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Refurbished Dell Notebooks - any good?
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Posted by: childe

I want a new laptop and am thinking of buying one of Dell's refurbished notebooks from their outlet. The mark down's can be as much as 50% and Dell offer a warrenty, so they look very enticing. However the only information available before committing to the purchase is the standard specification. Often machines with apparently the same spec will be offered at different prices, so there must be some other factors which determine what price Dell ask for. How serious are these differences likely to be?

Does anyone have any experience of this service or any other feedback?

Thanks

Posted by: pr1uk

i have had a Dell before and found them to be good and realiable.
i have a Tosh now but that was the best spec and price when i bought, basicly Dell are one of the good makes.

Posted by: doogie

IME, the outlet machines are often picked and cancelled machines (ie brand new, never been in a customer's hands), although this may have changed/ there may be a seperate refurb'd section, I've not had a look for a while.

Posted by: MD_TIVO

I've purchased off-lease Dell laptops from Dell on Ebay. They've been in very good condition and are priced reasonably.

Posted by: iankb

I think that they can also be customer rejections due to number of dead screen pixels, etc.

Posted by: manolan

quote:
Originally posted by childe
I want a new laptop and am thinking of buying one of Dell's refurbished notebooks from their outlet. The mark down's can be as much as 50% and Dell offer a warrenty, so they look very enticing. However the only information available before committing to the purchase is the standard specification. Often machines with apparently the same spec will be offered at different prices, so there must be some other factors which determine what price Dell ask for. How serious are these differences likely to be?

Does anyone have any experience of this service or any other feedback?

Thanks

If you click on the service number and take a look at the more detailed spec, you will see that some have additional cards (e.g. bluetooth), some have a different format of memory (e.g. 1024x1 is much more expensive than 512x2) and some have bundled software (Office rather than Works). So I would say that, although the summary spec on the front page may look the same, the detailed specs are often very different.

Two thoughts that occurred to me as I looked through the list were:

1. What's valuable to me may not be what's valuable to Dell. For example, I'm unlikely to hold onto anything long enough for the 1024x1 vs 512x2 difference to bother me.
2. Don't people order some strange combinations (there are some 1024MB machines with 12" screens, for example, and some small drives - 40GB and less - and there are even one or two notebooks with only 128MB of memory, which I would consider way under-powered).

Judging by some of the combinations, it wouldn't surprise me if some of these came from corporate orders where they realised they'd got it wrong. Because that's the sort of thing that happens here, where some part of the spec is just assumed, etc.

Posted by: Paul Stimpson

Hi,

We've used Dell at work for the last couple of years (I think that may just have changed). We treat machines hard and frequently transport them and use them in horrible places like the middle of the Afghan desert. We used to use IBM and they lapped up the punishment (I think we have one that has survived 3 years including trips in the cargo hold of planes.) The Dells were bought on price and have been a different story; They have tended to start to degrade after 3-6 months if treated hard. We've had broken keyboards, screen surrounds and one on which the hard drive connector sheared off the motherboard. The Dells aren't bad machines but they're not built like IBMs and I wouldn't buy one if I was frequently transporting it and treating it hard.

I got myself a Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo D 8830 from NicePC. It's got a P4 3.06 Hyperthread processor, 1024MB RAM, 80GB HD, Mobility Radeon 9000 graphics, a really nice 15" 1400x1050 LCD, CD/DVD+R/RW burner, S-Video TV out, Firewire and 5 USB2.0 ports. I just checked the price and it's down to Ł1099 inc VAT (I paid Ł1449 in November)

Pros:
Great price
Nice screen
Big drive
DVD burner
Takes desktop DIMM memory so expanding it isn't too painful
Fast CPU
Keyboard pretty good.

Cons:
Battery life a bit short at 2hrs (has a desktop CPU rather than a mobile)
Battery is internal (Putting spare in easy but you have to remove 3 screws)
Power consumption high (120W) - Can't use it on seat power on a plane.
No mini-PCI slot or antenna for built-in wireless
No RS232 serial port (if that's important to you but USB ones work fine)
Only 1 cardbus slot
Case finish looks a bit cheap
A bit heavy at 3.5kg

The floppy drive isn't standard but it takes any USB external one.

The range starts at Ł899 and goes up to Ł1449 for the widescreen 3.2 GHz model. I'd certainly buy another one.

All the best,
Paul.

Posted by: manolan

quote:
Originally posted by Paul Stimpson
Hi,

We've used Dell at work for the last couple of years (I think that may just have changed). We treat machines hard and frequently transport them and use them in horrible places like the middle of the Afghan desert. We used to use IBM and they lapped up the punishment (I think we have one that has survived 3 years including trips in the cargo hold of planes.) The Dells were bought on price and have been a different story; They have tended to start to degrade after 3-6 months if treated hard. We've had broken keyboards, screen surrounds and one on which the hard drive connector sheared off the motherboard. The Dells aren't bad machines but they're not built like IBMs and I wouldn't buy one if I was frequently transporting it and treating it hard.

... snip ....

To be fair, though, that sounds like fairly extreme use! We have both IBMs and Dells. I'd be prepared to accept that the IBMs are a bit more rugged, but they also look and feel more rugged (i.e. a bit more industrial).

In any case, for me, the decision is how you want to control the pointer. The IBMs all have the little "nipple" just above the bottom row of keys and the Dells have a touchpad. Even though I used an IBM first, I've never been able to get on with it. I find the Dell much more usable.

Posted by: childe

thanks for everyone's replies. My comment about undescribed differerences between the models being sold was based on noticing that even though the detailed specifications given for some might be the same the price was still sometimes different. Maybe the differences are just cosmetic.

I too have used a Dell at work for many years and the only problem I have encountered is a dodgy battery charging system. It seems there as a design flaw which allowed the Li Ion batteries to be cooked and ruined by over charging. Just after the warrenty expired. This has affected many of my colleagues. Hopefully this problem has now been fixed.

Anyway, I'll keep my eye on the site. There do seem to be some bargains there.

Posted by: TheBear

In my experience Dell desktops are Good but Dell notebooks are invariably Bad.

Unfortunately they are a bit on the fragile side and tend to fail quite often, especially the more recent models.

However, for Home use where it doesn't get moved much it should be OK. Avoid Dell Inspirons at all costs

If it's for business and you are going to be taking it out of the office get I'd seriously suggest something that is better made.

The Toshaiba Tecra range are good IME. Telco engineers seem to be issued with Panasonic lappys which are virtually unbreakable.

Also, watch out for missing features such as IRDA, Bluetooth, serial and parallel ports. Discovering you have to buy a load of USB widgets afterwards is frustrating!

Posted by: iankb

I don't know what they're like nowadays, but Dell used to sell various ranges of desktops, where the cheapest (a rebadged clone) was so cheap, it was incompatible with most network cards. Hopefully, they're a bit more consistent now.

Posted by: Paul Stimpson

I would agree we can be extreme with computers at times. Most of our machines travel with their user in a laptop bag or backpack and get taken in the cabin on planes rather than in the The machines tend to be taken to a place then used there for a month or two (they may be packed every day and taken to and from a hotel) then brought home. Things like screen surrounds falling off just make me worry about build quality tho.

The one with the broken HD connector particularly worried me... It was bought as a refurb and looked absolutely pristine. The guy who used it paid for it with his own money and treated it well. I think it died on its third international trip. I guess it says to me that if a machine is a refurb and has been with an owner the case may have been replaced so it looks immaculate but I would never know how te insides had been treated.

We use both the Dell Inspirons (the cheap machine we use as a communal resource and don't mind getting written off) and Latitudes (the nicer machine we give to somebody who will use it exclusively.) I regularly use Dells, IBMs, Toshibas, Sonys and my Fujitsu. My opinion (not that of the company) is that the Dells are at the lower end of these machines in terms of build quality.

I hadn't thought about it but I think childe has a valid point about the batteries. I have seen this with other machines too tho. I generally think it is bad practice to try and charge a fully charged battery as many chargers (particularly budget ones) will begin a charge cycle on fast charge and cook a battery a bit before they work out it was already fully charged. If I've been working in an office all day on mains and the battery is fully charged then if I pack it away I will always use it on battery a bit when I take it out the bag again so I don't plug it in with the battery at 100%. If I have a machine which will run with the battery removed and I'm plugging and unplugging regularly I tend to remove the battery then stick it back in for a charge before I'm going to take the machine mobile the next time.

Cheers,
Paul.

Posted by: Doh

I like the desktops, but have been warned away by friends from the laptops. This debate comes up periodically in the US Happy Hour (most recently here, and generally there's always someone to swear by the laptops and someone to swear they are nothing but trouble.

Posted by: iankb

I think that all laptops are a poor compromise compared to a desktop, and the battery life will always disappoint, and degrade. It just comes down to personal preference.

Posted by: bobnick

Hmm, I have an Inspiron 300m - it's really small and light (sorry, it's not available in the UK before you all go looking!). I've no problems with batteries, build quality etc - seems fine to me (touch wood!) As with any supplier, there'll be some screw-ups and the majority will be fine - if you're buying a major brand I don't think there's much difference in the percentages.

Posted by: cyril

quote:
Originally posted by bobnick
Hmm, I have an Inspiron 300m - it's really small and light (sorry, it's not available in the UK before you all go looking!). I've no problems with batteries, build quality etc - seems fine to me (touch wood!) As with any supplier, there'll be some screw-ups and the majority will be fine - if you're buying a major brand I don't think there's much difference in the percentages.

:)
Just like to say I am typing this on a Toshiba Dynabook SS -the lightest 12" laptop in the world -also not available in UK- heh heh
:)