Dell is Just Too Expensive Nowadays...

I thought about getting a 120W laptop with a Geforce 765M and Haswell - MSI has an affordable one for $1350+ depending on upgrades. The Dell Alienware one was 180W and way more expensive. I think a 4 Year warranty was around $489 + 4 Year Accident Protection another $249 or so. So a Haswell Dell 765M Alienware laptop with a 4 year warranty would cost around $2500! Too expensive!

I bought my loaded Dell E1705 Jan 2006 with 4 year warranty + Accident Protection for $2650 or so. But I remember the warranty wasn't too expensive, and I got it through EPP. Warranty Service was excellent. I had many repairs and a laptop rebuild after it fell down a flight of stairs, so Dell Warranty repair and service is top notch! The problem is that they now charge too much for a 4 Year Warranty that I don't want to buy their laptops! And Dell has been losing sales and profits lately... bad stock report.

So now if I wanted a new 765M Haswell laptop I'd go MSI. I'd extend the basic 2 year warranty to 1 more year, then I'll have to pay for any latop repairs after 3+ years.

How about you? Don't you think Dell has gotten too expensive lately?

 

They're trying to better stratify their consumer lineups for more profit. With Alienware being around, the Inspiron line doesn't have many discrete graphics options like in the good old days because Dell would rather push you toward Alienware or XPS systems with higher margins.

 

Dell is as competitive as it always was. Warranties are where companies--all companies--make a huge profit. Naturally, they're going to push them. If you're intrepid, you don't need to get any of that.

 

Hi InspiredE1705. Thanks for your information, But I think dell is one of the best company who provide best repairing services, may be it costly but service is fine than the other laptop company.

 

Dell is expensive? Buy something else.

 

Dell, like many others have offerings in various price ranges to suit the low end, mid range and high end laptops.

You can always snag a great deal on the Dell outlet site if your patient enough.

But the quality of the Alienware line and precision line as far better than MSI.

But MSI gives you good bang for the buck. Just bear in mind they may rely on the re-seller to support it, Dell far exceeds most other laptop lines with thier warranty support

 

Try Dell Outlet! They're refurbished but basically new with a full warranty.

 

A year and a half on. Dell is still a better buy than many. If you want something fast and cheap go somewhere else. I find that a Dell business laptop (Latitude and up) can keep chugging well past various other equivalents from other manufactures. Great support too. Despite the rise of use of other smaller forms for mobile computing I still prefer an older 6000 series Latitude for my daily carry computing need. Just cant beat the form and proper hard to beat keyboard on that series.

 

I somewhat agree. I have a Lattitude E5000's something series from last year for work. That thing is solid, and performs nicely. Our company uses these laptops for all engineers, and when needed to be used, warranty work is always pleasant.

But, I have a ThinkPad I used for personal as well as business. I can work more productively (multi-task) when having/using multiple laptops, so I use both pretty much all day every day. And I must say, ThinkPad is ALOT nicer to use, better/more features, and warranty support is even easier (onsite/next day). I think dual batteries (1 internal/1 external) is just the killer feature for true business. and although dells new keyboard this year is better than the one they used from last year (mine), it again isn't better than Lenovo's. Throw in 1080p is barely a standard with Dell, and 3k almost not even an option. Spill resistant keyboard (lets face it, we're adults but accidents happen).

But I use both a ThinkPad and Lattitude for 10+ hours a day, I find both up to snuff for business in all aspects. For road traveling or in the field business use, ThinkPad should be the option.

All in all, over HP, Acer, Asus, or anything else business wise. I'd say Lenovo #1, Dell #2 by a small margin, and everything else need not even consider. Just my 2 cents.

 

Funny, that you compare Lattitude to the ThinkPad series. Try comparing Lenovo's business line with Dell's Precision mobile workstations instead
This should give you different results.

 

Keyboard, heat, especially battery, weight, screen, size, ect.

Precision 4800 is decent but w540 blows it away. The 3800 is really nice, but keyboard while still decent isn't a thinkpad, and sealed battery with crap battery life just kills it. Never even seen a 6800 yet, but I'm sure that's just a larger 4800.

I have a precision 4800 work got me last year. Within a month Iade them get me the lattitude, I travel to customer sits 50/50, and outlets are a rarity there. The only time I ever use it, which I agree is a horrible waste, is when I work with autocad.

 

Doesn't the W540 only have a single fan vs the precisions two?


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very true. And the W540's turns off when not needed, while the precisions two are always spinning.

Only when running full load cpu and gpu, is there any dips in max frequencies. Almost everything i do is max cpu, but gpu never gets maxed fully. So really haven't a problem with less than full performance.

And this is just a observation, but even with 1 fan the W540 is never louder than the Precision. And the Precision gets quite loud, but normally its like bursts of max fan.

But either way, single fan doesnt prove to be any worse than the Dells 2 fans, yet actually is easier on the ears and provides off when not needed. But both idle noises are similar, dells just edging out because the dual fans. But, again, the dell seems to even at low loads give bursts of high fan speeds even if only for a few seconds. And I'd say maybe thats my unit, but a college has the 4700 with an i5, and his fans are the same as my i7, with that out of no where quick burst. Not bothersome, just easily noticable.


Edit* personal note on the non max turbo while both cpu and gpu are fully utilized.
I'm not sure if this is because of Temps or Power availability. But, I'll be sure to check out and note next time.

 

I don't find my precision fans at all loud, either at home when it's quiet, or at work in a 80-100dB shop. I find people are far too sensitive to fan noise, IMO.

I also did a clean install and avoided any Dell power utilities - perhaps that's related? They're definitely not always on.


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I work in either office setting, a control room on site, or in field on site. And its not bothersom at all, but fans are louder than either of my lenovo's. And that fan ramp thing, I'm used to know, but got annoying quick at first. I dont have any Dell software except for the finerprint reader and their sonicwall (which is totally unrelated to laptop itself).

But I kept my lattitude E5540 in my breifcase today, and decided to work on/with the precision 4800 today (along side my W550s). And still havent noticed fans not spinning yet.

 

On which BIOS?

 

The guy is using Thinkpad W.... that is the workstation series in the Thinkpad line. I suppose its a matter of preference. Both are great.

 

I'm well aware of that - I looked at both when choosing my machine...hence my curiosity.

I fail to see what your comment adds to the discussion.

 

The higher up the ladder you goes the higher the price. Then again used as a tool prices matters not so much if it can do the job required of it. I do find latter builds from Dell on haswells runs a little warmer than the previous ivy. Prices remains on similar level as always. Just that Dell marketing for business grades varies around the world. Dell Precison line and Lenovo Ws are a class above the standard Latituds and standard Thinkpads. I have managed to convince a student to get a Precision m400 over the Latitude 6540 just because of the better build of the Precision despite the size and weight penalty paying only a small premium because the Precision was a lightly used test machine. More purchases are being made based on specs and prices and not actual user experience and I do know quite a few individuals that have made wrong call buy gettin consumer grade laptop citing lower prices without any cosideration for the far superior longevity of life generally of the business grade laptops.
My best guess is that Dell is not selling as many laptops these days due to more use of smaller forms for personal computing, hence the slightly higher prices asked.
I still feel that Dell is still on a better track compares to HP and Lenove on their design of laptops.

 

Sad thing is, Dell is a bit more cost friendly but their customer support can be horrible. But the cost of computers is slowly rising a bit.

 

That depends on where you are. Wherever dell has a presence, the aftersales service is good. Then again I suppose no single mfr can has presence everywhere around the world. Reason why it is better to get a business grade. They are built a lot better then their customer cousins.