As my brother in law (who works at Dell USA) told me: "You're in Switzerland. We heard support was bad over there, not much we can do from here.". He did try hard however, and it was only through his intervention that the videotaping requirement for the failing HD was waived...
I agree about the personal taste with the laptop, but there are just certain manufacturing quality issues that you only become aware of when you see (and feel) those computers side by side. The keyboards on the mac and thinkpad are different, but of equal quality for instance. The Dell doesn't even come close. I had a stuck key within a month on the Dell (after lifting off the key cap i saw a piece of plastic that wasn't properly shaped, fixed that with a knife..). When adjusting the monitor angle, both the powerbook and thinkpad are rock solid, the Dell was worn out after a month or two. Those are not personal taste but quality issues.
OTOH, you pay only a little more than half for the Dell, guess you just get what you pay for.
I agree about the personal taste with the laptop, but there are just certain manufacturing quality issues that you only become aware of when you see (and feel) those computers side by side. The keyboards on the mac and thinkpad are different, but of equal quality for instance. The Dell doesn't even come close. I had a stuck key within a month on the Dell (after lifting off the key cap i saw a piece of plastic that wasn't properly shaped, fixed that with a knife..). When adjusting the monitor angle, both the powerbook and thinkpad are rock solid, the Dell was worn out after a month or two. Those are not personal taste but quality issues.
OTOH, you pay only a little more than half for the Dell, guess you just get what you pay for.