Advent 5302 or Dell Vostro 1710???

b320

Hi there,

I need to buy a new laptop for my home business, and I am considering Advent 5302 or Dell Vostro 1710.

What I am looking for:
15" + screen
2 MB L2 Cache
Core 2 Duo Processor
Fast and stable wireless connection

I do not need a massive harddisk or a long battery life. But I do need the laptop to be stable and reasonably fast.

I would really appreciate some opinions based on personal experiences. Specifically, has Dell's customer service improved? Or does it still suck? Cheers.

sk240

I have a dell 1510, it is the same as the 1710 bar the smaller screen.
although not the prettyest laptop it is fast and offers a good battery life (probably better than the advert), it also offers very good wireless due to 3 antenas, i would recommend one to anyone.
Otherwise the inspiron is very good and around the same money (although not directly aimed at the buisness sector)

Enterprise_1701C

If you look into the Vostro specs it has a splash proof/dust proof keyboard (one of the reasons we bought it for my son - although we haven't told him that!)

b320

Thank you both for your replies. I am quite interested in Dell Vostro 1710. But I have heard some horrid stories about Dell's customer services: no delivery after payment, and nobody cared in their customer services centre in India. I am just concerned that if anything goes wrong, I will have nowhere to turn to.

As for Advent 5302, PC World is offering a great laptop at an attractive price. But it is not really a famous brand, and I have never had any experience with them before, so I wonder how good are their produts, and what they are like with customers.

Any more personal experiences that you could share? Thanks a lot indeed.

sk240

I Think that Advert is owned by pc world (may have heared wrong), if there support is as bad as there customer service in store then i cant see dell being any worse.
I have had no probems with the ordering of the laptop, but have not had to deal with dell support.
I would order it online if you get it from dell, it will be far easier.

topher_2

I'd go for the Dell - much better build quality than the Advent. You can get some Dell laptops from other outlets, like Tesco or PCWorld (I think) - that way you can always go back to them if you have any problems.

wackojackouk

Go for the Dell. I had a Advert Desktop which was exchanged 4 times over 6 months. Got my money back in the end.... pile of junk components inside hence the cheap price.

jasmin49

Id go for Dell, if you get it from PC world they will price match a number of big stores, ive just got both my girls the 1720 with 17" screen for £400 which was nearly £200 cheaper than Dells own site, that offers finished but they do different offers all the time, Dixons (part of the PC World group) also sell reconditioned laptops, Ive bought one of those as well and it was like new. So get a Dell but not from Dell, lol.

Enterprise_1701C

We have 4 Dells in this house, the oldest being my laptop which is over 4 years old and still good. My experience with their customer service was fantastic. First off I had a problem with my son fetching a key off my laptop - they sent me step-by-step instructions to put it back on (made my son do it and he could not manage it before!).

The second problem I had was with a flat screen monitor which kept going on and off, it was only about 30 months old and it kept going on and off. Anyway, contacted Dell and he gave me various hints as to how to cure it which worked for a while and then it started going off for longer. I contacted the same person at Dell and they actually replaced it FOC without even asking for the old one back! All this was done by email, I very rarely use telephone helplines!

I would highly recommend Dell for dependability and build quality.

moneybelle

Biggest regret that my bother-in-law persuaded my Mum to get a Dell desktop about 3 years ago.

It never worked smoothly.

shoperholicnot

toshiba or hp are the best IMHO
I would go for Dell rather than Advent, Advent are dismal