Why is Dell so "ewww"?

I told someone at work I was getting a Dell and the immediate reaction was to make a face and go "ewww..."

Why?

The guy I worked with owns a Mac, so that's probably part of it. But seriously, why all the negativity surrounding Dell's?

I like to poke fun at Dell, but there's zero method to my madness. What about you?

 

Well there computers aren't exactly the best looking, and the build quality is mediocre for the most part. There tech support is not exactly decent whatsoever and its a hassle every time you get on the phone with them until you yell for a supervisor.

 

because he's a retard.

If he said that to my face I'd kill him.

 

He's a black belt in... is it Kung Fu? I forget. He's also really short. I'd love to see you two fist fight :laugh:

This is a big one I forgot in my poll... too bad you can't edit the options. Oh well

 

They may have the best prices most of the time but everything else is really sub-par most of the time for most of their products.

 

Nothing's wrong with Dell. They're probably the best company for budget computers/laptops. Keep in mind you get what you payed for. Don't expect Dell to have the best tech support or best build quality.

 

dell has good prices compared to the rest. Most of their products will lose in quality compared to other companies.

 

I'll pay as much for a dell, as i would for a HP, Toshiba, Asus or Acer(since they never have any good deals in canada) and i'll be left with a uglier, weakly built, horribly supported computer.

I'm hoping things change with the new inspiron and XPS(m1330) but i cant imagine why they would. I could see why it would be a good buy for yanks, with those 500$ off coupons every few months. As a canadian though, they give NO compelling reasons over the, more easily attainable, alternatives.

 

Dell business class machines are good. Support on their consumer side is lacking. I'd order a Latitude but stay away from inspirons.

 

I think some of the ugliness and thickness and "budget" build and price of the Inspiron lines gives the Dell brand a stigma, even though those issues don't really apply to Dell's other lines.

That said, I have an Inspiron 1150 (older model), and it's held up well over the past 2.5 years... so while its Mobile Pentium 4 CPU is kind of outdated now, I'm not disappointed with the machine. There's nothing wrong with it, and the keyboard is much better than 90% of the laptops I see today at Best Buy.

I do have the perception, though, from what I've heard on forums like this one, that their quality and customer service has declined over the past couple years, at least for the Inspiron line. And even the Latitude D620's had screen problems for a long time. I have the impression they're trying to turn it around a bit... though I have to say I'm disappointed with the designs of the new Inspirons -- how can they possibly be thicker than the last generation? Come on...

 

cause they fugly and now that they will be selling a few versions at Walmart they have just cheapened their line even more.

 

Dell builds machine suited for everyone's budget. Power users like to be unique. When there are tons of cheap Dell machines everywhere, they do not feel privileged.

 

Very true. This and the poor design on Inspirons. I never thought of it that way

Makes a lot of sense to me. Companies like Gateway, Averatec, etc. are quite flimsy, yet they don't carry that negative stigma - because no one really cares, only budget buyers would get one. Interesting.

 

The consumer line gets a lot of bad press, I guess it's most likely because they sell so many of them. The business line is a totally different idea, almost like Bizarro world. Except that in this Bizarro world, Dell is very good in terms of build quality and support. Just be careful because in Bizarro world, Dells tend to cost a bit more but they are awesome.

 

ok, I hear so many people *****ing about Dell's support and dell's quality.

Let me ask you,

Who has better support? I'd say maybe apple but that's it. Everything else is BELOW.

Toshiba owners accusing Dell of having bad support

 

don't care what anyone else says.. I'm gonna get the latest xps m1330 from dell

 

I like Dell's support. One quick chat and they do everything for you!

 

Lemme guess;
Your co-worker is a progressive, tofu-eating bi-curious eyebrow-waxing vegan who has 27 pairs of shoes and goes out frequently with "the girls", but tries to hide the fact that they see him as their "gay guy friend",
right?

I'd shove that Mac right up his arse!
I got what I could afford. And I think Macs are beautifully designed and well made. But I'd rather be stereotyped as a "commoner" who has to shop at Wal-Mart that an upitty, snobby, arrogant prick.

 

I am typing this message on a Inspiron 4100 purchased in fall 2001. At this point the technology is outdated but I haven't been able to upgrade until now. For a six-year-old machine with a 1 ghz Pentium 4, 256 mb RAM, and a 10 gig hard drive, this computer still does what I need it to do, pretty much. I will be ordering a D830 later this week in large part because of the realibility of my current system. I have nothing but good things to say about Dell and I hope the D830 is just realible as the Inspiron 4100...even though I hope I don't need to make it last six years.

 

I’d simply ignore anything comes out of a MAC guy about a DELL or a PC in general

I prefer DELL, because over here in Japan they give the best value for money, if you get an XPS or a Latitude build quality is not an issue.

 

I like Latitude's build quality and its design better than that of ThinkPad(not quality). But, in my country-Indonesia, dell price is steep.

 

Dells don't suck at all, they're more like the toyota camrys of computers. They dont look too good, they don't perform too well, but they are unassuming and fit in. Dells are great for people who just want a relatively cheap good-performing computer.

 

It's really misleading to just talk about "Dell computers." Are we talking about Inspirons? XPSs? Latitudes? They are all very different beasts.

 

I think most of us here in the Dell forum know that... but probably most people in the world at large don't. So the "budget" Inspiron line probably stigmatizes the whole company, to many people.

 

C'mon, Pk, how do your really feel?

Ok, have to say that I agree with the last line of your post - though I enjoy being a Mac owner.

Dell makes pretty fair machines, especially given their prices. Dell desktops (never owned one of its notebooks) have worked pretty well for me. Am not particularly fond of Dell service, but have, on occasion, run across much worse.

Now, please pass the tofu.

 

Well said, Dells (esp. the Inspirons) won't turn heads, but they're affordable and get the job done.

 

Lets hope the upcoming inspiron models will change that.

 

exactly, they're like dogs, cats, horses, and.... cows (inspirons).

LOL kiss kiss

 

People have always loved to hate the mainstream. A lot of us are guilty of believing that by not conforming to thinking what everyone else thinks (regardless of the validity of those preferences), we are somehow better than they are. In that vane we are able to selectively notice bad things about certain subjects (a band, company, style, whatever) and block out what is good about them. This fire feeds itself as products with a lot of usage have a lot of upset users quantitatively. That is to say, they have no more complaints per 1000 uses than anyone else, but they do have a larger number of complaints overall since they have so many uses. It is then easy for the wannabe independent thinker (who is following the "don't conform" crowd) to surmise that because Dell or Rap Music or FF7 or what have you has had so many criticisms that it must be worse than the lesser knowns of the industry. I voted for the 4th option just because I think that Dell has gotten too large to be as flexible with design and configuration as the lesser publicised companies do. If Dell loses that "Dell image" then they might as well call it a wrap. Of course the new designs they just released are hideous (with the track pad waaay on the left side of the frame, WTF? who the hell uses a track pad with only their left hand? Moving it to the right side would be bad, because it alienates lefties, but moving it to the left is worse because righties are like 75 percent of the population!!.). I am a huge fan of the XPS series, where they are taking risks, and I have always liked Alienware, the Latitudes are growing on me but I don't think I will ever like the inspirons...That is only because for some crazy Twilight zone reason everyone I know who gets one ends up giving it to me to fix and I get to find out a new cost cutting measure that is breaking on the inside.
(Mainly cheap power sources and odd thermal profiles that pool leave areas where hot air pools up.)

 

sorry, i just ran passed this post, and i stop and turned around and just wanted to say...

You suck with analogies.

Almost as much as me and dells and horsies and doggies...


awwww puppah.... awwwwww

man i need sleep


zzzzzzzzzzzz

 

I thought it was a pretty good analogy. But maybe a slightly better one is that Dell is to Harley as Apple is to BMW, ehh Bob? :laugh:
BMW riders are a prissy lot. Get a lil' Starbuck's in 'em, and forget it- They can't keep their noses from getting pointy & turning up in the air! Their bikes are quirky and they all leak in exactly the same spot, but they run forever and are built like Swiss watches.
Harleys are reasonably well made now, but the name still bears the burden of stigma of a problematic machine. -It also has the stigma of stinky fat men & women drinking crappy draft beer with it, too, which brings me to another] analogy...
-eh. Nevermind.

-Kidding aside, just remember that they've been selling Ipods and the like at Wal-mart for a very long time.

 

What's with the random hate peple...

 

Well, of the poll choices :
1 - Obviously no-one would vote the first.
2 = 3 = 4 IMO.
5 - As the poll shows, many voted for that.
Now, what should I choose

 

Another reason why I do not like dell is the fact that they limit all the higher end mid range GPU's to there gaming line. Why cant they incorporate the x1600,x1700, 7600,7700,8600GT into their mainstream Inspirion line?

I also hate their overpriced gaming branded systems.

In addition I find dell laptops are a bit thicker and heavier than the competition.

And finally I have handled several Dell E1505's and Dell E1705's and the build quality disappointed me, I do not know how there latitudes or XPS line are built but if I had any advice for anyone who was to buy a Dell laptop it would be to buy a XPS (overpriced) or Latitude line (Only Workstation GPU's) and even then I would not fully recommend dell at all for any of their laptop products.

 

How can someone hate a computer company. I mean the XPS machines are sexy, the lattitude models certainly do not look stupid, and are built to a high standard. The desktop systems are not ugly or crap.

I mean if you want to buy a cheap Inspiron model, well franky you get what you pay for, and any other computer maker sell equal or worse cheap systems as well.

Anyone throwing a blanket comment over a computer maker, well really has little to no idea what they are talking about, otherwise they would understand the comment was stupid.

I can read any number of notebook reviews on this site, and see some damn crap and ugly looking computers, to each their own. If someone thinks Dell is a crap company with poor computers, the answer is simple, go elsewhere.

 

^^^^
I agree go else where. This whole build quality thing is getting old. My Inspiron is so far been tough as nails.

 

build quality = top notch (depending on what you buy)

i have an old c500 that was used and abused as a work-issued computer, then auctioned off. i paid 60 dollars for it, and have had it for a solid 3-4 years and it still runs like a charm (albiet slow, it works).

dell bashers should probably aim away from the dell specific section of this forum. other fanboys are not likely to be tolerated.

 

I like Dell. They have great deals and quality on latitude is good

 

Where is the "Other" option.

I vote for their laptops are too bulky and there isn't enough diversity in their lineup , oh and they don't sell in stores which gives people zero time to try them out beforehand.

 

Yeah, the poll is kinda retarded. I should make a better poll, and not in the Dell forums. Too many people like Dell's here; thats not the target audience of my investigations. How about this:

Whaddaya think? I purposefully left out which Dell I'm talking about because the Dell-hate is actually just that, Dell hate. They don't like the brand. Remember, the guy I talked to made the face right after I said Dell, I never actually got around to saying which model I bought.

I seriously want to find out why. I know that the perceived negativity is there, regardless of how irrational/unexplainable it is.

Oh and there can't be an 'other' option. The whole point is to see what people choose from the 6 results; clearly this poll sucks because so many people chose "I like Dell" out of the 5 - meaning the rest didn't correctly explain their belief. However, I know the population at large doesn't like Dell. Therefore, the poll is crap.

That explanation is slightly spastic, I know.

 

well a few things about dell, just my two cents.

it's cheap, which is good, but on the other hand they don't offer performance notebook on the cheap. a fully upgraded inspiron notebook is pretty hefty in its pricetag, and yet others like Asus is probably cheaper and offers more warranty and a better built quality than the inspiron.

it uses cheap parts, at least it did before. Back in the day when I bought my dimension desktop, i have never heard of any of the brands they gave me inside my computer, save the fujitsu harddrive.

india customer support. hp does it too. doesn't make it any better in my opinion. as a self-made industry leader in customer service, please get me someone that can speak english.

inspiron's are ugly. it's true, tell me one person who thinks it's sexy and i'll call him a fool.

xps is overpriced. many better options out there.

Latitude is strong and sturdy, but doesn't offer the customization i want. i honestly don't see why i shouldn't go with a lenovo in this case since lenovo actually offers a very decent graphics card. to me, i think dell should consider the fact that some people might like the design, but won't use it for business.

dell is getting better with the new vostro, so only time will tell.

 

I bought a d630 for $1170 w/tax and has performance comparable to a lenevo priced at $1600 (61)

quadro nvs 130 isn't a decent graphics card?

 

what was the specs of the D630?

 

2ghz core2 duo (santa rosa) 800fsb
512 mb RAM (purchasing a seperate upgrade)
120gb 7200 rpm (lenovo only has 5200)
quadro nvs 130m
9-cell battery (lenovo only has up to 7-cell)
802.11n draft Intel wifi card and BlueTooth
extra 90watt charger
3 year warranty

I just priced the t61 for $1580 with same specs and warranty

 

what's a pentium m?

and ya quadro nvs 130 isn't a good graphics card. it's made for 3d applications and not gaming

 

Wow, wow, wow, why all the hostility ? What DELL has ever done to you ?
But to be fair, the DELL laptops are very good at their price segment - excluding the M1710 of course. The looks might not be attractive for many, but their durability is very good.
However, a very bad design flaw in E1505 - And I think some other laptops - is the cooling - or lack of it to be exact, many people have complained about it, and I have seen how hot they grow sometimes, hopefully, this issue has been resolved in the 1x20 series.

 

sorry, core 2 duo (santa rosa)

nvs 130 is just fine for gaming, its comparable to the geforce 8400 gs

 

Well, I don't like dell mainly cause i hate the look of the Inspiron (that white stripe), and I have had a horrible experience with my dell desktop. However, for an average person Dell's the way to go. But for me, it doesn't have what I want. If the m1210 was a bit less expensive and had a slight bigger screen, i might have gotten it instead of T61.

 

geforce 8400 gs is one of the lowest of all dx10 graphics card, so i think just fine is probably an overstatement.

 

Good question. I dunno how you read my post and decided it was hostile - I just ordered my second laptop from Dell.

I'm just curious about all the Dell-hate.