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DontBuyDell.com

dontbuydell.com

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Re: DontBuyDell.com

#11

Post by PaulWaldman »

0xAFFFF wrote: post #6

The XPS 13 I bought a few years ago ended up being a decent development machine, with a price point hard to match for the form factor and specs. And the Dell crapware on it was relatively low. What are good alternatives for non-Apple slim 13' laptops with good screen real estate, low weight, loads of RAM and a decent price range?

>loads of RAM

Same! I'd love a laptop with a P or even U series processor that can handle 64 GB of ram.

The H series processors that you typically need to step up to generate more heat than small computers can dissipate and are thus frequently throttled.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#12

Post by dsego »

0xAFFFF wrote: post #6

The XPS 13 I bought a few years ago ended up being a decent development machine, with a price point hard to match for the form factor and specs. And the Dell crapware on it was relatively low. What are good alternatives for non-Apple slim 13' laptops with good screen real estate, low weight, loads of RAM and a decent price range?

Thinkpad carbon x1? new ones are 14" with 16:10 aspect ratio. Very slim and lightweight compared to macbooks (new 14" macs are rather heavy). They are a bit on the pricey side.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#13

Post by georgyo »

I have been using the same Dell XPS 13 for about 6 years now, and I cannot say agree with most of that article. The Dell XPS line was my goto recommendation for people when they ask what laptop they should get.

Dell XPS support is also fantastic, if you go though the business channel and pay for support.

That said, Dell XPS is no longer my recommendation as the "New" line is a serious downgrade. They removed the headphone jack and added a touch bar. The amount of disappointment I have is immense. They took their best line and decided to make it horrible.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#14

Post by throwawayMMXXII »

I worked in one of Dell's outsourcing partners' call centres (admittedly I left almost 15 years ago), and back then it was the same people manning both consumer and business support lines. Towards the end of 2007 Dell started separating the two segments and that's where the problems started (edit: not sure about the exact date -- processes like that tend to take a while to plan) :

* Dell European consumer division was centralized and controlled from Ireland (IIRC).

* Consumer models like Inspiron and Dimension had a noticable drop in build quality.

* Support agents were forced to adhere to strict scripts during support calls, rather than use their own brains.

* Support agents had to convince a certain percentage of customers to replace parts themselves, rather than getting the on-site service they paid for. Agents not fillin their daily quotas were disciplined.

* Exceptions to the scripts had to be escalated. In many cases, Dell would outright ignore local consumer laws when handling complaints.

I'm sure things might have changed since then. Personally, I'm not taking the chance and will never buy a Dell product again, if I'm given a choice.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#15

Post by samhuk »

Did anyone actually read the article?

TL;DR: GPT-3 wrote this from looking at, I guess, various internet review sites and forums etc.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#17

Post by philliphaydon »

I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with dell.

The last 2 laptops I’ve had. In 2020 work provided a brand new dell XPS 15.

I opened it up. Logged in. The fans sat at 100% while idle in windows desktop. I ended up just giving it back.

Current job I got a 2022 dell XPS 15. It has an annoying whine when the fans spin up. It gets HOT! And it’s the first time ive experienced audio issues. And I’m not alone on the audio issues. Everyone at work with the same laptop has audio issues which is always resolved by restarting the laptop… for example today I connected my Bluetooth headphones. It connected but didn’t appear as an audio device so I couldn’t hear anything. This also caused the speakers on the laptop to stop working.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#19

Post by mkl95 »

> Dell laptops are horrible for a number of reasons.

I was about to type "Dell is a horrible brand", but GPT-3 was faster.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#20

Post by Belphemur »

My experience with Dell with their laptop has been the worst at work.

Who thought it's a good idea to put a Intel power hungry heat generator in a laptop with no airflow or proper cooling for enterprise product ?

I had a coworker that nearly burn his leg when having the laptop on them and coding with Spotify in the background.

The thing would thermal throttle like crazy and turn into an helicopter because it has only one 50mm fan to try to cool down the machine...

We had to buy stands to help with the airflow because if you put it on a desk it would block the intake.

It cost the same price than a MacBook M1 Pro with worse performance, worse thermal and it's so loud.

I'll never want a Dell laptop ever again.

Also don't get me started on their power delivery circuit that overheat when the laptop is used while charging or the proprietary batteries.

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