A brief guide to the warranties that leading laptop brands offer.
Toshiba
All of Toshiba's laptops are covered by a one-year international limited carry-in warranty. Purchase of an extended warranty for the notebook will extend the term of warranty coverage from a year to up to four years, counted from the original purchase date of the notebook.
Defects caused by malfunction of components or workmanship, which occur during normal use within the warranty period are covered under warranty.
Not covered are defects by external force, abuse or incorrectly connected external devices or damages caused through the intervention of non-authorised service providers.
While the standard warranty condition is 'bring-in', Toshiba also has onsite-service and 'pick-up and return' services. However, these services are not available in all countries. In the Middle East, Toshiba has onsite services so far in the UAE, Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia for GPS customers.
Lenovo
Lenovo provides a warranty period of three years on parts and one year on labour, which means that the company provides free warranty services for:
- Parts and labour during the first three years of warranty
- Parts only, on an exchange basis, in the second and third year of the warranty period.
"Lenovo warrants that each machine is free from defects and delivered to the customer as per the specifications published for that particular machine. The warranty doesn't cover wear and tear, but it does cover hardware failure," says Mohammed Sharaf, Marketing Manager, Lenovo MEEP (Middle East, Egypt and Pakistan).
Sony
"We offer a limited local and limited overseas warranty for a year from the date of purchase. The region of coverage include major European countries and North America (the US and Canada), Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand," says Sunao Sakata, Marketing Manager, IT Marketing, Sony Gulf FZE.
Acer
Acer's standard warranty is valid for a year. The 'Collect, Repair and Return' warranty (included as standard) is applicable for the UAE and Saudi Arabia only. The warranty indicates that the company (anywhere in the UAE and Saudi) will arrange the pick-up, fix and then guarantee the unit's return to the laptop owner within five days.
The carry-in warranty (included as standard) offers worldwide coverage with the International Traveller Warranty. The company also offers an extended warranty for another two years at an additional $100 (about Dh367).
Apple
Apple offers a one-year limited warranty that is used worldwide. It covers any failure in the equipment and is a global warranty. It does not cover any breakage due to equipment falling or customer mishandling.
It offers consumers the option of replacing the installation CDs, in case they are lost, for a minimal charge. Apple also offers an optional three years 'maintenance' on the operating system that will guarantee free upgrades for all the new system releases during this period.
HP
"All our laptops come with an international warranty. Our corporate range of models come with a worldwide warranty meaning they can be repaired in any country where HP is allowed to sell its products.
"We have models that come with a year or three-year warranty with a possibility to extend the total warranty period up to five years (The coverage could be for on-site repairs and 'next business day response' that considerably shortens the turn around time for repairs from a service provider.)," says Vishnu Taimni, Product Manager - Notebooks and Handhelds, HP Middle East.
Taimni says that HP's standard warranty policy covers all cases of hardware or manufacturer defects that fall within the warranty period free of cost. Any other defects caused by the user or that fall outside the warranty period can be fixed based on a certain fee.
The company also offers special warranty upgrade schemes to cover accidental damage to the laptop for an extra charge.
Some of HP's models come with a three-year worldwide warranty as a standard. Users can, however, purchase extended warranty schemes called 'care packs' at an additional fee. The price of the care pack depends on the level of support required and costs $100 (about Dh367) or more.
Touchmate
Touchmate offers a one-year carry-in warranty for laptops. This means that the customer has to bring the laptop to their authorised showrooms/service centres and show proof of purchase with the copy of the purchase bill/invoice.
"We provide a one-year warranty on any kind of manufacturing defects, electronic failures, ports or hardware I/O failures, BIOS failures, drive failures, screen blank, freezing and restarting problems.
"We provide a repair warranty on laptops. If the problem is a major one and can't be repaired, or if the repair takes more than four weeks, we offer a replacement unit warranty provided the unit does not have a lot of scratches or external damage," says Vasant Menghani, Managing Director, Touchmate.
Dell
"Dell's warranties include the consumer standard warranty (return to base) and the commercial NBD on-site (which must be agreed to at time of sale). The standard warranty covers defective components under normal usage.
"Warranty upgrades are available through our partners to meet specific requirements. The warranty can be extended up to five years on all laptops. We re-image/re-instate the operating system and bundled software to the original purchase state if the unit is repaired under warranty," says Dave Brooke, Marketing Manager, Dell Middle East.
(Information is subject to change. Please consult your dealer or vendor for information about warranties or insurance schemes.)
