this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2026
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Fuck AI
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AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
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Too bad their build quality is absolutely shit. I'd always wanted an Alienware growing up, but they were way out of my budget. In 2020, I bought my wife and I new Alienware laptops. $5000 worth of laptops. Mine did a firmware update and died in 2023. Dell offered to diagnose it for $200 if I shipped it to them. My wife's has had to be repaired 3 times, and her hdmi port died yesterday.
I have a 2018 XPS and its build quality is quite good.
Business lines are like that, see also Thinkpad.
Yea, wife and I are still running 2017 XPS, no issues at all over all these years and travels
My wife loves her 2019 2-in-1 but it took like 6 months for all the feet and things to start falling off.
I love my 2021 xps. Thin, light, powerful, and good Linux support. It's starting to show its age but I use the hell out of it.
The only reason next laptop won't be an XPS is because the owners went full maga. If the decision was hardware based, I'd probably go xps again.
The plastic coating on mine has gone all sticky.
The palm rest on mine is a little tacky, that's a good point. I might have to try to wipe the soft-touch coating off with some isopropanol.
I have an IBM ThinkPad R32, and even the original battery is still holding a 40ish minute charge. Things used to be built to last. Not so much anymore.
This battery phenomenon actually boggles my mind, if somebody knows what's going on and is willing to help clarify.
Lithium batteries are lithium batteries. They all degrade over time and with cycle count, nothing manufacturers can do about it.
But why are lithium batteries from the GameBoy Advance still capable of holding a charge today, and why you can find old power sucking laptops with original batteries that at least hold charge for an hour, but modern lithium batteries simply die after three years?
Part of this is the charge controller on the battery, the other part is the cheap components of the battery.
When the lithium battery degrades to a certain point (or on a set schedule), the controller just stops the charge. This is not usually done in malice, though. The other components are cheaper quality (because it's cheaper to manufacture), so controlling the charge at a certain point helps avoid a fire (and a lawsuit).
Back in the R32 and GBA days, batteries were built with better components, so the charge controller didn't need to be so aggressive. Therefore, they still work to some capacity.
I have a Thinkpad T430 and the original battery still gets me through a 3 hour lecture at school no problem.
I have a way newer HP ProBook 455 G7 but I rather use the Thinkpad if I don't need the power
Similar experience here. My wife and I both got Alienware laptops, although a little before 2020. Mine died a few years back and had to ship back and have motherboard replaced. A few months later hers died and we shipped back.
“Motherboard needs to be replaced but we don’t have them in stock anymore. Best of luck.”
So yeah we are done with Dell.
Oh that's sad. My 2018 (gaming G5? It's got a 1060) still works.
Consumer trash is low quality, news at 11:00.
Their business lines (Optiplex and Latitude) are just fine, but not good for gaming.