Laptop Purchase Help Needed

[rh71]

Originally posted by: RockHydra11

Originally posted by: CRXican
check out the thread on IBMs warranty service

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=38&threadid=1575459&enterthread=y

Yeah i just got done readin' that. I was going to mention it.

1 report out of many other good ones... I've read on a few occasions IBM has one of the best customer satisfaction ratings out of any company. Not even talking about the products themself... but the service you get from them...

 

[Phoenix86]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
Also - FWIW - IBM is in the process of spinning off it's laptop line to a Chinese company and will no longer be managing that division.

The quality control and support impact of the sell is yet to be seen.

I'm worried about that too, but they are still producing tanks, so have at them!!! We'll see what they future holds.

Support? What's that? Only if I need to get something replaced under warrenty do I call anyone.

 

[Phoenix86]

Originally posted by: rh71

Originally posted by: RockHydra11

Originally posted by: CRXican
check out the thread on IBMs warranty service

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=38&threadid=1575459&enterthread=y

Yeah i just got done readin' that. I was going to mention it.

1 report out of many other good ones... I've read on a few occasions IBM has one of the best customer satisfaction ratings out of any company. Not even talking about the products themself... but the service you get from them...

I call them frequently on these POS A-series machiens we own, generally good support. I have never had them refuse warr. service. I support hundreds of IBM laptops.

That thread also sounds like the user broke something...
The OP states " The little black plastic bit which covers the metal prongs fell off, or was removed, or whatever." and IBM warr called him saying "We cannot fix the problem on your laptop due to user abuse."

If IBM called him, that means IBM has his laptop. They are looking at the damage and calling it user abuse...

 

[rh71]

my POS A-series has been perfect for me, BTW.

I called them for a replacement battery, it was on my doorstep the next day, free of charge.

 

[Phoenix86]

Originally posted by: rh71
my POS A-series has been perfect for me, BTW.

I called them for a replacement battery, it was on my doorstep the next day, free of charge.

<-- bitter about a bad batch of them.

Almost every A31 we have has seen serivce (20-30) with dead boards or displays. I have a pile of them in storage that weren't repaired (purchasing snafu only 1 year warr.) and are taking up space. About a dozen or so in there.

The older ones like yours (A21 right?) have been OK for us.

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: lilFajita

Originally posted by: vi_edit
Buy a Dell Latitude 610 and call it a day. About $1200 will get you a very nice laptop and 3 year onsite warranty.

thanks vi_edit...

are Latitudes better than the Inspirion? A quick check adding all the components brought it up to at least 1700 on the Latitude.

vi_edit is right as usual, I would also recommend the Dell Latitude D610. Make sure to get the 14.1 SXGA display, extended life battery and definitely 3 year warranty.

Here are three reviews worth reading:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2268
http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=67421
http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=64504

The Dell Latitude D610 isn't perfect (major headphones issue) but it's an awesome laptop.

 

[Merlyn3D]

If I'm spending that much money, I'd spend a little more for the thinkpad. Thinkpads > *

 

[lilFajita]

Thanks for everyone's help....that's alot of support for the IBM. I'll take a closer look at the Dell Latitude 610, though

 

[rhino56]

most people who want qualtiy dont buy dell

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: rhino56
most people who want qualtiy dont buy dell

:roll:

I've spent in excess of $175,000 with Dell over the last 5 years.

In those years there are only a few notable trends that I have found. Most of which really are no fault of Dell's and could have happened to any company that shipped products with those parts.

1) Mainboards in the Inspiron 4000's. Had 5 laptops that had to have the mainboards swapped out. Once they were replaced they have been bullet proof.

2) Tape drives in my Poweredge servers. I've had to swap them out multiple times.

3) Power adapter recall which was pretty publicized.

4) A batch of Maxtor HD's that shipped out in a bunch of Optiplex GX260's that I bought. I've had 8 out of 25 PC's go down with HD failures. Same model and manf. date on the HD's. All have gone out in about 6 months of each other.

Any company that has such a broad range of products and shipping as much as Dell does IS GOING to have instances where a bad production run every now and then. They simply have so many suppliers that they buy from they can't possibly predict and control quality.

GM's have recalls. Honda's have recalls. Food companies have recalls. Xboxes have recalls. My GE refriderator had a recall. So on and so forth.

No company can be perfect, especially given the scope of operations and number of products sold like Dell has.

They provide very high levels of features at very reasonable prices while still providing a respectable level of quality and reliability. Yes there are better, but there are much, much worse.

Once you are responsible for running an IT budget you have to make compromises. My compromise was that for every 2 IBM's I bought, I could have purchased 3 Dells. It's simply a numbers game and Dell wins.

There's a reason why IBM got out of the PC market.

 

[HonkeyDonk]

Dell 600m is one butt ugly laptop and just pretty sucky imo.

T43 is better overall, but I have heard some bad stories about customer service from IBM.

Then again, Dell Customer service sucks too.

I say buy a Toshiba.

 

[rhino56]

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Originally posted by: rhino56
most people who want qualtiy dont buy dell

:roll:

I've spent in excess of $175,000 with Dell over the last 5 years.

In those years there are only a few notable trends that I have found. Most of which really are no fault of Dell's and could have happened to any company that shipped products with those parts.

1) Mainboards in the Inspiron 4000's. Had 5 laptops that had to have the mainboards swapped out. Once they were replaced they have been bullet proof.

2) Tape drives in my Poweredge servers. I've had to swap them out multiple times.

3) Power adapter recall which was pretty publicized.

4) A batch of Maxtor HD's that shipped out in a bunch of Optiplex GX260's that I bought. I've had 8 out of 25 PC's go down with HD failures. Same model and manf. date on the HD's. All have gone out in about 6 months of each other.

Any company that has such a broad range of products and shipping as much as Dell does IS GOING to have instances where a bad production run every now and then. They simply have so many suppliers that they buy from they can't possibly predict and control quality.

GM's have recalls. Honda's have recalls. Food companies have recalls. Xboxes have recalls. My GE refriderator had a recall. So on and so forth.

No company can be perfect, especially given the scope of operations and number of products sold like Dell has.

They provide very high levels of features at very reasonable prices while still providing a respectable level of quality and reliability. Yes there are better, but there are much, much worse.

Once you are responsible for running an IT budget you have to make compromises. My compromise was that for every 2 IBM's I bought, I could have purchased 3 Dells. It's simply a numbers game and Dell wins.

There's a reason why IBM got out of the PC market.

while i agree with that completely and in comparison to all the major manufacters ,gateway,ibm,ect, dell is the one on top.

for my own personal laptop i would rather pay a little more and get higher quality.

 

[jamesave]

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Originally posted by: rhino56
most people who want qualtiy dont buy dell

:roll:

I've spent in excess of $175,000 with Dell over the last 5 years.

In those years there are only a few notable trends that I have found. Most of which really are no fault of Dell's and could have happened to any company that shipped products with those parts.

1) Mainboards in the Inspiron 4000's. Had 5 laptops that had to have the mainboards swapped out. Once they were replaced they have been bullet proof.

2) Tape drives in my Poweredge servers. I've had to swap them out multiple times.

3) Power adapter recall which was pretty publicized.

4) A batch of Maxtor HD's that shipped out in a bunch of Optiplex GX260's that I bought. I've had 8 out of 25 PC's go down with HD failures. Same model and manf. date on the HD's. All have gone out in about 6 months of each other.

Any company that has such a broad range of products and shipping as much as Dell does IS GOING to have instances where a bad production run every now and then. They simply have so many suppliers that they buy from they can't possibly predict and control quality.

GM's have recalls. Honda's have recalls. Food companies have recalls. Xboxes have recalls. My GE refriderator had a recall. So on and so forth.

No company can be perfect, especially given the scope of operations and number of products sold like Dell has.

They provide very high levels of features at very reasonable prices while still providing a respectable level of quality and reliability. Yes there are better, but there are much, much worse.

Once you are responsible for running an IT budget you have to make compromises. My compromise was that for every 2 IBM's I bought, I could have purchased 3 Dells. It's simply a numbers game and Dell wins.

There's a reason why IBM got out of the PC market.

Those are good points you got! If I have a company, I would rather go that direction.

I guess for a personal stand point, someonce can splurge a little bit to get a tank?

 

[kalster]

happy t41 owner here, totally love it, customer support has been top class thus far. i owned a dell laptop before, the customer service we decent too, but the wait times and the dumbness of the CSR's was rather annoying

thinkpad keyboards are really cool though and they are built very tough too. i use an r40 at work too and it has taken a lot of abuse but works perfectly.

 

[Rock Hydra]

Originally posted by: rh71

Originally posted by: RockHydra11

Originally posted by: CRXican
check out the thread on IBMs warranty service

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=38&threadid=1575459&enterthread=y

Yeah i just got done readin' that. I was going to mention it.

1 report out of many other good ones... I've read on a few occasions IBM has one of the best customer satisfaction ratings out of any company. Not even talking about the products themself... but the service you get from them...

Well, it's more or less making people aware that there have been problems. People need to be aware of things that are good and bad as well, so they're not hella-pissed when something goes wrong. I don't mean to discourage them from checking out IBM or buying from them.

 

[imported_whatever]

my dad recently bought a T42 and he loves it. The thing is rock solid, and the wifi reception on it is FAR better than on a Linksys 802.11g PCI card we have.

 

[tm37]

OK I just bought a 600m for this reason-

I was working at a place that had over 200 in the field and they had very few failures and for the money you get pretty good support. ALso when it does go bad there are a million places to buy parts because they sell a million of them

I have a dell 8100 and it was heavy BUT other than that I have no complaints. I just thought it was time to upgrade and I will sel that in a few days I am sure.

People have complained about dells quality and I can tell you that rather than build computers I tell them to buy dells and most people do and I have yet to have a major meltdown with any of them. I have had a few issues with customer support but I have ALWAYS been happy in the end with the support I recieved. I can't say that about IBM, Gateway, Emachines, Compaq/hp.

I will continue to build my own desktops but my kids and wife will more than likely get dells if for somereason I don't upgrade on year and I will continue to buy Dell laptops for myself and recommend Dell to friends and family. IF YOU TAKE CARE OF YOUR LAPTOP they seem to be pretty sturdy. If you need to throw them around then you need to spend more and Get an IBM.

 

[Landroval]

I had a disaster with an inspiron laptop -- and the ensuing "service" and "solution" were so bad that I vowed never, ever to buy one again, even if it were $5. An small laptop in that range is the Fujitsu 7010D

 

[Ozoned]

Have you looked through the Dell outlet store?

 

[LeonarD26]

I know it's not the model you're considering, but I love my Insprion 6000. The build quality is great. My buddy has a 700m and he loves it.

I also have an old Dell Latitude CPt (celeron 466) that's a tank. I've had good luck with IBM laptops too...

Sorry I didn't make your decision any easier