I earlier wondered whether Dell was becoming more ‘fashion-conscious’.

Today I learnt that that Dell is indeed focusing more on design.

It was heartening to note that Dell stressed that they have not forgotten about other things that customers also care about when we buy Dell.

Direct2Dell – Direct2Dell – DELL COMMUNITY

Folks at Dell have been working to change customers perception of Dell’s design over time, and especially over the last several months. Today, I wanted to take a few minutes to update you on Dell’s progress.

Several lifestyle publications, technology, bloggers, and broadcast outlets have been taking notice of some of our latest offerings, especially since our Urban Meet Up event in New York last month.

Beyond that, in the last few months Dell has won 16 awards for design across our consumer and commercial products….

…This design emphasis doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten about other things that matter to customers. Dell’s commitment to performance and features has not fallen by the wayside—we’ve won 46 editorial awards globally in the last quarter from publications such as PC Magazine, Computer Shopper, Engadget and PC Advisor UK to name a few.

Dell Alienware is now available at Dell Malaysia.

Base price MYR 8,499.

Alienware M17x – Dell Alienware M17x Is Now Official

# Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad-Core processor
# 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 RAM
# 1TB 7200-rpm (Raid 1 or Raid 0) or a 512MB of solid-state storage capacity
# Dual-layer Blu-ray Disc Drive
# 9-cell battery
# nVidia GeForce 9400M G GPU with HybridPower technology
# 802.11n (2×2) Wi-Fi connectivity
# 1,920 x 1,200-resolution edge-to-edge LCD display

Very impressive specs – I especially would like to have the hard disk and memory for my new notebook which I intend to use for work and image processing.

See more pictures here.

Direct2Dell – Direct2Dell – DELL COMMUNITY

You may have seen Engadget’s recent post about a new red color coming to the Dell the Studio XPS 16. They got part of it right. In reality, Merlot Red is coming to both the Studio XPS 13 and Studio XPS 16 laptops.

Here’s what it looks like.

Dell is doing a lot to make its laptop look beautiful.
Will this lift Dell sales and help it beat Acer ?

I buy Dell because of its customization choices and reliable next business day service.
I won’t buy a notebook for its looks.

Then again, great looks and great customization choices and great service is a great idea.

This used to be the Dell difference –

We cut out the middle-man so you don’t have to cut corners.

Nowadays, Dell units are sold at retail centers and so it can no longer claim to sell direct only.

What could Dell do to differentiate itself ?

More importantly, what can Dell differentiate in ways that are meaningful to customers like me, now that Acer is surpassing Dell in notebook sales ?

Personally, I choose Dell and have been using Dell since 1999 because :

1. Dell offers next business day on-site service

    This means I don’t have to lose time in taking my notebook to a service center. I wait for the service man to come to my door in the comfort of my office or home or even vacation location. This kind of service, I find is the best in the industry. And I have friends who use other brands’ on-site service who would agree with me.

2. Dell has the widest range of customization choices

    When I bought my last notebook, I could decide on my hard disk size, operating system version, monitor type and resolution, warranty duration, color, commonly used software to install, speaker. It’s almost certain I can find the notebook with the exact specs that I want.

    And the greatest deal of all, no matter how high I customize it, the warranty cost for the laptop stays the same. That is to say, the warranty does not increase even though I piled on a lot more features on the basic offering. Dell will stand by its warranty at the same price !! I only pay more for warranty if I want a longer duration or want some extra service. It is not dependent on whether I customize it or not. The warranty even covers the free gift !! I once received a USB pen drive as a free gift. When that gave trouble, Dell kindly sent a technician to send me a new one (a better one in fact, my free gift was a USB 1.0 drive, they gave me a USB 2.0 drive as a replacement).

I am planning to buy another Dell come October (when Windows 7 launches).

I do these with my notebook:

1. use it at the office – Microsoft Office applications, python programming, Oracle programming

2. use it at home – processing raw digital photographs

I will be looking for these not too common features:

1. 7200rpm (or faster) hard disks

There are too many times on my Inspiron 640m when nothing happens for a while after I click on something. Instead I see the 5400rpm hard disk light blinking rapidly. A 5400rpm hard disk is a time-waster.

2. 500GB hard disk

I am outgrowing my 160GB hard disk already. My photos will only continue to grow and so will my work files. An external hard disk is an option but I prefer it all in one compact notebook.

3. 2 partitions

I currently have 2 partitions on my 160GB hard disk:

80GB for the operating system and work files

80GB for downloads, photographs and back up

Having 2 partitions is essential for disk management – I can defragment them, run check disk, make disk image copy separately.

With a bigger capacity hard disk, partitioning is even more important. Sadly, Dell does not offer many partitioning choices in the past and seem to have stopped offering them at all lately.

I am planning to buy a new notebook. Mine is going to be 3 years old by January 2010.
There are several reasons why I want to get a new notebook:

1. My 160GB hard disk is filling up. Nowadays, I have to periodically archive some older stuff to an external hard disk
2. I am doing more post-processing on photography and my T5500 with Integrated Graphics is chip is slow.
3. Windows 7 is shipping soon (see below news). I installed Windows XP on my Inspiron 640m. Windows 7 is getting a lot of good reviews and I am excited to move to a new OS.

Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 will be ready by holiday 2009 – Ars Technica

At Microsoft TechEd North America 2009, Microsoft today announced that Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 will both be available to customers in time for the holiday shopping season

When you buy a Dell laptop, you should get at least :

1. 3 years Next Business Day on site warranty

2. Complete Cover

The standard 1 year warranty is not sufficient as most and more problems crop up after the first year.

And Complete Cover is a fantastic deal from Dell because it covers against accidental damage. You might never think you need it but I was glad I had it when my laptop bag fell from a height and the corner cracked. The next day, I called Dell, told them about my mishap and they sent a technician to replace the part.

I am also very impressed with Dell’s Next Business Day On-site warranty. It’s a great convenience. You call Dell with a problem and they will visit you wherever you are to fix the problem !! This means you don’t have to go a service center, possibly have to surrender your laptop for days or weeks. The benefit to you – minimum lost time and hassle, minimal risk of data loss. Data loss is a real risk these days because I have heard and read of so many scandals that happen because a damaged computer was sent in for repairs. If you don’t have to surrender your laptop, you eliminate that risk.

I have shopped for alternatives with Apple – they don’t do on-site CHEAP, they charge for each on-site visit, before charging for parts and labour !

I also have friends who own HP laptops and their Next Business Day on-site warranty is disappointing.

Dell’s after-sales support is a prime reason why I always buy Dell.