Android Climbs, But iPhone Remains King > Just as I expected

reply to Matt

Re: Just as I expected

My machine is a Studio XPS 16 so I don't know how much more upscale other XPS machines get. As for Dell support, I did purchase upgraded support from Dell Business for my servers and the support is horrible with long on hold times, endless having to go through hoops of tier 1 support and when they finally send out people they never have the correct parts.

And I couldn't disagree more with Windows vs OS X. I use both daily, both in business and at home and aside from CAD and Games, Windows XP and Vista are horrible...slow in operation, horrible ergonomics and very long boot and shutdown times. And they are unstable even in factory condition. It's a horrible cliche' but for me, OS X has always just worked. Windows 7 is a huge improvement but I don't consider it surpassing Snow Leopard in usability or speed, not anywhere close.

Aside from my Mini 9, I don't buy "cheap" Pee Cees. My Lenovo tablet was nearly $3K, my Studio XPS 1640 nearly $2K and my servers $4K each and none are stellar.

These types of discussions usually go no where. Everyone has their preference. As I mentioned, I use both every day and IMO, Apple's products are simply superior in build quality and operation, their service top notch and thus usually worth the extra money. But what I find is when you compare LIKE products in terms of same hardware AND form factor AND software suite, the price isn't that much different.

I won't argue because again, we have all Dell servers and the support has been stunning. We always purchase Silver or Gold level though. I have sent letters to support agents managers because they were so great. I had a drive fail at 2AM and they had a new drive onsite by 5AM. I couldn't ask for anything better.

And the pure XPS line is much better than the studio XPS line. Studio = budget.

And I agree with your last statement, these disagreements never go anywhere. I actually almost posted two links straight form the stock configuration comparing an XPS M1330 ($899) to the Macbook ($1299) just to illustrate that the only thing the Mac had better was a 9400M vs an 8600M, whereas the Dell had a faster processor, more RAM, and over twice the hard drive because I knew you're parrot out the "when you compare equal spec machines ..." but decided not to.

In my experience Vista requires heftier hardware than OS X so in terms of speed it's like comparing horsepower. If you have a light car you are lightning fast with less horsepower than a really heavy car with a bit more power. It's like comparing processors by strictly GHz and nothing else. But I digress.

As far as Studio XPS, they're certainly priced higher than the XPS-M machines they're replacing and they're Dell's latest DDR3 powered notebooks. What do you consider a "pure" XPS machine? The Studio XPS offers some of the fastest processors, graphics and RAM in their mobile line up. Only their foot thick M17xx offer remotely comparable performance (with SLI graphics) but they're hardly a real portable.

My impression is they added the Studio name as part of the aesthetic redesign (the leather, backlit keyboard, revised trackpad, etc). I think the XPS Ms are going away and Dell will be left with Inspiron, Studio and Studio XPS as their consumer notebook brands.

»www.dell.com/home/laptops#subcat···avla=&a=

reply to Bit

Not "A" Dell, a number of machines over the years including Toshiba, Lenovo, Dell (both workstations and sub $5K servers), HP, Compaq (when they weren't merged), Gateway, Asus...all were nothing to write home about. In my home and small business I have purchased dozens and dozens of servers and clients over the years, currently running about 30 Pee Cees and Macs. Of all of those brands, Toshiba and Lenovo (and IBM before them) were the only "Pee Cees" I would consider "good". The rest were garbage. And my Toshiba and Lenovos cost as much or more than a comparable Macintosh did/do. The only decent high end (or what was high end) Dell machine I have (in terms of reliability) is an Inspiron 9100 with a P4 EE 3.4 and it was nearly $4K new, certainly as much as any Powerbook.

I would agree with you if it were just 1 Dell that is thrown together like ass. But when you have a large percentage coming in (of various brands) with poor assembly quality, then later have hardware and/or software issues like dying power supplies you start to see a pattern. And for me it didn't matter how much I spent as I have the biggest problems with the most expensive machines. Meanwhile my army of G4 Mac Mini clients and eMac running OS X server run day and night without end, not a crash, not a kernel panic, nothin. They only reboot when an update comes down forcing a reboot or the power goes out. I'm sure there are people with Pee Cees with the same luck but I'm not one of 'em. My Dell servers, especially those running 2K3SBS require weekly restarts as they magically start refusing to authenticate clients and Dell support has no answers as to why.

Having a large number of Pee Cees and Macs and having to pay to support them I just see why some people would willingly pony up $1500 for a 24" iMac or MacBook or $2-$3K on a MacBook Pro or Mac Pro. I see them as a good buy even thought I might find a machine with the same processor cheaper elsewhere. To me there is much much more to a machine than what processor and graphics adapter are in it.

There are also a lot of people here that like tinkering with their machines or don't mind doing the necessary tweaks to get them running smoothly. I'm not one of those people any more. It was a great hobby in the early 80's into the 90's but now I just want a machine that I can take out of the box, install my software and have it just do it's job without endless hassle. I have more important things to do. I want to work WITH my machines, not work ON them.