why are Dells so cheap?

[Monarch heels]

  However, I cannot think of a single person who was satisfied with their Dell laptop.

Except me. 

Hey cesco, are you thinking about buying the Dell D620 laptop recommended by DU?  http://www.law.du.edu/laptop/purchase.html
I bought a really sweet Powerbook (not the Intel kind) about a year ago that is great for all my digital imaging stuff, but DU explictly says NO MACs. So I thought I'd just get another laptop exclusively for school. It seems like the Dell they recommend comes with a decent warranty...

[nmb238]

i would love someone who found me a laptop that meets the following 3 criteria:

1. It doesnt weigh alot. Def not more than 5 lbs. Its compact and isnt big and clunky.
2. It has battery life. Like a good battery that runs on its own for an hour or so, at least. It doesnt eat the battery within 5 minutes like my current otherwise-awesome Toshiba does.
3. It works reasonably well. I only need this for Word, Internet, pictures, watching movies and downloading music... nothing too hardcore. It just has to work.

what are my best options? As i am not looking for buy the top of the line 100GB amazing system, I am hoping to spend under 1000 if possible. I just want workable, small and light.

[krumanadi]

i would love someone who found me a laptop that meets the following 3 criteria:

1. It doesnt weigh alot. Def not more than 5 lbs. Its compact and isnt big and clunky.
2. It has battery life. Like a good battery that runs on its own for an hour or so, at least. It doesnt eat the battery within 5 minutes like my current otherwise-awesome Toshiba does.
3. It works reasonably well. I only need this for Word, Internet, pictures, watching movies and downloading music... nothing too hardcore. It just has to work.

what are my best options? As i am not looking for buy the top of the line 100GB amazing system, I am hoping to spend under 1000 if possible. I just want workable, small and light.

You should be able to get a decent Lenovo T60 for around 1000... Doesn't weigh a lot, and pretty good battery.. 2-3 hour life or so..

[Typhoon Longwang]

2. If you upgrade yourself, many times you void the warranty

Generally, if the manufacturer identifies a component as upgradeable by the user it does not ordinarily void the warranty, however it is quite easy to check with the company before you buy.  Most Dell laptops I've seen have user upgradeable memory, the T and X Thinkpads are user upgradeable, and many other manufacturers provide direct access to some of all of the memory.  Occasionally, there's one slot that is available to the user (often accessible on the machine's base) and another which is not (like under the keyboard).

[bruin]

Ok, I realize this is turning into the "what laptop should I get" thread, but since I was looking at Dells, it's still relevant. Can anyone recommend a good lightweight model? Under 2 lbs, preferably. I don't care if the monitor is small, either. I was looking at the Dell Inspiron 710M.

The 710M does weigh around 4.5 lbs; not really heavy, but if you are really looking for an untra-lightweight, it probably isn't the best choice. I have had the 700M for about a year, and haven't had much problem with it, excluding a kinda small keyboard.

[Typhoon Longwang]

i would love someone who found me a laptop that meets the following 3 criteria:

1. It doesnt weigh alot. Def not more than 5 lbs. Its compact and isnt big and clunky.
2. It has battery life. Like a good battery that runs on its own for an hour or so, at least. It doesnt eat the battery within 5 minutes like my current otherwise-awesome Toshiba does.
3. It works reasonably well. I only need this for Word, Internet, pictures, watching movies and downloading music... nothing too hardcore. It just has to work.

what are my best options? As i am not looking for buy the top of the line 100GB amazing system, I am hoping to spend under 1000 if possible. I just want workable, small and light.

Under the theory that you don't require the latest/greatest machine to do average LS crap...
http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-ThinkPad-X40-1-4GHz-LV-768MB-40GB-802-11b-g-WiFi-XP_W0QQitemZ6888202011QQihZ013QQcategoryZ80211QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[likewise]

i would love someone who found me a laptop that meets the following 3 criteria:

1. It doesnt weigh alot. Def not more than 5 lbs. Its compact and isnt big and clunky.
2. It has battery life. Like a good battery that runs on its own for an hour or so, at least. It doesnt eat the battery within 5 minutes like my current otherwise-awesome Toshiba does.
3. It works reasonably well. I only need this for Word, Internet, pictures, watching movies and downloading music... nothing too hardcore. It just has to work.

what are my best options? As i am not looking for buy the top of the line 100GB amazing system, I am hoping to spend under 1000 if possible. I just want workable, small and light.

I ahve a Dell E1505 that meets all of your reqs except weight, as it's like 5.9 lbs.  The 710 from Dell meets your needs, but you'd have to get it stripped to get it under $1K.  I got the larger battery and get just shy of 6 hours of life on a full charge.

[chevelle]

I have had a Dell Inspiron 8500 for almost 3 years and it's been ok, it's just loud and gets hot.

I have a 12" PowerBook G4 and the hard drive just broke for no reason, it used to be quiet, now it makes more noise since Apple gave me a new hard drive.

I don't know what to buy, I think I just have bad luck with computers. My little brother got a Dell Inspiron 9300 and when he took it out of the box, it wouldn't turn on, it ended up being a bad motherboard.

My other brother has a Dell Desktop and after a month the main fan broke and Dell came to the house to fix it.

I had an iMac, my college roommate fried it by using a microwave and hair dryer at the same time.

Maybe I am better off with paper and a pencil.

[tobias]

I've had five dell laptops since 1998. My problems only increased with each new computer (yes, there was a good reason I stuck with the company as long as I did), so recently I bought a thinkpad and am quite happy with it so far. My first couple of Dells were great, the customer service was solid, but the last three, I consistently had problems with them and found working with their technicians extremely frustrating. With the last computer, I had three motherboards replaced in a row, in under a month. Dell insisted it was just "bad luck". Just an anecdote, but it seems to me that the quality of their product has slipped in recent years.

[dun]

Dude, my Dell sucks, I want to get a different computer.