I have owned three Dell notebooks. The best was the Inspiron 7500. I've owned it for two years. I have replaced the display, the hard drive (twice), the motherboard, the video card and the hinges (twice, and neither time was at the same time the display was replaced). The shortest time the thing was out of commission for a hardware repair was for the hard drive replacements. The first time they sent me a hard drive replacement, the replacement drive was a dud. Get the picture? Or should I detail my experiences with the previous Dell notebooks, one of which actually disintegrated piece-by-piece? Actually, I owned the previous Dells several years ago and perhaps not indicative of current design quality. Nonetheless, Dells don't hold a candle to IBM or Toshiba's higher end (Tecra) notebooks or even their lower end ones for that matter -- insofar as build quality is concerned. Bang-for-the-buck may be a different matter, and that's why I bought the Inspiron this time around. I thought it would be safe because a couple of the industry rags (PC Mag, what the heck was I thinking?) said that Dell had greatly improved the quality of their notebooks. Can't say that I agree, based upon my current example and several others I know that have the same sorts of issues. This notebook has never been dropped, and it has always been cradled carefully in a high quality hard case when transported. All of these repairs were under the three-year extended warranty I purchased. If I hadn't had that warranty this thing would have been in the dumpster months ago! Its initial cost was nearly $5,000. I've decided that I get the most bang-for-the-buck from a system that runs all the time, like the four Toshibas I've owned. Anyone know what a T1200XE is? It has an 80286 processor. That should give you an idea of its age. It still runs for hours every day and is in use by a kid down the block. Two old Satellite Pros (405CS and 430CDT) I gave away are still in operation every day, and my Tecra still runs like a dream. (I gave it to my wife when I bought the Inspiron, and she won't give it back, dammit!)
I've also noticed that Dell is blurring the distinctions between Lattitudes and Inspirons these days, so be careful if looking at the "corporate" models.
Have owned one IBM, but it was stolen from a hotel room when I'd owned it for only a month. Their machines are of very good quality, like the high end Toshibas.
- Collin