Nice Enough Laptop, VERY POOR POWER SUPPLY!
Written: Oct 26 '08
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Quality of Tech Support: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Nice sharp clear screen, Battery life not fantastic but adequate.
Cons: EXTREMELY POORLY BUILT POWER SUPPLY. Delete Key location.
The Bottom Line: Nice laptop if you keep it setting on the desk (positioned carefully
The power supply issue is the deal killer if you want reliability of any sort.
|
|
|
| drizler's Full Review: Dell Inspiron™ E1705 PC Notebook |
Nice enough handy and nice display, a pretty decent computer except the power supply. Unless you can find a place to put this and leave it where it won't be disturbed you won't be happy. Of course this isn't how laptops are used now is it? Power cord is pretty short and the section from the supply block to the laptop itself is too short as well. This practically guarantees you will get strain on the plug as the heavy block dangles. Additionally the plug itself is proprietary so you can't get another converter at Radio Shack or elsewhere. If you do it won't charge the battery though it will power the unit. In casual useage you can plan on buying a new supply and cord every 6 months or so, plan on it. At least you can get them for 25 bucks on Ebay though they are equally as poor so be warned. These are made of such fine wire that breaks right at the base of the plug that goes into the computer where you can't fix it no matter how hard you try so don't bother. Notice also that it is the part permanently attached to the block so you can't just change that out either. This weakness follows into another problem, the socket which the plug inserts into. The suffers quite often as well and it also is proprietary so you get to buy one from Dell for at least $65 and have it soldered onto the mother board.
We have had ours now about 2 years and are going on our 5th power supply which I just ordered tonight. Aside from the constant power supply problems it has been a splendid computer that has worked well for our whole family. If Dell would get its act together and do something about that one issue they would have a nice computer for a very reasonable price.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 650
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: Greater than 15 inches
RAM: More than 256
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
drizler
|
|
Reviews written: 12
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.