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I noticed that many Dell notebooks are rated high (8.0+) by CNET, and rated surprisingly low (under 70%)by users. Does anyone have an explanation for this inconsistency?
Thanks,
Levi
Discussion is locked
Here's the brutal truth...
Cnet gets the units for free to test and play with and Dell will likely bend over double to make good...
An irate owner will be sure to spread the word.
Heck, you want unhappy? Look at the user reviews of any Norton 2004 product. Ouch!
bob
At least from what is posted on my notebooks dedicated forum, X1000forums.com (Compaq X1000 and HPZT3000 Pentium M Centrino 15.4" widescren -- equivalent to Dell 8600) the Dell case construction is not up to snuff (flexes) and the keyboards are often not as responsive as well.
If you look strictly at performance the Dell 8600 is a good choice as nearly no other notebook out there has the 128mb Dedicated video option (Compaq / HP above have up to 64mb) and it has the 7200 rpm Hitachi hard drive option (much faster than standard 4200rpm or even 5400rpm hard drives).
However, Dell has gotten a lot of complaints about the noise these hard drives make (sometimes clicking) if you don't activate the correct software so Dell has issued some sort of a software patch.
Dell's consumer computer service is in India but so is HP but this is a sore point (Apple is #1 in service and IBM is #2).
In general, the answer is that Dell has the components to make a good notebook in specification but their case construction, flex and keyboards do not match up in many cases.
This is similar to General Motors at least until recently. They have the engine horsepower and a good price but you know there is a difference inside the car (with the plastics and the creaks) versus a Honda or Toyota.
Also, the Dell 600M has a very warm spot to the left of the touchpad (hard drive is directly underneath it) and a woman complained about this after her return period expired. I went to a Dell Kiosk to try this a mall and it was quite warm in that area.
So, if you do consider a Dell, go to a kiosk in the mall and make sure you are satisfied with any heat issue, keyboard fell and especially pick up the notebook as many say they flex too much and in some cases crack.
The HPZT3000 and Compaq X1000 for example (similar to Dell 8600 but 6.5 pounds instead of Dell 8600 6.9 pounds) has an aluminum top and aluminum bezel surrounding the LCD so that makes it more rigid and the entire notebook (plastic casing on the bottom) doesn't flex when picked up. See www.X1000forums.com if you are interested in these and also read the comparison to the Dell 8600 in the general section of the forum.
You can also read Dell posts at www.notebookforums.com
Cnet is mostly focused on performance but you have to check out yourself the intangibles (case integrity, body flex, keyboard) as they are very important in a notebook and not very important on a desktop (which is not moved around or typed on directly).
The Apple Powerbook notebooks ($2,000-3,000 price range) are all aluminum in construction so they are the ultimate and many companies try to emulate their look by spraying plastic silver but that does not do it for case integrity.
As I stated, the Compaq X1000 and HPZT3000 have a very good keyboard for their class and also have the aluminum lid and LCD bezel surround.
However, IBM notebooks are extremely well constructed and durable (hard drive even parks itself in a fall) and their keyboards are a notch above the others as well.
If you are willing to pay the price premium for an Apple or IBM they are both great choices and also tops in service.
Otherwise, find a consumer notebook that at least has decent case integrity (does not creak and flex when picked up) and a good keyboard feel unless you will use an external keyboard all the time like on a desktop.
Ken, excellent information thank you. Also thanks for the great links. May I ask what you use?
R. Proffitt - I agree Norton is a joke. They do have the best antivirus software, but customer service and subscription structure is ridiculous.
I was under the impression that IBM is focused on large businesses and networking infrastructures. Are you saying consumer services are exceptional?
You can buy an IBM business notebook online just as you can buy an HP business notebook online or a Toshiba (Techra) business notebook online. These cost somewhat more for their feature content but they have somewhat better service (IBM is much better as they have no consumer division). HP business notebooks don't have many of the consumer discounts you can get at hpshopping (you have to go to hp.com to access business models) but they have a slightly better service division and a 1 year international warranty instead of country specific.
I have a Compaq X1000 series (Compaq X1360US) 15.4" widescreen Pentium M myself. I usually also recommend the Toshiba M35 series with it (last retail version was M35S456) but it seems to have been on a closeout in stores recently and I also heard you could not order the Trubrite LCD online at Toshiba.
The Acer 2000 series is also very nice with 128mb dedicated video (the Compaq/HP and Toshiba have only 64mb dedicated video) but the Acer 2025 has mostly disappeared. Note on Cnet for their top 5 notebooks right now that the Acer 2020 is there so that should be a new derivative of the Acer 2000 series. The drawback there is that you cannot order custom.
Like Dell, the HPZT3000 or Compaq X1000 can be fully customized with the exception that Dell has the 7200rpm hard drive option (HP has 5400) and Dell has the 128mb video option for the 8600).
See X1000forums.com a lot of information on all the online discounts you can get, best order specifications and technical issues (good and bad) people have had with the notebook over time (built in different versions since mid 2003).
Some of the negatives when I bought mine were that no multifunction DVD burner was available (I got CD-RW/DVD ROM anyway), there was no Briteview option )(like Toshiba Trubrite on M35S456 or Sony Xbrite) for the LCD in XGA resolution and also the Dothan Cpus had not come out yet.
Now, all 3 of those are available on custom order units as well as the integrated bluetooth option if you want it.
x1000forums.com is great! I found a lot of useful information in very little time.
Cheers
I find it extremely valuable to have a dedicated forum (with users all using 1 model type of machine -- in this case the sister HPZT3000, Compaq X1000, and HP business nx7000) but there are other forums out there not just this one.
You can get Dell and Toshiba posts on notebookforums.com and other sites but they are not dedicated to one specific model.
I had a keyboard issue with my X1000 when I bought it that was quickly resolved when I found out about the necessary F33 to F34 bios upgrade (downloaded free from HP/Compaq website) to resolve it.
With Windows SP2 and other discovered changes, there are a lot of driver hardware updates that need to be done to keep any notebook running well (video card bios, driver -- wi-fi card driver and Intel proset updates, etc).
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