Dell Build Quality & Reliability Discussion

I would welcome views on Dells current build quality and reliability. I have owned two Dell laptops over the last six years and am currently considering buying the following as a potential replacement for the oldest one.

Dell Studio 1558
Intel Core i5-430M 2.26GHz Windows 7 Home Premium 15.6in High Definition (1366x768) WLED 4096MB 500GB 1GB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 5470 8x DVD+/-RW

Looking at the various threads on this forum appears that Dell had some serious build quality, heat and noise issues with the new Intel i7 core machines that possibly extend to the i5 cores aswell. These comments were largely posted between January to April. I recognise that forums typically attract negative comments as happy customers tend to be more silent than unhappy ones however would welcome views from both particulary if you have recently purchased a Dell Studio 1558 with the same specification as above.

 

I'm typing on a Studio 1558 but it doesn't have the same specs as your potential replacement.

Mine is i3-350M, 1080P, 4gb, ATI 5470 1GB

I can tell you that the screen on my laptop is fantastic. I love the 1080P resolution (although fonts are too small sometimes and I find the need to zoom in..). It's very crisp and the colors are vibrant. Running games on a 1080P screen is very taxing for the video card, and when you run the game on a monitor's non-native resolution, it becomes blurry.
The keyboard and trackpad are both excellent. Not much flex in the keyboard at all, and is very responsive.
I didn't notice any heat or noise issues, but that's probably because I'm running an i3 processor.
I also like the speakers they use in these laptops. Very decent quality for a laptop!

What bothers me is the cheap plastic-feel of the chassis. When you place it on an ever-so-slightly uneven top, and you press on the palm rest, it creaks very loudly (esp the left side). Everything feels very flexible and wobbly, even the screen. This is me coming from my asus w3j laptop which was built like a tank, so I might be a bit biased.

If I were to buy again, I'd purchase another laptop unless I knew for sure this laptop was going to stay on my desk 90% of the time. This should really be a desktop-replacement, since I don't think the build quality would withstand daily travel.

 

Thanks seanguynj. Given the thousands of contributors on this page I am surprised there are not more responses.

Happy to hear quality and reliability experiences from other Studio 15 owners be they good or bad.

 

Here's my personal experience with Dell build quality and reliability:

Ten year old Inspiron 5000: Good build quality, although it has developed a small crack in one of the display hinges (not critical, will probably hang together for another ten years). Never missed a beat, still going strong. Slow by todays standards, of course, but was a daily workhorse for many years.

Three and a half year old Latitude D820: Good build quality except for volume buttons which were badly made (seems fine after replacement). No reliability issues. My daily workhorse for software development. Very confidence inspiring.

New Studio 1749: Slightly flimsy/plasticcy feeling, speaker cover fell off (badly glued, pressed back on, will glue properly later). Too early to know about reliability. Silly fan control bugs detracts from enjoyment. Otherwise a lot of laptop for the money.

The Inspiron and Latitude, being from the 'professional' lines are quite a bit more solidly built than the cheaper Studio and have non-glare screens. The studio full HD screen is nice but have reflections that makes use in sunlight difficult.

I do not carry my laptops around that often, they are mostly stationary, but all of them gets to travel now and then. The various Latitudes of my colleagues seem to tackle daily transport or moving around very well.

--

 

The 10-year old Inspiron is roughly equivalent to a Studio XPS now. Inspiron used to be the top tier of Dell's laptops, now it's the bottom of the consumer tier. The changeover probably happened roughly 2-3 years ago. Even so, the old Inspirons were better built than any of the present Studio or Inspiron series (I don't understand the appeal of soft shiny plastics that get fingerprinted all over). I liked the solid feel of my E1505 much more than the Studio 1558 I've got now, though I can't complain (free CompleteCare replacement! whee!!!)

Latitudes are like Thinkpads, still professional grade, unremarkable looks and durable as hell. Vostro's on the cheap side (used to have somewhat interchangeable parts with the old Inspirons), and Precisions are ridiculously overpowered and need better cooling. Business-class laptops are built to endure daily carry and infrequent maintenance. When a business class laptop rolls in for IT service, it's usually crapped to hell but easily fixed.

Generally, the only real heat problems are with the i7s and/or discrete graphics. Otherwise, heat isn't much of an issue. This is true regardless of whether you're looking at Dell, Lenovo, MSI, Apple, etc.

Noise-wise, the issues vary by model. A bad BIOS can cause the fan to spin like crazy. If you don't have discrete graphics, the fan won't spin up much at all. My pet peeve is noisy keyboards, not noisy fans.

 

Thanks for the responses so far. I after six years of good service I have decided to replace my inspiron 8600 and go with the studio 15. Will be interesting to see whether this matches the reliability and quality of my old laptop - JabbaHut

 

I received my 1749 yesterday.

Core i5-430M, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB 7200 rpm HDD, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 1 GB dedicated memory, 1080p B+RG LED backlit display and a backlit keyboard with a multi-touch trackpad for zooming and whatnot.

It feels very solid. The lid has a glossy finish which attracts fingerprints, but that's not a big deal for me since I'm anal about keeping things clean. I kinda enjoy having to wipe it down when it smudges haha.

The display is beautiful. It's better than I was expecting and that's saying something. It's glossy, but I haven't found glare to be a problem yet. I'm sure it might happen eventually but, again, not a big deal. The sound is great on the JBL system that comes with it. The subwoofer makes all the difference.

I don't know if the build quality on the Studio is better than on others, but I'm very pleased with this laptop. It feels solid and sturdy and I haven't been able to bog it down yet. Although, the most intense I've got on it so far is GTA IV. I'm not much of a gamer. One day I will upgrade to the BluRay drive.

 

Well, I dropped it from about 60cm inside a laptop case and now it sometimes refuses to turn on, has a lot of gaps on the lid and the lid doesn't close well...
Not that I didn't expect the spanish inquisition it to break easily because it feels cheap and very flexible. There are a lot of places it creaks when pressed, mainly next to the optical drive.

It has a very good screen (the full HD one) and speakers though.

²

Sorry for my bad english, but I think you got the idea

 

Thanks Lexington. Have you expeienced any issues with excessive fan activity or noise as per some of the other posts in this forum on your i558?

 

Well, I got a 1749, but when I replied to this thread I thought it was geared more toward general Dell build quality. I offered my experience just in case someone was considering something like what I got.

But, there have been complaints about fan noise with the 1749, too, and I have no problems with this. In fact, the fan on my Belkin cooling pad drowns out any noise the Dell might produce. Either way, the fan noise never catches my attention at all. Then again, there are some people who are VERY picky about this. I have been sleeping with this thing on my night stand with the cooling pad running and I have no problems getting to sleep at all. It's simply not loud or annoying enough to be concerned with.

 

The Latitudes are built like tanks, I still have my old d610, used by my sister now, and its still works without a glitch...

The 1520 is also quite sturdy, but the palmrest has some discolouring and there have been some problems with it. 1st the DVD drive failed, than the AC-Adapter started to behave strange. Its not a bad machine, and the build quality is ok.

 

Lexington - For me poor fan control as reported against some of the new i7 and i5 studios could be a sign of diminishing quality control from Dell. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

My new studio is due to arrive at the weekend. I'll update this thread with any quality and reliability feedback I have on my new machine after a couple of weeks.

 

It certainly seems from forums and from earlier reviews that DELL didn't do a good enough initial R&D job for the Studio for new quad-core platform. Early i-7 17"'s (and possibly 15's and XPS 16's) had problems with; overheating, throttling, cooking adapters, dying and just beeping at you, blu-ray drives wouldn't work (that was the rumour for the blu-ray optical drive being withdrawn from the configurator across the board for about 2 months). Notebookcheck marked the 17 down severely in their review for throttling/overheating.

Even now DELL are still shipping the 17 with what many say is an inadequate 90W adapter. They released a BIOS update that was supposed to cure throttling issues and/or enable use of a 130W adapter which you can apparently get from them as a free upgrade if you bug their support enough (but why should you have to?). This smacks of a band-aid solution and using customers for final testing, rather than proper engineering (I'm an engineer btw)

Having said all that, I've been a proud owner of the Studio 17 for the last month. I got it principally because DELL are almost unique in offering a truly high quality FHD screen option in a consumer 17" form-factor (that isn't a gamer's rig). And also because DELL sorted out some of the initial isssues (e.g. dying and just beeping at you and blu-ray drive support) and a few posters on here (notably electrosoft) calmed my fears about the over-heating issue.

So, a month in and I'm mostly impressed. I was disappointed to get a 90W adapter though, and even using the machine lightly it gets mighty hot. I haven't yet been bothered enough to spend a few hours bugging support for this though.

Externally, the build quality is generally solid and tight. In a couple of areas it's a bit shoddy - the front of the top palm-rest area below the track-pad isn't properly attached to the base and there's a burr which I catch sometimes when opening the lid. Also the screen surround in the top middle around the web cam (again where you hold it when opening) flexes alarmingly and sometimes clicks. The keyboard is very nice (I have the backlit option which is sweet), no loose keys or rattles. Mostly it has the quality feel of the premium machine it is purported to be.

Function-wise it's been exemplary other than it refused to shut down a couple of times, but that could just be a Win7 thing. I've yet to really stress it with anything demanding, but performance so far has been generally faultless.

DELL's after sales support also bears on the discussion. I had a few problems when I installed a video driver update from DELL's support site that seems to be incorrect (and it's still up there) so now I don't trust that fully. That had me sweating for a bit - I had to uninstall it and install an update from the GPU manufacturer (ATI) to get it working properly again.

Overall a qualified thumb's up.

 

jabbahut - I have not experienced anything out of the ordinary with the fan. I don't think it's a lack of quality control. I think that if there is a strange fan behavior / noise, it's probably because there's a lot of hardware in this machine and the fan needs to keep everything cool in a very confined space.

I'm using a Belkin cooling pad and I have not once heard the Studio 17 fan over the fan in the cooling pad. And the cooling pad is whisper silent. You have to listen for it to notice it's on.

Being that I've been playing games on it and multi-tasking my off as a web / graphic designer, I would expect that if the fan was going to get loud, I would have heard it already.

As Coruja said, it definitely feels like a quality machine. However, I haven't had any problems with my power supply getting hot. It gets warm, certainly, but not hot. No warmer than any other power supply I've had experience with. The reports I've heard about this 90W power supply have said it gets too hot to touch. Mine has not.

I haven't had any problems with the machine at all in performance or build quality.

 

Good points Lexington - I guess adapter heat is subjective to some extent (unless you actually put a thermometer on it). Mine gets hotter than any other laptop adapter I've experienced, esp since I've to yet to really task the machine (e.g. with gaming) but it's not literally burning hot, yet.

Time will tell on the reliability front...

 

Funny, my 1520's AC adaptor became persnickety after awhile, too. Can't say it's necessarily Dell's fault as it happened after I unplugged the wall-to-adaptor part from the adaptor-to-computer part for smaller-space storage. Important thing is it does still work, even if I have to adjust it a bit to get it to start again after replugging it in.

The palmrest discoloring also is a slight issue. But that's liable to be a problem on anything that is painted and you have your hands on a lot. Now I know to get black laptops in the future.

Overall though I've been quite satisfied with my 1520 from a build-quality perspective. It feels like a tank - no flex at all, on the palmrest, keyboard, or back of the screen. The magnesium alloy chassis is noticeable, both in build quality and weight. It can be picked up from a back corner or both front corners without flex or bending - I don't pick it up by one front corner so as not to tempt fate (and it is heavy). The hinges also function as one would hope - no burrs, flaking of the plastics, or anything of that sort. During the school year I carry it around in a backpack right up again (paper) notebooks, textbooks, folders, occasionally an IBM tablet PC (also quite durable - but that's vintage 2005, designed by IBM) - never had any damage from it, even with a heavy load of books. There's no way I'd try that with an Acer.

Reliability-wise, nothing's ever stopped working. My nVIDIA video card glitches out occasionally, but that's a problem with all mobile nVIDIA cards from that era, across all laptop vendors. The laptop can handle running hot (90's Celsius) for hours, and will if you don't dust the insides for a couple years. Dell support claims the video card problems are software - they'll try to weasel their way out of fixing the system if it is still usable. I actually like the system enough that I'd as soon keep this system with the occasional quirk than get a newer one.

I agree with Coruja on the screen - I have been extremely happy with the screen I got on my Inspiron. It's the standard resolution, but the crispness of it is exceptional. This is unusual as it is a matté screen, which often suffer from "screen-door effect", but also gives less glare and eyestrain. The only comparable screen quality I've seen in the store recently is on the VAIO Z-series - a very expensive executive-style notebook. The screen is better than current Lenovo T400/T500 screens.

It also may be worth mentioning that my battery actually still has some charge after 35 months, with above average (likely) use and no special care. Granted, it's 38% of the designed charge, but that's a lot better than what many 3-year-old laptop batteries give.

Quality wise I would estimate the Studios and current Inspirons as below the 1520, the Latitude probably comparable, and the Precision better. I'd definitely consider Dell again, but if I were buying a laptop for grad school and planning to carry it around like I currently do, I'd buy a Latitude or Precision amongst the new models.

 

You should consider using their online support tool - I contacted them via this to report a HD that was reporting SMART errors, and they offered to send me one directly!

 

Keep in mind that Dell does not built their own notebook computers...........most of the computer companies dont. There are 2 or 3 major notebook manufacturers that supply to the computer companies with whatever specs they request. Companies like Dell just put their name on it.

Over the years the price to buy a notebook computer has dropped for consumers but it has come with the cost of lower quality and cutting corners.
The older ones were built a lot better.

 

Good point 'jet'. My packaging had lots of 'Made in China' stickers all over it! Also it seems some issues with the Dell Studio range are not due to poor engineering, but to poor construction. E.g. 'electrosofts' found the GPU/CPU thermal paste application in his Studio 1747 was very poor leading to the overheating.

The only gripes on my 1747 are a couple of areas of shoddy construction/parts manufacture. But when you compare it to what you could get for $1400 just a year or two ago it's spec/performance are mind-blowing!

 

Thanks to all for your responses to date regarding build quality and reliability. I received my studio 1558 last week and am pleased to advise I have no issues to report however appreciate that it is early days in the lifespan of my laptop.

I am very happy with the quality of the screen image (a big improvement on my last laptiop). I did notice some comments on this site regarding screen flexing with the potential risk of damaging the screen. Whilst my screen does has a degree of flex I tend to be pretty careful with my machines when opening and closing so don't think this will be a problem. I also notice that my new laptop is considerably lighter than my old Dell Inspiron 8600 (which is 5 years old) however suggest that this is to be expected given advancements in technology.

- JabbaHut

 

Glad you're liking your new baby 'JabbaHut' Like you say, it's early days and time will tell re reliability. So far so good. Like you I was pleasantly surprised at how light my 17" beast was. Not much heavier than my old 15.4" HP DV6 and WAYYYYYY more powerful. Progress indeed.

 

Hi All, It has been three months since I received my new studio 1558 and am pleased to say that I have no quality or reliability concerns to raise. I suspect that it is more common for forums to report problems however just thought I would drop you all an update. I would be interested in hearing any other experiences (good or bad) on the reliability front from other Dell laptop customers??? JabbaHut

 

Alright, I'm in the mood for a campfire. I recently purchased a DELL SXPS 1645. DELL scheduled it to be delivered 30 days after the order, but it only took 17 by my count-- which is really fast, I think. They seem to be overcompensating for possible setbacks and supply shortages, which is OK I guess. A little dishonest though.

When it arrived, I removed it from the box and squealed. It's a very pretty machine. A lot bigger than I expected for a 16-inch notebook though; I can't just buy a random 16-inch bag and have it fit, and that's making the search for a bag that isn't huge and unwieldy a pain.

Straight out of the box, it throttled (the battery latches also wouldn't stick, but that's secondary). I called DELL up and since I was within the trial period, they agreed to send me a brand-new one without preamble. Hot dog. That's the one thing I recommend you do: test your system thoroughly as soon as you get it! DELL is a lot more lenient if you complain then, and will automatically assume the notebook's DOA and react accordingly.

This second one was amazing. It had far fewer build defects than the first-- things like, the palm rest assembly not flush against the chassis, or the hinge caps not set in properly. None of these things were an issue anymore. They weren't the first time, to be sure. But now they don't even exist. And best yet, it doesn't throttle. So... that's good.

Build-quality wise this is a pretty solidly built notebook. The keyboard doesn't flex unless you force it down, the chassis is rock-solid, and the screen flexes less than other notebook screens of the same size.

And yes, the screen is beautiful, after calibration. I believe the Studio 15 uses the same screen as the SXPS 16. In which case, I strongly recommend this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...color-profile-xps-1640-5-7-wled-monitors.html

 

I have a Studio 1555. Basically same body. Considerably bad build quality.