they give you such generous return policies.

 

I spent a great deal of time on these boards before buying the laptop in my signature.
I made some research in regards to a 'budget acceptable' laptop, then found that my siggie lappie was on sale in John Lewis store in London at the time, and voila.

I make sure to do online research in terms of components and performance (what I need) and find what can I get for an affordable price tag.
Simple.

 

Hehe.

I did research on my acer, found that the 5315 chassis was the same, bought a broken one for 100$ and the 5720g motherboard for another 100$.
Thats the kind of research that leaves me satisfied.

I didn't do a lot of research into the build quality of the particular chassis, I had heard bad things and that it had been around for a very long time. But I am VERY impressed with it!
I'm pretty disappointed with the chassis of the gx630. I thought the better brand would have a better case but I was wrong.
I cant even pick up this MSI with one hand or I get afraid of cracking BGAs. There is no frame around the motherboard. The acer icl50/icw50 chassis has a lot of supporting plastic around the motherboard the whole thing just feels so SOLID.
I guess some things you just have to figure out with experience.