Dell Computers Review

Overall 3.96 of 5 view all 106 reviews

Hakuryustar17
Asheville, NC

Superb Quality

a PC User, Every day computer user, Budget-Conscious, always listening to music, PC owner, a bargain hunter, quality conscious, I believe in honesty

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Pros

Cheap, great, Efficient, fast, Responsive to customers

Cons

Customer service could use some work

JUN

2008

At the current moment, I use two Dell machines. A two-three year old Dell Dimension E310 for personal and home use and a newer laptop, the Vostro 1500 that I run my photography business out of. Both machines are some of the best computers I've used in my long history with Apple and PC computers. And I've used everything between them as well, and in terms of a well performing machine for the price, I'm most impressed with Dell.

At the time of my purchase of the older of the two I currently own, my faithfull HP of almost seven years had died on me and was in the market for a computer at the time for school. (Which seems everyones story when it comes to computers, I've worked with them way too long) However, Dell was recommended to me by a member of my family, and at the time, Dell was running a promotion for a free LCD display with their desktops (At the time I was still using a dinosaur monitor as well) and designed my dear and faithfull Dimension E310 that this review is currently being written from. Its had its parts changed since the date of purchase, however always ran and did well as far as I'm concerned. Now I've heard my fair share about Dell customer service and I'll get to that in a bit, but this desktop that never really became a issue.

Now with the Vostro, that did crop up. I'd originally ordered a Vostro 1510, those familar with the line know thats a entirely different laptop from the Vostro 1500 which is the black dressed down sister of the Inspiron 1520. Several issues happened with that order that do make me frown at Dell. First off, they waited two weeks after the order being placed to then cancel the order becuase of internal Dell issues with the system. Something that did not make me very happy, and the initial response from Dell was play off the departments. Not something that went over well. However, I gave myself a day to cool off and called again. Entirely different response. I got the answers I was after and reordered my order for the current Vostro 1500 I'm using for my business. After that fiasco, I had my Vostro in a period of a couple days and after comparing models with a similarly equiped Viao from Sony, I see where you win with Dell in terms of quality and price.

The current configuration on the Vostro 1500 I own is this (I will not mention my desktops since its older and single core tech on it):

Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 2.1 Ghz
Vista Home Premium
128 Nivida 8400 GS Graphics card
3 GBs of RAM
160 Hard Drive

Which was a similar configuration of a Sony Viao at Best Buy in Arden NC, for nearly $2000, in which I paid for the Dell Vostro, with taxes, $905. However, of course in terms of asthetics the Viao does look sleeker than my chunky Vostro, however, as long as I've used PCs and Apple, I hate to say it, they all start to look one and the same. What matters, as I've heard before, is whats under the hood.

So in the end with Dell? Its really up to you. I understand alot of people feel more comfterble with alot of tech support and around the clock customer service, you don't necessarily get the greatest from Dell, however it all depends on someones comfort level with computers in general. Some really need it and some just don't.

My focus is on the machine itself and not quite all that comes attached with it, so my perspective my be entirely different from someone with different comfort levels. But I have nothing critical to say about Dells products that I've used up to this point. Both laptop and desktop have been excellent performers and do what computers are supposed to do: work.

No frills, nothing fancy, just work.