Didn't buy one and here's why...
Written: Dec 06 '00
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Pros: 3 year warranty, 24 hour support
Cons: Sales Tax in all states, 10 day delivery, marked-up shipping cost
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| danthedad's Full Review: Dell Inspiron 5000 R600LG |
Looked at the 5000 at my neighbors and it is a nice unit so I ordered one. I needed it for a meeting in 9 days. They told me it would be there but wouldn't guarantee. Being a positive kind of guy, I thought from what they said that it would. They told me they would have to burn it in for me (Seems like they should have a few of these sitting around already burned in wouldn't you think?).
3 days before I was to leave I called Dell and they still hadn't shipped my order! I canceled it and I bought a Pro-Star from Jerry at www.discountpcsales.com. I had my doubts at first about this and read no reviews about it except in Laptop Magazine. I love it! For $1710 DELIVERED I got a PIII 600, DVD, 14.1 Screen,128 meg ram, case, Conexant Modem and 10 gig hard drive (only 1 year warranty, only daytime support hours and no software). Dell wanted $2,400 or so delivered for the same thing (but has a 3 year warranty and software). The top of the Prostar feels more solid than the Dell and you can get to everything easily to upgrade or repair it. Manuals are not very good but the support is and accessories are cheap (extra lithium battery $85 and floppy replacement battery are only $105, port replicator is only $95). Battery life is a only 2 1/2 hours but the unit takes 2. Prostar's freight was exactly what it cost them ($28). It arrived 2 days after I ordered it. My friends at the meeting loved it!
Like the Dell. This unit has the ATI driver that you must go into display settings to setup output to a TV. You must change them to work the DVD on TV then change them back afterwards. My wife will never figure this out!
The thing to remember with Dell is that their prices are higher than most anyway (memory and modems are outrageous!) but when you add on the hidden costs it makes them unreasonable. The two in my case were freight which was $54 (their actual cost on this was about $24) and TAXES! They charge you sales tax no matter where you live! In my case this was $140!. They reserve this little surprise for you for the end when you have decided to order it and then you are too committed in your mind to back out.
I'm glad I didn't buy the Dell.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2400
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 601-700
Screen Size: 14"
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 9-12
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Epinions.com ID:
danthedad
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Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
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