Dell Inspiron 1721 Laptop Review

I bought the Dell Inspirion 1721very excited about transitioning to a laptop from a desktop, and the size of this one (17") makes that transition very easy. I'm not a huge fan of Vista, but I can deal. It runs pretty fast and doesn't give me too many problems or hangups.

The problem is really with Dell's shoddy workmanship. In the first 6 months, Dell had to replace my hard drive three times. This is a huge inconvenience, obviously, and each time I had to make the switch I lost all of the files and information that was stored on the hard drive. Then, my keyboard started acting weird. I would press an "F' and it would type a "P" and stuff like that. Dell sent me a new keyboard. It worked for a couple of weeks, then quit. Dell had to actually send a tech to my house to fix that problem. After that, my warranty expired (of course!). I haven't had too many problems since then, although my keyboard still acts very quirky. I can be typing along and the cursor will just jump up into the paragraph above and I will be typing in the wrong place and not even realize it. That sucks!! It is a real hassle.

The only other problem is that it runs SOO HOT! I know that is not a Dell problem, all large laptops do it but man! I hate not being able to sit and use my laptop in my lap for very long without having the fan on underneath it too. This monster will have me sweating!

The Dell is a very reasonable price and a decent machine, especially for a first laptop. I will definitely go a different direction when I upgrade, however. The HORRIBLE customer service that Dell offers is reason enough alone to find a different brand.