This post was long long due and in fact Harish, a pal of mine from my Huawei days had also asked me about the same. Somehow we know what to expect from each other at times.. :D
Any new technical gadget from a laptop to a sleek mp3 player deserves a mention, who more than Venu would agree on that. ;) I'll restrict myself to the former here, a piece that I bought a couple of months back. In a nutshell, it was a hasty decision.
Vostro 1500, launched by Dell a few months back was a much anticipated product, such that even Walter Mossberg wrote about it. But then I had purchased it by then. Before starting, my ideal laptop definition (without considering the RAM, HDD and other customizable factors) would incorporate the following -
- Light, its a 'lap'top after all
- Quick to come up after a standby or power save mode
- needless to say, slick screen display
Vostro 1500 is everything but that. At 6.7 pounds I'll put it as a mini desktop with laptop like features. Perhaps I was asking too much, but a laptop should epitomize 'lightness' when it comes to weight. Needless to say that at 6.7 pounds its a back belter! How I wish IBM was a touch cheaper..
Frequent BSODs, failure to come up after standbys and hibernate failures - Welcome to Dell. Sometimes it is quite infuriating to see such brands perform so miserably such that you vow never to purchase their products again. Dell's just landed in that category for me. At a low volume, it'll also mix an agonizing burr when you plug in your earphones. Now that's an unwanted freebie.
There have been apparently some decent reviews on Vostro and sometimes I wonder if they were using some other machine while writing the review, or did Dell dispatch a wrong product to me! Sadly, none of them is true. May be I expect too much in $800 odd but then this product simply defies the concept of a laptop.
Vostro was supposed to be the second generation of the Inspiron series, but I guess the only thing that they have improved is the sturdiness of this laptop. Got a burglar at home, don't worry, just whack him with the Vostro, and he's all yours!
Perhaps I was too harsh on Vostro, but then it hurts when your $850 doesn't give you a good feel in the age when every 'other' firm is trying to bring some real sleek gadgets in this category. Once Dell, Never Again!
10 comments:
:-) vostro. i must say, perhaps they are doing the right thing. vostro is more for the small businesses. one who can afford costlier lappys can go fro latitude or maybe even XPS but more for gaming.
its not competing the weight category i guess.
@vinni
latitude - well I definitely saved some bucks by not investing in it, though it looked really attractive. My roomie's got it and he's had some serious keyboard issues within the first couple of months!
Vostro might be for small businesses but its been touted as a real buy for the students as well. Its just that with new sleeky laptops comin' on almost every other day, I'm not sure if any of these brands can choose to ignore 'weighty' fundamental aspects. :D
I remember suggesting Dell Latitude D420 haha.. you should have gone for it..
Fun aside, after reading this and many other sad experiences by Dell Users, i can now reason why Dell lost its place to HP.
I guess Sony/Lenovo/Acer make better laptops. What is the other popular alternative to dell over there in US ?
By the way I was planning to buy a Dell monitor and after reading the last line of your post, I might have to think again.
Well, Latitude (check the comment above) guess i saved a couple of hundred bucks there! :)
Am not sure 'bout US in general but I see a lot of IBM thinkpads and Macbooks out here, tons of them! Macbook would hv been just fine but then my pocket couldn't have sustained that big a hole. :*(
@OP-
I work at Dell headquarters, and was concerned first and foremost that you're having STOP errors on your system. If that's the case, your system is having a problem, and I'd love to help you with it if I could.
Also, if you were looking for sleek, I'm not really sure why you went for a Vostro instead of a smaller Inspiron notebook or our XPS m1330. Those machines are designed for portability and performance: the Vostro line is designed for reliability and durability.
Contact me if you need help with those errors:
customer_advocate@dell.com
'ATTN:John'
@Venu-
"after reading this and many other sad experiences by Dell Users, i can now reason why Dell lost its place to HP." - I am not really sure what you mean by this. It would appear that this particular situation was caused by improperly set expectations by a third party. We didn't really have a hand in this. The specs for these machines are available on our website.
@dellcajohn
Well, although this post wasn't intended to get any attention, but I guess Dell's scored some brownie points out here. :D
Its a horrible BOX
@@purV
Brownie points aside, did you need any help with this?
@John
I do and I'll get in touch with you in a few days. Thanks.
i received my 'dell xps 1330' laptop on Saturday. I just hope it doesn't have any problems. some person from Dell will be coming home to open up the box and do some initial checks. fingers crossed... after some customization it came upto 60k! Any ways i got 10k discount on this through my cousin who works in Dell.
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