Board logo

dell laptops/netbooks - your thoughts please?
john_p_b - 14/6/10 at 07:29 PM

need a new laptop as this one i'm sat here typing on is very much on it's last legs.

my wife also needs a laptop or netbook as she's going back to uni next year so wants something for taking notes on but doesn't want something big and bulky so thought about a netbook for her?

neither of us need anything fancy, we don't do gaming as we have the wii if we want to play games so it's pretty much word processing, web browsing, emails, storing music etc

been looking at some pretty basic dell items really, the inspiron 15, comes in at £369 delivered. intel celeron dual core processor, 3gb ram, 320gb hard drive, dvd writter etc, seems to tick all the boxes but just wondering if anyone has any experience with them or can offer an alternative for sub £400?

RichardK - 14/6/10 at 07:33 PM

Worth having a look in tescos or asda for an acer or hp, frequently have in store deals that I can't match!

To answer your question I dont rate dell support at all!

Cheers

Rich

[Edited on 14/6/10 by RichardK]

rayward - 14/6/10 at 07:39 PM

have a look Here i got a 10" netbook for £150 delivered with a pretty decent spec

keep check back though as they add new stuff all the time

Ray

BenB - 14/6/10 at 07:49 PM

Been using a dell laptop for the last six years. Still going strong

tegwin - 14/6/10 at 08:03 PM

IMHO.. Dell and Toshiba are the only two laptop brands I would touch! HP have some nice laptops on spec, but their build quality is questionable...


The basic dell inspiron is very highly rated... If you want trouble free no frills.. use that..

My 7 year old Dell X300 has been in almost constant use... and it has only just given up on me....

marcjagman - 14/6/10 at 08:10 PM

As an ex Dell installer/engineer I can hand heart say that they are the biggest load of crap built in the last 4 years. Use Acer, better quality alround.

john_p_b - 14/6/10 at 08:25 PM

i have a headache now! i have an Acer at the moment, loved it for the 1st 18 months but sinse then i've grown to hate it, the casing has cracked where it gets picked up, the casing around the hinges has cracked which is now at the point of the screen stopping working(closing the screen down is out of the question i have to keep it in 1 place!), the wireless died a while back, the bluetooth never has worked......kinda puts me off buying another but they do make some nice machines.

cliftyhanger - 14/6/10 at 09:21 PM

re notebooks, daughter got one last christmas, a samsung whatever. Pretty impressed really, seems powerful enough for normal stuff, came with XP (but guess they are 7 now) and well worth paying the extra to get windows and a proper hard drive.....
Best £200 ever methinks.....

RazMan - 14/6/10 at 10:22 PM

I've used Dell Inspirons over the last few years and they have proven to be reliable work horses. However last year I changed to an Advent Netbook with 10" screen and much more compact - even better and it runs all my mapping software too!

kevmcdo - 14/6/10 at 10:45 PM

Had a dell inspirion for years as a work and leisure tool that was in constant use for years. Never had a single fault come up with it, only the usual windows caused issues, All software related.
When it came to upgrade it was till too good to scrap that I ended up giving it to my Father and so far he is thrilled with how robust it has been.

britishtrident - 15/6/10 at 06:45 AM

For laptops Toshiba --- don't touch anything else.

McLannahan - 15/6/10 at 07:07 AM

quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident
For laptops Toshiba --- don't touch anything else.


Horrible keyboards if you're a touch typist. Whatever you buy I would try and have a look at the model - pick it up, try the keyboard, look how many hours the battery lasts, how bright is the screen.....


To be honest - not that I'd buy from PC World, but I'd go into there and try out all the brands they offer. I'm a fan of a particular brand and know that laptops I've supplied nearly 10 years ago are still working - and working well. Most of my servers I run are the same one brand. None have ever failed and minor glitches have been fixed quickly and to a high standard.

It's a real opinion thing - some hate some brands, some hate others. Some people have justification, some don't.

I for instance hate Acer having had a batch of 75 fail in the same way. Nearly 100,000 worth of computing at the time. Not touched one since and each I've had to repair (and there's been a lot) have been the same dreadful build quality. BUT.....It's just my experience, no doubt many will disagree.

You may find that battery life is important - Samsung have generally very good life on their netbooks, Dells are easier to get parts for, Advents are a generic brand but also easy to get parts for, IBM are very good business machines but not great for features....

Ninehigh - 15/6/10 at 08:12 AM

Got a Compaq, no real problems decent spec etc. Only hitch is the mouse buttons on the pad thing have decended a little making clicking pants, but I was expecting to have to replace it at some point so no big loss

austin man - 15/6/10 at 09:53 AM

I got a HP netbook free with a phone contract and a blackeberry there was also a Dell netbook on offer. So if your also in the market for a phone yo may wish to look at some of the deals on offer. My daughter got a Dell inspiron as part of a phone deal biggest problem was the memory it had 1 gig I believe