Why did you switch away from HP to another brand?

I'm interested to know why, please share your experiences. I had switched away to a Samsung, then an Acer and Macbook Air because the HP notebooks were dying way too fast.

 

I'm currently on an HP laptop, but my next won't be. I fear the heat and the horror that is disassembly. Also, the driver support is horrible... This thousand euro laptop of mine was bought two years ago, but there are no win8 drivers yet....

I also find their whole system lacking, I can't order parts I need and the site doesn't really help.

 

I'm current using HP laptop only, all the features are good with less price. I prefer hp only.

 

I have had an HP Envy 2270NR 17 for nearly 3 years now, and it has behaved well for the last 2 years following some headaches with wifi and BIOS at start as new. I'd like to try another brand (not Mac) but not sure if they would be any better in future. Still plan to stick with this unit for a couple or more years.

 

I concur ; ) Envy 17 2xxx 3D here. The screen is a joy.

Wish we could hook up an eGPU to this baby. It would last me another year at the very least!

 

MSI...Desktop-Gaming-Entertainment notebook. I want a real desktop replacement notebook, separate video card, 32Gb ram, 3+ drives, BluRay,,,,,,,

Here's Why.....

HP, They are giving me the royal screw over again.
It's the 2nd time, no strike 3 for them, ever again.
My In Warranty ENVY 17-3090NR 3D A9P77UA will be returned unrepaired, 81 days in the repair depot, no screen available (lots on ebay and amazon).
Only willing to replace my ENVY with a $700.oo single SATA HDD notebook, for a $2250.oo Envy, and my unit has 1x mSATA SSD and 2x SATA HDD's.
She (Jennifer), asked me what if any unit would be acceptable, I conservatively choose the zBook F1J74UT that utilities the 3 HDD configuration mSATA SSD/SATA HDD, hardware benchmarks are within 10% of the Envy's.
She didn't even acknowledge the selection and jumped straight to "return the computer to you unrepaired".



This is breaking their own warranty, all 3 categories.
$190.oo for extended BS from HP, ripped off.
1 year and 9 months use.



But that's not the worst part, I started the repair process on Aug 1/14, and on the 18th Jennifer decided to email me and see how my repair worked out, she thought I had it back for a week when it had been in the repair depot, sitting untouched, because there was no repair order to fix it. I reverse track the UPS shipping label to the repair depot, confirm it was there, and send HER the address/email/phone/company/person who had possession of my notebook.
Amazingly, it took her another week to send the repair order number to the depot, its now almost 1 month into this BS with HP.
Last time, it took 6 months with them..........



The news that HP was convicted of bribery, and fined by the USDOJ for 135 Million Dollars.....
Kinda shows how they act with impunity towards everyone.
Hewlett-Packard Russia Pleads Guilty to and Sentenced for Bribery of Russian Government Officials | OPA | Department of Justice

As for us in Canada, where I'm at, HP stand to be banned from doing businwess here for 10 years with the federal gov.
This mandate, if more commonwealth country's follow suit, what's going to happen tp HP's service? Can it get worse?
Key government suppliers face ban as strict anti-corruption rules take hold - The Globe and Mail

And of course Meg Whitmans announcement that HP is splitting into 2 entities, the loosing personal computer division, and the profitable printer ink division......
LOL,,,,this company made its prophet from printer ink? No wonder the pc division customer service is such shambles.
Seriously though, Megs cutting 50,000 jobs world wide, and she makes her bonus based on the amounts of cuts and $$$ saved.


So then, it boiled down to MSI, a company that builds computers, only computers, and does a fine job at it.
Comparable specs to the HP zBook, better SSH/HDD combinations (raid), but at MORE than 1/3 lower the cost ( $1500.oo) of the HP zBook.
MSI Global GT70-2OK Workstation
http://www.ncix.com/detail/msi-gt70-2ok-633us-i7-4700mq-99-91262.htm

 

So I was wondering if you sued HP for the breach of contract? They would owe you damages and pay your lawyer fees.

 

I did switch away from HP for a while after my HP dv8000 that I ordered in 2005 died a few years later. It was customized and high end at the time. A year and 2 months into my ownership, the DVD optical drive failed, and after consulting with tech support, they concluded that the optical drive failed, and since I was out of warranty, the best they could do is send me to the right department for parts. I wasn't willing to pay for the overpriced part and just bought it on eBay.

Then another year in and the hard drive failed, again, this time I bought the part on New Egg. After it died a year later, I decided to get a Dell laptop, since we were using Dells at work and I recently bought a Dell XPS 420 desktop. After problems with my studio 15, and seeing the problems others have had with different brands, I've come to the conclusion that most laptops aren't designed to last for more than a few years.

Just about every computer manufacturer out there has some type of problem that I've seen in real life or read about online. Buying a desktop or laptop is really a crapshoot. You might get lucky and buy one that will have no problems, or you may be unlucky and get one that has all kinds of problems.

I've therefore concluded that I will never drop over a grand on a laptop or desktop ever again. I'll just get the less expensive model, get my use out of it for a couple of years, and move on to the next. It's simply not worth the risk of spending a lot of money on any computer. For this reason, I've gone back to HP to get an entry level laptop, and I have no illusions that this thing will last. But its a less expensive configuration and just for school only. If it breaks down in a couple of years, oh well.

 

I wonder if their consumer laptops have more issues; I'm moving from my 8440p to a Spectre x360 only because the 8440p is finally falling apart... after four years of being carried around by the screen, dropped, and banged into. Replaced the fan every year (it got loud from being choked with cat fur), used it with Linux, W7, and W8. Nary an issue. Also, my work 8540w is way nicer than the Dell POS it got replaced by.

Certainly better than I'd trust the modern Lenovos to be.

 

their consumer models I have no hands on really but have seen many fall apart HOWEVER their main business units are fantastic. I actually switched from MacBook Pro's to the HP Elitebook 8740W way back for video editing and still keep getting new workstations from them and many co workers also have the Probook series units with 0 issues. its the same with Dell you can get some of the worst consumer models as well but yet the better models and the business/workstation models are unbelievably good.

you can not exactly pick laptops by the branding sticker on the front ( 99% are made by Compal, Wisetron, Foxconn, etc anyways ) but have to look at them on a model by model or series.

 

I'm quite happy with my Envy 15j so far. Yes, I did have to reinstall the system 2 weeks ago because the stock Toshiba 750Gb hard drive failed (first laptop drive to fail on me since 2007), but overall the system is good. It is also the easiest of the laptops I have owned to take apart. I'm not overly impressed with the screen viewing angles, but that's a pretty common thing. All in all, I think for the price it was a very good deal.

Will my next one be from HP? I dunno. I'm not the kind of being brand-loyal, so my next laptop will be whatever I will have considered to be the best balance of price vs features.

 

Actually the hp business notebook series have decent build quality and thats why I still use them for work purposes
Their consumer in the other hand have finicky build quality and is difficult to access the hardware
even to replace the hard drive almost 50% of the laptop have to be dissembled.

 

I switched away from HP back in 2009 to Toshiba since i had 4 HP laptops failed on me in less than a year A DV8000, DV9000 (Replacement), DV6000, DV5z. Motherboard issues and overheating/build quality issues even when i cleaned the fans and dealt with bad customer service from them having to wait up to 2 -3 weeks for repairs because they didnt have the parts. I bought two toshiba laptops and both of them lasted over a year and my P750 still working until this day after almost 4 years, I went back to HP because i got a great deal for this laptop with its high specs and only spent $830, Specs are on my sig, Original price was $1300, Sadly i had to sent it to repairs twice in over a year, one for a failing fan which that they didnt repair the first time and thought the HD was the problem so they gave me a new one and after nearly cursing them out i sent it back to repairs they ended up finally replacing the fan and also give me a new motherboard. I dont know this will be my last HP laptop or not but it wont be another ENVY since it seems like HP destroyed the ENVY series

 

You had a DV8000 too huh? It doesn't matter if you switch to Toshiba, Dell, Asus, etc. They are all made in the same factories by Quanta and Foxconn in Shanghai and Chongquin, China, although Foxconn builds the Apple stuff too.

 

So I am an HP employee so I am a little biased but I have actually gone back and forth between HP and Apple laptop for personal use...

I've had several HP laptops and never had any issues... I did aquire a lowend consumer HP laptop for my daughter which is of questionable quality...

I personally have had

DV4000' DV6t Quad edition and currently have a spectre 360. other than one failed drive fixed under warranty no major problems. Now I am not hard on laptops.

For my work laptops which I am much harder on however I have had a failed hinge on one system...however I think over a 10 year track record thats not too bad. I suspect the real low end Wallmart special are junk although the stream 11 seems pretty solid for it's cost....

I have also had a couple apple laptops and my wife only has apple computers...

I had a 12 inch ibook g4, Macbook 13 unibody and my wife has hard 15 macbook pro, macbook (plastic one), and currently has an Air...

I almost went for an Air over the spectre....this time but after seeing the Spectre x360 in best buy went for the spectre....

I did buy a lenovo gaming laptop which I returned after about a week...the hybrid SSD was junk.

I probably wouldn't switch to anything other than Apple from my HP laptops...however I think you get what you pay for with the HP's whereas Apples limited product options ensures consistent high quality...

 

True but at least other manufacturers cares a bit more about their customers and their laptop designs, I have bad luck with HP laptops, even on this one which i had sent it in twice while in warranty.

 

I owned a DV6t... terrible driver support (if you can call that support) Annoying build quality flaws. Whitelisted bios, with no setting at all. After that I owned 2 Samsung ultrabook and now Acer (which brand failed me once in the past) Excellent driver support and no restricted bios.

 

I am on my 4th HP laptop in 10 years. Though this may be my last HP laptop. I've typically stuck with HP because you can usually get a pretty good processor and hardware for about 100$ less then the next closest competitor. Lately though it seems they have been sacrificing the quality of the build to get the price there.

I understand all the complaints above. I'm pretty savy in the hardware department and have no issues pulling a laptop apart to replace or repair it. To me warranty is a waste of money because its usually half the price of the warranty to fix anything that may be wrong. My last HP was a DV6z and when the screen broke (1360 x 768 TN) about a year into owning it, I just bought a new IPS 1080 screen and controller and had it torn down and back together working again in 3 hours. 90$ and a three day wait for the replacement screen to come in was better than any money or service I would have received from HP.

One reason I will probably go with a different brand on my next round is that HP always seems to miss something in the motherboard/hardware department. Like this new 15t-q400 that I am typing this out on. There is no CD rom drive on this machine and there is also a spot on the board for a M.2 drive but they don't have room for a second drive and didn't solder a connector to the board fo the M.2. Seems kind of backwards or really cheap.

Then there are the little things like the 90 degree power connector, its design puts a constant pressure against the power port, no good can come of this. Headphones plug into the right side of the laptop right about the area where a mouse would most likely be used by a right handed person. So the power cord and the headphone cable will constantly be in the way. Heck - I'd love to have an unlocked bios with more than 4 options.

Its those little things that HP always seems to miss that are getting old. It just seems that you can't beat the price on an HP laptop when you find a coupon and they have their sales. I got this laptop (Envy Slim Quad) with a 1080 IPS Screen, 6700hq and the 950m for 770.00 The closest I could come to that was around 850 with a 940m and it didnt have an IPS screen.

We will see how well this one holds up. Hopefully it will hand in there long enough to get me to 2019-20.

-Sean

 

Still use their business-class Elitebooks since they're actually very decent. As for consumer-class, I'be dismissed nearly all consumer-class laptops, not just HP.

But, to be specific, Pavillions of the 2006-2010 era made Acer look real nice, let alone Dell and Lenovo options at the time. Always falling apart, can't handle even the slightest bumps without issue, and something major usually failed just after the warranty period ended.

Oh, and HP consumer-class tech support. Oooooohhhh man were those phone calls bad. I couldn't pry their poorly-written scripts from their cold, dead hands. I realize that they have to try to help people with almost no computer knowledge wbatsoever, but if I display at least some technical knowledge could you not treat me like an idiot?

 

I just sold my dell 3147 for the new Pavilion 360 13 s-100 red notebook because after 19 months with the 3147 I was tired of the failures with drivers and windows 10, I just wanted it to "work", It has taken some work with drivers for the hp but today its running nice and I paid less than $400 for it with an i3 6100u 8gb ram and 500gb SSHD, honestly so far I think its a good deal. I still like Dell but lately the hardware decisions by them have been problematic, and synaptics touchpad issues seem to be universal both Dell and HP have issues with drivers and windows 10

Before the Dell I had an HP 14" with an i5 and 8gb ram 500hd, non touch, it was a great laptop for the money, at the time I was able to get it for around 300 as I remember, I think Dell and HP have good value you just have to research.

 

I didn't like the size, though that is attributed to the model - DV7 7000 series. It ran a bit loud but honestly, not too noticeable.

HP changed their page; it's not so easy anymore to find driver updates - especially the BIOS.

 

havent, yet, but would, if they dont do anything about this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...gaming-notebook.762889/page-133#post-10237321

 

Well some bad news, My keyboard is defective now, most of my number keys, left alt, down arrow, right arrow, 1 and 4 on the numpad stopped working and sometimes they work intermittently after holding them for 1 minute or so. I disassembled the entire laptop to dettach/reattach the keyboard's ribbon cable and no luck and now my caps lock's light doesnt light up anymore and neither the light for the mute key. Since im out of warranty i have no choice but to buy a new keyboard soon and do it myself which includes removing the motherboard and keyboard cover to replace the keyboard.

Im sure this is my last HP laptop because this is the 3rd time i had a serious issue with it in almost 3 years. My old Toshiba laptop is still running like a champ and its almost 5 years old with zero issues.