Watch$1,117.75 including shipping, handling and sales tax for the following specs...
XPS L702X
Documentation
Service Software
Label
NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M 3GB graphics with Optimus
Service Software
9 Cell Primary Battery
Certified Refurbished
Software
Software
DataSafe Online Backup Software
Service Software
Power Cord
Processor: Intel Core i7 2860QM Processor (2.5GHz, w/Turbo Boost 3.6GHz, 8MB Cache)
17.3 inch HD+ (900p) WLED Display
Elemental Silver Aluminum
Documentation
Shipping Material
6X Blu-ray (BD-RE)
Wave Systems Software
Internal Backlit Keyboard - English
750 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 and Bluetooth 3.0
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Operating System DVD
150W AC Adapter
Software
No Media Selected
Microsoft Office Starter
Software
Sound Blaster X-Fi MB Panzer software version 1.2
Information
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Operating System DVD
Processor Label
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
Label
8 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)
Image Restore Software
Bracket
I ordered it today and it should arrive by this friday. I got this price from Dell outlet refurbished. If I bought this computer "new".... I would be charged $1,800 approximately including tax and shipping.
If I went to Apple for the same spec 17 inch Macbook Pro brand new... They will want to charge me approximately $3,300 including tax and shipping. And that would not even include the blue-ray player, Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 and Bluetooth 3.0, JBL speakers with subwoofer, 3GB video card and some ports.
Dell XPS 17 is also made from Aluminum like the Macbook Pro. (Only a very small portion of the laptop is plastic as to be negligible.)
The only thing missing is Mac operating system which is not better than Windows 7.
Otherwise the XPS is offering more than not just the Mac but many PC laptops from other manufacturers. I've shopped around and the XPS looked to be the best deal of them all. But with this price... It was a deal I just couldn't pass up.
Macs are a rip off. I'm getting the same exact hardware manufacturer under the hood and getting more horsepower from the same manufacturer for a fraction of the price at Dell outlet which has the same warranty as brand new computers with the condition the same as brand new.
So was it a smart buy? Good Deal? Good Price?
PS. I own, use and am currently using a White Macbook for this post.
I am not a Apple fanboy and I am completely willing to ditch their computers for better prices for the same or even better product. Apple fanboys who defy all logic with irrational emotions; need not to post.
Follow
Befriend (5)
1,070 comments
Santa Cruz, CA
No it's windows junk. I'm an Apple fanboy.
You should have shucked out the dough for the 13" Macbook Air.
Mac OS is UNIX, and Windows is Windows. Therein lies one major flaw and one major reason why Mac is so superior.
OR you could have taken an Ultrabook and installed Ubuntu Linux on it.
Now you're going to see a steady inexorable slowing of your equipment, as the spyware worms its way into your system. It's inevitable.
Your laptop also has lots of "crapware" e.g. "Office Starter". Wipe it all off and install Linux at the very least. Wow, it has "genuine premium home Windows"? That sounds so cool I bet Ballmer himself named it. You even got the free Windows sticker! Awesome.
I just noticed "certified refurbished". I get it, you're pulling our legs
Follow
Befriend (8)
204 threads
4,414 comments
Davis, CA
Macbook kicks ass.
I no longer care how many GHz the CPU has or most of that list of specs you posted. I work in a Data Center and I'm sick and F'ing tired of anything Windows. Particularly Exchange which needs to die a slow and painful death.
Follow
Befriend (1)
2 threads
324 comments
Sunnyvale, CA
I don't think you bought the right laptop the right way.
- A 17" laptop is big and heavy to carry around, and at only 900p you can't even fit more text on the screen than with a 14" laptop (15.6" seems to be the size at which you can get 1920x1080p).
- Laptops are disposable. The two ways this works well financially are
1. Buying an inexpensive laptop you don't use portably too much. We paid about $400 for my wife's current computer with a 14" 768p screen, 500G hard drive, 4G of memory, dual core processor. If it goes 3-4 years like the last one that was $100-$150 a year which is fine. If it only lasts 1 year we didn't spend more than we would have for 1 of the 4 years a nice laptop with a service contract and the replacement is likely to be as fast as a nice expensive laptop would have been.
This works well for where you don't need a high resolution screen for doing things like software development (1920x1080 has room for a couple of 80x60 column windows side by side in a legible font) or have software that's time consuming to install.
2. Getting a nice laptop including a service plan with on-site service which easily costs 1/3 - 1/2 of what the computer does. On the last couple I've needed my first mainboard replacement shortly after the factory warranty ran out and several others usually follow because most of the boards used in the replacements have the same mechanical problems that led to solder joint failures plus other things that are about to fail. Some day soon I'll get my second mainboard replacement in the 8 months since the 1-year warranty ran out on my current Dell because the gigabit ehternet port died after the first replacement. That's not too big of a deal because they'll send a technician to my office and he can fix it while I work on my desktop. Having to take it to a service counter would be a big hassle, needing to send it in would have been right out, and although replacement parts are often available I wouldn't want to be forced to deal with the laptop internals origami to keep the machine running.
I would _never_ buy a refurbished laptop without on-site service.
FWIW, my Dell Studio 15 multi-boots the Debian Linux I ship products on (virtual machines don't run fast enough), Fedora which isn't pre-historic, and Windows 7 because I need to run commercial programs like Sketchup and Tax Pro.
Follow
Befriend
1 threads
79 comments
New Lenox, IL
If your machine is going to fail, it will in the first 90 days.
You bought this "new" even though it was reburbished?... ouch...
Hopefully you are happy with your purchase.
personally i would not pay that much for a "refurb"
Follow
Befriend (12)
10 threads
3,516 comments
Oakland, CA
leo707's website
Premium
Robber Baron Elite Scum says
That all depends on what you are going to use it for. Email, word processing, and solitaire? Then you could probably have gotten a much better "deal".
Vicente says
Yeah, I feel the same way these days. Unless you have a special need "average" specs should more than suffice.
Robber Baron Elite Scum says
Yep, this is why I have never bought a Mac.
Follow
Befriend (1)
71 threads
230 comments
Mountain View, CA
Premium
As a developer I use
- Macs for development
- linux for deployment
Like other said, laptops are so cheap and so powerful now, get a mid-range one, and you should be good 2-3 years.
Follow
Befriend (1)
2 threads
324 comments
Sunnyvale, CA
lisalisa says
No. The failure curve is bathtub shaped. Failure rates are relatively high in the beginning, low over the useful life, and then high as things reach the end of their lives which may be as designed or otherwise (problems are discovered with the thermal interface between chips and heat pipes degrading due to the small vibrations and movement that go with transport, disk drives failing due to accumulated heat and vibration, solder joints on chips bonded to heat sinks fail due to fatigue having the weight hanging off them, etc.)
With a new laptop you own it during the start of that flat low-failure rate part of the curve.
With refurbished parts (sold that way or used in warranty repairs) a lot of that portion of the failure rate curve has been used up and problems are a lot more likely.
I got over a year out of the brand new main boards that came with my last two laptops but just months out of the replacements. With the Dell Inspiron 1420 the three mainboard failures (over a year for the first one, just months for the replacements) were all with the interface to the graphics chip most likely in the form of bad solder joints.
Follow
Befriend
10 threads
419 comments
Ask this question again 1 year later
... wait ...
???
... wait ...
half price