ugh. dell's new laptops

is there anyone else who thinks there new laptop's are a step back? they look like.. butt. i was totally wanting a new laptop, but i think dell just lost me. gonna go check out hp and asus.

i'll take my studio xps 16 over that any day.

 

I love them

 

I don't mind mine at all.

 

Not the best looking laptops on the planet but they are still very good rigs. Good luck with the whole HP and Asus thing lol. Asus will give you bsod's as well as other issues and 2 months at a time without a laptop every time something goes wrong, HP will give you hardware that is lucky to last the 1 year you have warranty and the same thing on RMA's. The looks may not be the best but the performance, and especially NBD warranty support is much more important IMO.

 

In response to your post, are you referring to just consumer grade notebooks? I have not, nor do I plan on buying ANY consumer notebooks for the purpose of business, only for gaming.

Dell business is where my heart is set, however with the industry moving to 16:9 screens, and IMO less rigid construction compared to last last generation build quality, I will be keeping my older laptops up to shape. I just feel newer notebooks aren't made as well as older ones. Everyone screams faster and cheaper, and you can clearly see the results.

As to ASUS and HP; HP is just terribad, even their business class, unless you want to drop 4 grand on a Elitebook. Their consumer models are garbage design, and are terrible to take apart. The cheapo plastics do not help at all. They are full of bloatware from the factory. Cheapo Compaq/HP are even worse. Their new layout is awful, screen is awful, everything is awful. ASUS is a bit better, but I only would consider their high end G series gaming notebooks. Their tech support is as useful as yelling at the wall til you get a tier 3 tech. Their build quality is better than your average computer but the fact they have almost no ASP support worries me, as many Taiwanese based manufacturers do not have lots of ASP places (big exception is now Acer which bought out Gateway/eMachines). But still I'd take a Dell over ASUS because ASUS won't source alot of older parts or will charge you an arm and a leg for.

 

Love love love my XPS 15.

 

well i specifically talking about the looks. i was sitting here saying, hey let me head over to dell.com and see what my next laptop is going to look like. not impressed. i love dell's tech support and they're hardware has almost never failed me, but the newer xps just seems like a step down, aesthetically wise, when compared to the older studio xps 16.

and as far as hp and asus. they were just the first companies that i could think of. i've only ever bought dell, but this could be the first time i'm looking at other notebooks.

 

I actually like the look overall. Granted, I'm a business notebook kind of guy...so the conservative design and sturdy materials used is very appealing. I do think Dell could of paid more attention to the details though. Take the screen bezel for example. Instead of using the exact same glossy screen bezel as the Inspiron line, they should have either made the screen "edge to edge" glass, or use a matte/soft-touch rubberized plastic bezel. Little things like that go a long way toward suggesting to potential consumers a quality product.

 

I like the way they look. Granted there are better looking laptops out there. I ordered mine yesterday. I can't wait to get it.

 

I prefer the looks of my XPS over the Lenovo y560 or Asus Republic of Gamers laptops. The HP Envy's look nice, but I think the rest of their laptops look (and last) like garbage.

 

I must admit, when I first saw the new XPS series on the net, I was not impressed at all. They looked clunky and ugly. However, since recieving my XPS 15 last week, I fell in love. They are built soooo much better than my old 1520. The aluminum feels/looks sweet, the keyboard is the best i've ever used, and the trackpad is great.

HP is JUNK. I will never ever own anything they produce. I have fixed/tried to fix more HP computers at my place of work than anything else combined.

 

What's wrong with the build quality of the 1520? I absolutely like my Vostro 1500, better built IMO than new laptops. Plus XPS 15 is a much higher price bracket than a consumer level Inspiron was..

 

1520: LCD hinges sucked! Constantly getting loose. Chassis flexed. They were big and heavy. Keyboard was crap. I even had key's develop cracks. Not sure how, but they did. Speakers were junk, to put it lightly.
Much higher price bracket??? My 1520 w/ T7500, 1 gig of RAM, Geforce 8600GT and 120 gig HDD cost me close to $1200........ XPS 15 with better specs can be had for that easily.

 

My Vostro 1500 hinges are fine, no problems whatsoever. Thin and light was a premium to be commanded back then. The chassis does not flex, the keyboard is perfectly fine. Speakers on mine are better than cheapo notebooks today. I paid 800 for my Vostro 1500 back then with T5470, 8400M GS, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB HDD. Honestly there is nothing wrong with a 1520, COMPARED to what you could get back then.

You are also forgetting you paid a premium for high end specs back then. 1520 still sells for 400-600 these days, I can't say the same for a 3 year old eMachines.

 

On my 2nd 1520 I had the LCD replaced twice, the motherboard replaced twice, the speakers replaced twice, the wireless lan replaced, battery replaced, and charger replaced twice. My cousin, same identical 1520, had the same luck. Dell replaced both of our 1520'a w/ warranty replacements. So I know of 3 1520's that have been crap.

 

And I've never had a problem with Vostro 1500 besides the battery dying after 2 years. You may have just had bad luck.

And comparing a 1520 to a XPS is comparing apples and oranges. A better comparison would have been an XPS 1530 to an XPS 15. And knowing all the issues with every XPS, I steer clear of it.

 

I don't disagree. This thread was about the new XPS and I stated how my XPS 15 is head and shoulders above my 1520. A $800 XPS 15 is better than any 1520 that was ever made. And at the price point, well, my 1520 cost a lot more than my XPS would have.

 

Well sure, in comparison a G73JW would crap on my Vostro 1500. And it's obvious the new XPS in terms of specs is alot better than older technology, but it's not a fair comparison.

And time and time again, the XPS line has always looked promising, but I would extend that warranty, as XPS have their issues always.

 

I'm just happy Dell replaced my 2nd 1520 with a XPS 15. No comparison between the two

 

Actually the xps 15 looks VERY good in person!
Been using it from 2 months!
Yeah but i wud have preferred XPS 16 if it had the same hardware!

 

We had numerous Vostro 1500's at my company on a prior project I was working on. I'd say around 50 of them. And I'd say a good 30-35 of them developed numerous issues. Some of them only had minor issues like the keyboard chassis bending and the keys cracking, while others had much worse issues. One of them even had the hinge disconnect entirely from screen/body.

Granted, these machines were being used by us consultants on the road a lot (including frequent air travel), but they definitely don't hold up well in my opinion.

Perhaps you've just been lucky more than him being unlucky?

 

I haven't seen the new XPS line first person, but from pictures it's starting to grow on me.

 

Gotta agree there. Like I said, I had 2 1520's and my cousin had one also. All 3 had to be replaced.

 

I mean I used the laptop for gaming in college, I think I would have caused more damage than consultants. But I also bought my Vostro 1500 literally 2 months after launch (purchased late Aug, shipped Sept 2007). I don't know when yours was made, but I was looking at Vostro when they were first released. Again, owning my Vostro 1500 has been very satisfying, I'll pretty much only buy Dell business for non gaming purposes from now on.

 

It's really comes down to a "personal choice" situation for everyone. If someone like the lappy' they are going to purchase, if not ~ they will move on to something else. : )


Cin...

 

I own a 1520 for more than 3 years as of now - it is one of the sturdiest laptop in terms of build quality and the materials used.... I have no problems with my speakers what-so-ever - they deliver far better quality sound than all the recent laptops my friends have bought.

My screen hinges are little loose (nothing you dont see in a 3yr old laptop), my original battery died in 1.5 yrs - and I went with 3rd party batteries, my charging circuit in the laptop has a minor glitch (fails to charge the battery at times but recovers automatically)....

My roomies have Lenovos, DELL Studio 15, DELL XPS 13 - all have cheap build quality - they might be lighter, but the cheap quality plastics in them suck big time.... The Lenovo guy got rid of his laptop in a year, the XPS guy got almost everything in his laptop replaced 4 times within the year, and the Studio guy got the bezels replaced at least 3 times....

Laptops have changed a lot - manufacturers have started using cheap quality materials in favour of manufacturing light-weight laptops without concentrating on the sturdiness and the build quality....

I havent seen the new XPS in my hand, but looks better than the previous XPS lines IMO... But I have become a fan of ASUS laptops off late and might switch over to a G53 within the next few months.... I find that you get a better config laptop and an equally good one for the same price compared to DELL... They're not even offering the 460M in the XPS line, RAM, HDD upgrades are insanely expensive.... The only good thing in the config of curent XPS is their speakers I'd say... May be if you're not a person like me who prefers high config laptops - an XPS would be cheaper....

 

Yes! The Inspiron 1520/Vostro 1500 is the last models which Dell moved away from the bigger/bulkier chassis, the result was the 1525 which was garbage. Then the 1545 replaced that, almost as bad, then Inspirons I think have gotten worse and worse. I prefer the older Dell chassis, IMO they are much better built than the new stuff.

I recently did a hinge replacement for a Inspiron 1520, took less than 10 minutes. One of the hinges had gotten loose so I tightened it up and all was well.

 

Unfortunately, the XPS 15 is NOT as beautiful as the above picture in person. As a very satisfied owner of the XPS M1540, I think aesthetically and in build quality, the old XPS M1540 is far superior to the new XPS 15. The new XPS 15 is better built than the Sony Vaio F series, though uglier.

@ZippoMan: Would you please shrink the picture; it's messing up the whole page.

 

I like the look of my now dead XPS M1730. Dell is replacing it with an XPS17, haven't received it yet so I can't really compare the two yet, but so far I think it looks clean and pretty "normal". My M1730 looks crazy.. carbon fiber, crazy disco lights.. Gaudy but very unique. Dell also used to do a lot more for XPS customers, like I got a sweet backpack, leather cd case, awesome earbuds, etc with my M1730. That being said the XPS has come down in price quite a bit, which is a nice trade off. I will miss the crazy disco lights though!

 

Could you describe more on how you were able to tighten the screen hinge screws ? I'm ready to open up the case if I knew where to look for the right screws.... Thanks...

 

I honestly should take mine apart and get pictures but these are from the Dell SM.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/vos1500/en/sm/csl_dis6.jpg

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/vos1500/en/sm/csl_dis7.jpg

These 4 screws hold the LCD hinges to the chassis. Sometimes they get loose from being slammed eek , sometimes tightening these can help.

I don't have great pictures of the actual hinges that attach to the LCD back cover.

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/8609/csldi16.jpg

There should be 2 screws on each hinge. Sometimes these are VERY loose. Tighten the 4 screws.

 

Thanks, will try tightening the screws this weekend

 

I woke up this morning to discover a cigarette burned out laying on my palm rest of my brand new xps15. About 2" burned down to the butt.

I licked my thumb and wiped off the nicotine smudge.

It looks brand new. Zero butt evidence. None.

Try that with ur dang Toshiba/Asus/Apple thing...

 

The XPS 15 is the Sleepy Smoker's best friend, yes sir, you can fall asleep while smoking over your Dell XPS 15 and sleep easy because, it won't burn the house down around you!

 

Studio XPS 16 is the best looking laptop I've seen in a while. Too bad they seem to be moving away from that one and focusing more on the pure XPS, which look like crap in comparison.

 

I agree, my 17 cleans up very nicely also.

 

Nice!

Although I hope you found the culprit and gave him a beating... lol