Why is the XPS inferior to Precision?

Hi to all!
I guess the Supermoderator is angry with me, as I do not see anymore all my last messages. I hope there were no misanderstangings. I just needed to choose well this time, as this notebook is really very important to me, I saved money for long time to buy it, i will not have money for another one for 3 years, and Escalation is giving me a last chance. But with a 33kb dial up connection and one day to get infos, it is not easy.
Anyway, I can choose another notebook, between a XPS 1530 (no LED display) or a Precision M4300.
I need the best quality display possible, a good keyboard, a fast notebook, and a solid construction inside and outside, for having no problems for 3 years, even if i will have a 3 years warranty and I guess that they should fix any problems.
i do not play videogames, and i do not use CAD.
Many people suggest me the Precision as the TOP in Dell, but it seems to ma just a Latitude with a bit better videocard. And I do not like too much my Latitude.
So, why should a XPS be inferior to a Precision?

 

Ops, moderators, sorry, could you delete this thread? I sware that I searched the first 4 pages in this forum and I was not able to find my message of yestarday, and I posted so many in many forums that I thought i possibily never posted here, or you deleted it...
But now I found it.
Sorry.
Can you delete this?

 

As far as I know the only difference in the Precision is the video card and the case. You don't need the video card, and what's a case? The hard drive, motherboard and processor, LCD panels and all the other little bits and pieces are the same.

 

So, why people say that Precision is so much better?
I must say that i do not see many complaints about Precision, but I also believe there are not so many Precision, and that maybe some Precision user can be not a "forum type" guy.

 

That I cannot say, except to say the people who pay more for something usually want to defend their decision by saying it's better.

 

I own a vostro, the cheap of the cheap so im not defending nothing. At my old work, most people get latitudes, and the higher up guys get precisions. I used get to play with them all and fix them all. With the shear number of laptops we would have, I would see a lot of problems, enough to make conclusions. Simply put, precisions don't break down nearly as often if ever during their warranty period as any other dell model.

 

Ok, the Precision is supposed to be the XPS of Dell's business line.

Most Precisions of the current generation are based off Latitudes. The M2300 and M4300 use the same chassis (with the exception of the lid) as the D630 and the D830. This chassis is about two generations old.

The Precision line offers business oriented features like matte screens and workstation graphics cards. They are made of some magnesium-something or another alloy and have spill proof keyboards, shock protecting drive enclosures, hot-swap media-bay devices, fewer media buttons, blah blah blah.

In short, the build quality of the Precision line is generally a bit better than that of the Inspiron or XPS line.

However technologies from the business lines have made appearances in the consumer lines. I'm pretty sure the new Inspirons are made of the same magnesium-something or another alloy as their business counterparts though they may not have the keyboard or drive enclosure. And the newer XPS machines do use a bit of aluminum here and there.

With respect to build quality there seem to be oddballs here and there, though. The Precision 6300 is actually based on a chassis from the older Inspiron E1x05 line which seems to be a bit flaky for a workstation notebook.

Also, the business lines usually falls short of the consumer lines in terms of performance, especially in the graphics department.

Errr... I had a point but I've lost it. So I'll stop this post here.

 

nizzy, would you say there were a lot more non-Precisions than Precisions in your company?

I remember I worked with this guy who had a Lattitude years ago. I had an Inspiron. He was so proud. He told me that the Lattitude was a much better notebook. I admit, it did look nicer than mine. So I went and checked prices and looked up the specifications. Same laptop, different case, a lot more money. I think better framing and cooling materials (higher quality metal, or metal instead of plastic) were used so that it could be a bit lighter and thinner. Those are nice things, I mean, I paid a bit more for my XPS just because it's thinner than the 1520, not for the video card upgrade.

Reminds me of GM vs Chevrolet. GMs are sooooo much nicer. LOL.

 

There were probably about 20:1 ratio of latitudes to precisions. (If i had to estimate i would say about 3000-3500 latitudes (most were optiplex desktops)) Out of the 4 years i was there, about 4-5 latitude keyboards a week were replaced (largely user neglect), but also a lot of motherboards on the latitudes, maybe about 1 a week, and maybe 1 lcd a month. Again, looking at the numbers, these are fairly low percentages nothing to be alarming, however, the precisions i never ever had one issue with them that was major. Only had a few dvd burners die that i can remember and that was it.