Home Computer Buying Guide: Dell
By Jonathan Berohn
This is part 2 in the Home Computer buying guide series. It focuses on—you guessed it— Dell. Michael Dell, founder of dell, was a pioneer in just in time manufacture. By building PCs as they were ordered, Dell could cut its inventory—and more importantly, costs—drastically. This business model has spread throughout the PC industry and helped reduce costs for consumers across the board.
Dell’s Spot in the Pecking Order
Dell’s market has traditionally been somewhere between manufacturers like Gateway—who focus primarily on the everyday consumer market—and HP and IBM—who aim more at the business and high-end consumer market. Dell offers a full range of consumer oriented PCs and laptops and a large range of machines that appeal to business users as well. Like Gateway, Dell does have its own stores where you can buy its computers, but Dell remains primarily an Internet outfit.
Quality and Hiccups
Dell machines have usually enjoyed a reputation for quality, but experience with them has been decidedly mixed. I used Dell desktop machines at two different jobs, and they performed quite well. I never had any problems with them, and their cost was right in line with the performance they delivered. On the other hand, I bought 10 Dell laptops for the group I managed at another job, and 4 of them went down with the same keyboard problem in the first few months we had them. To its credit, Dell’s customer service is excellent, and the tech that responded to our on site service call was excellent, thorough, and fast. If you don’t have the luxury of an onsite service contract, though, these kinds of problems mean up to a week (or more) with no computer while you mail it in for service. To be fair, laptops are far more touchy than desktops when it comes to breaking down, but 4 of the same failure in 10 machines leads me to wonder about the quality control.
What You Do Get
What you do get from Dell is a custom built PC with excellent service backing it up. Dell offers everything from the $398 intro level Dimension 2400 to the several thousand dollar custom high-end systems—including cutting edge high-end gaming desktop and laptop systems. While my experience has left me a little leery of Dell laptops, the combination of their pricing and customer support would make me consider Dell for any home PC purchase. All in all, they are solid machines at reasonable prices—and Dell backs up what it sells.