Dell Laptops

[mercturbo]

Thanks heaps for the Plasma replies but I'm also interested in a noteook, I've been told Dell are one of if not the best quality/value brands around but I'm a bit concerned about backup as they come direct from Malaysia, they told me that if I dont buy their 3 year warranty for $350 then I'm basically on my own after a year Anyone have Dell? Is there local backup after warranty? anyone have bad/good service/backup with other brands? I'm happy to buy anywhere but Dell have great online deals that dont seem to be able to be matched by the locally available brands other than maybe Acer/Optima, sort of "lower" type brands. Any replies extremely much appreciated.

Are these good deals I'm thinking of the first one?

http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/topics/top...en&s=dhs&~tab=2

[ZAP]

I do not like Dell, they are just named clones

Get a HP or toshiba if you want a good warranty. Also get heaps of memory (RAM) over the faster processor as RAM is your friend when it comes to speed and getting 3 years on a notebook.

512Mb Min, get 1gig if you can

[Mondie]

Dell laptops are bullet proof, they are standard issue for most companies in the oil industry and believe me, that's about the most harsh environment a computer has to operate in. We have about 10 Dells in our office. We have had a few hardware issues, but the thing that astounds me about them is their stability. They just go and go with very few software issues.

Definitley factor the $350 into the price when comparing with other brands, its mandatory to get the 3 year cover. Getting them fixed can be a PITA, calling India for service and then waiting for parts to be delivered and a tech to contact you for repair can be frsutrating but at least they come to you.

l wouldnt buy any other brand.

[mbjunior99]

I wouldn't recommend them. I have had some bad support from them. A HDD in my dad's dell died and even though we ordered the extended warranty, we were told that they always put this on the order form!! Contacted ACCC and they told us that they had been recieving a larger number of complaints from dell customers. Funny how a couple of days later, they wrote us a letter to say that they would honor their warranty

[CJF077]

I do not like Dell, they are just named clones

Get a HP or toshiba

Working in the IT industry now for many years, and being heavily involved with PC architecture and seeing some of the new technologies moving forward from every vendor i would have to say each have their strengths and weaknesses.

You will find that IBM, Acer/Benq, Dell, HP/Compaq, Toshiba, all use indentical components internally if not close to. To say Dell are named clones is kind of funny as so is Toshiba/HP.

Unfortunately with buying a laptop or machine it is alot more then just the price that needs to be taken into consideration. You will find now that all mainstream manufacturers now build/ship PC's and systems from Malaysia or China. Except for Acer which manufactures/builds out of their Homebush plant in Sydney.

IBM's PC division recently got bought over by Lenovo the worlds 3rd largest PC manufacturer based out of China. This now means all IBM machines will now be coming out of China, so where it comes from will not necessarily make an impact on support or delivery. Although this recent move to Lenovo has affeceted the company I work for in regards to delivery time from order to delivery.

Having only recently relooked at transitioning to a new PC manufacturer for a $5million+ fleet support and maintenance was our number one factor. Not only that was build quality, design and feature set. Is the machine going to be transported alot? Is there constant opening/closing of the lid? Are you going to be throwing it around? This really affects your decision. At the end of the day i can make the following calls based on my past experiences with manufacturers.

Dell - Priced competitively, Good Support, Notebook design good but not exceptional, issues with strength and weight.

IBM - Expensive, strong design, lightweight, excellent support.

Toshiba - Good Support, Competitive Pricing, Brand is not as strong as above manufacturers.

Compaq/HP - With the recent merger support has had issues as well as warehousing and delivery. Compaq strong brand, but again not as good /well known as above brands. Support is average due to restructures and merger.

As for warranty with any manufacturer, make sure that you do opt for the extended warranty as well as if possible on site. It is a real issue having to send machines back to the manufacturer if something fails or goes wrong. Onsite would mean instant fix on site by a technician. Also ensure that the company supplies international warranty as if you do travel with your notebook and anything happens whilst overseas your still covered.

If you have any questions just PM me or send me an email. Would be more then happy to give you some advice. Can go into PC lifecycles, and more. Whether now is a good time to buy certain chipsets, or whether you should wait moving forward for newer technology for the same price. A good example is the transition of notebook manufacturers from the Centrino technology now to Intel's Sonoma. Lighter, faster, more L2 cache, 533Mhz FSB up from 400Mhz, DDR2 memory, A/B/G wireless as standard and more.

Anyway enough of me jabbering about PC Technology. LOL Sorry its what i do for a living!

Cheers

Chris

[bcl]

I've using notebooks since a 286 Compaq (brick) back in 1990, and had plenty.

I agree with Chris's comments about Dell.

I've had 3 Dell notebooks over the past 6 years, without problems, used for 12-15 hours every day, and do major database conversion and systems development work with them.

I'll need a new notebook later this year, but will move to testing out the 64 bit OS systems. So I'll wait for the dual processor versions to be released later this year, and that will probably mean an Athlon 64bit model. For me the purchase of an Intel chip will not be considered. An Athlon 64-bit is IMHO more future proof, but not many vendors use it currently. Just a consideration.

Brian

[tab]

I’m on my fourth dell laptop in as many years and have never had one problem whatsoever – and they cop an absolute hiding. I even had my current laptop setup as a mail server for a couple of days and it didn’t skip a beat. It might be worth ordering the minimum amount of memory with the system though as you can usually get it cheaper elsewhere; adding it yourself is about a 15 second job.

I would recommend you take out the extra warranty as well as accidental damage cover. We have only ever had one warranty claim with one of our PC’s and they were out that same afternoon and whacked a new motherboard in it, but as it turned out all it needed was an OS reinstall and it’s been good ever since.

As for after-warranty support goes I don’t think it would be a problem as they all share a lot of common components, and as far as I’m aware Unisys provide the end user support locally (well they did 12 months ago anyway) so you could always use them if the need arises.

But do not purchase their printers – you have to order the consumables direct from Dell which could prove to be a pain in the proverbial.

And as Chris offered, drop me a line if you I can offer anything else.

Trent.

[Antisocial]

I have a field based job so the get a fair bit of on/off and transport cycles. But I need it for my job so I look after them the best I can, and am currently supplied with Dell laptops.

My first Dell laptop was without doubt the worst device I have ever encountered.

It had the motherboard replaced 10 times, 3 keyboards, 2 HDDs, 1 top cover and a display.

It started with the 7 I L > keys stopped working, which was traced to a connector on the motherboard so it was replaced.

I think all the faults were actually motherboard faults (connector, video controller, hdd contoller) but the service fools replaced all these other parts to figure that out. And every new motherboard they put in had a new fault.

The next laptop only needed the motherboard replaced the once, the display had a bright square 5cm by 8cm in the middle of it but I could live with that.

This 3rd laptop has been fine...but it is only 3 months old.

So things seem to be improving, but I would never spend my money on a Dell.

Before that I had 3 Toshibas and the only prob was a dud battery on the first one.

[Cro]

I've using notebooks since a 286 Compaq (brick) back in 1990, and had plenty.

I agree with Chris's comments about Dell.

I've had 3 Dell notebooks over the past 6 years, without problems, used for 12-15 hours every day, and do major database conversion and systems development work with them.

I'll need a new notebook later this year, but will move to testing out the 64 bit OS systems. So I'll wait for the dual processor versions to be released later this year, and that will probably mean an Athlon 64bit model. For me the purchase of an Intel chip will not be considered.  An Athlon 64-bit is IMHO more future proof, but not many vendors use it currently. Just a consideration.

Brian

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I believe you are in a senior position, hardly the type of person that will be dealing with support calls.

One of the previous companies I worked for stocked Dell and Toshiba equipment.

Dell desktops and laptops, Toshiba laptops.

In my experience working in a helpdesk type environment for over four years now I have never had as many warranty repairs with ibm/compaq/toshiba put together as I've had warranty repairs with Dell.

I also was involved in a project at the same company Chris works for. This project involved rolling out 600 odd laptops to their sales force.

The contenders were IBM, Toshiba and Compaq (Dell, sony, etc.. didn't even make the first round).

Compaq was out shortly after.

IBM was chosen over Toshiba because of IBM's strenght, size, weight, software integration and price.

You need to be asking opinions on people who support Dells, not people who use them.

The only good thing about a Dell is their prompt support if you can deal with a low bandwidth VOIP link to Malaysia. (still not as good as IBM).

The Dells are no better than a common clone (no name) system.

[Damo]

Dell laptops are bullet proof, they are standard issue for most companies in the oil industry and believe me, that's about the most harsh environment a computer has to operate in. We have about 10 Dells in our office.

Hi Mondie,

Which part of "the oil industry" (it's a fairly large industry!) are you referring to? I'm just interested because I've done quite a bit of IT work for a rather large oil tanker company. They had so many problems with Dells as their office-based notebooks that after using one round of them in all of their worldwide offices, they dropped them altogether and moved back to Compaq. Compaq's aren't the best choice for notebooks IMHO, but their Servers are bulletproof and are used onboard all of this company's vessels which is why I think they went that way.

On the other hand, my company swears by Toshiba notebooks & even though I've had 2x new HDD's in mine (this machine cops an absolute beating - getting dragged up and down gangways, into engine rooms, etc), it's been fantastic otherwise. We have 9 other Toshiba notebooks at the moment and they're all flawless. Toshiba notebooks have been used by our company for over 8 years & we're not taking our business elsewhere any time soon!

To answer mercturbo's question, I personally would not buy a Dell for myself.