Wow, Dell laptops have come a long way!

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve owned Dell laptops in the past and really really hated them. Let’s see, the hinge would give way, the AC adapter plug would loosen, the keyboard sucked, various add-on components would stop working (CD drive, motherboard).

This was all back in 2003 to 2005. Those laptops were shit-tastic!

I reluctantly ordered a new Dell for my work laptop and have to say I really, really like it. The entire thing seems well designed and secure; the hinges look beefy, the keyboard is just plain awesome, the ports and fan seem well laid out.

So anyone else notice this? Has Dell taken a step back and sought to improve its products?

2

Dell’s commercial grade laptops are and have been quite solid, at least for the last seven or eight years or so. The consumer grade, not so much…

3

That must be it. I wonder why the difference? Wouldn’t using the same parts across the board make more sense?

4

It’s like a Honda vs. an Acura. They are the same company but they are different price ranges aimed at different buyers. A laptop for $1500 is going to have better stuff than the $700 model.

5

But I imagine they haven’t improved their help “service”. I tried Dell once and never again.

6

The difference would be the customer. With a commercial customer Dell has the opportunity to sell them possibly 10 to 1000 or more additional computers. How many laptops does a consumer purchaser? One every 4 or 5 years or so? If you don’t make a good impression to the IT department of a major corporation, you aren’t going to get the huge contract.

It has been my experience that generally any answer can be found by following the money.

7

Again, the professional-level support is excellent. The free stuff is worth hat you pay for it.

8

Their free service was fine for me. I had a HD go out just under the warranty period, the guy came out and replaced it within 24 hours, and gave me the old drive and a box to mail it in, so I could try to get the data off it.

I have no issues at all with my Dell box, at three years old.

9

I refuse to buy another Dell ever since I got caught by their stupid power supply tricks 8 or so years ago. Life’s too short to deal with proprietary crap on a desktop.

10

I’ve had an XPS for just over 3 years, and I sprang for the 3-year on-site warranty. I have to say, I’ve found that once you do the little dance with the tech support lackey on the phone and convince him that the tech needs to come out, the local tech is truly superb. (And out here in the sticks that’s not often the case.)

I know this because I have had many, many opportunities to use it. At this point the tech doesn’t have to call before he comes because he knows where I live. And where I work.

I decided for sure that I would never buy another Dell when I upgraded to Windows 7 only to find that there was no 7-compatible driver for the sound card and that they had no plans to release one. The computer wasn’t even two years old at the time. It took a lot of digging to find a driver that kind of worked, and fortunately the hard drive died (for the first time) not long afterwards so I could revert to XP.

I like the overall design of it, and considering how much I use it I suppose it didn’t work out that badly, but I wouldn’t recommend one.