CSC-SY

I doubt that there is one, but do you know about any retailers who supply Dell laptops? Addresses and pointers much appreciated. Thanks.

Why's the doubt?

You have two options:

Digital Net company (contact)

CEC (contact)

 

as well as the numerous number of retail stores widespread across syria...

I don't think Dell has an official reseller here in Syria (being a US based company and everything).
OTOH Dell laptops are widely available in the market,
other than CEC and DigitalNet check this site too.

Well thanks dudes, couple thoughts on which your input will be helpful, specially when you remember that I'm a complete n00b when it comes to laptops.
I'm evaluating my options of buying a mid-range to high-end Dell laptop here in Syria or in Europe where I'll be in couple of months. Looks like mid-range laptop (Inspiron) prices are almost identical, but high-end (XPS) laptops are much more expensive here in Syria, probably the Vista EULA has a fair share in it because some of the XPS models can be acquired with Ubuntu preinstalled, no indication on sites you pointed at whether or not this is possible in Syria.
Another issue which I'm not entirely sure about is the question of receiving reasonable support in Europe, having bought a laptop in Syria.

Whether or not that Dell laptops have genuine Windows Vista is unit-dependent

IOW you must check it out in the details of a certain laptop to know if it has Vista pre-installed and thus possessing a higher price.

And i want to indicate that the retailers (I mentioned in my earlier post) specify the pre-installed OS in the details of any given device, for example INSPIRON 1525 T2370 BLAK doesn't come with a pre-installed OS because in the end of the details list you'll notice: "DOS(VISTA Driver)" meaning: No OS but the unit comes with Vista Drivers...

Well, I don't think that you'll get support in Europe for a laptop purchased in Syria, being that (as foaad said) resellers aren't official.

But I advise you to purchase it in Europe since you're going there anyway, because most of the laptops here are made in China

Does it have to be Dell?!
I guess purchasing a laptop before travailing has a lot of benefits. So you may want to overlook price difference (if within acceptable limits).
Prices here is Syria usually don't drop over time, so make sure you get a new model, also high end models as you've noticed usually suffer from a much higher profit ration.
Anyway make sure not to pay more than DigitalNet's price.
Regarding warranty, I think if it comes with international warranty then they have to honor it, if not then warranty only applies in the country/region of purchase.

Preferably yes, not just because we're speaking about a decent OEM, but because overall response from the FreeBSD community is much in favor of Dell notebooks, specially those based on the relatively-recent Intel Santa Rosa platform, compared to notebooks made by other well-known manufacturers.
I cannot run but the system I'm most comfortable and productive with on my notebook.

Well yes, this is very much of a gray area and there is never a guarantee of being able to find a solid support somewhere having purchased the notebook elsewhere let alone a frowned-upon Syria...

However, one major benefit of purchasing the notebook at the OEM's front office is that you get to assemble your computer, you can decide which optional piece to add and which optional piece to remove, a "luxury" you don't quite have here, if at all.

Can you mention some, please?

Yes, Dell Inspiron 5150 had overheating problems and some models of their notebooks, as well as the models of other major vendors including Hitachi, Toshiba, IBM and Apple were affected by battery defect problems which were Sony's, the manufacturer's, fault. Other than these, I've spotted no substantial problems with Dell notebooks, perhaps you'd like to be more specific?

Well,
-being able to carry your whole work/study environment (OS, Apps, Configurations not just your data) with you. assuming you gonna use it as you main PC for a while before travailing.
-Less down time (time without a PC)

Actually if you're not going to buy a laptop before going, then you might want to consider buying a PC there rather than a laptop (for the price of a good laptop you could buy a good PC & a good TV )

It seems from forum posts on the internet that the build quality of Dell laptops is low. The ones recommended on the forums are HP Pavillion, IBM, Sony, and Fujitsu Siemens.

Well these certainly are some positive points, but neither of them apply to me as advantages; 1. the notebook will be needed once I go nomad, until then, I can use the PC conveniently 2. s/w configuration, once the right notebook is bought, is a matter of a couple of days max 3. no significant down-time will be suffered since I will have PCs at my disposal when I arrive in Lyon. That I receieve the support I'll be paying for, and that I'll get to decide the h/w configuration of the notebook, are significant advantages of buying the notebook in France, not counting the relief of ~3kgs of airplane cargo.