Dell 1330 Notebook

[bill1960]

I'm looking for prices of Dell notebooks in Pattaya (preferably) or Bangkok.

Are there any authorised agents in Thailand

Are then any regional online retailers for Dell notebooks that would ship to Cambodia

Looking at the 1330 13" notebook but concerned about after sales service

[youngkiwi]

I would not recommend this laptop due to quality issues with the casing. I had a Dell XPS M1210 which is built using the same case material and speaking from experience, after a few months of very light use, the colouring on the casing wore down leaving quite serious cosmetic imperfections. This is apparent in any of the Dell XPS notebooks including the XPS M1330 which you refer to. These Dell laptops also run very hot and I had issues with overheating. The IBM/Lenovo R61 would be a much better alternative quality wise.

[Veazer]

I would not recommend this laptop due to quality issues with the casing. I had a Dell XPS M1210 which is built using the same case material and speaking from experience, after a few months of very light use, the colouring on the casing wore down leaving quite serious cosmetic imperfections. This is apparent in any of the Dell XPS notebooks including the XPS M1330 which you refer to. These Dell laptops also run very hot and I had issues with overheating. The IBM/Lenovo R61 would be a much better alternative quality wise.

I thought the 1210 was almost entirely built from magnesium? I heard rather rave reviews about build quality. Never had my hands on one though...

That said, the painted hand rests on my Dell e1705 wore away in a matter of months, if not weeks, but they were white plastic painted silver. Painting plastic that is in heavy use is just dumb imho.

[youngkiwi]

The rapid wearing away of the painted surfaces on Dell laptops is appalling, and their biggest shortcoming in my view. I managed to convince Dell customer care to replace the entire casing (which they claim was not covered by warranty as it is a cosmetic issue) but they said they did it as a "one-time gesture to restore faith in their company". I only had the computer 10 months and it had very light use. I sold it immediately after the case was replaced. We also had this exact same issue with two other Dell notebooks in Thailand, not to mention multiple overheating issues on two units. I would discourage the OP against purchasing the XPS M1330 he is interested in for these very reasons.

Edited July 16, 2008 by youngkiwi

[bill1960]

The rapid wearing away of the painted surfaces on Dell laptops is appalling, and their biggest shortcoming in my view. I managed to convince Dell customer care to replace the entire casing (which they claim was not covered by warranty as it is a cosmetic issue) but they said they did it as a "one-time gesture to restore faith in their company". I only had the computer 10 months and it had very light use. I sold it immediately after the case was replaced. We also had this exact same issue with two other Dell notebooks in Thailand, not to mention multiple overheating issues on two units. I would discourage the OP against purchasing the XPS M1330 he is interested in for these very reasons.

Thanks for the feedback.

I too read very good reviews about the 1330, they did mention it got warm but not a major overheating problem. Nevertheless I'll take on board what you said and do some more research .

Back to the original question, are there any Dell authorised agents or just plain retailers in Pattaya or Bangkok ?

[mmkin]

The rapid wearing away of the painted surfaces on Dell laptops is appalling, and their biggest shortcoming in my view. I managed to convince Dell customer care to replace the entire casing (which they claim was not covered by warranty as it is a cosmetic issue) but they said they did it as a "one-time gesture to restore faith in their company". I only had the computer 10 months and it had very light use. I sold it immediately after the case was replaced. We also had this exact same issue with two other Dell notebooks in Thailand, not to mention multiple overheating issues on two units. I would discourage the OP against purchasing the XPS M1330 he is interested in for these very reasons.

Thanks for the feedback.

I too read very good reviews about the 1330, they did mention it got warm but not a major overheating problem. Nevertheless I'll take on board what you said and do some more research .

Back to the original question, are there any Dell authorised agents or just plain retailers in Pattaya or Bangkok ?

I have been using the XPS M1330 for the past 3 months and i like it a lot. It just gets warm sometime but definately not skin-burning temperature.

Also dont choose the Texedo Black. It leaves your finger-print marks there. I went for the Blue and my girl went for the Red, they were very good quality. The paints dont drop for us.

Go for it. I bought it from Singapore and the warranty is valid internationally. You can buy it there or if you need help to purchase it, feel free to pm me as i travel between BKK and SG often.

Edited July 17, 2008 by mmkin

[bill1960]

The rapid wearing away of the painted surfaces on Dell laptops is appalling, and their biggest shortcoming in my view. I managed to convince Dell customer care to replace the entire casing (which they claim was not covered by warranty as it is a cosmetic issue) but they said they did it as a "one-time gesture to restore faith in their company". I only had the computer 10 months and it had very light use. I sold it immediately after the case was replaced. We also had this exact same issue with two other Dell notebooks in Thailand, not to mention multiple overheating issues on two units. I would discourage the OP against purchasing the XPS M1330 he is interested in for these very reasons.

Thanks for the feedback.

I too read very good reviews about the 1330, they did mention it got warm but not a major overheating problem. Nevertheless I'll take on board what you said and do some more research .

Back to the original question, are there any Dell authorised agents or just plain retailers in Pattaya or Bangkok ?

I have been using the XPS M1330 for the past 3 months and i like it a lot. It just gets warm sometime but definately not skin-burning temperature.

Also dont choose the Texedo Black. It leaves your finger-print marks there. I went for the Blue and my girl went for the Red, they were very good quality. The paints dont drop for us.

Go for it. I bought it from Singapore and the warranty is valid internationally. You can buy it there or if you need help to purchase it, feel free to pm me as i travel between BKK and SG often.

Thanks for the reply and offer.

I'm reside in Cambodia but visit Thailand every now and then. May look into a reliable online merchant that ships to Cambo, havent found one yet.

As a notebook noob, I have a few questions

:What is the main source of the overheating.

:Is it the CPU.

:Does a faster CPU run cooler under the same workload.

:I want to run two monitors when at home, should I get the optional 128mb Nvidia Geforce card as opposed to the standard Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100

:Would the notebook run cooler with the 128mb video card.

:The 1330 comes with optional 64GB SSD which is enough storage space for my needs. What advantages does the SSD have over the HDD.

:During heavy home use, if it does get a bit warm, can I run an external keyboard and mouse ?

If so, how is this done, USB or Bluetooth..

Sorry for the simple notebook questions, just running an ancient desktop atm.

Heres a link to all the XPS 1330 options. The 64gb SSD is under the customise it link

http://www.dell.com/content/products/produ...;l=en&s=bsd

[oMega69]

All notebooks get Hot in Thailand . . . BUT . . .Intels core2 cpus can run up to 100 celsius .. So no problem.... working temps should be from 55-80 celsius . . it sounds very hot.... but the notebooks is build to handel this temps.