Thinking of buying a new dell laptop - any feedback?

I need to buy a laptop within the next month or so. I have had good luck
with dell desktops, but have heard a decidedly mixed bag of reviews on their
laptops. Can anyone here give me some feedback with his/her dell laptop?
I'm looking to spend no more than about $1200 or so. I am a real estate
agent and will need internet access, some minor digital photo editing (house
photos - nothing fancy), word, excel, accounting software, etc. I need
reliability more than anything. Also, would it be wiser to wait until after
xmas? I am computer literate but a total laptop newbie so any feedback is
welcome.
TIA
-O

Ovid wrote:
I need to buy a laptop within the next month or so. I have had good luck
with dell desktops, but have heard a decidedly mixed bag of reviews on their
laptops. Can anyone here give me some feedback with his/her dell laptop?
I'm looking to spend no more than about $1200 or so. I am a real estate
agent and will need internet access, some minor digital photo editing (house
photos - nothing fancy), word, excel, accounting software, etc. I need
reliability more than anything. Also, would it be wiser to wait until after
xmas? I am computer literate but a total laptop newbie so any feedback is
welcome.
TIA
-O



I bought a Dell Inspiron 8200 last year about this time. Very pleased
with it.

Dell also offers an extended warranty, which for laptops is a good
value, since the screen alone would cost about $600 to replace ...

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"Ovid" wrote in message
...
I need to buy a laptop within the next month or so. I have had good luck
with dell desktops, but have heard a decidedly mixed bag of reviews on
their
laptops. Can anyone here give me some feedback with his/her dell laptop?
I'm looking to spend no more than about $1200 or so. I am a real estate
agent and will need internet access, some minor digital photo editing
(house
photos - nothing fancy), word, excel, accounting software, etc. I need
reliability more than anything. Also, would it be wiser to wait until
after
xmas? I am computer literate but a total laptop newbie so any feedback is
welcome.
TIA
-O

I bought an Inspiron 8600 a few weeks ago. I like the computer ok but if you
need any customer service or tech support, I'd think about going elsewhere
unless you have hours to wait around, have calls routed, get disconnected,
etc.. Their customer relations are the pits compared to a couple of years
ago. They ought to spend less on the stupid commercials and more on
improving customer care.

"Timmy" wrote in message
...
X-No-Archive: yes

"Ovid" wrote in message
...
I need to buy a laptop within the next month or so. I have had good
luck
with dell desktops, but have heard a decidedly mixed bag of reviews on
their
laptops. Can anyone here give me some feedback with his/her dell
laptop?
I'm looking to spend no more than about $1200 or so. I am a real estate
agent and will need internet access, some minor digital photo editing
(house
photos - nothing fancy), word, excel, accounting software, etc. I need
reliability more than anything. Also, would it be wiser to wait until
after
xmas? I am computer literate but a total laptop newbie so any feedback
is
welcome.
TIA
-O

I bought an Inspiron 8600 a few weeks ago. I like the computer ok but if
you
need any customer service or tech support, I'd think about going elsewhere
unless you have hours to wait around, have calls routed, get disconnected,
etc.. Their customer relations are the pits compared to a couple of years
ago. They ought to spend less on the stupid commercials and more on
improving customer care.

In addition, they outsourced their support to India. Apparently they didn't
bother to train the Indian techs or something, because they started getting
a huge number of complaints about poor support. Dell's response? To
re-open a decent support center--but only for corporate customers.
Individuals like you and I still have to deal with their Indian call center.

Timmy wrote:
X-No-Archive: yes

"Ovid" wrote in message
...

I need to buy a laptop within the next month or so. I have had good luck
with dell desktops, but have heard a decidedly mixed bag of reviews on

their

laptops. Can anyone here give me some feedback with his/her dell laptop?
I'm looking to spend no more than about $1200 or so. I am a real estate
agent and will need internet access, some minor digital photo editing

(house

photos - nothing fancy), word, excel, accounting software, etc. I need
reliability more than anything. Also, would it be wiser to wait until

after

xmas? I am computer literate but a total laptop newbie so any feedback is
welcome.
TIA
-O


I bought an Inspiron 8600 a few weeks ago. I like the computer ok but if you
need any customer service or tech support, I'd think about going elsewhere
unless you have hours to wait around, have calls routed, get disconnected,
etc.. Their customer relations are the pits compared to a couple of years
ago. They ought to spend less on the stupid commercials and more on
improving customer care.


I've had good results using email. Phone service is apparently (from the
posts here) not good.

Timmy,

You've had actual experience with Dell support for your 8600 or is this
quoting anecdotes?

Tom
"Timmy" wrote in message
...
X-No-Archive: yes

"Ovid" wrote in message
...
I need to buy a laptop within the next month or so. I have had good
luck
with dell desktops, but have heard a decidedly mixed bag of reviews on
their
laptops. Can anyone here give me some feedback with his/her dell
laptop?
I'm looking to spend no more than about $1200 or so. I am a real estate
agent and will need internet access, some minor digital photo editing
(house
photos - nothing fancy), word, excel, accounting software, etc. I need
reliability more than anything. Also, would it be wiser to wait until
after
xmas? I am computer literate but a total laptop newbie so any feedback
is
welcome.
TIA
-O

I bought an Inspiron 8600 a few weeks ago. I like the computer ok but if
you
need any customer service or tech support, I'd think about going elsewhere
unless you have hours to wait around, have calls routed, get disconnected,
etc.. Their customer relations are the pits compared to a couple of years
ago. They ought to spend less on the stupid commercials and more on
improving customer care.

Ovid wrote:

I need to buy a laptop within the next month or so. I have had good luck
with dell desktops, but have heard a decidedly mixed bag of reviews on
their
laptops. Can anyone here give me some feedback with his/her dell laptop?
I'm looking to spend no more than about $1200 or so. I am a real estate
agent and will need internet access, some minor digital photo editing
(house
photos - nothing fancy), word, excel, accounting software, etc. I need
reliability more than anything. Also, would it be wiser to wait until
after
xmas? I am computer literate but a total laptop newbie so any feedback is
welcome.
TIA
-O
First decide if your going to carry it around a lot or use it on a
desktop/table mostly. Laptops are getting bigger, 15", 16" screens making
some less portable than others. Some buy the big screen laptops to replace
a slim desktop/lcd monitor/ups all in one unit so they are not wirried
about the larg size/weight. I carried a 7lb 300MHz laptop with foppy and
cd drive integrated for over three years, ripped the straps off two
different cases in the process. Once you load up the laptop, power supply,
your cell phone, pda if you have it, etc that bag gets heavy. I carry mine
everywhere so I bought the smallest lightest I could afford.

Decide if you want to use it on batery or not. Lower price laptops have
desktop or AMD cpu's which suck the power faster than the mobile
processors, make more heat and more fan noise (my wife's Inspiron 1100
sounds like a shopvac).

Also don't worry about getting the fastest cpu in the laptop, the slower
system bus and slower ide drives will hurt the performance more than a few
cpu cycles, the fastest cpu will just wait faster on the rest of the
system. Spend the $$ on the ram so the system spends less time hitting
virtual memory.

First, if you buy a Dell, get a Latitude from the Small Business
Division and not an Inspiron. That way you get a better case and US
based tech support. However, assuming you will want as rugged a system
as possible (working out of your car?), I would recommend spending a
bunch more bucks and buying an IBM.

Ovid wrote:

I need to buy a laptop within the next month or so. I have had good luck
with dell desktops, but have heard a decidedly mixed bag of reviews on their
laptops. Can anyone here give me some feedback with his/her dell laptop?
I'm looking to spend no more than about $1200 or so. I am a real estate
agent and will need internet access, some minor digital photo editing (house
photos - nothing fancy), word, excel, accounting software, etc. I need
reliability more than anything. Also, would it be wiser to wait until after
xmas? I am computer literate but a total laptop newbie so any feedback is
welcome.
TIA

I'll second that. The IBM route is the way we have decided to go for the
lap top that we need.

All the research that we have done brought us to the conclusion that lap
tops are by nature are subject to many more problems than desks tops. Even
though the cost it greater, if this is a computer that you want to use a
substantial amount AND keep for more than a couple of years, get the best
you can find.

Our conclusion----IBM.



"Tom Almy" wrote in message
...
First, if you buy a Dell, get a Latitude from the Small Business
Division and not an Inspiron. That way you get a better case and US
based tech support. However, assuming you will want as rugged a system
as possible (working out of your car?), I would recommend spending a
bunch more bucks and buying an IBM.

Ovid wrote:

I need to buy a laptop within the next month or so. I have had good
luck
with dell desktops, but have heard a decidedly mixed bag of reviews on
their
laptops. Can anyone here give me some feedback with his/her dell
laptop?
I'm looking to spend no more than about $1200 or so. I am a real estate
agent and will need internet access, some minor digital photo editing
(house
photos - nothing fancy), word, excel, accounting software, etc. I need
reliability more than anything. Also, would it be wiser to wait until
after
xmas? I am computer literate but a total laptop newbie so any feedback
is
welcome.
TIA

In late October I bought a 8500. Over Thanksgiving I made some calls to
Dell, trying to decide whether to keep it, upgrade, warranty info, etc. My
first call was answered quickly, sounded like India, but he gave me a
different phone # because I had purchased it though Small Business. All the
other reps I spoke to then sounded clearly American. I was relieved to learn
that my warranty will be good even when my son takes it to study in Spain
next year.
My family can order through Small Bus, Education, Health care, or Home.
I previously purchased through through the Ed division. My first impression
is that service is best if you order Small Bus.
Nan
PS: I kept the 8500, and it is nice. I wanted to switch to a 8600 and a
faster graphics card, but I got a good deal on this and the price for a 8600
(similarly equipped) was $600+ higher when I had to decide.

"Jerry Park" wrote in message
...
Ovid wrote:
I need to buy a laptop within the next month or so. I have had good
luck
with dell desktops, but have heard a decidedly mixed bag of reviews on
their
laptops. Can anyone here give me some feedback with his/her dell
laptop?
I'm looking to spend no more than about $1200 or so. I am a real estate
agent and will need internet access, some minor digital photo editing
(house
photos - nothing fancy), word, excel, accounting software, etc. I need
reliability more than anything. Also, would it be wiser to wait until
after
xmas? I am computer literate but a total laptop newbie so any feedback
is
welcome.
TIA
-O



I bought a Dell Inspiron 8200 last year about this time. Very pleased
with it.

Dell also offers an extended warranty, which for laptops is a good
value, since the screen alone would cost about $600 to replace ...