Freakitchen
01-29-2006, 11:44 AM
I'm not entirely sure of the value of this review, since I'm unaware of the availability of this laptop outside the UK. I thought, however, it was worth a review if only to contribute something to the forums.
This line of notebooks is Dell's most basic, though the model I chose was not the base. Specs are as follows:
Intel Celeron-M 1.4, 1MB L2 Cache
512 DDR PC3200 Memory
Integrated graphics
60GB HD
DVD-RW
15" Widescreen
6-Cell battery (3.5 hours claimed).
Integrated wireless
Using a special offer, I picked this up online for £450 inc. tax and delivery, reduced from £539. Delivery was excellent, arriving within 3 days of ordering despite a 7-10 day claim.
The laptop itself is nice looking, and surprisingly light - given its size and increased battery over the standard 4-cell. I find the widescreen display very pleasant to look at, since I use a 19" Widescreen on my desktop. It certainly gives more desktop space than my old, 14" Acer laptop.
All other physical aspects of this machine demonstrate quality, despite the budget price. Without being a heavyweight, it feels well screwed together. The keyboard is also fine and well laid out so that there is plenty of room for your wrists. The integrated wireless is a nice function
There are, however, some downsides. The touchpad buttons feel like a cross between buttons, and 'pressure pads' - that is to say, having enough resistance to require some 'press', without feeling suitably 'chunky'. Perhaps this is a personal preference of mine, but it gives nothing but a sense of 'uncertainty' as to the amount of pressure needed. Another small, annoying point, is the location of the three USB ports on the left of the machine. Whilst fine for most use, it means that using a right-handed USB notebook mouse, with a small cable, leaves very little slack. Perhaps a chordless mouse would have been a better choice.
Obviously, the machine comes pre-loaded with Windows XP. Unfortunately, this is not all it comes with. A plethora of software comes pre-loaded, too, and whilst this might be fine for casual users who accept being told what to use, it annoyed this experienced user. No less than three ISP's software came on this machine, all instantly hitting the user with 'click next, and have your credit card details ready' dialogues onfirst boot, in addition to numerous 30 day trials of various software. Eventually, I chose a full re-install, using my own XP media and the laptop's CD key.
Perhaps that was less than objective, I don't doubt that the majority of DELL's customers would have welcomed bundled software to have their machine working 'out of the box', nor do I doubt that other laptop manufacturers do exactly the same. Just something to be aware of.
Once I was happy with my XP environment, however, the qualities of this machine quickly became apparent. The battery life, although there's no such thing as a 'scientific' test, seems to approach the quoted time when keeping usage to net-surfing and word processing. The internal fan is virtually silent, too. Moreover, I was most impressed with the high-spec of this machine in contrast to its rivals in the same price bracket; 512MB of memory and a DVD Burner were not to be found elsewhere for the money.
Laptops, of course, are getting more and more 'generic' these days. Despite this, I think that this guise of the DELL Inspiron 1300 is certainly a 'cut above' anything else available for the price at the time of writing.
**************************************************
Hope that made sense, and was somewhat useful to everyone.
Freakitchen
This line of notebooks is Dell's most basic, though the model I chose was not the base. Specs are as follows:
Intel Celeron-M 1.4, 1MB L2 Cache
512 DDR PC3200 Memory
Integrated graphics
60GB HD
DVD-RW
15" Widescreen
6-Cell battery (3.5 hours claimed).
Integrated wireless
Using a special offer, I picked this up online for £450 inc. tax and delivery, reduced from £539. Delivery was excellent, arriving within 3 days of ordering despite a 7-10 day claim.
The laptop itself is nice looking, and surprisingly light - given its size and increased battery over the standard 4-cell. I find the widescreen display very pleasant to look at, since I use a 19" Widescreen on my desktop. It certainly gives more desktop space than my old, 14" Acer laptop.
All other physical aspects of this machine demonstrate quality, despite the budget price. Without being a heavyweight, it feels well screwed together. The keyboard is also fine and well laid out so that there is plenty of room for your wrists. The integrated wireless is a nice function
There are, however, some downsides. The touchpad buttons feel like a cross between buttons, and 'pressure pads' - that is to say, having enough resistance to require some 'press', without feeling suitably 'chunky'. Perhaps this is a personal preference of mine, but it gives nothing but a sense of 'uncertainty' as to the amount of pressure needed. Another small, annoying point, is the location of the three USB ports on the left of the machine. Whilst fine for most use, it means that using a right-handed USB notebook mouse, with a small cable, leaves very little slack. Perhaps a chordless mouse would have been a better choice.
Obviously, the machine comes pre-loaded with Windows XP. Unfortunately, this is not all it comes with. A plethora of software comes pre-loaded, too, and whilst this might be fine for casual users who accept being told what to use, it annoyed this experienced user. No less than three ISP's software came on this machine, all instantly hitting the user with 'click next, and have your credit card details ready' dialogues onfirst boot, in addition to numerous 30 day trials of various software. Eventually, I chose a full re-install, using my own XP media and the laptop's CD key.
Perhaps that was less than objective, I don't doubt that the majority of DELL's customers would have welcomed bundled software to have their machine working 'out of the box', nor do I doubt that other laptop manufacturers do exactly the same. Just something to be aware of.
Once I was happy with my XP environment, however, the qualities of this machine quickly became apparent. The battery life, although there's no such thing as a 'scientific' test, seems to approach the quoted time when keeping usage to net-surfing and word processing. The internal fan is virtually silent, too. Moreover, I was most impressed with the high-spec of this machine in contrast to its rivals in the same price bracket; 512MB of memory and a DVD Burner were not to be found elsewhere for the money.
Laptops, of course, are getting more and more 'generic' these days. Despite this, I think that this guise of the DELL Inspiron 1300 is certainly a 'cut above' anything else available for the price at the time of writing.
**************************************************
Hope that made sense, and was somewhat useful to everyone.
Freakitchen