Which is better in the long run? A supposedly new Atari 65XE from Mexico or a used Atari 800 XL?

[Mazzspeed]

15 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

2) There are something like seven different keyboards in different production runs of these. There's a thread here about it. Some of them are good, some are pretty bad. I've had both myself. (I don't remember which keyboard my current XL has, but it's not one of the better ones.)

I'm pretty sure there's four different keyboards in the XL range. Two are good, two are reported as not so good.

[+kheller2]

The original question was what was better in the long run: a used 800XL or NOS 65XE from Mexico.  That is a hard question to answer, but my gut would tell me the 800XL.  This question has nothing to do with aesthetics but build quality and reliability.  Heck if you wanted a tank, a CHELCO 600XL/800XL is the way to go (assuming you are ignoring the 800).

 

We can argue discuss all day the merits and demerits of each XL motherboard revision, let alone the XE versions and the XE vs XL perceived quality.  

 

For someone getting into the 8bits and just wanting to play around, and maybe expand in the future easily, I have to recommend the early 800XLs.  Now, if you don't want to do a darn thing soldering wise and want to use Chroma/Luma SVID out of the box then you have to go with anything other than a XL, but I would HIGHLY recommend just adding that feature to the afore mentioned XL.

 

I look at it this way: If I'm 'puter hunting and have no idea if the XL or XE works, I bet the XL will or it will certainly be easier to repair.  If someone is offering working version of both units then it comes down to which is prettier (and which you feel will last longer.. which get's into the "how easy is it to repair when it does fail" questions once again).

[svenski]

I'd go with an 800XL personally, I just find them to be a better quality machine overall. The Mexico 65XEs were pretty much the end of the line so any corners Atari could cut would have been cut.

 

If you want something new in box for collecting purposes then go for it.