stupid decisions by Dell

Yes this is a rant, and a bit long so you are warned

So I went with my sister and niece to buy a laptop for the niece to take to college. My sister is insistent on buying at retail so that if she has a problem my niece will have a resource if she has problems with the system (yes I know the flaws in that but I'm trying to be a good uncle and my sister will not be moved off that particular topic).

So anyway we went to Best Buy, Staples, Office Max.

First of all the overall selection at retail is pretty poor. The stores seem to be more locked in to a race to the bottom with the manufacturers like dell helping them with price being the overwhelming objective

What I mean by that is this. The stores seem to go to great efforts to have models that are ever so slightly different (but no differences that are major features) i believe mostly so they don't have to price match.

Secondly they have some models that have some great features and then turn around and cripple those same models with stupid feature decisions like tiny batteries, only G wifi and no bluetooth

My niece pretty much figured out that a netbook would be the right general class device for her needs. Email, Web, facebook, term papers, itunes. Nothing that requires much horsepower. In addition, small size and light weight were a high priority. She even thought her mothers macbook was a bit on the big side.

So we looked at netbooks and the dell mini 10 looked to be the one, along with the Hp mini. A big plus for the Dell was the HDMI port which makes it easy to connect to her LCD TV for when she needs a bigger screen and secondly she liked the feel of the keyboard. She also was hoping for decent battery life so she can charge the system at night when she gets back to her dorm

So we looked at that model at staples (the unit at best but didn't have a HDMI port buy VGA) and and it's a nice unit but...... It comes with a wimpy 3 cell battery. So let me get this straight, you have their multimedia oriented netbook which should be great for digital video playback from itunes etc and put a battery in that might if you are lucky last through two TV shows????? And you provide no way to increase the RAM even though the system uses shared VRAM and would probably get a boost from more RAM????

It was just as bad at best buy with HP for the other contender. Neither Best Buy had a version of the mini with a six cell battery just the three cell. What's even worse is that neither store carried six cell batteries for any unit they cell so you then have to go find one.

So we ended up with the dell and she seems happy with it. Uncle ordered her a 6 cell battery from Dells website and she seems happy.

Last but not least. even setting this thing up was a pain. The settings for font (125%) and icon and window size (large) made the display look grainy and some of the setup windows had ok, next or continue buttons that were off the screen.

UGHHH, It's no wonder so many go with Apple. My sisters macbook was a breeze to setup and other than it needed a gazillion updates was a much smoother process than this thing is.

But she just hugged me and thanked again after I helped her with setting up itunes on her system so I guess it is all worth it.

 

I understand your frustration, however I think you've overestimated the abilities of a netbook.

Firstly, an HDMI port is not necessary for a netbook due to the CPU's inability to smoothly render high definition videos. A simple VGA to RCA cable is sufficient if your niece needs to connect her netbook to a TV set.

Secondly, all 10" netbook screens across the board will lack in contrast, brightness, and/or sharpness when compared to larger screens despite being a LED panel.

Thirdly, netbooks were never intended for multimedia users. They often lack decent speakers, hotkeys, HDMI/DVI/display ports, other A/V bells & whistles, etc.

Fourthly, many netbooks do offer a user-accessible ram compartment for upgrading purposes. It just so happened that not enough homework was done before making the purchase. On a brighter note, 1gb of ram should be more than enough for your niece's needs, especially when she's running XP on her netbook.

 

It's tough to make what can be a complex point in a few paragraphs.
I don't think i'm overestimating a netbook. I have one of the hp minis. They are quite limited in power and functionality, but do so as trade off for lightweight, small size, and (ideally) battery life.

What I was trying (and failing apparently) was to point out how they miss the mark. The dell is overly ambitious in terms of mix of features. In other words I'd rather see a bigger battery as stock versus the inclusion of an HDMI port.

If you are going to put in an HDMI port, allow at least minimal memory expansion since it implies a multimedia focus.

I do give dell kudos for one thing compared to the HP and samsung netbooks I have looked at. Dell does supply CDs for the os and drivers right in the box. HP makes you pay $20 and wait 4 weeks to get their restore DVD.

I believe that experiences like mine though are part of the higher dissatisfaction with netbooks.

The companies making and selling them just need to focus them better and be more forthright about what you are getting. The manager at Staples was telling my niece that the HDMI port meant the computer was "hi-def ready" compared to the other netbooks they sell.

 

Yeah, not only with netbooks it seems the retail notebook specifications are just blah, they generally have a few good things and a deal breaker. Like you said, that's something that Apple gets right. They don't just put something together, they think it all the way through, that's why so many people blindly trust them. However, if you are a savvy user (like most in these forums), you can make your ideal system by customizing online and have more options in addition to Apple.

 

I think you are right. Yes Apples are expensive, but with them at least you get more or less what you are expecting in terms of features and options.

With the majority of pc vendors (and I think pc retailers play role in this too) it's almost a bait and switch.

For example, take the Asus 1005 HA. Widely praised for battery life features and design. But the only retail source for most folks is best buy. Best Buy neuters it. They give you the N270 instead of the 280, a 3 cell battery instead of the 6 cell which has the great battery life you see in the reviews and the remove bluetooth. This does let them advertise that $300 price though.

The problem is that savvy people that hang here are a very small minority. The general public doesn't know as much, buys one of these things and wonders why the battery doesn't last near as long as they had read it would.

It's no wonder there is very little brand loyalty in the PC business outside of Apple.

 

Aye there is brand loyalty outside of Apple. You don't often find Sony machines getting destroyed by the likes of Best Buy.

Besides, those shops are pile them high, sell them cheap. Anybody who doesn't realise that needs to stop and ask themselves a simple question:

Is this too good to be true?

Normally, yes it is.

At least you got a hug out of it though

 

So your really ing about Best Buy...what's new? Plus, the mantra you pay for what you get for is incredibly true in computers. Not the fault of any companies, how can they afford to give you 1st class support if you bought a $300 netbook for example?

Though, I was really suprised when I went into Staples today, they're trying to become Best Buy as well with their "mytech" support (which ironically everyone who was working there worked at BestBuy before...).

 

i heard some where that retail stores actually just buy the cheapest laptops from canceled orders and such. i personally dont quite believe this but it was a rumor i heard between a few of my friends from different stores

 

It's not just best buy, its the pc companies as well. They sell them the gimped computers and again most people don't directly realize they have been misled. A few here do but i think in a lot of cases that vague dissatisfaction becomes "dell sucks" or "hp sucks"

Plus the number of choices keeps dropping. I'm sure many here have horror stories about Circuit City or Comp Usa, but at least when they were around you had more choices. These seem to rapidly be falling away.

Yes I'm tilting at windmills, but saying this at least hopefully lets someone know that they have an unhappy consumer. This whole thing left me unhappy with best buy, staples, HP and Dell. And i was previously inclined to like HP (i have one,a DV2)

 

Yea a net book is just used to take notes in class web surf and word docs. Why didn't you go for a sxps 13 or inspiron 13 for more horse power and more bang for your buck