I do not select laptops for my organization; I pick my laptop for myself. I am currently using the Latitude 7455, the ARM-based laptop, which is a Dell Business Laptop.
Dell Business Laptops have supported our organization's hybrid workforce as we are 100% remote, so I do not hear anybody complaining. They are working as expected. I am the exception because I bought the ARM-based laptop. Anytime they try to push out images or updates, I am always the exception outside that rule because the platform is such that I am the only user in the entire organization that has the ARM-based system. I am unique and special. I am a unicorn. But I am also an absolute pain in the butt for our IT guys, and I understand that. They understand that. We have a mutual understanding with each other, so it is fine for what it is.
When it comes to how Dell Business Laptops can be improved, I am a huge fan of right to repair. User-accessible components are obviously going to be more prevalent in the business class laptops, which is what we usually standardize on. Higher levels of modularity would be a nice to have. Repairability and being able to pop a screen out whenever a screen breaks because users drop it is important. Keyboards fail, and being able to have that level of just repairability has always been my key focus. This is why unfortunately in my personal use, I do not use a laptop for my personal use. It is because I understand the platform. I respect it for what it is, but that would be a nice to have. I understand there is a cost behind that, but if you are selling a premium product, it would be nice to be able to fix the machine when it breaks.
I do not really know the proper answer for how long our organization has been using Dell Business Laptops, simply because everybody gets to pick their own platform. I have been using them since I started with the company five years ago. The business has been around for fourteen years, so it has been on and off. I am sure there are individuals that use the product, but on the whole, when I came on, unfortunately, we were standardized, standardized in quotes, on HP laptops to mixed reviews, of course. There has been no standardization in our organization, so I cannot really speak to that, unfortunately.
When choosing Dell Business Laptops for our organization, the specific challenge or need we were trying to address is obviously having a disaggregated set of vendors supporting client hardware in the environment. That is a challenge that is a self-inflicted wound, which we understand. Since our entire organization is remote, the issues are small. They are on the individual. We do not have mass launches. We use Intune and CoPilot on all that whenever we can to help with deployment on all the platforms across all manufacturers. It is what it is.
When things go south, the service and support on the backend being as easy to work with as it has been is something I really appreciate. I want to give a shout out to those ProSupport folks. That has really been the thing that really wins me over with that kind of experience. That is why I have been able to maintain the mentality of maintaining Dell Business Laptops as that premier go-to for my personal use whenever I need it.
What made me choose Dell over the other brands I was considering is a long-term relationship, so maybe there is some loyalty there. I hate to say it was the price.
I cannot share what features I have found most valuable because nothing spectacular stands out. It is a Windows laptop. We run Teams. We run most of the Microsoft software portfolio. There is no shining star, unfortunately. We did switch from Teams off of GoToMeeting and Zoom, which is what we were using before, so that part of the product has been fine. But the hardware is hardware. It is interchangeable. In our environment, I hate to say it is expendable, but it is. That is just the way we operate, unfortunately.
I really cannot share my thoughts on the security features of Dell Business Laptops because we have a dedicated security expert who handles the actual hardening of the laptops themselves. As far as I am aware, I do not believe he uses any of the toolsets within what Dell offers simply because we have to have a third-party standard platform that we can push across all our vendors.
Since we really have not switched to Dell Business Laptops, I really cannot speak to that.
I would rate Dell Business Laptops an eight out of ten, with one being the worst and ten being the best. They are definitely higher in the realm of what we see and what I use. Overall, the user experience tends to be better than I have seen with Lenovo and HP. Unfortunately, every generation, it is sometimes hit or miss within the generations themselves, but as far as the entire portfolio is concerned over the years that I have seen it in the market, they just seem to have a higher level of affluence of actually being able to get the job done and work. The idea is the baseline of it working is great, but also that is the bare necessity. No one complains when it works. You only come across it when it is a problem. The level is so out there as far as the user experience. I love the hands-off approach and the automation packets, just being able to self-deploy these things is great. That is less touch for my guys and myself. Being a technical resource for my organization, folks do come to me for help even though I am not a client specialist, which is awkward, but whatever, I am a nerd and I can handle it. It is fine. The overall ecosystem is definitely better than most, which I do appreciate.
Everything when recommending Dell Business Laptops to a peer echoes from the fact that I used to work at Dell back in the day. I sold Dell laptops in the early two-thousands. It was a fun time. Vostro was an interesting product line for what it was and all those other brands. It is ease of use. It works. The brand loyalty does play a pretty strong role in that. The name does speak well, which is great. It makes the conversation easier at times. It is always that user experience and that human touch that really wins it over. Every group of fans has outliers. I have got guys that live and die by Lenovo. I have got guys that they love their HP laptops. For whatever reason, I do not know. Every laptop I have had from HP has been a mess. Over the years that I have been using them, it has been a good solid product.
What I would tell another IT leader or buyer who is on the fence about choosing Dell for their commercial fleet is that my mantra is keep it simple. Make it idiot-proof as best as you can. Make the user experience as low-touch as possible. From what I have seen and from the offerings, that seems to be the marching forward push. The name change last year was a bit of a mess. Some of the representatives are kind of struggling with that, but that is just learning the product line, which is a skill issue. That is not a reflection of the product line itself. Trying to convince someone that is just on the fence, it is all ease of use and standardization. You have to pick a flavor. Realistically, there is no winning champion statement to be had. It is that this is a good product line. It has been proven in the market and has been for decades. We usually win by try-and-buys. We get them in the hands of the users and give them to the field and understand that experience. I hate to say it, but steer them away from the ARM-based laptop unless they just want it for curiosity's sake. Really just let them know that as an organization, once you standardize on it, the ease of use, the mechanisms in place, and the tools available to them will make that user experience easier. It will make it easier for the IT department. I am sure other competitors in the market are going to say the same kind of mantra. I have seen it more with Dell than I have with other vendors. Speaking from my experiences, that is really going to be the messaging forward for that product line. As a caveat, I am not a client specialist. I have not sold laptops in twenty years.
To sum up my experience with Dell Business Laptops, when they work well, they work great. All the issues I have with it, honestly, are my own fault because I break things. Being able to resist a user as myself has been pretty phenomenal, which I do appreciate. When things go south, the service and support on the backend being as easy to work with as it has been is really what wins me over. I want to give another shout out to those ProSupport folks. That is why I have been able to maintain the mentality of maintaining Dell Business Laptops as that premier go-to for my personal use whenever I need it. It is always on the short list of vendors when I talk about vendors to sell for those kinds of product lines. I would rate Dell Business Laptops an eight out of ten overall.