What happened to the quality
Written: Sep 09 '04
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Pros: Cheap. Good battery life.
Cons: Poor screen display. Cheap parts. Sparse software.
The Bottom Line: Spend the extra bucks and buy something decent.
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| redvette's Full Review: Dell Inspiron 1100 (1100SAP) PC Notebook |
I purchased a Dell Inspiron back in March and although it is functional and does what it is supposed to do, it sure doesn't compare to my old Thinkpad.
I have to admit I bought this on the cheap and really shouldn't complain as it only cost me $700 shipped. However, that old adage "you get what you pay for" sure applies here.
Let's start with the weight of this beast..HEAVY!!!! You need a pretty strong shoulder to lug this baby around for any length of time. My old Thinkpad weighed about 5 or 6 pounds, but this tops out at around 10.
Despite the heft of the machine it feels cheap and poorly assembled out of inferior parts. The case flexes when picked up and feels that at any minute the cheap plastic is about to give way.
It has a very nicely sized display at 14 inches but the quality of the display is lousy, especially under battery power. To conserve battery power the display is subdued and the screen picture reminds me of a cheap Fujitsu laptop I had about 7 or 8 years ago.
The laptop does have a pretty speedy processor and a good size hard drive. Mine also has CDRW/DVD, which is the main reason I sold the Thinkpad and bought this one. I should have bought an external drive and kept the Thinkpad.
Battery life is actually quite good at around 3 hours, which is much better than the Thinkpad, but at the cost of lousy resolution. Not a good trade-off in my book.
The software is sparse and some are only licensed for 90 days which is pretty chintzy on Dell's part.
I can't say I'm totally unhappy with the Dell, but I have to stop comparing it to the Thinkpad. It just doesn't measure up. Luckily I haven't had to call tech support so I can't report on that other than to say they all pretty much suck now.
It seems like computer manufacturers are saving bucks by limiting the software included and outsourcing tech support to India, or wherever, and using much cheaper materials that go into the computers. What you save in MSRP, you more than lose in quality and customer service.
Dell used to be number 1 in most customer satisfaction ratings, but I doubt that applies anymore. As I said earlier, you get what you pay for. Next time I will heed my own advice and pay the extra bucks for an IBM.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 700
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Celeron
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 14 inches
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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Epinions.com ID:
redvette
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Reviews written: 34
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