August 30, 2006

Why I bought a Lenovo 3000 notebook

For the past few weeks, I've been on the hunt for a new notebook computer and put together a report on my search for one here. As I was doing research I went with an open mind and frankly had no clue which notebook I would finally pick.

Well, over the weekend I did another 30 minute round of research (the first round took some hours and days) and with no regret purchased a Lenovo 3000 notebook. Why?

I could have chosen a notebook from HP, Dell, Gateway, Sony, Toshiba, Acer or even a Lenovo ThinkPad. What turned me on to Lenovo's notebook was that it was low cost while having many important features such as a 4 in 1 memory card reader and Bluetooth. Other notebooks were more expensive and did not include these features.

Another thing - although the Lenovo brand is relatively new. I figured if the same Lenovo who continues to make ThinkPads is now making Lenovo branded computers - they're probably pretty good if not just as good as another brand. Time will tell.

The notebook is scheduled to ship tomorrow and I'll keep you updated on how things go. It comes with a measly one year warranty so I'll probably end up plunking another $200 or so for a better warranty.

I've used notebooks from Toshiba, HP, Sony, Dell and Gateway. Overall they are solidly built notebooks. When you decide which notebook is for you, you simply have to decide what is most important to you and go for it. I must say, if I had a bigger budget I would probably have opted for a notebook from HP or a ThinkPad as I think these notebooks provide more robust features for the demands of business. Gateway is a very good brand, but my personal experience with two of them has not been that good.

PS - My initial research was looking at the web sites of notebook vendors but I also looked at online retailer web sites such as CDW and Best Buy as well as I was looking for an Acer notebook. Read this article to see what online retailers are pretty good and why I'll never buy an Acer.

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