Against all my instincts...

and better judgement... I am now seriously considering buying my kids Dell Studio 17 laptops for Christmas.

Has anyone got anything to reveal about them that I should know about ?

I bought a Dell laptop a while back and Dell themselves were rubbish at after sales service, so much so I decided there and then NOT to buy from them again. The laptop is still going after 5 years and one hardware fix and one re-format - so no real complaints about the machine.

However, I can spec the Studio 17 on their website to a fantastic spec for a great price.

Any advise welcome,

IPete2.

We've been using Dell for years (and years and years) (except when I build them myself) :-).

Service and support are fantastic! I've had nothing but good experiances with them throughout the whole process.

I bought my current 'main' desktop rig from them a little more than a year ago - it's still running great. (although it's almost time to start looking for a new video card. And that DDR2 RAM isn't what it used to be...)

I have a Dell Latitude D6000 laptop that we bought a couple years ago. No complaints! It's still running strong.

I've personally never had any problems with them. All our machines are either Dell (or I built them).

Good luck!

From what I've heard (and seen) the Dell Studio line is somewhat poorly made compared to their Latitude and Vostro laptops - plastic is thin, the keyboard and palmrest flexes a lot, etc. Although for the price it's probably a fair deal.

I should mention that I've learned the hard way that there's a lot more to laptops than specs and price. So many people (including me, a while ago) judge laptops based on how much GHz/RAM/HD/etc. they get for the $, and totally neglect the vital details: weight, screen quality, heat output, noise output, durability, and battery life.

Anyway, if you want to be sure you're not missing something that might be much better for you, I'd recommend you post this question here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=16

Also, notebookreview.com has a lot of really good reviews which you can use to compare and judge quality, etc.

Get them ASUS'!

I really prefer to stay away from Dell. You can make your own computer sooo much better for the same price as a worse Dell desktop; other then notebookreview, I would take a look at Lenovo laptops. Of course all of this really matters on what you want to get for you kids. Will they be doing any 3d rendering or code compiling? ;)

Yeah my kids are 15 and 16 - they specifically want to develop large Photoshop files, edit long video programmes, create big music pieces with as many tracks as possible and all for a few hundred quid! Lol

They also want them to be portable. It has been difficult to find a laptop powerful enough in the price range I want to spend. They will be paying for their half too as they have save up for this, so I must get them something them will be able to achieve their goals with.

It is a hard task, I will check that forum mentioned thanks.
I looked at Asus, Sony, Mesh Nox, Toshiba, Samsung, and a number of others I can't remember. I also looked at Macs, but the gfx cards in low end Macs are pretty terrible.

The Studio 17 I configured was pretty good and the reports about noise are good, the battery life is helped by the WED screen and ability to switch off the wi fi with a button (like on PSP). Weight isnt an issue, but the Studio is a full sized keyboard, and it is not light.

Keep the info coming guys!

IPete2.

Dell IMHO are crap, the ones ive used are desktops tho not laptops.

With Dell you get a lot for your money but the build quality is poor and the implementations can be a bit ropey. Still you will probably get a higher spec for less money than anywhere else. Their support has an alarming habit of insisting on full OS reinstalls for anything they don't know the answer to.

Darkheart

If you love those children then you will buy them Samsung NC10s.

This is a lesson for me. My kids are 9 & 7, and are thoroughly enjoying Fable 2.

puki said if you love those children get them blah. I disagree. can they share a laptop with different user logins?

Anyways.. my HP laptop that I purchased 7 years ago still works well. Can any other Dell laptop owners state this claim? It is worhty of note that the said HP Laptop was subject to a 3 and 1 year old in the back of the car as a long journey pacifier,

I've only really had experience with Dell high-end workstations, raids and servers. Can't really complain about either. Both work and have kept churning away for quite a few years.

I've got a Dell Inspiron laptop for 3,5 years now. Very solid laptop. I once had a problem with my cd/dvd drive which would suddenly pop out. After the requested diagnostics test they sent me a new one. Now my only problem (after 3,5 years) is that the touchpad is a bit too sensitive. Even when changing its settings.

If there's one brand you should stay away from it's Acer. My brother has got nothing but hardware failure with it. Video card broke 2 times, screen got replaced once and the motherboard failed one time as well. All in 2 years :-).