A GThing Science Project

(Note: This post is in response to this. Opinions expressed may not actually reflect those of gthing.net or it's owners. This response is meant in good, clean fun.)

Many years ago I bought a tube of toothpaste for $3. It was good toothpaste, it got my teeth clean, it tasted okay, and it was great for every day tooth cleaning jobs. When it came time to refill my toothpaste, I realized what the catch was - it was not refillable. At least, to refill it I would have had to buy another tube of toothpaste and squirt it into the first tube, and that just seemed pointless.

I bring this up because a friend of mine recently bought a Dell computer for a couple hundred bucks. He may or may not know it's a terrible computer, but he's excited anyway. You see, at the price, it's a disposable computer.

He was telling me all about it. He told me it was a Dell. I know a thing or two about Dell's.

In my opinion, any company that sacrifices quality for a price point is more than a little shady. Here are some highlights.

• Chinese manufacturers believe Americans will buy whatever is the best deal. To accomplish this, they use whatever parts can be sourced for the cheapest price that day. This results in mixed quality of the finished product.
• To further cut costs, as much cheap, outsourced labor is used as possible. Have a problem that is actually covered under warranty? Call it in! Guess where you're calling? Overseas.
• The warranty is halfway decent, but the service sucks. Send your computer in and expect to wait 3 months (that's a quarter of the total warranty period) to get your computer back. If you're wondering what the status is, don't worry - just call their crack support team (this may require you to speak another language)
• Dell uses a design-by-comittee method of designing their computers. This results in them churning out the same clunky plastic ugly computers year after year. These things aren't light either - you can use them to bludgeon people to death.
• Dell cuts corners wherever possible. It's a business model that works since most consumers are not discerning, and really do go for the price point. Go for one of their business class machines, and you might even get a halfway decent computer.
• Resale value on Dells sucks. Keep one for a normal 2 or 3 year period and you can only expect a few hundred bucks out of it - if you're lucky. There are reasons for this kind of devaluation, and it doesn't happen to all computers like you'd think.
• Flimsy hinges. I hope you like your screen falling backwards as you type.
• Dell's warranty is full of loopholes that help them get out of solving even the most common problems.

Congratulations, you have purchased a disposable computer. When it dies (not if, but when) it will actually be cheaper for you to buy a new one than to try to repair the broken one. Anyone who buys these computers is contributing to our single-serving, disposable society. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

But at least it was cheap!