Dell or HP laptop: which is better?
There are questions you really don't want to answer, because there's no way to answer them without making enemies. I heard one of those questions the other day. Between a computer...
16/01/2022
There are questions you really don't want to answer, because there's no way to answer them without making enemies. I heard one of those questions the other day. Between a Dell or HP laptop: which is better?
HP and Dell are two of the computer brands
the most popular
, and both have endured. Both entered the business in the 1980s and survived the brutal
1990s
, which was a feat. There were several good companies that either didn't survive the 90s or came out of the 90s mortally wounded. Both companies have done something good to get this far.
Kind of like a van
Dell or HP Laptop: Which is Better? In my experience, the price and how you take care of it makes a much bigger difference. A $149 laptop is junk, no matter who makes it. And when you crash your computer like this, it will crash sooner than if it were properly maintained.
I don't own vans and I don't like driving them, so I don't have a dog in this fight, but I've definitely noticed how people argue about vans. To hear some people say it, there are two things as reliable as the sun that comes up every morning, and that's a Ford pickup that starts and a Chevy pickup that won't start. Or maybe it's the Chevrolet pickup starting and the Ford not starting.
When you talk to a mechanic, who spends day in and day out fixing vehicles that come through the door, he'll tell you that some years one is better than the other. But when things are going well, Ford and General Motors know how to make a dependable pickup truck.
And there is a third factor that comes into play. My fellow Mizzou alumnus Steve Lang, who studies
motor vehicle reliability
, notices a slight difference in reliability between used Chevrolet and GMC trucks. I asked my mechanic about it. He said he thinks people who buy GMC trucks tend to take better care of them.
So why do people get religious about pickup trucks when an honest mechanic will tell you that you won't go too wrong with either brand? Marketing, for example. And if someone has a bad experience with a brand, they tend to remember it forever.
The rating matters more than the brand
In 2012, I had just started a new job, and two managers were chatting. One of the managers mentioned that he had computer problems that day. Another official said, “I can explain the problem to you. Those letters “HP!”
What's funny is that in another job I had the opposite problem. HP laptops worked great, but people kept buying those cheap Dells and blaming me when the cheap Dells didn't work as well as the expensive HPs. Why did we have opposite brand experiences?
The manager who didn't like HP laptops bought a cheap HP one and it soured him on the whole brand. I didn't like Dells because I was tired of fixing cheap Dells. My opinion of Dell changed when I got a more expensive Dell at a good price during a
property sale
. I bought it somewhat reluctantly, but when you can buy a five-year-old laptop for $35, it's really hard to say no. Thought I'd sell it for $70 to an idiot. But I liked it so much that I kept it.
Dell and HP laptops can be weird to work with.
Dell has always designed its BIOS differently from everyone else whose computers I use. I worked on, and it always slows me down when I have to work on a Dell. The option I need may be buried in a menu I don't normally look at. The option can be called something completely different.
HP computers have their own quirks, but they're much closer to the IBM computers I started my career working on. Many people find it difficult to understand
how to boot them from usb
, but HP tends to make everything else pretty simple.
The biggest difference I notice is when I add memory. When I add memory to an HP laptop and turn it on for the first time, it usually tells me that the amount of system memory has changed and makes me press F1 to continue. That's fine, because if the amount of system memory has changed and I haven't added or removed memory, that means something is wrong.
When the amount of memory in a Dell changes, or at least some Dell models, the laptop freezes for about a minute and a half before rebooting. This means that if I restart the computer and go for a coffee, I might miss the message. If I'm standing there, it's an unnecessary 90 second delay. I can live with that, but it's more boring than HP's approach.
Dell or HP Laptop: Which is Better?
If the keyboard is uncomfortable to type on or if you accidentally activate the scroll bar on the touchpad, the laptop's reliability is a bit questionable.
Ultimately, which is better, a Dell or HP laptop, comes down to three things. The brand is not part of it.
This Google Chromebook is trash. I'm about to sell this and get a HP or Dell Laptop.
— Crystal La'Shay Sun Aug 15 22:29:20 +0000 2021
Is this a business laptop? If it's commercial grade, it'll almost certainly be good. If it's consumer grade, it can be good. It may as well be terrible.
Do you like the screen? Glossy screens hurt my eyes, so I don't care how good the laptop is if it hurts to look at it.
Do you like keyboard and touchpad? Some laptops, even very expensive ones, have really uncomfortable keyboards or inaccurate touchpads. A good computer is worthless if you can't reliably type on it with the mouse.
It can be quite difficult to find a business-grade laptop with a screen, keyboard, and trackpad you can live with. I'm willing to live with a slight difference in reliability to have a comfortable computing experience. And the difference will be rather slight. Both companies use the same suppliers. Both have a contracted supplier, like Foxconn or Pegatron, that assembles their computers for them. A pair of $199 laptops from both companies will have more in common than a business laptop from the same company.
And regardless of the brand, the $199 laptop won't be great. The business-grade laptop will be good enough at worst, and maybe good enough.
But is there a difference in terms of durability or reliability?
Historically, Dell laptops, at least their business-grade ones, tend to hold up a bit better under abuse. But the difference is quite small, and when it comes to violent abuse, there is always a bit of luck.
There are other factors that make about as much difference. I'll take any SSD over any conventional HDD, no matter who made one or the other and who made the rest of the machine. And good quality memory is absolutely essential. A business-grade laptop with basic memory is no longer a business-grade laptop. Purchase memory with HP or Dell FRU numbers, or
buy a reputable memory brand like Crucial or Kingston
.
How I buy laptops
When I buy a laptop, I go out of my way to buy a used business laptop. If I have $100 to spend, I buy the best used laptop I can find for $100. If I have more to spend, I buy something a little newer or faster, and I can probably keep it longer. I'd rather buy one that I've seen, or better yet, used, in a professional setting.
No matter what I have to spend, I can get a decent laptop this way. The taste of champagne on a beer budget isn't as much of an issue with used business laptops. I can get something decent for $100, and the more I'm willing to spend, the nicer my laptop is. But I don't have to worry about reliability unless I buy something old and cheap. And even with a $100 budget, I can get my kids something and be pretty confident that what they want to make will work, it'll probably hold up and it won't cost a fortune.
I like the HP's a bit better because that's what I'm used to working on, but I'll buy a Dell.
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