Are DELL laptops any good.

ugly-stinker

Are DELL laptops any good?
I ask this because in the past I have always been warned off them, by others.
My father in law did a computer course and his tutor also warned the whole class away from dell, saying they were just plastic rubbish.
This was around 2-3 years ago.

I am seeing a lot of good deals with them, but was wondering if they have improved, or maybe there was nothing wrong with them in the first place.

I am looking just for the basic, surfing, downloading blah blah.

Thank you for any help you can offer.

kitchpoo

mine that i am on now is fine despite a very computer abled 3 year old abusing it/dropping it etc. it isn't at all plasticy.

Little_John

The cheaper ones are a little ropey. But spend a little more and get the ones further up the range that use more metal than plastic in the cases then they are ok. but if your spending about £1000 you can spend it better than bying from dell.

albertross_2

All laptops are plastic, apart from very expensive tough models for outdoor rugged use.

Nothing wrong with Dells. https://www.dmxdimension.com

grae-uk

I personally very much like Dell machines i buy them for clients. As an it consultant i chose to become a reseller because of the quality of the machines and service i have received. (i can say that here because i won't get any commsion if the op chooses to buy a dell )

I have lost count of how many machines i have bought from dell over the last 12 months but it is probably around 30 at least, and out of all of them only one arrived with a problem. Dell were out later that week and as it was a business machine the engineer fixed it on site!!
So i was very pleased and so was my client.

I have had many people say "ooo, i have heard bad things about Dell" and i won't deny that they aren't perfect! But then, name a big company that are perfect!! I tend to find that people hear and remember all the bad stories about big companies and never any of the good ones! Your Dads IT tutor probably had, or heard about a bad experience and therefore avoided them. My experience has been very good, i have a dell desktop and a dell laptop, and my mum, dad and brother all have dell machines and we are all very happy! I also have many many clients very happy with their dell machines. So i would say from my experience that Dell are excellent and for what yuo get for your money certainly worth seriously considering!

I hope that helps! Come back with any questions !:)

Graham.

basill

I have experience of several makes, most of the dells I see are the business grade ones ie Latitudes, with some of the home user orientated ones ie Inspiron. Overall I would say the Dell business customers get the fastest most efficient warranty repairs with much less wait for parts. I am also generally impressed with the build quality of the dell kit.
I think if was in the market for a PC desktop or laptop I would go for a dell. With any laptop, get the best warranty you can afford, all risks is good. The bits are all very expensive and usually only available from the maker!

B

grae-uk

basill wrote: »

I have experience of several makes, most of the dells I see are the business grade ones ie Latitudes, with some of the home user orientated ones ie Inspiron. Overall I would say the Dell business customers get the fastest most efficient warranty repairs with much less wait for parts. I am also generally impressed with the build quality of the dell kit.
I think if was in the market for a PC desktop or laptop I would go for a dell. With any laptop, get the best warranty you can afford, all risks is good. The bits are all very expensive and usually only available from the maker!

B

Good point about the warrenty for laptops. If you can afford 2-3 years then it is worth it. Dell also offer an accidental damage waranty which for laptops i personally think is worth it. Obviosuly only the user knows how worthwhile this is for what they are going to use the machine for! But good point Basill.

isofa

My first PC laptop was a Dell Inspiron in around 1997 - it lasted many years, it cost over 2K and was the fastest money could buy! Since then I've always had Dell laptops for the PC side of my work. I currently using the Latitude range. I've never had any major problem with them, had a HD die once, but that can happen to any laptop or desktop. I've had 3 years warranty added to all of them, but never had to invoke it personally.

I've never been that impressed with Dell support over the telephone for single users or small companies, (and not only do I buy personally, but on large orders for client's too, worth tens to hundreds of thousands of pounds, and these larger buyers get very good service), but in general their machines are pretty solid, if I needed a laptop or desktop PC, they would be my first port of call. Never had a problem with the build quality, it's no way comparable to the quality of my Apple laptops, but then they are in a different league.

They are also well priced, the Inspiron range tends to have the latest technology, and a good price, whereas the Latitude range tends to be not as cutting edge, a bit more pricey, but built to last longer (and they guarantee components will be available for years afterwards - important to business users).

Idiophreak

My experience of dell isn't great tbh - the ones I've used have been heavy (no doubt due to their "superior build quality") and they come pre-installed with so much crap it renders the machine almost unusable - it's such a drag having to do a fresh install of windows every time you buy a machine.

Reluctant_spender

Idiophreak wrote: »

...and they come pre-installed with so much crap it renders the machine almost unusable - it's such a drag having to do a fresh install of windows every time you buy a machine.

You can get over this with ths program - https://www.pcdecrapifier.com

removes all the crap

wonka

The company I work for uses only Dell laptops and desktops. I have 2 Dell Latitude laptops, and 4 Dell Optiplex desktops. Over the past 10 years, I've probably had about 15 Dell PCs.

I've only ever had one problem, and that was a broken hinge on a laptop. The engineer came out and fixed it, as it was under warranty.

So I would whole-heartedly recommend them.