great E1405 experience

Finally got my E1405...no fancy technical info to divulge but I do want to say I am a very knowledgeable computer user and waited months for this to come out, as I felt it offered almost every single thing I wanted in a laptop. After reading this forum I had been apprehensive because of all the unhappiness related to the 1405. But so far this really is everything I hoped and expected it to be. I have no screen problems, I think the viewing angle is superb, and it is fast as anything.

I got the 1.83 GHz dual core, 1 GB 1 DIMM RAM, 100 GB 7200 rpm hard drive. If anyone has any questions about the machine, please let me know. I still can't tell if the laptop quality from Dell is hit or miss, or if people here are just unhappy with everything, but I can say that I have been blown away by this machine.

Also, this is my first experience with Windows MCE and I just think it is so fun to use and great looking. A nice perk.

 

how is the mouse pad? and are the keys normal size? i know on the 700m they are half sized

 

the unhappiness and problems discussed here are simply reflective of the typical forum experience no matter what the commodity ot product...the vast number of satisfied customers just don't bother to report how happy they are...

 

Re: the mousepad, I usually use an external mouse but don't have mine right now so have been using the touchpad. My fingers slide over it very easily. The buttons depress fairly deeply - those who said the keyboard/mouse buttons are kind of "mushy" are pretty accurate - the keystrokes are not as crisp or clicky as some other brands. But for some reason I like the depth and soft feeling of the mouse buttons.

The keys look and feel the same size as they were on my inspiron 2600. I am pretty sure it is a full-sized keyboard (but if anyone has conflicting info please correct me). I remember checking out the 700m and the keys were too small and cramped for me - not the case here.

 

This reply makes no sense. There are too many folks who have ordered this machine recently that have posted they had the exact same issue.

 

I love my e1405 too.
Its a very cool machine at unbeatable price, I don't have the screen light leakage problem either.

 

what issue are you referring to, as i didn't see any problem reported by the OP? in any case, i was referring to the simple thesis (fact) that people w/o problems are much less inclined to post.

 

The E1405 makes me sweaty after using it.

 

Understood. In this particular case if you search the forum you will find a large number of folks that have/ are having screen issues.

 

For what it's worth, I first ordered a notebook on 5/3 and the order was cancelled 2 weeks later because the Dell rep typed in a code wrong. This notebook was already in the boxing stage by day 2. When i ordered the new one, it was in pre-production for at least a week. Somebody mentioned Dell might be switching screens bc of all the complaints. I wonder if that is why my notebook was in pre-production for so long, and why I have such an awesome screen.

I will be interested to hear from customers who also just received their laptops, to see if their screens are OK too.

 

the reply makes perfect sense. satisfied customers do not seek out forums looking for help because they do not need help with anything. add to this the fact that dell sells more computers than anybody else and (considering the economies of scale involved) you will get a large number of people looking for solutions. if, for example, some boutique shop sells 100 computers a day and dell sells 1000000 computers a day; even if both shops allow for a 5% failure rate; that means, the boutique shop will have 5 customers with issues and dell will have 50000 customers with issues even though they have identical acceptable failure rates.

 

I'm glad we have a happy 640m customer here.

I ordered mine last night but I'll only be able to use it on the 17th June onwards due to some issues. I'll report back to you guys when I've had a good play with it.

2 questions for the OP:
1) How is the keyboard? Does it feel nice; is it easy to press; is it noisy or quiet?
2) Do you have the noisy DVD drive which some people have been complaining about?

 

People have been reporting the NEC drives are the quiet ones. My NEC drive sounds like a large leaf blower.

 

Great reply. This is why you're the moderator!

 

got my e1405 yesterday, bought it from a private seller brand new on another forum who had it about 2 weeks...i have some leakage at the bottom, but its very small and i can only see it when its black and playing a widescreen dvd or something.

Other than that, i'm very happy with it...

Only goof i made, was i did want to check out this media direct thing, but killed the partition when i reinstalled everything on it.

 

I like my keyboard, I can see why some people thinks its noisy which I don;t have a problem with.
Its very good to type on and it doesn't feel flexy.

I can only hear the DVD drive spinning in a quiet room, but couldn't hear anything with the TV on.

 

Most of the people who have been complaining about the e1405 were the ones that were the most excited about it before it arrived. A few showed up solely to complain, but most of us were looking forward to the book for a while. So it isn't like we just showed up after the fact with nothing but complaints.

In fact, I was fairly happy with my e1405 before I received it, moderately okay after I got it, and continued to become less happy as time went on. I talked it up as much as I could in the beginning, and only changed my tune when I realized that I was fighting a losing battle, and not getting the best for my money.

I know you are saying what is usually true on most review sections of websites, but this forum is much more focused. I would bet that most people who complained about the book are people who lingered and posted here before they complained, and will continue to linger and post here after.

 

Ditto ...and said perfectly onedeep! I believe the folks on this forum are a good cross reference/ representation of a group of users worldwide. There is clearly a problem when so many in this group see the same anomalie in both original and replacement machines.

 

The keyboard is quiet, the keys feel a little soft when pressed. The DVD drive is exceptionally quiet, which is such a relief because the Inspiron 2600 I've had for the last 4 years had a horribly noisy drive. The whole machine has been very very quiet. I was surprised by this because of other people's reports.

It was also very hot the first time I turned it on and used it, but I haven't had that problem since.