2009 - Dude, I got a Dell! Oh, and it's a piece of shit.

WARNING: RANT DRIVEN POST

So I got this Dell XPS M1530 fully loaded and maxed out, and I must say, it's a piece of shit.
Granted, it looks great, has potential, and I got a pretty good deal on it, but boy, now I see why Dell threw in a 2 year warranty free of charge. Let me start from the beginning: I ordered this laptop on December 3rd of 08, I received it on the 23rd of the month after being quoted a delivery date of one week. So I finally receive it, power up, and prepare myself for awesomeness and of course that led to immediate disappointment because low and behold the speakers are absolutely horrid - no bass, low volume, like my $700 HP from 2 years ago blows this thing out of the water. So far I've had to replace the speakers twice after they blew out within two weeks of each other, so now I just use headphones (I suggest you doing the same, or get external speakers). Yes Dell has in home warranty service, but they are rarely Dell techs, Dell just contracts out some random dudes to come to your house, and let me tell you, there are some freakin' nut jobs out there. I'd regale you with stories of Masonic, Illuminati conspiracy theorist, and sadomasochistic techs, but for my own sanity I'm putting it behind me. Next, the touch-pad - wow, what a piece of crap. It's too small, performs inconsistently -random sluggish performance even after driver "fixes" from Dell, so I bought a laser mouse and moved on. Oh, did I mention that you can't play any high end games without being plugged in? Yeah, that's right, this laptop that is supposed to be a portable media and gaming powerhouse can't even play semi high end games without being plugged in for sufficient power or the whole thing just shuts down. Preeettyy lame Dell. Speaking of power, invest in mulitple 9-cell batteries, they'll last you about an hour and a half each if you're using your laptop for editing or gaming. I can't imagine what kind of sick joke the owners of the 6-cell batteries are going through right now.
Also, where the hell are the extra accessories (dust wipe, ear buds, laptop cover), Dell?? Way to cut corners. Good thing I still own my HP and the accessories it came with like earphones, and dust wipe that were included in its budget price. The m1530 laptop doesn't feel like it's made of high quality parts, and its reliability is very questionable for me at this point, I find myself backing up my files on an external hard drive almost immediately after changing them. After having a great experience with my Dell desktop I boasted Dell's greatness to all of my friends who questioned why I was purchasing a Dell. I feel like Dell has betrayed its following and has let go of its quality control.

Dell, stop jerking people around, I waited almost a full month for this damn laptop to be delivered to me after I had ordered it- nothing like getting an email stating that your order has been delayed again. Fix the speakers for christ sake, a $1000+ laptop should not have budget speakers, and invest in your products and customer satisfaction again.

After all is said and done, I'm still using my Dell laptop...with HP parts.

It's not so bad when you add enough accessories to qualify this as a desktop computer instead of a laptop.

3.5/5