Packard Bell recon laptops at Dixons (merged)

cheeky

dont be so sure who makes these or any other brand...

I bought a cheap laptop £1000(!) a few years ago, "itec" was the brand. A quick search on the net of the model number on the base (CY13) revealed it was also branded "Dell 2650" and made by a company called Compal. The only difference was the badge, BIOS and the £1600 dell wanted for the same spec!!! Served me well for many years

And this isnt a one off -a friend has a laptop branded "RM", the model no is CY26 - a search reveals these are sold by Fujitsu-Siemens as Amilo, again, made my Compal

lellie

oh yeah loads of these laptops are rebranded.. MSI megabooks are branded as msi, medion, advent and others.

teenage_Drama

They're all out of stock, when will they have them in stock anyone know?

owey

I bought 2 of these laptops, one just keeps turning off all the time, rang them up and they are sending a replacement out for a straight swap. So they either have more stock or maybe I will be getting a new one?. Just have to wait and see. The other laptop is working fine, and my daughter is made up.

mcwarre

This is a great post.

My laptop is better than yours.
My CS is better than yours.
My Dad is bigger than yours.

Fight, fight, fight...........................

UKCat

I would suggest you spend a touch more and buy a refurbished Dell from their outlet store.

They are doing free delivery until the 3rd January and I picked up this little beauty the other night for £416 inc vat & free delivery + Free Vista Upgrade too!

Dell Inspiron 640M (click for link to spec)

I have been using computers and the internet since before the www existed (old skool BBS & Fidonet stuff) and have never ever recommended a Dell machine, quite the opposite.

I then moved from desktops (almost always HP in the last 3 years - they are the best) and have tried several laptops as listed in the following order:

HP - Figured it would be as good as their Desktops - nope mistaken :-(
Advent - Nasty little runt, went wrong after 3 days use, DSG took it back.
Toshiba - OK, nothing to write home about.
Dell - Good, solid, reliable not the nicest in the looks department.
Acer - Wow'ed by a cheap deal for a good spec, as bad as the Advent was!
Dell - The Dell 640m to be delivered next week.

All machines ranged in price from £350-£450 using various discount codes/quidco etc.

I am now buying another Dell it was miles ahead of the rest and I was disappointed by an HP Laptop after such good desktops.

Dell laptops seem to have good build quality and their support people are very good - surprisingly so. I never expected to be buying another Dell and after bad mouthing them for years I daren't own up to friends to owning one!

UKCat

buggu

I got to say dell laptops and pc's have a good build quality to them and you cant go wrong with one. You will find there customer support is ok too. I would highly recommend them after purcashing a few desktops and a laptop off them recently.

chartreuse_2

Nix wrote:

One thing I DO know, IBM customer service is s**t and consequently, I won't be buying that brand again!

Can't agree with you there I'm afraid. I've been buying IBM servers and workstations for many years now, in large part for the customer service and 3 year on-site warranties.

clairefun

I used to work at PC World (hey, it paid the bills, and I *do* know a fair bit about computers!). Packard Bells would be constantly returned due to general rubbishness. I'd rather have an advent (and in fact I own a Dell and an Advent, the Advent is 4 years old and has never gone wrong, it's a good machine for upgrading, which is a little more awkward with the Dell). I would actively try to steer people away from Packard Bells when they expressed an interest as I knew they'd nearly always have to bring them back...

AceCobra

FYI for the OP

Packard bell is also a DSG own brand just like Advent, so calling one crap over the other is just nonsense. Speaking from experience i'd have an advent over a PB any day.

Martin.