Dell Is Back

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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If you are an Internet oldster, you will remember the glory days of Dell and their state-of-the-art, cutting edge computers and for their Dell Dude commercials. Well, Dell has been down, but never counted out over the years and now Dell is coming back strong with the same innovation and computer design that grabbed our attention so very long ago. :cool:

Dell never really stopped building bang-for-the-buck products like my Inspiron 8200. But fandom faded as Dell became just one of many PC companies racing to the bottom with price on traditional PCs.
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Is there supposed to be an article to click on or something?
 
I'm actually considering a new Dell XPS 13 to replace my rMBP 13. Never would've believed I'd think Dell over Apple for a laptop, but the 2015 XPS 13 is really nice.
 
Dell is back because one blogger said so? I am kind of hoping they release another Venue AMOLED tablet but with Windows.
 
JJ Johnson said:
When did Dell EVER have "state-of-the-art, cutting edge computers"???
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They bought Alienware, and they were pretty close.

Dell has some decent machines. Nothing really that great, though. Back in the day, I'd recommend Dell for others that wanted a prebuilt. Then, early 2000's, I stopped. Too many problems. I started telling people Lenovo or even HP.
 
Have to give credit where credit is due, Dell has some of the best support I've seen by a prebuilt company. Now I'm not saying their products are the best (as every Dell product was DOA when it arrived) but when their products do break, their support is top notch. When my brothers Dell Inspiron Core i3 machine died (HDD failed), Dell came out to the house the NEXT DAY and replaced the hard drive, re-imaged it and gave my brother a few tips on how to keep the machine from slowing down. My family only spend 350 dollars on the tower and that was the standard warranty service! When I got my Alienware laptop, the motherboard was shot (PC simply wouldn't pass POST), Dell sent out a technician, once again NBD, with a motherboard and replaced a laptop motherboard in about an hour. So their support is by far the best if you can have a technician come out (and yes, I know all these guys are contracted (and not Dell) but still, its nice having support like this)
 
Can't wait to see the new XPS 13 Developer Edition. From what I've read, the new XPS 13 is a Windows laptop equivalent to what Apple has been putting out for years. There's finally an option on the Windows side of things that doesn't sacrifice quality and usability (at least from what I've been able to find so far).
 
Dell did take the company private. Could be the result of focusing on the businesses instead of "shareholder value".
 
Shit mayne, they're back since they came out with a new laptop!
 
Tyler-Durden said:
I'm actually considering a new Dell XPS 13 to replace my rMBP 13. Never would've believed I'd think Dell over Apple for a laptop, but the 2015 XPS 13 is really nice.
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I just got mine and its fucking sleek. Loving it so far. Going to buy a second one for work with the high res display.

It's funny that this article comes up now because I was just thinking the same thing when I got the product... "Wow Dell is really coming back strong".
 
Why the hell am I unable to find what kind of display the XPS 13 uses? I am going to assume it's an IPS, but it's amazing how the product page and multiple reviews don't even bother to mention it.
 
I actually own a Dell laptop (it's the kind with the alien head on it), It's holding up great, the build quality is a lot better than Ye Olde Dells that fell apart the minute the warranty ran out. I think I'd put Dell up on the top of my list (with Lenovo) for my next laptop. They still make cheap garbage as well, but from the mid-range up the quality has vastly improved. HP on the other hand... I wouldn't buy from them at the moment.
 
I agree that the XPS 13 and Venue 8 are hot.

But Dell is a high-volume PC builder. A couple of new products doesn't exactly explain the headline "Dell is Back"

Maybe this is a sign of things to come though. I'd love to see Dell's new philosophy applied across many of their product lines.

Until then... Dell is the same ol' Dell with a couple of new products.

Damn... if I didn't buy a Toshiba ultrabook last summer... I'd be buying the XPS 13 :(
 
BlueStorm said:
I just got mine and its fucking sleek. Loving it so far. Going to buy a second one for work with the high res display.
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Good to know. I'm getting the hi-res display, too. Just waiting for the purchase to be approved by the boss-lady. She loves me, so it's only a matter of signing the right papers to make it happen.
 
Dell never went anywhere. Go into any business and see what models of pcs they are using. OptiPlex desktops and latitudes are all over the place.

The XPS lineup can be very nice. It seems like the bigger 15" has had it's share of issues to work through, but the overall building quality and usefulness of the 12" and 13" have been stellar. Hopefully they can bring a 15" back to market that is free from bugs.

@megalith: Not 100% sure either, but fairly positive it's IPS. Afaik all of the XPS models use IPS displays.
 
The new venue 8 looks good but there are 4 things I see wrong.
1. Bottom front facing camera.
2. Back Bottom cameras.
a) angle and a odd case openings
3. no place to hold with such a thing bezel.
4. price
 
My Dell 30" monitors over the years have been my favorite monitors out of the many brands I've used and tried. Their next day business day replacement before you send yours back also isn't really matched by any other company as far as monitors go.

Also back in late 90's , early 2000's their Latitude line laptops were workhorses that tons of folks used.

Lastly , maybe most importantly :p , those old Dell mechanical keyboards were awesome.

http://www.clickykeyboard.com/2007/feb21/001.JPG
 
I wanted a XPS13. Then after few weeks of it being only at US store it finally come to german Dell store... Where the US highend model is the German base model. So no XPS13 for me. Let's hope the Inspirion will be good enough (Inspirion 13 7348 with i5-5200U and 1920x1080 display).
 
Looks good to me. :) The Dell XPS 8700 with the Intel 4790 is the best machine they sell in my opinion. Even with just a hard drive, those machines are very, very fast. I am not certain what they did to make them that way since the 4790 alone would not make it that way. (Something to do with the chipset and board I think.)
 
Never really ever cared for DELL or any of their products. Sucked when they bought Alienware. However, their 30" monitors have been nice, and I do love my U2410 (P-IPS panel, from LG?). I used to work for a freelance QA software testing company on the east coast, and for a few years I was part of the group that did driver/software testing for Team Green. We had A LOT of nice monitors (and HDTVs) in our test labs, including a few different 30" models (such as the 3007WFP and 3008WFP). Sadly when they stopped being our client, we had to send them most of the displays, since they were the ones who paid for them. :( Oh well, that's how shit goes. Looking at these old-ass DELL commercials with the DELL Dude though, I can appreciate how bad they are even more now! Delightfully hilarious, and quite terrible. Ah, the memories of times long gone.
 
DrezKill said:
Never really ever cared for DELL or any of their products. Sucked when they bought Alienware. However, their 30" monitors have been nice, and I do love my U2410 (P-IPS panel, from LG?). I used to work for a freelance QA software testing company on the east coast, and for a few years I was part of the group that did driver/software testing for Team Green. We had A LOT of nice monitors (and HDTVs) in our test labs, including a few different 30" models (such as the 3007WFP and 3008WFP). Sadly when they stopped being our client, we had to send them most of the displays, since they were the ones who paid for them. :( Oh well, that's how shit goes. Looking at these old-ass DELL commercials with the DELL Dude though, I can appreciate how bad they are even more now! Delightfully hilarious, and quite terrible. Ah, the memories of times long gone.
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I've always wondered , especially on the 30" line , does Dell do a Q/A of them before shipping or automatically get the best pick of the panels and the rest go to the Korean ones etc.

It's just the only line of monitors I've never gotten a bad or dead pixel on , from the 3007 to my now u3014 , every one has had zero stuck pixels or dead ones out of the box. Same for client ones I've installed.

I once had several 24" Gateway glossy monitors I loved at the time but had to go through 4 before got one without a bad pixel , HP the same on the first 27" I had , etc.

Just wondered if have been personally really luck on the Dell 30" ones over the years or if they have better Q/A for those or something.
 
Well they may be back but in the process they are killing Alienware slowly.
 
I guess their popularity for your average consumer died down, but I assume they still had a strong presence in the business market. Where I work everything is pretty much Dell so I never noticed their popularity slipping.
 
For workstations, I used them back in early 2000`s. It was a powerhouse of a machine back then.
 
Dell makes great monitors. Their business/enterprise grade stuff is decent and often available at a large discount to businesses and education. Their consumer level stuff is garbage and has always been garbage.
 
Love my Dell Venue 8 Pro win8.1 tablet, honestly... I own two of them even. My Dell monitors have served me very well over the years including a Dell 2005FPW and 3007WFP-HC.
 
You have to dig on their site to find the buried gold. It's there, just takes a little virtual footwork.
 
i remember when the onion ran an article that dell calls it quits because he had achieved all he set out to do
 
Proprietary components and the move to below-shit customer support is what killed Dell.

There was no mystery about this.
 
Dahkoht said:
My Dell 30" monitors over the years have been my favorite monitors out of the many brands I've used and tried. Their next day business day replacement before you send yours back also isn't really matched by any other company as far as monitors go.

Also back in late 90's , early 2000's their Latitude line laptops were workhorses that tons of folks used.

Lastly , maybe most importantly :p , those old Dell mechanical keyboards were awesome.

http://www.clickykeyboard.com/2007/feb21/001.JPG
Click to expand...

I still have an old Dell keyboard sitting around as a backup whenever my "flavor of the week" keyboard breaks or gets acts stupid. Damn thing is 12-13 years old and still works like its brand new.
 
Aside from a Gateway 17" CRT, I've always purchased Dell monitors (for PC systems, anyway). They've never let me down.

As a contractor, I get to see the inside of a LOT of server rooms. The most common server manufacturer by far is Dell. As a SysAdmin, I get to deal with faulty server hardware a lot. The manufacturer who breaks the least? Supermicro... But Dell's really close behind. (Meanwhile, we replace HP hardware on a daily basis.) Almost every desk in every contract I've held has a Dell workstation or laptop. I've never really seen Dell as down and/or out in the business sector. In the home market, I stopped recommending them when they had proprietary power supplies and poor air circulation. They changed that a while back, and since then, I've had no issues telling people to "just get a Dell". The only real question for those folks was about the warranty length.

For gaming or other specialty rigs, folks who insisted on prebuilt got whatever they already had their mind made up on. Sometimes it was Falcon Northwest, sometimes Alienware, sometimes iBuyPower... They just wanted someone to confirm that their opinion was the right one.
 
Back in the 90s Dell and Micron were the best pre-builts. I remember ZEOS also made excellent machines.
 
Dell equals amazing support, even here. It you need reliability so much as to pay for it, it's by far the best choice.
 
cdr_74_premium said:
Dell equals amazing support, even here. It you need reliability so much as to pay for it, it's by far the best choice.
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Business support was top notch. About on par with Lenovo. A quick phone call and a replacement part was there the next morning. Tech support in the US, next day delivery, no scripts that they use... Just great support.

Personal support? I've had issues with Dell in the past, but that was 10+ years ago, so things have probably changed a lot since then.
 
The new XPS 13 has terrific specs for the price. Me likie!

My dream laptop is still a small and light design with a 12-13" 1080p touchscreen, 5th gen mobile i5 dual or i7 quad, dGPU with performance along the lines of a 970M, and NVME SSD for around $800. Yeah, I'll keep dreaming. :p
 
Inspiron 8200 was a phenomenal laptop in 2002. Absolutely phenomenal. It was snappy, the CPU and graphics performance were great, and so was the screen. Loved that computer. I "upgraded" to another dell in 2006 and was disappointed at the reduction in build quality.
 
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