Its really a consumer market especially in the electronics sector. Prices are dropping everyday for mobiles, PDA’s, laptop, etc. Let’s concentrate here on the laptops segment. I myself am a personal user of Dell server grade laptop and IBM notepad.
Various brand of laptops available in the market are: Toshiba Dell HP(Compaq) IBM Acer and many more**. Daily you people get to see 100’s of advertisments in newspapers, magazines wher you see prices crashing almost by 50%. But its not just the price you should consider as a factor when you go ahead for investing money.There are lot of factors involved while buying a good machine for your use. I’ll be taking each of the above brands I mentioned one by one so that it helps you people to make a sensible investment.
Acer:
A chinese brand with costs drastically low compared to all its competitiors. A standard Acer machine has 30 Gb of hard disk, 256 MB RAM, 4 USB Ports scroll pad, multimedia, in-built modem, DVD ROM, etc and the main things the processor i.e. the P4, but here’s the catch friends its not a P4 mobile processor but a P4 desktop processor which gets heated at a more faster rate then a mobile processor. Secondly, the battery backup is around 2.5 hrs which is less then the other brands offer and thus the cost going between 40-50k.Its 3 kgs in weight. The post sale support structure is also available at few cities. Its a decent machine but if not to be used for long hours consecutively, may be a good bu for home users only.
IBM**:
The well known hardware and software company IBM, has a huge range of laptops to offer right from home users to Techie people. Taking into account a standard machine which has 20Gb of harddisk, 256 RAM, 2 USB ports, DVD ROM, usually scroll pad not available, inbuilt modem, P4 mobile processor. Its battery backup is around 3.5 hrs. Its smaller in size and actually carries the real meaning of LAP TOP. The support structure of IBM is onsite as well as offsite and they offer excellent support with most of the major part under warranty and get replaced without you beign questioned. But other accessories which do come like floppy driveCD writer etc costs you a fortune to normal market rates. Weight wise its around 2.5 kgs so a lesser pain to carry. Overall an excellent machine but cost on a higher side goes around 70k for the configuration I talked about, but worth investing. Don’t forget to read the newspapaers as you might catch an excellent deal at times.*
HP**:
Compaq hardrware has been acquired by HP so the Compaq machines or Hp machines are now the same in the market. I am not gonna speak much about tis machine. A standard configuration as I have written above will cost u around 70k.The machine is heavier in size approx 3.2 kgs, battery backup of 3 hrs Looks more then requitred jazzy with blue light shining. Post sale support is Ok not very fast .
Dell:
Another excellent machine in the market with various product range available right from home users to server grade laptops(as I said I’m a user of it .’-). A standard configuration as I have written above with 2 USB port costs your around 65-65k. I find dell machines to be heavier then other machines. Battery backups are excellent going upto 4 hours.machines look very sleek and have scroll pad too. Support only available at Banglore so you need to catch them through emails which isnt very effective and takes lot of time, though all major parts are under warranty. Performance wise excellent but not mush suitable for Indian customer unless you are talking of a bulk deal.
Toshiba**:
Nothing to beat this one. Its the best product in the market I have found. All the parts are manufacturs by toshiba itself apaprt from the processor. A real rugged machine even if it falls down chances of breaking are a little less. Support for It is excellent through its partners. I don’t find these machines very sleek and they are undoubltedly bulky. Battery backups are excellent, performace is superb but the brand dosent compromise on cost.They are one of the most expenise brand you can find but the work they give you is a true value for money. A liilte long one but ive tried to let you people know about the laptops available in our indian market on my personal research I have done in last few months. But things to be noted is that floppy drive usually dosent form a part of a standard laptop configuration, theres a variation of USB ports from 2 to 4 from brand to brand. Usually CD writer is an additional feature not a part. So all you people need to check your needs and budget before you go further investing for your Dream Machine.