Dell inspiron 15r a good buy?

[frnd08]

I'm getting myself a dell inspiron 15r, has Intel core i5 2nd Gen, 4gb ddr3 ram, nvidia 525m, 500gb hard drive, and all the usual bells and jingles. Costing me around 40k. Any ideas? Any suggestions, from users of this series?

 

[Kittu]

See if you can go for a SONY Viao with bluray combo from the states. If not 15r is cool, I got one thru employee discount from a friend.

 

[frnd08]

See if you can go for a SONY Viao with bluray combo from the states. If not 15r is cool, I got one thru employee discount from a friend.

warranty will be an issue mate if i get one from the US.

also, 15r has blu ray playing capabilities right? the specs page tells me so.

 

[golu95]

See if you can go for a SONY Viao with bluray combo from the states. If not 15r is cool, I got one thru employee discount from a friend.

hi can u provide me also a dell discount...u can keep some commission for urself..

 

[saikatbiswas82]

I'm getting myself a dell inspiron 15r, has Intel core i5 2nd Gen, 4gb ddr3 ram, nvidia 525m, 500gb hard drive, and all the usual bells and jingles. Costing me around 40k. Any ideas? Any suggestions, from users of this series?

@frnd08... I always believed Inspiron 15r was a superb laptop until I experienced it. My two flat mates have the same model and the wi-fi connectivity is pathetic in both of them. I don't believe both of them received faulty products.
Looking at this issue, I finally decided to go ahead with ASUS.

My previous laptop was a Sony Vaio. It was excellent. No complaint (apart from a little hdd noise) so far after 3 years of usage.

If budget permits, you can go ahead with Dell XPS instead. Otherwise you can check Sony Vaio/ACER Aspire/Lenovo as well.

 

[Audiodoc]

I have a TOTL dell XPS l502x as my desktop replacement ( core i7, 8gb, 750 gb, bluray, 2gb nvidia graphics, 1080p, almost everything maxed out on the dell customisation except the processor and ssd ). Even with this configuration the wifi is pathetic. It is not a hardware problem likely a software possibly driver one. When I use it alone everything works fine however when my other devices are running (vaio net book, iPads, compaq laptop etc) it gives the xps the least priority.

You may also look at some new vaio laptops in the sub 50k range which have a decent configuration and great ips displays.

 

[theredcommando]

I have N5010 model of Dell Inspiron(core I5 first gen, 4gb ram).
Its an okayish laptop I would say. I got it with 3 years warranty though.

Some of the problems that I realized -
1. Screen is good, but viewing angles are pathetic. This is more or less same in other laptops also, but make sure that you are ok with it.
2. Speakers are located at awkward location(at front side). Sound many times gets blocked because of such design.
3. Web cam is not very good, colors appear strange, and overall lack of details. Vaio has much better webcam.
4. Mic has very very low sensitivity. If you are sitting 3-4 feet back and doing voice chat, other party wont be able to hear you clearly. Mic picks a lot of background noise and there is continuous hum to other party. Vaio has better mic and webcam.
5. It gets pretty hot. In summer season, it would be almost impossible to place it on lap and do something for more than 15min.Vaio remains much cooler compared to this.
6. casing is ok, but bends at some location if more force is applied. It gives somewhat cheap feel.

Other than this there are some other excellent points about Dell-
1. Very good customer care. Parts would be replaced without question and within 2 days max.
2. Good configuration at comparatively low price.
3. Wifi connection was found to be better than Vaio.
4. I like the keyboard and mousepad compared to Vaio.

That said, for my next laptop, I would probably not go with Dell.

 

[haisaikat]

@frnd08, even if you buy from India my request would be to buy the extended wararnty as sometime I have seen if a Dell 15R fails (failed for one cousin of mine living in Delhi, due to earthing issue) then they might charge almost half of the laptop price as replacement of motherboard (if required). Better stay safe with 5 - 6K extended warranty. I have a Vaio EH series which is Core i3 / 2GB for 30 K purchased a year back and trust me that is very good.

 

[Rockfella]

Look into their lattitude series if you're willing to compromise on fancy bells & whistles. Those are build to last but are costlier.

 

[soulforged]

I recently experienced Dell's customer support when I decided to get my 4 year old Inspiron 1525 fixed. It had a broken hinge and the pressure had broken part of the bezer and hinge cover. My experience, simply put, was incredible!

The amount of follow up and suggestions that Dell made was unexpected, at least in India. That too for a 4 year old laptop that had no warranty!

I'd say, customer support should be a major consideration and Dell wins that hands down!

 

[nindo]

Frankly, buy anything but Dell. My first lappy was Acer, then Dell, then HP, and now Mac. Worst experience (and lowest ownership and productive time) was with Dell. every one i know and around me has had bad experiences with Dell- their machines. Service I agree is good, but whats the point if you keep needing it again and again.!

Many FMs (including the ones who have posted on this thread) might disagree, but its just my experience.
Next to Mac, I would suggest the Lenovo Thinkpad series..best if you can get your hands on the professional series (the original IBM X series)...next HP and Sony VIAO (according to me both are on par). My other laptop is the HP G6 series with AMD Vision quad core, 1.5 G dedicated graphics (AMD), 15.6" - pretty decent performance. Bought for around 33k a year back.