just got an e1405, my thoughts

Purchased last week for $670

As for the screen everyone is complaining about : Yes, there is leakage. Abit more then the e1505 but nothing to pull your hair out about. Am I complaining? No, definitely NOT. Keep in mind: $670 for a duo core WXGA+ Truelife, DVDRW, Bluetooth, 60GB HD, and Intel A/G card. The rest of the laptop is built well. For $670, there is no room to complain at all. It would be very hard to find anything at that price similarly equipped with a perfect LCD. It seems everyone complains about this LCD.... solution: Dump the e1405 via return and go spend couple hundred more like everyone else paid.

 

Whole-heartedly agree.

A lot of complainers, but the e1405 is in fact, a GREAT laptop. Well built, fast, great touchpad, etc. And then when you add in the price, it just makes it a no brainer.

 

It's a fantastic laptop for the price. l got the same config as you but 512mb ram (not sure how much you got) and a cd-rw/dvd for $680 shipped. The battery life on this thing is amazing l've been browsing the web for an hour and l still have 80% batttery left.

 

So, which displays did you guys get: Samsung or LG?

 

I just got mine and looked at the service order or whatever its called and got a AUO screen.

 

Looks like you won the lottery...

 

Bad luck for me..l got the Samsung

 

I tend to think that quality should be standard, no matter what the price. But I guess I am alone in that sentiment.

 

I agree and for the price it gets the job done

 

Do you really think you will get a T-Series/Latitude level of laptop for a fraction of the price? You definitely are alone. You will always get what you pay for, the key is finding a balance of what you can get for the price with what you can afford.

If you can find a similar laptop for $670, with a perfect LCD... please enlighten everyone here.

 

Actually, from reading everyone's posts about the E1405 LCDs, Samsung seems to be better (for the WXGA+ w/ Truelife anyway). One user on NBF, had an AUO & was shipped a replacement LCD manufactured by Samsung. He decided to keep the Samsung.

In the M140/630M; however, the AUO's/QDS's were better than the Samsungs.

 

Oh, I tend to agree with that sentiment in terms of power and portability. However, one can easily price an e1405 to $2000 before any coupons. So I guess the $2000 e1405 are put together better than the $700 ones? After all, I am paying as much as I would for a Thinkpad.

Or let's go this way - After coupons, I got that same $2000 notebook down to $1228 shipped. I just bought a Lenovo N100 for about the same price. So I guess I should also assume that the quality of the Lenovo is going to be the same as the Dell, right?

 

Um.... Lenovo/IBMs dont have sales like Dell..... I paid $670 .... not $1228. Again, where is a laptop for $670 similarly equipped with a perfect LCD? Anyone who knows laptops knows to wait for the numerous Dell laptop sales that occur many times per fiscal quarter (always dependent on how crappy desktop sales go) would not pay $1200. MSRP != market value, on anything. You can find new e1405s with slight margins always cheaper then $800 on ebay if you dont know how to find the sales yourself.

Im not sure if you are un-happy with an e1405 or if you even bought one. For about 3k people out there from last week's sale, and about another couple thousand before the end of Dell's next fiscal quarter.... you wont find them complaining.

 

I didn't use any coupons like an idiot when I purchased mine a few days ago. I got the 100 bucks off but that was it. Course my system ended up being right around 1300 bucks so I don't think I could have gotten anything else?

 

You missed my point. You are saying that you cannot get a laptop like the e1405 for $700 anywhere, and I agree. You also say that no one should expect quality at $700, and I agree (sort of) on that point.

But...

I can price an e1405 to $2000. If I didn't know about the various coupons (which people don't), then I would be expecting a $2000 laptop in terms of build quality. But what I am going to get is exactly what you got, a laptop that is built like I paid $700 for it, because they aren't going to build it any differently from yours.

If they can (and do) sell this machine at $2000, then they should be making them $2000 machines, even if I only pay $700. Not the other way around.

 

Im not sure where on Earth you are getting $2k pricing on an e1405 ... are you getting the gold plated edition?

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=E1405S2&s=dhs

The TODAY price of what I got hovers at $800. That is the normal price everyday after a product has had a life cycle of more then a couple months. If like alot of ppl out there, you wait for Dell to dump stock to boost quarterly earnings due to lagging desktop sales, you can find the same setup, if not better typically, for sub $700 after taxes/shipping.

I think you are way over exagerating pricing here to make ppl believe Dell is ripping everyone off.

 

You could also look at it this way: Pricing an E1405 @ $2000 is like adding $1300 in accessories to a $700 notebook. You can buy a cheap economy car and add all the accessories you want, but they don't build it better.

 

Oh, and when the first orders for the E1405 were shipping out, they were almost ALL w/ AUO LCD's... & there were a lot of complaints.

 

The way I see it.. everyone is complaining about LG, Samsung, AUO or whatever .. not everyone is happy and blah blah blah. I don't really care either way as it seems all 3 of em suck.. if it breaks I will return it.

 

Base price of a Dell e1405 with T2300, no customization:
$949, on sale for $749.

Base price of a Lenovo N100 with T2300, no customization:
$899, mail-in rebate brings to $799.

So, as I was saying, based on what everyone has said, I should expect the build quality to be similar between these two books, as they are within $50 both before and after various sales and rebates, right?

 

Being that there is a $50 difference... in volume sales, I would expect dell or lenovo to purchase a better LCD via their suppliers. So yes, the lenovo would be expected to get the better LCD. You would be amazed what $50 in volume purchase/manufacturing can get you in terms of mechanical design of LCD upgrades. Anymore questions? Would I purchase the E at 749? Nope, but at 670 shipped, it's a no brainer.

Keep in mind, if you consider weight quality, the N1000 also weighs .9lbs more..... as much as an E1505.... most would not consider that very great.

PS: comparing an entertainment laptop to a entry level business laptop was probably not a good idea. Consumers choose one or the other, they dont cross shop. The E series has nifty features the N1000 does not have, and vice versa.

 

i got mine yesterday, just wanted to add in my 2 cents. it's quite heftier (thicker) than the v2000 i have and feels slightly heavier but is more solid.

however, the screen on that $400 laptop is much better than the e1405. the light leakage doesn't bother me that much on the e1405 what does bother me is the 'sandiness' or the 'graininess' I see, especially noticeable on light. I had heard that it looks like they just put the 'TrueLife' coating over a matte screen and it certainly looks like it.

It's not a deal breaker and I'll keep the laptop though.

 

Actually, the base e1405 doesn't include the Glare-type screen. To add that to match the N100, the prices are identical, negating any $50 difference in price, or volume sales. I would actually imagine Dell is going to move more e1405s than Lenovo will move n100s, giving Dell the advantage in terms of purchasing better LCDs.

Dell: 5.3lbs
Lenovo: 5.58lbs
Difference: 0.28lbs
So I guess weight quality is no longer a problem.

PS: You never said consumer vs business. You said "You will always get what you pay for, the key is finding a balance of what you can get for the price with what you can afford." So, you can get similar specs with a better build for the same price somewhere other than Dell. But if you want a real world example of someone comparing these two notebooks(other than myself), head over to this thread.

But if you really don't want me to "cross shop," then replace all mention of the e1405 with the Dell 640m, which is the "business" version of the e1405. Same audience. Same price. Same problems. Same points.

 

I thought we were comparing ThinkPads to the E1405.

 

how did you get WSXGA+ on a E1405?

 

I am not arguing the IBM maybe better at $800 versus $750 for the e1405... you are wasitng your energy typing. Seems you like you a bad experience with the e1405, but for my price paid at $670 shipped/taxes included.... the e1405 blows all entry level 14inchers out of the water for the price without argument. Am I or others re-gretting an e1405 for the price purchased at sub $700 shipped/taxes? Highly doubt it.

As for you proclaiming the lenovo is king... that's nice. I have an IBM branded T-series and a Latitdue for real work so I wont argue with you about that.