Looks like I’m going to start off my first ever blog post with a rant. :)
I always enjoy the annual visit from our Dell rep. She’s open to feedback, but probably wishes I didn’t share mine so freely at times. I’m passionate about Dell’s products. Fortunately our rep is open to hearing both the good and bad, and even though my concerns and ideas are a small brush stroke on a much larger canvas, they’re almost always escalated. (Or she just puts on a good front, j/k.)
By now you know what’s coming next.
BUT, I have an issue with Dell’s laptop batteries as of late. For today’s wireless geek, batteries are a necessary evil. They’re either too heavy, discharge quickly, or are expensive to replace. I’ve worked with Dell hardware for almost a decade ever since the C600 launched shortly after the turn of the millennium, though I’ve only been working with Dell equipment professionally since 2004. For the model iterations of the C Series and into the D Series it wasn’t uncommon for the battery to outlast the laptop’s replacement cycle.
Then something changed with the 8 cell batteries shipped with the D620. Late in 2007, D620 batteries, only 18 months into their service life, started to fail. And by fail I mean they would spontaneously cease to hold a charge, or would operate at a significantly reduced capacity with a runtime of approximately 10 – 15 minutes. To date, I’ve probably replaced the batteries on almost 20% of our D620s and D630s. I know there are more, I’ve seen the flashing orange battery indicator, but some users haven’t reported it yet. When brought to the attention of our Dell rep, she made the comment that, “Battery technology just isn’t there yet…”
So, ok, granted, yes batteries fail, it’s inevitable, but given past experience, I’m going to have to call shenanigans. The batteries in the C series lineup were solid performers, period. To my knowledge we didn’t replace a single 9 cell D800 battery during their regular 3 year lifecycle. The D800s only started to have issues at four years and even at five years, 60% are still going strong holding a two hour charge. After the D800 we switched to the 600 lineup to decrease weight. Our first purchase in that model series was the D610. What about them? Aside from the Dell exploding battery recall in 2006, the D610 6 cell batteries have been solid. Three years after the recall, the replacement batteries are still running great.
Don’t take my word alone. I find that customer reviews are the best source of product information, so I went to Dell’s storefront to see what others have been saying about their experience purchasing replacement batteries. The numbers are interesting. The C series 8 cell battery garners a 4.4 out of 5 star review on Dell’s storefront. The 9 cell D800 battery is rated slightly higher at 4.5 out of 5 stars. The 6 cell D610 battery took a dip at 3.8 out of 5 stars. On each of these batteries, several reviewers specifically cite battery longevity of 3+years.
And what about the reviews on the 8 cell D620/D630 battery? A slight change really, 1.9 and 1.2 stars out of 5 respectively. Common complaint: the original battery suffered a sudden failure or significantly diminished capacity at 18 months. One reviewer even claims a 65% failure rate. As I said, we switched from the 800 to the 600 lineup to decrease weight. Had we stayed with the D820/D830, I wanted to see what how those batteries may have fared. Customers rated the D820 battery at 1.3 out of 5 stars. The D830 battery only had one review as of this writing so it isn’t fair to draw a conclusion.
So what happened to battery quality Dell?
Around the time of the E series launch, Dell started offering “extended battery service” to customers. My guess is it’s only available for corporate accounts. But still, the conspiracy theorist in me got the better of my imagination. Perhaps it was easier to sell another extended warranty than fix the problem. Or perhaps Dell is just really that myopic that they can’t see the decline in their own product quality. All I really want is an explanation even if it’s just “we sacrificed quality to make them more environmentally friendly.” At least then I’d feel a little better about shelling out a hundred fifty bucks each time one fails.
We’re just wrapping up deployment on our first batch of E6400 laptops. My unit opted not to purchase the “extended battery service” as it wouldn’t be profitable for us unless we experienced a 50% failure rate. So have the problems with the D620/D630 batteries followed the new lineup? All I can say is, “We’ll see.”
Disclaimer: Penn State knows nothing of battery conspiracies, so any theories expressed are my own.
