A netbook by any other name would be so sweet… okay, so forgive me for the Shakespeare-like references. It's just that so many companies tend to avoid the word "netbook" if they can, probably trying to disassociate from the cheapness the word may imply. Dell has been around the block a few times and it looks like they know what they're doing, so who am I to judge their marketing decisions?
Friends Don't Let Friends Buy Dell
Well, at least that used to be my position on things. I refused to have anything to do with Dell for years because of the familiar "Assembled in Mexico" stamps on their bovine-styled boxes. My attitude has changed because the majority of computers, regardless of the company, are not assembled in the US. In fact, most of the parts aren't even made in the US.
My desktop PC is 100 percent made in China and it works as well as any PC made in the US. Why is that? It's because the PCs in the US contain parts made in China too!
Anyway… a friend of mine (Tim) recently told me he wanted to buy one of the Dell Mini Inspirons, which are just fancy names for netbooks, to replace the full-sized notebook computer that died on him. He still has his desktop PC and he doesn't want to spend a whole lot on another notebook computer. I told him about my new netbook, an MSI Wind, but he still wants a Dell. His desktop PC is a Dell and his old notebook computer was a Dell. I guess some people get stuck on brand names.
Finding the Right Dell
It's bad enough that there are multiple companies touting new "mini" laptops and netbooks. It's even more confusing when each company offers multiple choices and configurations within this category of computers.
I had the netbook page for Dell bookmarked back when I started looking to buy my own netbook and tried to access it. They changed their navigation structure again, so the bookmark just brought up a blank page.
Tim didn't know about all the OTHER "mini" netbooks Dell has to offer and instead of telling him to wade through all their detail pages, I pointed him to laptopreviewscentral.com so he could get information less biased than the company's self-interests. Can you believe he still wants the Inspiron, even though there are better models more suited to his tastes?
I don't like to mention anyone's age unless I feel it's necessary. In this case, I think the only reason Tim is so hard-headed is because he's just shy of being a senior citizen. Oh well, I guess there's nothing I can do about it so I won't bother to pursue it.
Personally, I wouldn't buy a Dell anything and it really has nothing to do with where they're made or how much they cost. The company I used to work for bought nothing but Dell computers and we had nothing but problems with them. I quit that job nearly four years ago and I doubt the quality of their products has improved since then.
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