What about a Dell laptop?

[Grey2522]

I'm thinking of buying a laptop. And Dell website has some good deal, e.g., 30% off the price. Are Dell laptops good quality? How's their warranty? ( Incompetent tech support is ok with me, as long as they honor warranty. )

The specs

- Intel® Core™ Duo Proc T2050 (1.60GHz/533MHz/2 X 1MB L2 Cache)
- XP Home ( I already have my XP cd )
- 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm
- 256MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1400 HyperMemory™
- 60GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
- 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
- 53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
- usb ports, firewire, media card reader, etc, no Type II PC Card slot
- 2Yr Ltd Warranty, 2Yr At-Home Service, and 2Yr HW Warranty Support

price - $900

I'm also interested in this HP laptop (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7889109&type=product&id=1151657489182).

What do you guys think?

[classicsoftware]

If you are going to buy a laptop, buy one of the following:

ACER

IBM (Lenovo)

Toshiba

These are the best brands.

DELL SUCKS. I just had one in the shop. It had a boot up error and the DELL people told the user to reinstall the OS. It turns out the HDD was bad and they were trying to put off replacing it as long as possible. Their support is horrid....

[i an not a nerd]

Their support is horrid....

Well actually, it depends on who they are serving... my dad's workmates (he works in the Canadian DND) use Dell laptops and they get superb support.

[saphalline]

Dell is just like any other computer assembler - corporate/gov't contracts get all the good support! And why not? If a lone user gets bad support, who really cares? It's only one person. But if you're willing to give them something for their effort, like say 50 laptops at once with 3-year extended warranties on all of them, then they're gonna make darn sure all 50 users are happy! It's a volume thing. I don't blame Dell specifically for this one - it's just the way businesses work in a volume-oriented world.

I will say this against Dell, though - if you ever want parts for your laptop after the warranty ends, you'll have to buy them from Dell. Same with their ink cartridges. They don't let anyone else sell their parts, and they won't let anyone but the original owner buy them directly. Dell is unique in this way. Most of the other manufacturers allow parts to be sold through refurbished/reconditioned outlets. But not Dell.

The other thing to note about buying a laptop is the warranty period. You should really only expect your laptop to be functional during the warranty. After that, if any major thing happens, you're better off buying a new laptop. When a new LCD screen or mobo costs $300-500 to replace after the 2-year warranty ends, it's more cost-effective to just spend another $900 on the latest hardware in a shiny new laptop. Laptops are so proprietary and they're getting so cheap that they've nearly become disposable. Little parts like a new hard drive or keyboard aren't so bad, but other parts make the whole system cheaper to replace than to fix.

[classicsoftware]

Who says it, Dell even admits that part of the reason they are not making money is they have to put more money into support because it's so bad.

From an article on CNET.COM
Last May, Dell unveiled plans to cut prices and is spending $100 million to improve customer service, hiring more than 2,000 sales and support staff.

From another article on CNET:
But Dell has also run into numerous complaints about its customer service and technical support. The company acknowledged the problem in its last earnings conference call, announcing plans to spend $100 million on improving its support. But frustrated customers continue to lodge complaints on the company's own site, causing further headaches for executives still dealing with the fallout from images of a Dell laptop in flames (http://news.com.com/2061-11199_3-6092934.html?tag=nl) posted online.

Yet another CNET article:

Dell is hoping to stanch criticism of its tech support program with a service that lets technicians remotely troubleshoot balky PCs over a high-speed Internet connection.

Then you can always go with the Exploding Laptop (http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2006-06-28T133129Z_01_N27216845_RTRUKOC_0_US-DELL-LAPTOP1.xml) I wonder if they charge extra for that feature.

Just in case you think this is a recent Phenomenon, this CNET article from 2004 said:

ccording to two recent reports, customer service at leading PC seller Dell has slipped in recent months. Although the declines are statistically small, they show a steady trend of sinking satisfaction with Dell's support.

They have been fixing this since 2004. They are never going to fix it. They do not give good support......

I'm sure I could find more if I went to another site, but you get my point. DELL has lost the edge they had as the premier US computer maker. Bad service is why......