DELL vs. COMPAQ

The two superheroes have been wanting to buy a brand new lappie since the Ice Age. As we often travel back to Malacca and that both superheroes are currently taking different shifts to conquer the PC, we thought it would be a good idea to buy a lappie to avoid us two fighting over the lone PC at Superhero S's home.

Since Superhero S is a computer idiot, she has already passed 99.5% of the responsibility to Superhero W in our quest to find a good lappie. The remaining 0.5% actually accounts for the looks and design of the lappie which will be decided by Superhero S. (What?? I'm only given 0.5% of the purchasing power??)

So far, we've been surveying and researching on which lappie to buy. And we've narrowed down the lappie brands to the two giants - DELL and COMPAQ. To be frank, our budget is only around +/-RM 2,500. Based on what we can afford, we found DELL Inspiron 1420 and Compaq V3000 to be the current front runners.

Here are the specifications:

DELL

** Intel® Centrino® Processor Technology - Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T5550
** Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic*
** 2GB DDR2 SDRAM
** 14.1” WXGA Display with Integrated 2.0 mega pixel web cam
** 160GB* Hard Drive
** DVD Burner*
** Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
Priced at RM 2499 - DELL seem to be stingy with their free extras such as mouse, bag, etc. ; and for online purchases, we gotta fork out some delivery price as well.


COMPAQ

** Intel® Centrino® Processor Technology - Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T2370 ( 1.7 GHz )
** Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic*
** 1GB DDR2 SDRAM ( upgradable RM70 to 2GB )
** 14.1” WXGA Display with Integrated 2.0 mega pixel web cam
** 160GB* Hard Drive
** DVD Burner*
** Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
Priced at RM 2669 - free extras such as mouse, bag, 2GB thumbdrive

These two lappies have almost the same specification and the price range is quite near. So, I told Superhero S, it's now up to your 0.5% to choose which design among the two lappies you like the most.

Superhero S finds the exterior for Compaq to be more compact. Haha. It doesn't felt as plasticky as the DELL. But of course, the DELL's colourful exterior is much more attractive and lively.

But then again, when we went to the DELL Direct Store at MidValley, we actually saw a display model with part of its colour scraped off! OMG. So lousy. The salesman said that only the white version has a sort of extra protective plasticky layer that the other colours lack off.

photo taken from blogjer.com

And the thing about DELL, my Superhero Bro actually mentioned that his DELL lappie for 1 year plus actually got kinda loose at its joints. I don't think it's a case of the lappie being flipped open too often. If that's so, then DELL must have a pretty defected quality to start with.

So which is actually a better buy? DELL or Compaq? Any seasoned lappie buyers can help us with this? Haha. :p