latitude only for business?

hello newbie here...
been reading the forums for about 2 weeks but now decided to register

anyway on to my question
is the dell latitude series only offer to business? or can anyone buy them? i talked to some lady at dell and she told me that for me to get the latitude i would have to use a business credit card. any truth to this?

oh and its the D610 that i am interested at. i called her to ask if there is anyway i can get some sort of student discount. all she told me was to get the inspiron cuz they are the exact same thing, except one is for business and one is for personal. HA

 

No you can order a latitude. I'm not sure if you can do it over the phone, but you can online. We have had several users buy a latitude from the business site. You have to enter your name in as the business though.

As for the credit card, I've never heard of being required to use a business credit card before. If you can, I would try to buy it online instead.
SG

 

You can't order them over the phone; I tried. They ship you to the Home department, which can't sell Latitudes. Over the phone they require a buisness name and it has to be different from your name. In other words, to order a Latitude over the phoen, you have to be an actual buisness.

You CAN order Latitudes online, but you can't quality for Dell financing because they require a buisness tax ID number. So you have to be prepared to pay by credit card. You can use a personal one (a lot of buisnesses do anyway) and just put your name in for the company name.

And don't buy it from anyone who says the Inspiron and Latitude are the same...they might serve the same market segment (approximately) but that's IT. They use different expansion devices, and a different chassis (The Latitudes use more magnesium in the case).

It really gets annoying how hard they make it for a discerning user who happens to be an IT professional to get one of these buisness-line notebooks. IBM and HP are just as bad about it...they want their home users to buy their home systems (or buy someone else's home system, in the case of IBM). There's a reason for it though...they can afford to alienate consumers by obsoleting their home lines, in order to get them to buy new ones. If they buy the long-lifetime buisness notebooks instead, it's theoretically lost revenue.

Personally, I don't care; all I'll buy anymore are buisness lines, no matter how hard they make it for me. But I'm an IT professional; what do you expect?

 

Another alternative is to order from the Dell Outlet (refurbished). Dell has some really good deals at the moment. You can get a Precision M20 (equivalent to the D610) starting at $1250 for a 2.1GHz/60GB-7200RPM/1GB RAM. If you want to get an idea where the Precision line falls in the pecking order it goes like this: Inspiron, Latitude, Precision. The Precision line is a professional line that comes standard with a 3 year on-site warranty.

I just picked up (typing this post) an X1 for about $1200. Refurbished is the way to go. If you're not happy you can return it you have 14 days to decide.

Dell Outlet

 

Thats what i though. I wasnt really going to order it online. I was just trying to play the student card and see if they could have given me just a little bit more discount. i just cant seem to configure the D610 to a way i would like it for around $1200.

If thats the case i might just have to go with ibm t42/t43

 

you ABSOLUTELY can order anything from small business whether or not you are actually a small business. you can't, however, get a student discount for it, because, well, it's the small business site.

i purchased a server for my dad twice through dell's small business.

you can either order online or call in and talk to a sales rep. the first time i bought my dad a server (for a desktop machine), i did it online. just put your name in for the "business name" text box. the second time, i called in and ordered via a sales rep.

 

i looked at dell outlet and they do have some good deal. the M20 are nice but alot of those dont have wireless. looked at D610 refurb and they got some decent deals. with those refurbs, what kind of warranty do you get with those? if the new D610 comes with a 3 year warranty, does a refurb D610 comes with a 3 year warranty also?

dammit..i had my mind set on a t42, but after seeing those prices, i got more options again...my head hurts

 

The D610's from the outlet come with a 3 year next day on-site warranty standard. If you select a model then add it to your cart you can see the warranty and extras (I would suggest the Complete Care option for $84). Make sure you add the machine to your cart first then decide if you want it to keep it (look over the options). These things go VERY FAST. If you blink it will be gone. BTW, new systems seem to pop up around :50 after the hour.

FYI, you can pick up a wireless card from ebay for about $25.

 

yeah i know about picking up a wireless card but i would really prefer internal so i dont have that thing sticking out...kinda of a hassle when you are on the constant move.

if they go that fast they the one i was looking at is probably gone. kinda hard to look since im pretty specific about what i want. found a one that had almost everything i was looking for w/o bluetooth. i wish they would let you search by display (screen res) or GPU.

thanks for the advice. i guess i will keep checking after every hour. do you know if you can finance refurb through dell also? would it matter that it would be latitude refurb? or am i going to run into trouble again about needing a business CC?

 

You can buy an internal card (exactly the same as what Dell ships) from ebay or Dell. It will fit in the internal miniPCI card.

FYI, you can also buy the Dell BT card from ebay. It's pretty easy (as is the WiFi) to install.

 

hhmm didnt know anything about that. what kind of installation does that entail? something i just slide in a slot? or would i need to open up the comp? im not very computer savvvy.

thats an option i would have to consider if i cant find a notebook w/ wifi already. hopefully i can avoid all that though

 

The Precisions are really good deals minus the wireless. The D610's seem to be nicely priced as well. Since the installation of the wireless card literally takes a couple of minutes it's not an issue with most people. The BT card takes only a few seconds. Dell even provides guides on how to install parts. Check out the links below on how to install a WiFi card and the BT card.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/wsm20/en/SM/minipci0.htm#wp1000001

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/wsm20/en/SM/blue0.htm#wp1006343

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/wsm20/en/SM/index.htm

 

Incidentally, T42s can be bought at "outlet" prices too, through IBM's Certified Used Equipment: http://www-132.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/s...1&catalogId=-840&langId=-1&categoryId=2576396

They don't usually have as much selection as Dell does; IBM/Lenovo turnover isn't anywhere near Dell, since Dell does a lot of leasing. IBM also used to sell through an Ebay store.

EDIT: There's at least 1 T40 at the Certified Used site...it's basically an early T42.

 

I don't believe many (if any) of machines in the Dell Outlet are machines returned from a business lease. You usually find those machines up for auction on ebay or thru a third party that Dell uses as a clearing house. A good percentage of machines in the Outlet have never been used at all (order was cancelled before the unit shipped). I've ordered several refurb units over the past couple of years and they have all worked fine. All but a couple looked like they haven't been touched since the factory.

 

duffyanneal have you ever done any of those installs (the wifi and BT)? so even if the M20 did not come with the Wifi it will still have the antenna cables already in there? any Mini PCI card will work or are they all different? is it the same with bluetooth?

does dell sell those Mini PCI cards seperately? same with BT also?

the M20 are starting to look real good as the price dropped again and theres a ton of them.