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The XPS was their higher end answer to the unibody Macbooks a few years back, and peer with Lenovo's Thinkpad X-series. The Inspiron line is a "cheap is expens

The XPS was their higher end answer to the unibody Macbooks a few years back, and peer with Lenovo's Thinkpad X-series. The Inspiron line is a "cheap is expensive" trap for consumers, you can't blame people if they judge the whole company for their mass-consumption offering when its cheap build breaks at the hinges for everybody.

dpkirchner 4y ago
Frankly, if they're cutting corners on one product to the point it affects their brand image, they're probably cutting corners on all of them. This is one thing Apple gets right, their products are solid all the way down to the low end (iPhone SE et al). (After reading further I see others have made the same point. Oops.)
- Beltalowda 4y ago
  Apple SE is of course not really "low end". But I do agree with your overall point; back when I worked at a computer store people would come in to buy a laptop, and they wouldn't want a HP – even when that was actually a good model and a good fit for their needs – because they had a bad experience with a HP printer. I think that's actually pretty fair too, although I usually explained that the people who design the HP printers most likely never even talked to the people who design the HP laptops, and that even within $brand laptops there are are huge fundamental differences. I suppose that overall, on balance, the brand recognition of "Dell" or "HP" outweighs the negative associations people have across the product range.
  - RHSeeger 4y ago
    > I usually explained that the people who design the HP printers most likely never even talked to the people who design the HP laptops While that is certainly true, the overall priorities of the company (is customer service important, which customers matter, how important is initial quality vs ongoing support, etc) are set at higher levels; many ties one that both those teams report up to.
    - Beltalowda 4y ago
      It's a weak signal, but it's often highly variable what kind and quality of support vendors give for which products.
tanjtanjtanj 4y ago
Between the 27 engineers that make up my teams, we have had to do nearly 50 battery replacements due to swollen batteries in the the last 3 years. All on the business class precision line.

dpkirchner 4y ago

Frankly, if they're cutting corners on one product to the point it affects their brand image, they're probably cutting corners on all of them. This is one thing Apple gets right, their products are solid all the way down to the low end (iPhone SE et al). (After reading further I see others have made the same point. Oops.)

Beltalowda 4y ago
Apple SE is of course not really "low end". But I do agree with your overall point; back when I worked at a computer store people would come in to buy a laptop, and they wouldn't want a HP – even when that was actually a good model and a good fit for their needs – because they had a bad experience with a HP printer. I think that's actually pretty fair too, although I usually explained that the people who design the HP printers most likely never even talked to the people who design the HP laptops, and that even within $brand laptops there are are huge fundamental differences. I suppose that overall, on balance, the brand recognition of "Dell" or "HP" outweighs the negative associations people have across the product range.
- RHSeeger 4y ago
  > I usually explained that the people who design the HP printers most likely never even talked to the people who design the HP laptops While that is certainly true, the overall priorities of the company (is customer service important, which customers matter, how important is initial quality vs ongoing support, etc) are set at higher levels; many ties one that both those teams report up to.
  - Beltalowda 4y ago
    It's a weak signal, but it's often highly variable what kind and quality of support vendors give for which products.

tanjtanjtanj 4y ago

Between the 27 engineers that make up my teams, we have had to do nearly 50 battery replacements due to swollen batteries in the the last 3 years. All on the business class precision line.