<p>Personally, I have had quite a few problems with my Dells, but they seem to come through every single time. Their onsite service is unbeatable and their warranties are so inexpensive that it doesn't make sense not to have them.</p>
<p>The Dell Latitude line of notebooks have magnessium alloy lids and have metal chassis, very similar to the IBM Thinkpads. The difference is that Dell will definitely be able to support their notebooks over the long haul while the Lenovo purchase of IBM's personal computer division leaves quite a bit in the air.</p>
<p>Who really knows what Lenovo is going to do? Service might be better, worse, or the same. But in the transitional period, it might be messy. Anyway, I rather face the devil I know than the devil I don't.</p>
<p>On a side note, I have found that IBM support is currently quite good as well.</p>
<p>mashimaroban: that's a funny statement. I open my computers routinely, and other peoples' too. If I was a tech support guy, there are many situations where I'd have someone open their computer's case - and not because I'm trying to be tricky. Yes, it's understood that it may void your warranty, but if you know what you're doing, there's clearly a lot more you can do with an open computer than a closed one.</p>
<p>I second the bad experiances with dell laptops...they just arent made well and cut too many corners.</p>
<p>I do however have full faith in IBM's support. They will still support in the same way everything with an IBM badge (including when lenavo starts production). At the same time...dell support is crap. I hate dealing with them.</p>
<p>And with opening the computer voiding the warrenty...what kind of crack are you smoking?</p>
<p>It's basic diagnosis procedure to open it and start removing extra things to find hte source of a problem (and how are you supposed to clean it if you cant open it...).</p>
<p>Opening a Dell computer will not void the warranty, as long as you are in the user-accessible areas. If you decided to dismantle the entire computer, then I could see why the warranty would be voided, as would be the case with any other computer.</p>
<p>Dell Home support is pretty bad, but the Dell Small Business support is okay. The Latitude line is supported by the small business support, which is located in the United States (after a bunch of customers complained). I know this since I called support once and I got this Indian technical support agent and when I told him that I had a Latitude, he told me that I was transfered to the wrong department and promptly sent me to US small business support.</p>
<p>Ive got a Dell, had it since August, havent had a problem, ever. My roomies Mac has been acting up, and a friend of mine had a problem with Dell (customer service i think actually). So I guess its just a luck of the draw.</p>
<p>I have a couple of old Dell Latitudes with keyboard problems (double spacing, double backspacing, double characters, keys stop working, etc.). I thought it was a virus, parasite or other intrusion, but have read on in net forums that others have experienced similar Dell Latitude keyboard problems.</p>
<p>I hated my Dell laptop with a passion. I just bought myself a new laptop because I was tired of all the hassles I had with my Dell. I sent in the laptop 3 times to get fixed because the keyboard didn't type random letters (in all of my papers I'd have to read through my paper and check which letter I pressed, that it didn't feel like typing). There were also two recalls on it, it burned me if I ever used it over 1/2 hour and it was extremely heavy!</p>
<p>So far of five of my friends with Dell laptops three have had to replace the hard drive, one has had to replace the motherboard, and one has had to mail it in to get the battery clips repaired. I may be forgetting a few things, but every person has had to have it repaired for one reason or another.</p>
<p>I'd definately say to look at IBM, Toshiba, or Apple.</p>
<p>Dells are decent, not great but decent. Some people have good luck others don't. The people who say brand new Dells are solid come back here in three years, then tell me how many problems you had. The people with IBM and Apples will have not nearly as many problems.</p>
<p>i worked at IT for my school for three years, so i've seen my fair share of people coming in with computer issues. believe me when i say that more things happen to dells than all of the other brands.</p>
<p>Dell laptops offer everything you need for college, so no use getting anything better. I've used Dells for a while and they're always good; I haven't had any problems with them. There's some really good deals sometimes on the website... wait till those show up. My only complaint is that my Inspirion 8600 is kinda heavy.</p>
<p>Well, I guess its either you listen to the few people who argue for dell (one who says its "good enough" and another who sounds like he has had it less than a year and knows nothing) or you listen to the swarms of people in this thread and others who have techincal arguments and wide ranges of experiances that say to go with something else.</p>
<p>At my father's work, they have a bunch of broken notebooks of every single brand. When I counted, there seemed to be an equal distribution of broken Dell, IBM, and HP/Compaq notebooks.</p>
<p>People often single out Dell because they are the largest PC manufacturer in the world. They have far more units in circulation, therefore you will hear the most stories about them. IBM, however, sells very few computers in comparison, therefore you hear less bad things about them.</p>
<p>Truth be told, I think IBM makes better notebook computers, but Dell sells their notebooks for less and the support is still equally as good. But my experiences are limited to the business lineup (Latitudes). The new line of Latitude notebooks resolves most of the complaints of the old D-series notebooks, so they are no longer subject to the same criticisms.</p>
<p>I've compared Dells with IBMs. I can get a Dell with exactly what I want for ~$1300 or I could get an IBM with slightly lower specs for ~$2000. I certainly hope IBM has better build quality for that price.</p>
<p>What it comes down to is whether you need a fast/cheap machine or a reliable/expensive machine. For the price, I think Dell laptops are good (my brother has one and has no problems).</p>