ASUS G1Sn vs. Dell XPS1530

Hello,

I just received my Dell XPS1530 with a 2.6GHz Penryn and the 256MB 8600GT and so far am not very happy with the laptop and the crappy XPS support I have received.

The laptop has a bulge in the keyboard, there is a bulge in the screen frame where the camera is, there is a gap at the top of the screen between the screen and the lid and one of the USB ports is extremely tight and I have to use a lot of force to plug in a USB device into it.

I have called several times and the technicians suck and I keep getting bounced around their call system and I am fed up. I am within my 21 days so I currently have Dell building me a replacement laptop, but I don't know if it is worth it. I can return the XPS with no questions asked and get the G1Sn, but I had a few questions:

1. How is the build quality on the ASUS laptops? The G1Sn doesn't look as nice as the XPS1530, but I am willing to sacrifice looks for a better laptop.

2. How is the 9500 GS with DDR2 compared to the 8600 GT with DDR3? I am playing Crysis currently on the XPS and it runs well, I want to make sure that I will be able to play new games on the G1Sn for a couple of years.

3. How is the ASUS software and bloatware? I found that the Dell software sucked and had to un-install most of it.

4. I have seen a review on the G1Sn, but I am curious to hear what other G1Sn owners have to say about the laptop. Pros and Cons?

I appreciate any help with this as I still have about 10 days to return the XPS and don't want to spend the money on the XPS if the quality and support isn't there and I can get better from another vendor for the same price.

Thanks

 

The Asus G1 series build quality is pretty solid. Youll find that there isnt as much "space between the top of the notebook and the bottom. In other words its more solid. The screens however have been known to be somewhat flemsy but when I say that keep in mind that it is not to a point that would deter someone from buying. Most screens have some flemsiness.

The 9500M GS DDR2 and 8600M GT DDR3 are going to be about the same speed, the 8600M GT DDR3 in the 1530 is known to be a pretty good overclocker. The 9500M is not known be be highly overclockable...at least not as much as the 8600M ddr3.

Asus has been known to not have much bloatware at all. There will be a email utility, norton, and a few other progams (power4phone). I forget what the others are. However, I know for a fact that the asus bloatware is very small and very easy to remove! The dell xps series is also known to have cut down bloatware...but I do not know to what degree.

I have not owned the G1S "N" but have owned one of the others. It used the same frame or case as the "N" though. The build quality is good. I do not know about the speed. Personally I think the 1530 looks VERY nice..even better than the G1s in person.

You have a 2.6ghz cpu AND a 8600 GDDR3 in the xps....its kinda hard to argue against that....as far as support...well its hit or miss with any company...btw if you are concerned bout ram...i dont think it will be an issue as long as you have at least 2gb which im sure you will.

 

the other asus bloatware is adobe reader!

 

Also, theres a G1S wiki that you can use to reinstall windows and install only the necessary drivers rather than all the crap thats added. Now after using this, some of your fn keys wont work (like volume) and you wont always get the graphical display that normally comes up, but there is a decrease in resource usage. I personally have the G1S and overall i like pretty much everything about it except that it seems that case makes light scratches on it and it attracts fingerprints like flies to ****.

As far as gaming, the gddr3 8600 is a bit better than the 9500 from what ive read, however both will give you very similar performance regardless. As far as gaming for few years, that will depend on what kind of games you play; if you play fps with high settings, then neither will last too much longer. But if you play with med settings and wxga resolution, they should last for a couple.

 

I bought my first dell, an xps 1530 at that, on 29th of March. Do I still have it? NO. It went back to Tennessee a few days ago. I was very excited to get this xps that every major reviewers s.a. cnet, pcmag, NBR.. hail as one of the great 15.4 inches to come on board and a decent gaming rig. When I got it, it was awesome due to all the cool stuff that they give you, like the xps sleeve, earbud headphones from Creative,a leather portfolio for CDs,a remote control, and the XPS itself. It looks good, it feels really good, and I was expecting a lot. When I turned it on, I knew there was a problem with the LCD. Prior to that day, i did not know about xps's high resolution screens having this grain issues(samsung..). So I dindn't have any bias, but I knew that this screen wasn't a good one. So that's when i found out on NBR and other places about samsung panels being defecitve. Another problem was that there was a loud "hum" in the headphone jack noticeable when you use headphones. It's actually pretty loud. Also whenever i click on a link or double click, there's this annoying glitchy sharp noise. Also when I press eject button for slot loadingDVD drive, the music or movie will freezzzzzzzz until the drive spits out the CD/DVD. I did have a problem with tight USB port, a small gaps in places especially where the touch sensitive media buttons meet the screen connecting material. But those weren't severe problems.

The Dell Tech support/customer service... where do I begin. I must say that they do realize that they have serious problem with their screens. And you can't really get mad at their first level tech support (the guys who anwer the phone) for not doing what you want them to do because i'm sure some of the customer's have been very unreasonable in their request in the past, and that's just how corporate america is ran: to maximize profit. But when you ask for their supervisor, the supervisor readily admits that they have been getting a lot of calls due to defective screens. But they are very willing to take returns w/o restocking fee or exchange with a replacement. I asked them for the LG panel, but they said they were all out. (may be a lie..)Anyway, so I had them shipped back. And Yes, you do get bounced around from department to department, but that's just how big comanies are these days; plethora of departments with very narrow specialization and lacking deaprtment to department updates/cooperations. As long as YOU are being reasonable and talk (not yell) at them, they will let you return/exchange and facilitate your request UNLESS YOU ARE REQUESTING AN LG PANEL!! But yeah.... you ask why do we have to be reasonable when we dish out like 2G and get something not perfect? well I used to think that too.. and i think I still do to some extent. But I ask myself if I am perfect.. and yeah i'm definitely not. So i don't really expect perfection even it's very valuable /expensive gadget. (I had a bad luck with my car too). In this DEll case with defective screens, however, they really screwed it up.. they need to get this fixed up and make public apologies haha

As for G1Sn.. I do not know much because I never owned it. But from many reviews that you are able to find in this NBR Asus section, they seem to really like it except for the heating issue. The previous gen G1S seemed to have that problem, and according to GenTech's Ken Lee's review of G1Sn, it still does get WARM not HOT.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=236856

and this is a video review by Eddie from bto tech

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=239611

I ordered my Asus M50SV-B1 with blue ray from Ken (gentech) last week, and I'm supposed to get mine on wednesday. But after I placed the order, I came across the G1Sn-A1. It's alwasy that I get tunnel vision when I like something, as it was with XPS, and now with M50Sv, I don't see other options. But after placing the order, I was suddenly intrigued by the G1Sn-A1. It's affordable, at only 100 dollars more than M50SV-b1, and i personally think G1 is better looking. I know they have crappy laptop speakers, but come on, who in right mind use laptop speakers only? But I hate dealing with driver issues and compatibility issues that I might get with Vista 64bit as it is in G1Sn. And I don't want to pay for XP, and install all the right drivers... So i"m overall happy witht eh choice I made. I will post someting regarding the new laptop soon, but I just had to say that I agree with your disliking of XPS.

 

1. Build quality is ok (not my own experience, just reading about it). Be aware that G1 is a bit bulkier and heavier than other 15.4 inchers.
3. Bloatware not difficult to remove; my Vista guide for instance gives an overview of what should probably be removed. It's also possible to use the recovery disks to install a clean Windows.

As to the XPS comments... I'm aware that some people will get bad systems, and many of them will complain. In contrast to satisfied customers, usually they don't post back... but still, these are not the first bad comments I see about the XPS series (things like poorly put together machines worry me the most). So I'm glad I gave up the XPS 1330 idea.

 

Thanks for the reply volkl.

When I decided to spend $2000 + tax on the Dell I expected damn near perfect and I expected the "Great XPS Support", but I was sadly mistaken and am having my doubt with Dell again.

I previously bought a jazzed up Inspiron a couple of years back, but sold it after a couple of months because I found flaws and I just wasn't happy with it and I thought the XPS would be different.

I have a few days to decide, but I think once I set my sights on a good replacement I am going to ship my XPS back to Dell.

Thanks.

 

Well as an asus g2s owner, i would tell you this, Ive had this since the begginging of december and the keyboard still looks flawless all the paint looks flawless, the only real sign of wear i have seen so far is on the stickers. ive been having some trouble with my oled and lights, but after much looking its a fairly isolated case.

When i was shopping for laptops i had looked at the dells, and i must admit in my opinion the asus much cleaner and well built machine(like business style with serious attitude). Also apparently asus parts if need be are fairly cheap to replace if i can recall from other posts correctly.

I run dells at work as well, we break them constintly. They just feel cheap.

Now if only gigabyte made laptops I might be all over that