Dell laptop recommendations?

me ^ | 3/16/08

[LouAvul]

I'm looking at laptops and like Dell. I just bought an Optiplex desktop and like it fine.

The laptop I'm considering is the Dell XPS M1530 with the following features:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5450 (2MB cache/1.66GHz/667Mhz FSB)

Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition

Glossy, widescreen 15.4 inch LCD (1280x800) & 2.0 MP Camera

Slot Load DVD+/-RW (DVD/CD read/write)

1GB1 Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms)

Size: 120GB2 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive

128MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8400M GS

High Definition Audio 2.0

Dell Wireless 1490 802.11a/g Mini Card

56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery

I'm not into gaming or anything, but use it for business to transmit rather large graphics files, word processing, excel, etc.

I've heard the XPS is better than the Inspiron series, and that's why I'm considering it. Any suggestions (other than, "Buy a Mac!")?

[eaglegso]

I bought a Dell Vostro, and I love it! It screams with good speed! Just get good Internet protection, and you’ll be fine. I really like the laptop!

[aruanan]

Any suggestions (other than, "Buy a Mac!")?

I see you've tamped your ears with wax and have tied yourself to the ship's mast. We use Dells running XP on our lab's Hitachi DNA sequencing machines. And we do this only because Applied Biosciences has produced software only for that. For everything else, such as servers for ordering, machines for analysis and editing, posting results, maintaining databases, we use Macs. Over the past 14 years since beginning grad school, I've been in labs with both Macs and PCs. The PCs invariably require much more TLC from IT than the Macs and for the simplest of things. With the newer Macs, the thing to tell people who complain about the availability of software, PCs versus Macs, (since that's about the last claim for superiority) is, "If you want to be able to run nearly anything out there including PC software, get a Mac. If you want to be limited to PC software, get a PC."

[MainFrame65]

My 14-month old HP2125dr died 10 days ago, and I had to go back to my 1995 IBM 600x for the past week while Best Buy tries to resurrect it under their extended warranty.

I really use a notebook for portability. I take notes on it whin I take classes, and I use it for record keeping, demonstrations, and slide presentations when I am teaching classes. I also use it for Mensa meeting minutes. Since I use it in many different locations, portability, ruggedness, battery life, and usability under adverse conditions are VERY important to me.

HP’s “Tru-brite” screen is unusable in sunlight, which might matter to you.

After a year, the battery will only keep it running for less than an hour. I could install an extra battery in my old IBM600, but not the HP. Now the 120 Gb disk (or at least access to it) died after 14 months, so reliability is questionable as well.

If communications matter to you, try to wait for something with 802.11N built in, or plan to use an adapter - and make sure that you have a slot available for it.

Get 2 GB if available, and the biggest disk offered.

[MarkL]

For what it's worth, I bought an Inspiron 8100 P-III 1GHz system not quite 7 years ago, and it's still in use. For about 3 1/2 years, I used it every day both at the office and on-site, and when I wasn't using it, it was in a bag, rattling around in my car's trunk.

Then, about 3 years ago, a cousin begged me to sell it to her, and I really tried to talk her out of it, but she insisted. I told her the history of it, but since I was out of work at the time, I really needed the money. Well, it's been sitting on her breakfast nook ever since, and they use it to check the news and stocks every morning over breakfast.

Utterly reliable (at least that one was).

Mark

[GATOR NAVY]

I have a two year old Dell Inspiron running XP that’s on pretty much every day and I’ve never had any problems with it. I bought it because on my last ship we used a older Dell laptop with NT to run our navigation displays. That computer ran 24/7 every time we were underway, including eight and six month deployments and never crashed on its own.

[Snoopers-868th]

Very interesting the poster never responds.

[LouAvul]

I'm reading the comments. Still haven't made up my mind.

What does anyone know about Dell small business laptops? Vostro? Latitude?

[LouAvul]

Is it going to be used with work too

Yes, primarily for work.

[LouAvul]

I have a Dell Latitude D630 with Vista and it has been as smooth as silk for me.

That's what I'm thinking. What about Vostro? Any difference?

[LouAvul]

I bought a Dell Vostro, and I love it!

That's what I'm thinking. Plus, the Vostro has XP as an option. The XPS only offers Vista.