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DontBuyDell.com

dontbuydell.com

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Re: DontBuyDell.com

#121

Post by cptaj »

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…

I dont know, what you describe does mean to me as a consumer that dell is shit so it seems pretty justified

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#122

Post by bachmeier »

I have for some years just bought Dell at work and home, and everything works well with Linux out of the box. Never had a problem. However, this issue

> the laptop does not sleep when closing the lid and thus the battery dies very fast

is actually an understatement of the problem. Apparently Dell changed the system for suspending laptops to something that does not work with Linux

https://www.dell.com/community/Linux-General/Dell-XPS-15-759...

That would make it difficult for me to ever buy a Dell laptop again. I don't see how it would be possible to use a laptop without suspend.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#123

Post by cookiengineer »

Back when Dell had its Latitude series they were known for being as indestructible as the Thinkpads.

Little did I know how shitty Dell laptops were afterwards. My excourse had gone through the 300/310 Touch Ultrabook series, the XPS13 and XPS15 series, and the Dell Precision series. Bought 5 laptops from Dell, all broken within under a year of lifetime.

It was so bad that in the Ultrabook the GPU literally melted, and they claimed this laptop is working totally fine by just using the internal display with more artifacts than actual pixels.

And now, here I am in 2022, using my Thinkpad from 2012...because it keeps working.

I don't even know what to buy after the Thinkpad dies, so I have one other as a spare parts donator.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#124

Post by bogwog »

bravura wrote: post #98
bogwog wrote: post #78

I usually tell family members that if they’re dead set on buying a new laptop (as opposed to used), then don’t buy anything under $1000 since it’s going to be a piece of shit. The only exception to that rule is Dell. Don’t buy Dell at all, since it’s always going to be a piece of shit.

How do you evaluate a used laptop? I never buy used, and am curious how you kick the tires and determine if it’s a good buy or a lemon.

Pretty much any high end Thinkpad or Macbook that is a couple of years old can be an incredibly good value (if you don’t mind cosmetic imperfections), since they’re very reliable.

I buy them on ebay, so if they don’t work I get buyer protection. As long as it doesn’t die within the return window, I assume it’s fine. I’m sure there are more scientific methods than that, but this has worked for me.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#125

Post by antiterra »

serf wrote: post #94

"The laptop does not sleep in Linux" is not a compelling reason to hate a manufacturer without a lot more details, but I always hear it as some catch-phrase when people talk about Linux/Laptop compatibility. linux isn't linux isn't linux. distribution and wm/de matter a lot with regards to power management, and many distributions/DEs have strong opinions about defaults in many different directions. I wouldn't expect…

> “The laptop does not sleep in Linux" is not a compelling reason to hate a manufacturer without a lot more details

Did you miss the detail that having Linux pre-installed by Dell was one of the primary selling points of the laptop model in question?

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#126

Post by navbaker »

velcrovan wrote: post #68
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…

We have had terrible problems with the Precision 3000 series overheating/blue-screening on our engineers while using SolidWorks and AutoCAD, and Dell’s response to us was that they couldn’t recommend that series for that purpose, after their rep had done exactly that. Also their WD19TB docks have been terrible. The display ports randomly crap out, the power supply randomly craps out, the ethernet ports randomly crap…

I have not had bad experiences with my work Dells, but I do agree the docking stations are complete crap. I found an inexpensive one for home use on Amazon from Plugable and requested the same one for my setup at work. It's been great for several years now!

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#127

Post by tablespoon »

christophilus wrote: post #96
duxup wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have some suggestions on companies whose priorities are better? It would be good to know.

Apple has been rock solid for me for a decade. Their priorities aren’t fully aligned with mine, but they’re as close as any company I know of. I really want to try a System76 or Framework as my next machine.

> Apple has been rock solid for me for a decade. Their priorities aren’t fully aligned with mine, but they’re as close as any company I know of. I really want to try a System76 or Framework as my next machine.

Aren't all those premium products?

Many of the complaints here read like: "I usually BMWs, but I decided to buy a Honda Fit and hated it. It's small and under-powered, nothing like the BMWs I prefer: Honda sucks. Honda should adopt the BMW strategy of making all their products premium."

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#128

Post by JohnJamesRambo »

louffoster wrote: post #41
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 c…

Your review right now helped me avoid them in the future.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#129

Post by sf_rob »

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…

Granted my experience is filtered through my IT department, but my experience with Dell's enterprise warranty was anything but smooth. Replacing a faulty m2 and a motherboard were both multi-week affairs, so bad that I wrote our CTO about our machine requisition policies.
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