After about 6 years of hesitation, I got a new laptop. The old one was getting embarrassingly slow. Given my past horrible experiences with Dell's customer service, I had decided to buy from another manufacturer. Then, I stumbled upon EmperorLinux which delivers Linux based laptops on top of laptops from Lenovo, Sony and Dell. When contacted, the salesperson at EmperorLinux seemed very knowledgeable and helpful, so instead of buying from Dell, I ordered my new laptop from them. It is a Dell Latitude E6550 rebranded as Rhino Linux.
In addition to a glitch on the graphics card, the laptop weighs 17% more than expected. Dell advertises the Latitude E6550 at 2.3 kg with a 4 cell battery and without an optical reader. According to the user manual, the 4 cell battery weighs .24 kg. The laptop actually delivered weighs 2.7kg, albeit with a 6 cell battery and without the optical reader, or 17% more than advertised. One might argue that the 6 cell battery weights more than a 4 cell battery. Well, the 6 cell battery weighs 325g, or just 90g more than the 4 cell one. After removing the battery, the laptop weighs 2.375 kg. In other words, the laptop actually delivered with its battery and optical reader removed, still weighs more than what is advertised by Dell (2.3kg) for the given laptop with a 4 cell battery.
So, either,
1) Dell builds their laptops on a planet with a different gravitational pull,
2) the laptop will loose weight after some exercise,
3) Dell makes false declarations about the weight of their products.
