He's BACK!!

[wove]

Despite being heavy, it's pretty crappy fit and finish. But the FEEL is one of high quality..

I love the description, I have an on HP on the shelf, that might be its twin.

[tlmiller]

Yeah, from a distance this thing looks amazing, and it feels very good in the hands. But if you look closely, it's not very high quality. But the performance after the BIOS update is definitely impressive.

[wove]

The old HP laptop has always struck me as the laptop equivalent of a "muscle car". I gravitate toward the more sports car like laptops, but there is something kind of cool about the power of the "big iron" laptops.

[crosscourt]

Im surprised as most of mt Dell laptops have an excellent fit and finish, even the 3340s.

[tlmiller]

You're comparing Latitude vs. Inspiron. The Latitude 3000 series is pretty much the same price bracket as the Inspiron 7000 series, but whereas the Inspiron has REALLY nice internals with cheap built quality, the Latitude 3000 series is still designed well, just cheap specs and missing a lot of the "Enterprise" features that many businesses would want that the 5000 & 7000 series have.

[crosscourt]

Ive owned many Inspirons and used them for a while at work. Still good fit and finish though the business laptops typically are a bit better depending on price point. In general I find Dell laptops to be pretty good in regards to quality.

[tlmiller]

I've not owned an Inspiron I'd consider to have GOOD fit and finish in a long time. Adequate is the best I'd rate any that I've owned in the last 10 years. Back in the aughts, yes, I'd say they were better (I LOVED my inspiron Studio laptop), but they've definitely gotten cheaper quality as they seek to keep their profit margins super high without having to raise the price of these laptops outside where their target audience is willing to pay.

[crosscourt]

They have good fit and finish not excellent. Thats of course because of the price point but they arent horrible laptops. I buy the used business laptops/latitudes because they have a better overall build quality with more features. Im a mainstream user so my perspective is different from high end users.

[chris]

The thing I like best about second-hand business laptops is the matte screen. Why do home laptops still have glossy screens?

[crosscourt]

Im not sure Chris but second hand business laptops are a great deal right now.