I bought my laptop in Dec 07. To start of with what i like was the huge screen bigger is alwasy better with screens. That is about the only thing i can say about the vostro 1700. Now what makes its a less desireable machine is first of all the keyboard is weak and cannot take any type of game playing, i had to replace my keyboard 4 times the keys just don't have any durability to them. The second thing is the battery pack doesn't have a long life to it and the dc end plug desiging is a poor desgin, the jack is loose and will not stay tight. Every time i pick up my laptop the plug falls out. I have had to replace my battery once already in 4 yrs i have had it. The thrid thing is driver Dell does a horrible job in updating drivers for its computers. I have had to use a generic drive for the process for my laptop and had problems with it since. Dell says that they are not responible for drivers and the upkeep on drivers. Dell support system is a major fail in this area. I have had to replace my hard drive in my laptop 2 times becasue of the laptop has no duribilty. Dell laptops cant take any type of hit and surive any type of impact. Once again a bad design for dell. The most important one for me is 132 and 134 errors and blue screens and all do to video and memory issue that dell doesn't address when they make these laptops. For me the dell vostro is a major mishap and who ever design it should be fired for such a bad laptop. Dell its a real shame that you didn't put much thought or effort in designing this laptop. Dell you could of done much better but i guess you got your money so why do you care that we have all these prblems. The Dell vostro 1700 is a major flop. I could care less about weight or size but i did care about reliablity and duribity.

I think overall Dell come in for quite a lot of stick, but it mainly must be because of the amount of their products they sell compared to others.

This is my third Dell, having once been completely anti-dell. So far I have had no problems with the laptop, it runs like a dream and is really fast. Yes it isn't the lightest thing I could have bought, but on the other hand it was a fraction of the price of competitors and it is very durable indeed.

The keyboard is full size and it means I can type easily without hassle on the keyboard, just like a desktop but with the ease of a laptop.

I took the laptop on my recent vacation to Ibiza where the health retreat I was staying at had wi-fi. It kept me in touch and worked faultlessly on the wi-fi there and was like home from home, helping me to keep in touch with my business.

I can't imagine every buying anything other than a Dell!

Hannah

The hardware is very top end for the price.
I have had the laptop for a year now and on my third screen, its very delicate.
Overall a very nice machien but you definatly want to take the extended guarantee, the screen will most likly break but for the price its unbeatable.

I think this vostro 1700 widescreen is very good, but dell had to be based hard for a reasonable delivery time - they took money immediately, then quoted 35 days for delivery, I had to resort to emailing a lot of executives at dell to get an executive escalation to sort dell time - it came in 7 working days in the end , which was good, but you can get dell in pc world same day - come on dell this isn't acceptable in my opinion.