Question:
Always hearing a lot of good things about Dell but
Why are there so many items in the Dell Outlet? Everytime I check there is at least 100 total inspiron notebooks. Im gonna be ordering a laptop from dell next week but I want some feedback from Dell users. Particularly these models:
5150
600m
8500
8600
Also do you consider Dell to be a better manufacturer (in general terms) better than say Fujitsu, IBM or HP/Compaq?
Answer:
Well, I am not a current Dell user, but in my time I have had a Dell, a Toshiba, an Acer and now an IBM Thinkpad.
Although I can't give you hands-on accounts of the Dell models you have mentioned here, I would advise you to think about what exactly you want from a laptop before you buy a model, or even consider a "class".
Do you want a portable machine you can carry around and use all the time? None of the Dells here fit the bill - the 5150 and 8x00s are too heavy, and the 600m has abysmal battery life.
Do you want a desktop replacement for multimedia/games? The 8x00 have fast nvidia GF4200/5650 video cards, and the 5150 a more than adequate Radeon9000, but you're going to be tied down to a desk most of the time, and you're not going to have much fun lugging them around.
As you may have guessed, I'm not to keen on the current Dell models, since a Dell was my first laptop, and I have never felt inclined to buy another one since.
There's nothing really wrong with Dells - they are a decent laptop with decent build quality at a decent price. I suppose that is their biggest failing as far as I am concerned - they have mastered the art of being average in the goal of cutting costs and reaching a broad market. That and the fact that they have almost no good industrial design - they are universally vulgar and inelegant.
It'd be hard to rank the top laptop makers by manufacture, since there are so many different criteria one could do it by (build quality, appearance, usability, miniaturisation etc). However, you can count on Dell to sit somewhere in the middle of the pack. Their laptops are rarely the worst, but never the best.
As far as reliability goes, I'd rank IBM and Panasonic (for their Toughbooks) first.
Build quality would go to IBM, second place maybe Toshiba.
As for design, Apple takes the lead here, with Sony trailing somewhere behind.
Portability would probably go to Sony and Fujitsu.
The best advice I can give you is to figure out exactly what you want a laptop for before you decide to buy. This will tell you what class youought to be looking at (mainstream, desktop replacement, ultralight, thin & light etc). Once you've figured it out, you'd be better off looking at a selection of equivalent models from different manufacturers rather than a product line from only one maufacturer - you're much more likely to find a happy match this way.
Cheers,
V.
Answer:
I totally agree with Voldenuit on the Dell opinion, they're not bad at making notebooks, they just don't really excel with any one type of notebook...and all are somewhat clunky feeling in my opinion. However, I do think Dell has some of the best screens out there and the Inspiron 8600 could be called one of the best desktop replacements. Other than that, you're spot on with Sony & Fujitsu being the best ultra portable notebook makers, Apple is best at design and IBM is good all around (although I have had problems with their hard drives before).
Answer:
reminds me of the IDE "master" and "slave" political correctness debate on /. and ars.
One person suggested the terms "Sadist" and "Masochist"
Then someone said that anyone who sells an IBM Deskstar 75GXP was a Sadist, and that anyone who buys one is a Masochist ^_^.
On a more serious note, IBM had a huge reliability problem with the Deskstar75GXP drives a couple of years back that really killed their reputation (they were the best hdd makers prior to that). The drives were dropping like flies, and all around the same time too.
However, Hitachi have bought out their Hard Drive business, and are now making the Deskstar (and I believe Travelstar as well) brands.
Most of the current Dell models are using 5400 rpm Travelstar hdds.