2 questions, 1 maybe off topic

[Prodigul]

I am looking for xmas presents and am going to get a laptop for an 8 year old and a portable dvd player for a 10 year old. For laptop, only basic games so it doesent need to really by powerful, probably sub-$1000 or around that. For dvd player looking to spend $3-400 and that it have a car recharger(cigarette lighter charger). Any suggestions on these? Thanks for any help in advance

[barton boi]

For $1000 you can get a 2.4GHZ P4 Dell Inspiron 1100.

[ATilaptops]

Or you can get a T23 off eBay for around $600 which will do whatever an 8 year old would need to do. Also, you could get a cheap P-II or even a little more expensive P-III laptop and that can be a DVD player, I know I'd be happier with it

[melee]

Originally posted by ATilaptops
Or you can get a T23 off eBay for around $600 which will do whatever an 8 year old would need to do. Also, you could get a cheap P-II or even a little more expensive P-III laptop and that can be a DVD player, I know I'd be happier with it

Just get him something, with a long battery, and very durable (hes gonna drop it)

[ua549]

Dell is a good brand with an excellent reputation for warranty support.

[melee]

Originally posted by ua549
Dell is a good brand with an excellent reputation for warranty support.

Problem with dell is two fold. One the warrenty is the most completely horrible thing ever. I think the laptops are great, but the tech support is ALL outsourced to india. I kid you not, its a well known fact. I called about upgrading some parts, and the guy said that it will not be restocked till 2050... He asked if I wanted to preorder... I mean, mean, I have nothing against people of different cultures, but I could barely understand these guys. If I werent such a PC euthesist I wouldnt even consider Dell givin support and service.


The other problem is the only cheap dell laptop is a desknote, not something you want for a kid. Desktop Pentuim 4's have horid battery.

[ua549]

Originally posted by melee
Problem with dell is two fold. One the warrenty is the most completely horrible thing ever. I think the laptops are great, but the tech support is ALL outsourced to india. I kid you not, its a well known fact. I called about upgrading some parts, and the guy said that it will not be restocked till 2050... He asked if I wanted to preorder... I mean, mean, I have nothing against people of different cultures, but I could barely understand these guys. If I werent such a PC euthesist I wouldnt even consider Dell givin support and service.


The other problem is the only cheap dell laptop is a desknote, not something you want for a kid. Desktop Pentuim 4's have horid battery.

The business models have local, US tech support. Only the very low end stuff is supported from India - then it is software only script readers. The hardware warranty service is based in the USA and has always been based in the USA. I've purchased over 10,000 Dell systems and have never been disappointed with their service.

[Prodigul]

Well I currently own an old Dell, and my recent tech support calls have all been outsourced to india. Its not very low end stuff, its just an older model, eh its ok... but they didnt really solve my problem after waiting for 40 minutes. The other thing is they try to sell you all these aditional warranties including one "65% answering to technical support calls" for like 80 dollars... jeeez. Anyway for about 1050 after warranty I configured one that works. How would Dell compare to say Toshiba? who have similar config for similar price

On portable DVD player, the only good one I could find is Panasonic with 400 dollars with a 150$ car adapter. I was thinking just get laptop, but then adapter comes about same (On toshiba about $150). Thanks for any help in advance

[Terry]

Dell annouced a few weeks ago that they are not going to have tech support in India anymore because people complained too much.

[melee]

My day has come!

This is a relief, even though i wasn't planning on using my warrenty on my 8600 at all, its good to know that if it suddenly burst into flames, I can talk to someone in english about it.

[ATilaptops]

HP should do the same My Grandma says she always has to deal with a bunch of Indian people before she get's any real help and she has to pay the bill for calling there too

[Prodigul]

Ok, I guess I will go with DEll, and since they are young and will probably drop it I'll get the accidental damage insurance. Its 1050 with normal + accident 3yr warranty w/ a celeron. They arent going to use it for anything really CPY internsive so I dont think pentium worth the extra 150. Well thanks for all your help on this

[DoGGx23]

I personally recommend this laptop, Compaq Presario x1050. I got it about a week for $850 after rebate. Its comes with Intel Centrino Pentium M 1.4 256mb DDR 40 gig hard drive, radeon 9200 32mb and much more. The LCD screen alone is so beautiful. I quickly sold my Dell inspiron 2650 for this Compaq one. I order more memory from Crucial.com and will be installing it later today. This laptop is fast, quit and nice looking.

[humble-bargain-seeker]

Originally posted by Terry
Dell annouced a few weeks ago that they are not going to have tech support in India anymore because people complained too much.

That announcement applied only to business technical support and not to consumer technical support which remains in India.