I love LOVE LOVE the IRS right now. Why you might ask... tax refund is in the bank! New computer here I come! Which brings me to the question, I want a laptop. I can get a discount through my employer for a Dell. What do we think of them? (We being people more techie than me...) All I do is play video games (and not the fancy schmancy doom or Halo kind either, the fanciest one I have is Law & Order or Sims), surf the information superhighway and that's about it. And before you all get all why a laptop... I don't have space in my teeny tiny apartment to put a desk for a computer. And I've gotten spoiled because Jakob is a laptop and I'm used to sitting on the sofa with him in my lap. My other option would be to upgrade Jakob which is a Sony Vaio from about 1999. He was refurbished and his warranty has run out (or actually will run out in March). He has a new keyboard. His screen is still good. I had originally thought about just getting him a new larger hard drive... and maybe processor but then wouldn't it be easier to just get a whole new thing. Opinions?
5 comments:
Don't upgrade. Buy new.
I bought a Dell laptop about three and half years ago. Their costumer service sucks. Their online service is reasonable, but in most cases your computer is messed up, so you have to call them. This is HOURS on the phone and often requires followup calls (which means more HOURS) on the phone. While I think my laptop is a higher quality than what Compaq carries, it's had the hard drive replaced. Anyway, if I could do it over again, I would buy from a store - at least their would be some sort of face-to-face accountability. Also, I'm not sure if this is important to you, but Dell is a right-wing supporter.
Have you considered a Mac? They have stores, excellent customer service ... the stores offer ::free:: workshops for PC users to see how a Mac could work for them. Even their desktops are spacesavers :)
Anyway, I wouldn't buy from Dell ever again. If I were buying, I'd seriously be looking at a Mac - and a desktop at that (they're better for computer games - even Sims, which is only thing I play) and seem to have less "issues" in general than laptops.
I wouldn't eliminate refurbished machines - just get it from a quality seller. Some even have warranties - and you can save A LOT of money.
I bought two Dell laptops this year. First time I bought from Dell for personal computers.
The first one was clunkier, but cheaper. The second one was lighter and smaller and cost an extra hundred bucks.
Here's my take [and I'm not a hardware person, plus I play virtually zero games - except Tetris :)]:
Dell - great customer service [although it's purely anecdotal based on my own experiences along with friends and coworkers]. Quality of design is average at best. The prices are very low and you are basically trading off commodity design for large-scale industry-leading support.
IBM ThinkPad - good customer service, AWESOME durability, average design, but more expensive. You are basically paying for the durability, but the stories of what their boxes can withstand are fairly legendary.
Apple - awesome design, good customer service, but more expensive and of course it's Apple (so one vendor lock-in for hardware).
Personally, I would recommend an Apple if you don't have much stuff to install/use on your computer.
I really wanted an Apple, but paying the price premium wasn't worth it to me, especially when I spend a LOT of time developing and working on PC software.
Disclaimer: I got a Dell discount from my employer, too.
I thought Jakob was a pet?
Well... Interesting comment there. I'm considering a PC only because I have all PC software at this point. I used to own and run a MAC and it was great, but now everything I have is for the other and I don't really know how to do the run PC stuff on Mac computer thing. I was thinking Dell because I get a discount. I also get a discount from a couple of other vendors, so I could look at them to see what kinds of discounts they offer. I just like the ease of Dell because it is all laid out on their website as opposed to me having to call the other vendors. Ok I'm lazy sometimes. :)
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