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DontBuyDell.com

dontbuydell.com

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Re: DontBuyDell.com

#41

Post by louffoster »

georgyo wrote: post #13

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 head…

In June I got a new XPS13 (without the touchbar), preloaded with linux. Upon arrival, the camera and fingerprint reader did not work. The battery lasted about 2 hours and the screen literally fell out. After 2 days of frustrating tech support calls, they finally agreed to ship me a replacement.

1 month later, no replacement arrived. Many calls to support yielded no answers. I finally got them to refund my order and cancel the replacement.

A very bad experience for me and I will never buy a Dell again.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#42

Post by CobaltFire »

pxx wrote: post #27

There's a lot of one-off nonsense in here, but then there is also: > Another example is using a 4k screen ona a 13” laptop. Much better in terms of battery life and price to use a 2.5k screen. Humans can’t tell the difference. Why did they use a 4k? What? Citation for sure needed. That's ~330 ppi, which is about where Apple's "retina" marketing ends up, so even with that optimistic view on things, it's still "just en…

Only for the phones, which seems like a poor comparison point. Their current laptops are ~230ppi; they base the desired PPI on viewing distance as I understand it.

So by Apples standards 330ppi is FAR too high for laptop viewing distances.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#43

Post by cercatrova »

Why is it that comments on this post as well as elsewhere make it seem that there's either a love it or hate it relationship with Dell? Is there really a bimodal distribution in their customers?

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#44

Post by AshamedCaptain »

My biggest problem with Dell is that they refuse to perform even simple firmware upgrades on stuff that is out of support "with Dell". Dell.com support is for stuff you buy on Dell.com, not Dell products overall.

E.g. if you buy a Dell monitor from Amazon, warranty is handled by Amazon, not Dell. This means that Dell will refuse to give you firmware updates (and they are not freely redistributable), and Amazon obviously can't update the firmware for you. Your only recourse is to keep returning to Amazon until they come back with one with the fixed firmware.

And Dell monitors are plenty buggy. I have seen systems that would fail to boot (VGA card's firmware would hang during POST) with an A0-revision monitor from Dell connected with DisplayPort. And don't get me started on the Thunderbolt docking stations... we had to send so many for replacement, my company practically hoards the working ones now.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#45

Post by bayindirh »

bastawhiz wrote: post #35
branon wrote: post #21

On the contrary I've had great experiences with Dell's business line (Latitude, Precision models). Likewise the business warranty is excellent - log into TechDirect and I can submit a ticket for any one of the machines in my fleet. Dell will either send a technician out to service it in the field, or they'll mail me an empty box so I can send the unit in for repair. Consumer _anything_ is going to be hit or miss. Thi…

> Buying Dell's consumer line and having a hard time trying to cash in on the consumer warranty doesn't mean Dell is shit, just means their priorities are elsewhere. This is the whole point of the site: don't buy products from companies whose priorities are elsewhere.

This is same for other manufacturers too.

HP: Pavilions are bad, Pro/Elite/Z series are awesome. Servers are good too.

Lenovo: Ideapads are eh, Thinkpads and servers, completely different.

The only company which builds all their hardware with comparable quality to other manufacturers' pro lines is Apple.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#47

Post by duxup »

I‘ve had great experiences with Dells.

The only reason I moved to a Mac recently is the improved performance and efficiency on Apple silicon.

I’m also skeptical of advice that there are better products out there, but they don’t tell you which ones they are. There’s a lot of nuance to that it is easy to just say.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#48

Post by bluedino »

Dell is the Walmart of desktops/laptops. Somehow their server line has remained high quality.

Lenovo is my laptop manufacturer of choice, but only the T, X and P Thinkpads.

They are doing their best to water down and trash the lineup. Along with the Thinkpad, there's the Thinkbook, Ideapad, Yoga, Legion, Lenovo Slim, and just the plain Lenovo.

But buying a 'Thinkpad' isn't a guarantee of quality. It used to be the T series was the standard laptop, X was thin and light, and the P series was a workstation.

Now they have the E series which is "affordable and stylish". The L series in "entry-level". Why do you need two lines of cheap junk? The Z is "is engineered sustainably from recycled vegan leather and recycled aluminum, then boxed in rapid-renewable, compostable packaging".

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#49

Post by vladms »

Might be an example of how an AI just integrates whatever biases are out there (as there are probably more people complaining than saying they are happy)

My experience with Dell was great. I have a Dell Latitude (business line) that works without issue for more than 10 years (ofc, now it's only for browsing). And I also have a more recent Dell XPS 15 that got a full glass of water on it, and still keeps working - with the exception of the GPU - but considering it was soaked and out of warranty I am still happy with that.

Not sure what I would buy next, but would definitely consider Dell. In fact the most annoying thing for me is the pattern below the keyboard on the XPS, but esthetics is a personal choice anyhow.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#50

Post by osigurdson »

spikej wrote: post #22
georgyo wrote: post #13

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 head…

I have an XPS 13 also that I'll probably be replacing in another year or two. What is your new go-to I should look into?

I have a fairly expensive Thinkpad X1 that I bought for myself and cheap MacBook Air M1 series for my kids. The M1 blows the X1 out of the water: faster, better screen, better screen aspect ratio, much better battery life. The only thing the X1 has going for it is a marginally better keyboard.
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