Im thinking of getting a new laptop. What are the dopers opinions of dell? Or your own suggestions?
I have a Dell D620 supplied by work. It has a 2 Gigahizzle PROC, 2 Gigabizzles of RAM, an internal WiFi card (no antennae!), and a DVD burner. I can honestly say it’s the best laptop I’ve ever used.
More generally speaking, I’ve been using Dell laptops for a couple years now and I’m pleased with the quality. Of course, it’s a corporate machine, and I’m high enough in the pecking order to make an underling support the laptop should something go wrong (it happens), and thus I don’t have to deal with Dell Support (which I hear kind of sucks).
If you get one, get the business level (assuming you can afford it) and get the three year post support on-site. I had a problem toward the end of my period and it was well worth the money spent to have some guy drive out, fix what was wrong and he fixed a couple of other things two (replaced the case where the corner crushed when I dropped it). Their phone support is no great shakes, but they had a good sub-contract guy for the on site stuff.
I’ve owned several laptops over the past 10+ years. I like my current Dell the most. Compaq was horrible, Toshiba was okay but not great. Also, a watchout from the past that may or may not be still valid: get a processor that is laptop designed and not just one that is slapped in a laptop. I had that on one model and I’d get frequent overheating generated shutdowns. I didn’t keep that one very long.
Good solid build. Installed with a load of shitty software ‘trials’ and the like. If you can deal with the latter, the former will serve you well.
I have been using Dell notebooks for nearly a decade now. (Wow, that long?) Anyway, the Latitude series has always been a workhorse. There have been some machines I have liked various aspects of (such as my Toshiba’s gorgeous screen), but the Dell is dependable, durable, and reliable.
The IBM Thinkpads had the reputation as the best PC (non-Apple) notebook systems. The Thinkpad brand has since been taken over by Lenovo, but they’re still fine machines, and I bought one for my father last year. But I think the Dell systems are generally cheaper. I agree with ShibbOleth that you should get the on-site next-day service plan (who wants to have to pack up and send off their computer for service?).
A few months ago I got a Dell Lattitude D520 and am very pleased with it, one of the best laptops have had at a very reasonable price.
Went online to see what options were available, then called to get it tailored to what I wanted. They were extremely cooperative. Actually got it with Win XP, and when I asked to have it sent with NO junk software, they agreed and that’s the way it came.
No Norton or MacAfee, no AOL, no free trials, just Windows as I wanted.
Called twice with a couple of complex questions, both times (one sounded like a native-born American, the other was obviously from India) got a live person withnin five minutes, both times they were very knowledgeable and helpful, and both times the question was answered correctly. Both times they sent a follow-up email stating if there were any further question to let them know.
Now that was surprising.
The ratings for customer I’ve seen lately in computer magaziens rate Dell, well, sort of “least-worst.”
Have been using a Dell Latitude (right now it’s a D810) for the last few years now and I have no big complaints. Very sturdy, lots of computing power … only downside is it’s not the lightest machine to own. So consider the weight before you decide on a laptop. If you’re going to be traveling a lot, lugging the weight around can be a chore.
My corporate Latitude D600 has been an excellent workhorse and has a great variety of connectors on the back, like a real serial port, that many laptops lack. I really like it.
But my experience with Dell desktops at home has made me plan to shop elsewhere the next time I buy a personal machine. They have so much advertising and so much junk oriented towards listening to music that they make you buy, and months after the purchase I’ll still be fighting ads. I think I would order a home desktop or home laptop from them if I could get a corporate model, but not if I had to buy a consumer one - and last time around I didn’t figure out how to do that.
Corporate workhorse and they are cheap. That said, if you actually use your laptop road warrior style, it is going to fall apart. And the dang clit mouse after a few months will become possessed and start wandering around the screen. I get the motherboards repaired, the mouse redone all the time, and the case cracks.
It’s a great machine if you don’t beat it up. But the way I use my laptops, and rest my hands on the keyboard when typing, well it’s not suited for me.
Between personal and work-provided, I’ve had half a dozen of them over the years and they’re generally good solid machines. The only complaint I have is they tend to run hot and the fans run almost constantly in two that I’ve had. After browsing around their forums I found the steps for taking the fan assembly out for cleaning and this did help.
I’ve had mine for getting on for two years now, and it’s always been reliable and solid. I have a now-prehistoric Inspiron 510m. The only complaint I have is that it tends to get rather hot, but since it almost never actually sits on my lap that’s not such a problem.
Oh, and re: build quality, it’s survived two quite horrific crashing falls from a table onto the floor without visible damage (although the first did result in several bad sectors on the hard drive). The screen isn’t the greatest, but for the price I paid I’m pretty happy. Battery life is decent, and it’s fast enough for most things I do after I upgraded to 1GB of RAM. The only thing I would suggest is to try and push for a laptop with XP rather than Vista, but that’s just personal bias. Recommendation about the extended warranty is a very good thing; my warranty’s run out and I’m a bit worried about potential repair costs.
A word of warning: The Dells (at least here in Australia) have a proprietary power supply and adaptor plug which makes it impossible to buy replacements over-the-counter from computer shops. This is a Very Bad Thing if you lose your adaptor/charger whilst on a business trip, for example.
It’s not an issue if you’re careful with your adaptor unit, but it’s still something to bear in mind…
Coming from an HP Pavilion, a Compaq Presario, and a Toshiba Satellite, I am much more impressed in all respects with my XPS M1710. Build quality, performance, size, keyboard layout and durability exceed most of what I’ve seen from manufacturers like HP/Compaq, Toshiba, or Gateway. The XPS is essentially a hot-rod Inspiron, so you will get all this without the bells and whistles on the regular Inspiron model at a much lower price, but I wanted overkill so I went for the XPS, because I’m crazy. It plays games just as fast as my desktop, and crunches through almost anything I throw at it with relative ease while most notebooks choke from lack of memory and frequent drive paging/thrashing. I’ve kicked the tires on every notebook you can buy off-the-shelf, and whereas most of them feel like little Korean subcompacts, the XPS feels tight and sturdy like a large German sedan. The obvious drawback to this sturdiness (though I don’t see it as a big deal) is that it is noticeably heavier than most notebooks, on the order of almost nine pounds.
The chassis lighting can also be changed to suit your preference, and if all that weren’t enough, Samantha Carter uses one on Stargate SG-1, hehe. Either the Stargate crew likes Dell, or more likely, Dell made a deal with MGM to hawk their laptops on the show. Either way, people frequently ask me what it is because they love the design, and I’ve even had a comment from an Apple user about how much cooler it looks than the MacBooks. 
The two dells I have owned over the past 7 years are both still working very well and are solid machines. I have an inspiron 4100 and an inspiron 8600 former being 5 years old and the current one 2 years. Tried to replace the current one with a more “up to date” compaq running vista, but the compaq just doesnt work as well so I’m going to hold out for a new dell and my brand new compaq is closed and collecting dust.
I have a 3-year old Latitude D600. Other than a spontaneous hard drive failure (which was resolved immediately; Dell overnighted me a new one and was extremely helpful), I’ve had no major problems.
One thing I very much like about Dell is their warranties. I have a four-year ‘if your computer breaks even because you’re a stupid idiot and spill a bottle of Coke on your laptop, we’ll replace it’ deal, which is a pretty good bargain. Granted, if you’re using it as a desktop replacement it’s probably not, but if you’re planning on moving around with a laptop, it’s nice to have that protection. (True story: I know a guy who, while under the influence of a certain combination of illegal chemicals, thought it was wise to throw his Dell laptop off a second-story balcony. The next day he called Dell and told them that, due to being dropped from quite a height, his laptop was now useless shards. They shipped him a new one, no questions asked, and told him to box up the pieces of the old one as best he could and send them back. They take their warranties pretty seriously).
My company uses Dell Latitude D6XX’s. They are solid, reliable and inexpensive. The ones we buy have never come with any pre-installed software beyond drivers and utilities for the Bluetooth, WiFi, etc. The technical support remains good, and seems to be US-based.
My experience with consumer-level Dell laptops (Inspirons) has been terrible, however. Actually, my experience with pretty much every consumer-level laptop except Apple’s has been terrible.