Is a Dell Laptop any good? (laptops, desktop, hard drive, high end)

[JD59]

My Toshiba laptop will be fixed as a spare. Now looking into buying a New Dell Laptop and wondering if I should? It will have a 17 inch monitor and I don't care about it's weight or size.

Thanks.

[davidt1]

I have 3 Dell business class laptops. They are built like a tank. If money is not a concern, get a business class. Lenovo Thinkpad lines are good too.

Edit: I just looked at Dell website. It seems the only high end 17'' laptop they have is the Alienware 17'' laptop.

[Malloric]

Depends. Dell makes everything from really crappy ones to high end ones. Only thing I think they make 17" anymore is the Inspiron 5000/7000. They're okay. Cheap build quality, weaker processors you'd get in ultrabook normally. But then the 8th gen CPUs U processors are fine. It's just weird to have that in a thick and fat 17" laptop.

Basically there's zero advantage in a 17" normal laptop anymore except the screen. I dock anyway so I don't care about that, but the portability is nice. Even with high end productivity or gaming laptops, the advantage of 17" laptops is pretty minimal. Certainly helpful if you're trying to pack a desktop CPU and a 1080 GPU, but short of that anything over 15" only exists for the screen. But then you can just use externals there for something that just sits on a desk 90% of the time. Not many get made because not many people want them.

[vision33r]

Some models of Dell are cheap but they will last 3-5 years before something wears out from drops but I don't think laptops should be kept for more than 5-6 years as they will become too expensive to service when internal parts go bad and a repair job cost more than the value of the laptop.

I personally would never spend over $1000 on any laptop and I've gotten many high end laptops that are over $2k but I think it's a waste of money now that many laptops are powerful and costs around $700, no need for a 4k display laptop or those super thin metal laptop that dents easily.

[irman]

Good while they are working OK.

Get a crashed system, because of whatever, forget about the after service, unless you speak Hindi!

Those guys are really hard to understand and when you think you do, you still get the wrong person next, and ... you will get at least 4 referrals to the next guy one speaking worse than the previous.

Been there done that and never will do it again.
Hard drive failed so bought a new hard drive.
I needed an install media and ended up finally getting one USB stick shipped after close to an hour of talking and saying at least umpteen times: "What was that again?"

So I buy whatever works for my purpose and when it fails, I buy new hardware.
I do make sure that I back up everything I need to keep!

[HWTechGuy]

As others have pointed out, Dell makes everything from crap to high end. I prefer Lenovo's ThinkPad line above pretty much everything else at this point.

I am not sure how HP compares today as I have not really looked at their laptops in quite some time. But, I have an HP i7 with a 17" screen that's still working great after seven years. I replaced it as my primary PC simply due to age. I did not want to rely on an older machine with questionable repair prospects due possibly unavailability of parts. I replaced it with a desktop as my primary PC and it's now used just for travel once or twice a year. If something happens to it, no big deal. Plus, I have a work laptop that I can use if I need portability.

[rainroosty]

Personally, I would never buy a Dell. To me, they tie for last place along with Emachines. I like Compaq/HP.

[rjm1cc]

Over the years my family has had more Dell's than other brands. In the distance pass we had a couple of problems and service was good. Currently have one less than a year old and when I started it up I had a few questions and was not sure all was working. After a week or so everything is working so the problem might have been me. Once you get the computer you may have to update both the Dell and Windows software and that is where I ran into my problem. I assume the same updates will be needed for any brand.

I would stay away from the Source Pro.

[Peregrine]

Bottom line: you get what you pay for.

Buy a $300 Dell: it's going to be crap/ Buy a $700 Dell: it's going to be pretty good. Buy a $1,500 Dell: it's going to be rock solid.
My $800 Dell is PHENOMENAL. I love that laptop. It's skinny and fast and well built and has an SSD and it convertible and and and.
Can't recommend enough.

[Dangerous-Boy]

I always buy dell. never had a problem. They last a long time.


I refuse to buy lenova. they are chinese owned