Dell 1545

[Badger]

Looking at this in sales.PC Pro give a fairly damning report and advise giving it a wide berth.Anyone on here have any first hand experience of this model ?

[saint_stevo]

inspiron? Have had a few private repair jobs on em. But nothing too serious. How cheap are we talking?

[thesaint sfc]

I've sold shed loads of them and not had any issues at all. The one thing I do think is very disappointing on them is the connectivity. 3 USB ports, no HDMI or firewire. Very poor in todays standards, but depending on how cheap and whether the connectivity meets your requirements, go for it!

 

The other thing is that around where the touchpad is, its glossy black so it shows all your fingerprints. Sometimes we've had in silver ones, so if possible I'd recommend you buy one of them.

[Son of Bob]

I'd personally give any Dell laptop a wide berth. Go for Toshiba. My last 4 laptops have all been Tosh's and not one has had any sort of issue, despite heavy use. My first one (a 7 year old Pentium III) is still doing sterling service for my Dad and has been 100% reliable.

[saint_stevo]

dell laptops by and large are pretty good in my experience. Guessing s.o.b not had one of the older tosh sat pro's.......chocolate fireguard

[thesaint sfc]

I'd personally give any Dell laptop a wide berth. Go for Toshiba. My last 4 laptops have all been Tosh's and not one has had any sort of issue, despite heavy use. My first one (a 7 year old Pentium III) is still doing sterling service for my Dad and has been 100% reliable.

 

Toshiba laptops do seem to be pretty good, but personally I don't rate them as good as Dell. I've always been a Dell man and then I started working at a Dell reseller and it amazes me how few go wrong considering the amount that we sell. Their support, despite being based in India, is first class and they will bend over backwards to make sure you are happy. They are a much bigger manufacturer of laptops than Toshiba, thus if you were to break a hinge or something like that in years to come on a Dell laptop it would be easily replaced, on a Toshiba you would probably need to import something from the US costing hundreds of pounds. Recently we had a 17" toshiba laptop that was 2 years old and the customer had closed the lid on something. The hinge had snapped and needed to be replaced and Topaz (Toshiba parts specialist) had ceased to stock or manufacturer them. There were also none available in America, so for a £15 hinge, the customer had to replace her entire laptop. As someone who takes laptops to bits quite often, Dell are the easiest to dismantle and put back together. I wouldn't consider any laptop other than a Dell for my personal use. Sometimes pricing on Dell Laptops are very steep so I would have to choose another manufacturer for a friend or something and Toshiba wouldn't be far down on my list. If you have the opportunity to buy a Dell at a good price, go for it! I honestly don't think you will regret it.

[Son of Bob]

dell laptops by and large are pretty good in my experience. Guessing s.o.b not had one of the older tosh sat pro's.......chocolate fireguard

 

Got a 7 year old Tosh Sat Pro still going like a trooper, one 5 year old Sat Pro I use as an *unused* back up for mine that has never let me down, one 2 year old sat Pro that is my current work horse and again, has never let me down. I've been a reseller for Tosh, HP/Compaq, IBM and Dell for 3 years and prior to that worked for a support company that sold and repaired Tosh, HP/Compaq, Dell and IBM. I have probably repaired somewhere in the region of 200-300 laptops in the last 6 or 7 years and have found Toshiba to be the most reliable with by far the lowest percentage of back to base repairs.

 

I think everyone has their personal favourites for one reason or another, much like cars. It all boils down to personal experiences.