Dell/Lenovo Laptops

[ajg]

I'm currently gathering quotes for a fair few staff laptops (new), I have quotes for HP and Toshiba from my usual contact but would like a quote for Dell and possibly Lenovo as well. Having done this job for quite a few years I probably should know the answer to this but do Dell only sell direct or do people go through a re-seller for new Dell kit? Any recommendations?

[VeryPC]

Good Morning @ajg!

 

A lot of EduGeekers go through ourselves! We've got a whole dedicated web page to Tier 1 devices and we sell a lot of Lenovo and Dell laptops - all with a VeryPC twist too. Check it out here.

 

In the meantime, I'm going to get one of our awesome sales champions to drop you a PM this morning and we'll go from there to get you sorted!

 

- Ryan

[StoneGroup_JackW]

Good Morning @ajg

 

I have sent you over a PM this morning. We carry a large number of Lenovo units in stock, and we are also a Lenovo approved repair centre I look forward to hearing from you! Have a good day

 

Jack

[HTCPCP]

You can go either way, I tend to try both Direct and use a third party reseller, and sometimes one gets better pricing than the other. I've had some great pricing for laptops directly through Dell, and sometimes that pricing is way off, and a third party reseller has given amazing pricing. Both go through different teams at Dell, so pricing can vary.

[Squelch]

You can go either way, I tend to try both Direct and use a third party reseller, and sometimes one gets better pricing than the other. I've had some great pricing for laptops directly through Dell, and sometimes that pricing is way off, and a third party reseller has given amazing pricing. Both go through different teams at Dell, so pricing can vary.

 

Agree with this totally, it's always best to try both.

[mrwoberts]

Any recommendations?

Avoid Lenovo! Speaking from experience with different gen lenovo devices. I've had so many hardware faults with these that I wouldn't even recommend them to someone I didn't like. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

 

Acer let me down big time. We buy next business day warranties with them and they basically failed to honour it. Customer Support is just awful.

 

Dell have always been rock solid for me. Excellent support, they've even honoured a warranty after it had expired. Very easy to fix/upgrade, business class range often have removable inspection panels. My first choice now. We always buy 3-year NBD warranties for staff laptops.

 

HP, whilst not my first choice, have also been fairly good - just annoying to self-service and I end up having to remove the majority of casing to fix/upgrade.

 

Toshiba, Fujitsu - mixed experience with these, but on the whole okay.

 

I so wish Samsung were still making laptops, I've got laptops that are nearly 10 years old and still going strong.

[fredbayker]

Avoid Lenovo! Speaking from experience with different gen lenovo devices. I've had so many hardware faults with these that I wouldn't even recommend them to someone I didn't like. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

 

Acer let me down big time. We buy next business day warranties with them and they basically failed to honour it. Customer Support is just awful.

 

Dell have always been rock solid for me. Excellent support, they've even honoured a warranty after it had expired. Very easy to fix/upgrade, business class range often have removable inspection panels. My first choice now. We always buy 3-year NBD warranties for staff laptops.

 

HP, whilst not my first choice, have also been fairly good - just annoying to self-service and I end up having to remove the majority of casing to fix/upgrade.

 

Toshiba, Fujitsu - mixed experience with these, but on the whole okay.

 

I so wish Samsung were still making laptops, I've got laptops that are nearly 10 years old and still going strong.

 

+1 my sentiments pretty much word for word. Good job!!

[Harrt67]

Dall laptop and Hp laptop are good.

[witch]

Avoid Lenovo! Speaking from experience with different gen lenovo devices. I've had so many hardware faults with these that I wouldn't even recommend them to someone I didn't like. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

 

 

Absolutely disagree with this. I have been buying refurbed Lenovos from ICT direct for both work and home for years - and have NEVER had any issues with them. Solid, dependable kit IMHO

[paulkerton]

Avoid Lenovo! Speaking from experience with different gen lenovo devices. I've had so many hardware faults with these that I wouldn't even recommend them to someone I didn't like. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

Dell have always been rock solid for me. Excellent support, they've even honoured a warranty after it had expired. Very easy to fix/upgrade, business class range often have removable inspection panels. My first choice now. We always buy 3-year NBD warranties for staff laptops.

 

I've always experienced the exact opposite. Lenovo have always been rock solid and dependable for me, whereas Dell have had so many hardware faults and issues I have spent 10 years actively avoiding quoting for them.

Just shows how the experience really does alter from person-to-person!

[DGardiner]

ive never had issues with either, my only complain its the amount of lenovo "boatware" that comes on them i just wish the laptops would come clean!

[JATSO]

Sometimes were just unlucky when it comes to picking a type of laptop had my ups and downs with all makes over the last 20years Dell, HP, Lenovo and even some education specialists, its like buying a car you get good ones and bad ones. Still running a couple of RM CL51's just for some stuff, been solid since the day we got it.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

lenovo "boatware" that comes on them i just wish the laptops would come clean!

 

Ditto to that one but they get wiped anyway.

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Don't avoid Lenovo on principle, just buy from their proper business class range. Thinkpad T-series & X-series laptops are some of the best-built, most reliable laptops around.

 

My experience with business kit from the big 3 manufactures would put Dell Ahead of Lenovo and both ahead of HP. Though not by a lot.

 

Providing you're getting kit from the higher tier ranges you should be fine.

 

Elitebooks > Probooks

Latitude 7xxx/5xxx > Latitude 3xxx/vostro/inspiron etc

Thinkpad T/X-series > Ideapad B/V series etc

 

[TwistedHelixis]

Avoid Lenovo! Speaking from experience with different gen lenovo devices. I've had so many hardware faults with these that I wouldn't even recommend them to someone I didn't like. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

 

Acer let me down big time. We buy next business day warranties with them and they basically failed to honour it. Customer Support is just awful.

 

Dell have always been rock solid for me. Excellent support, they've even honoured a warranty after it had expired. Very easy to fix/upgrade, business class range often have removable inspection panels. My first choice now. We always buy 3-year NBD warranties for staff laptops.

 

HP, whilst not my first choice, have also been fairly good - just annoying to self-service and I end up having to remove the majority of casing to fix/upgrade.

 

Toshiba, Fujitsu - mixed experience with these, but on the whole okay.

 

I so wish Samsung were still making laptops, I've got laptops that are nearly 10 years old and still going strong.

 

This.

I also find the mouse pads really annoying on Lenovo.

 

With Dell also look at the Vostro laptops, I got some recently that were £200 cheaper each than the Latitude equivalent, also had 10 gen cpu vs 8, upgraded battery and it had 4 years warranty.

 

Also wish Samsung were doing the same kit as before:-(. All our school Samsung laptops are really old and still in good working order. I purchased a Samsung ultrabook for myself, one of the first touch screens, think it was 2012 and I am still using it as my main laptop, runs VMs and everything very fast still. Only paid £650 for it, so well worth the money.

Edited June 16, 2020 by TwistedHelixis

[mrwoberts]

Don't avoid Lenovo on principle, just buy from their proper business class range. Thinkpad T-series & X-series laptops are some of the best-built, most reliable laptops around.

 

My experience with business kit from the big 3 manufactures would put Dell Ahead of Lenovo and both ahead of HP. Though not by a lot.

 

Providing you're getting kit from the higher tier ranges you should be fine.

 

Elitebooks > Probooks

Latitude 7xxx/5xxx > Latitude 3xxx/vostro/inspiron etc

Thinkpad T/X-series > Ideapad B/V series etc

 

 

Fair point, it has been pretty much the B/V series of Lenovo I've come to loath. Saying that though, the Thinkpad prices are a bit higher than a similar spec Dell, and I'm definitely not a fan of the Thinkpad mouse layout. But fair point, business class range will generally yield happier results.

 

Anyone have experience with Lenovo customer service?? I'd say that would be quite an important factor to consider also.

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Anyone have experience with Lenovo customer service?? I'd say that would be quite an important factor to consider also.

 

On the occasions I've had to use any remaining warranty that came with any devices we purchased for stock I've found that HP and Lenovo were perfectly serviceable and easy to use.

I can't comment on Dell's service as their warranty followed the original customer and not the device sold.

[VexRed]

I must agree that the Business class Lenovo devices are some of the most reliable, robust and performant machines I have used, I'd take a refurb Lenovo over many brands mint-in-box. IMHO they're second only to Dell for reliability.

 

Their 'domestic' grade products aren't nearly as good, but if you're buying for a business environment, never buy consumer grade. Judging a consumer grade product for their commercial application is like judging the performance of a new Unleaded Petrol by trying it in your Diesel engine - it looks the same, it serves the same function, but it is not designed for it's intended purpose and won't work. (Disclaimer, I know that isn't quite true for Diesel engines using Petrol...)

 

I've bought from ICT Direct in the past, happy with the product and service.

[LewRichAIM]

Hi, we recently purchased 60 Dell 5450's from Medhurst, they are a reseller for circular computing. Very pleased with them, i5, 8gb ram and 240gb SSD with a 3 year return to base warranty, around £360 each. The only thing they don't come with is new batteries, so I would recommend keeping some in reserve. Lewis

[ajg]

Hi, thanks for the input everyone. Just to update we went with the HP ProBook 440 G7 in the end as although a bit more expensive we felt it was the best quality for the money. Here's hoping that proves to be the case!

[Darnoc]

Hi, we recently purchased 60 Dell 5450's from Medhurst, they are a reseller for circular computing. Very pleased with them, i5, 8gb ram and 240gb SSD with a 3 year return to base warranty, around £360 each. The only thing they don't come with is new batteries, so I would recommend keeping some in reserve. Lewis

 

Its been a couple of years since your post, what was your experience been like with those Dell lappy's from circular computing?

[synaesthesia]

Its been a couple of years since your post, what was your experience been like with those Dell lappy's from circular computing?

 

If it's any help, literally 90% of our Circular Computing Dell's of similar age went Spicy Pillow. They used an EXTREMELY poor battery supplier for the refurbs supplied - the 10% were the few that still had original batteries in. Same for the HP's we had (840 G3's I think) which were 100% spicy pillowed.