laptops: go cheap or go branded?

**metatron** · March 2nd, 2007 03:15 PM

Originally Posted by technophobic

go for the branded ones, I used a vaio and i can say its better talaga kung may makuha kang support. Another brand to consider is Apple, a friend is showing me the features and mukhang ok, its not very expensive naman as the spec/price is comparable to other brand. Feeling ko ngayon eh parang medyo mahal tong vaio ko.

is it true that one of the several reputable laptop shops here in the phils is beginning to discontinue selling vaios because they're having a rather difficult time acquiring parts for the units they've already sold?

**technophobic** · March 2nd, 2007 10:04 PM

Hmmm... I dunno, sa far haven't experienced much of a hardware problem, mostly just some simple formating and it fixed. So I wasn't really able test out the support. All I know was that's what the salesperson told me, and I believed him.

**metatron** · March 2nd, 2007 10:36 PM

Originally Posted by technophobic

Hmmm... I dunno, sa far haven't experienced much of a hardware problem, mostly just some simple formating and it fixed. So I wasn't really able test out the support. All I know was that's what the salesperson told me, and I believed him.

last month a relative wanted to purchase a new laptop. after a couple of days looking at brochures and browsing online, she decided on getting an n-series vaio. we went to pc corner gilmore after confirming they they had one in-stock. when we were about to purchase the unit, the salesrep dissuaded us from getting the vaio claiming that they, along with other laptop shops, were about to discontinue product support soon. so we ended up getting a yonah based asus subcompact instead. i hope what the rep said was only an unsubstantiated rumor and the local pc shops aren't really going to discontinue support for vaio.

**br733** · March 3rd, 2007 12:00 AM

what do you mean local companies will discontinue support for vaio. isnt it sony has no official market presence here? so technically there is no reliable support and warranty here for now?

as for laptop repairs, i suggest going to greenhills. its cheaper and quicker. once we had an hp that encountered power problems. we brought it to the hp service center and it took them one month to tell us that we had to replace the motherboard. we said no thanks (since it was 4 years old already). as a last resort, we brought it to greenhills and they fixed it in a day.

**metatron** · March 3rd, 2007 01:07 AM

Originally Posted by br733

what do you mean local companies will discontinue support for vaio. isnt it sony has no official market presence here? so technically there is no reliable support and warranty here for now?

as far as i know, walang local service center ang sony. pero kahit papano may official market presence sila. just this december as we were passing along a sony center, we were given appliance brochures which featured several vaio models in its lineup.

kahit papano nagbubukas din ng mga sirang notebooks ang mga techs sa local shops natin like pc corner. one time our trusty acer notebook's pcmcia slot stopped working. i brought it back to pc corner to have it fixed. fortunately, they had spare parts and they were able to repair the broken pcmcia slot in-house without having to send the unit to acer's official service center in paco, manila.

i'm just assuming since sabi ng rep "hirap kami kumuha ng piyesa..." e kahit pano nagbubukas din sila ng vaio and somehow attempt to repair the problems in-house din parang sa acer.