My 3-year old Inspiron 1501 is about done. Doesn't seem to hold a charge even though I recently replaced the battery. I work for a small company, and they leave it up to me to determine what best meets my needs.
1_What is your budget?
Want to spend $1,000 or less.
2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Either a 16” true matte/anti-glare screen or a 12-14”. 16” is a nice desktop replacement size, but the anti-glare screens are hard to find. So, a better travel laptop would be 12-14”. If I get that, I’m also likely to get a separate monitor for use when I’m in the home office – so a laptop that’s easy to hook up to an external monitor (ideally when closed?) would be good. (My current Inspiron 1501 turns off when I close it, my New Lenovo netbook does not).
3_What screen resolution do you want?
Not so picky about that. No real game playing or videos. Spreadsheets, text documents, and presentations are my main uses.
4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
12-14” would be portable, 16” would be less so, but would be used that way. I’m disinclined to get a 16” unless it has a true anti-glare screen.
5_How much battery life do you need?
The more the better. A reasonably low power draw processor (for what I do) with a decent battery would be optimum. I sometimes find myself on very long flights. I realize I may need to do some software tweaking to optimize battery life.
6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low, Medium or High)?
I don’t think the games I play (FreeCell and Solitaire) really count in this regard.
7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing, watching movies, Etc.)
The most graphics-intensive thing I do is probably cutting and pasting images (photos and pdf drawings) into proposals. So, no high-end graphics card needed. Probably best to think of a low-power consumption card.
8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
Right now I’ve been using an 80 GB Inspiron 1501 for 3+ years. There are 40 GB stored on it, and most of that is Outlook PST files. So, size is not very important, say 250 GB or so – towards the low end of what’s on the market now, but with an eye towards longevity.
9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them.
I like Newegg and have purchased from Dell. And I have no problem buying from Best Buy or Staples (both have stores locally) if they have something suitable. I did a walk-through at Staples recently, and saw all glossy screens – which is part of what got me thinking I should seek some opinions on this. Would like to avoid getting too much bloatware, as some vendors like to do.
10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
Durability is very important to me, goal would be 3 years.
11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer, Bluray ROM/Writer, Etc?
No special needs here. To be able to burn data CDs would be sufficient. And I can always get an external drive for that. Internal would be nice, but is not absolutely essential.
12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
My desktops have all been locally made and/or upgrades I’ve done. Just built a new Windows 7 system that I’m gradually getting set up the way I want it. Laptops are a bit fussy that way, as there’s less that’s easily user-upgrade-able (from the hardware side).
I’ve got a Lenova S-12 Netbook I like for home use. They’ve done a surprisingly good job with the keyboard for such a small machine. The screen size is smaller than I’m used to, but the compactness is wonderful. Would be great for travel. The glossy screen would not be preferred for extended desktop use, but is fine for general use at home. And it’s got Windows 7, which partially inspired me to build the new desktop. I don’t need the built-in webcam, and hate the Veriface logon. Need to strip that off when I get the chance.
The Inspiron 1501 has been ok to work with. Battery life has recently become an issue, but was ok for a long time (had one of the 9-cell batteries). Seems a bit flimsy at times – there’s a little plastic bit including the hard drive indicator light that’s taped in place and a screw has fallen out of the bottom. But it’s old, so these things aren’t that bad. Biggest issue has been it has been rather high maintenance with large Outlook PST files in Outlook 2003 – have had to do lots of archiving to separate PST files. But they're all on that bard drive now. That should be solved when I get the new laptop. We’re all migrating to Outlook 2007 to be compatible with a rollout of Salesforce across the company.
13_What country do you live in?
USA
14_Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Any links you want to suggest on easing the migration from an old to a new laptop would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance
1_What is your budget?
Want to spend $1,000 or less.
2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Either a 16” true matte/anti-glare screen or a 12-14”. 16” is a nice desktop replacement size, but the anti-glare screens are hard to find. So, a better travel laptop would be 12-14”. If I get that, I’m also likely to get a separate monitor for use when I’m in the home office – so a laptop that’s easy to hook up to an external monitor (ideally when closed?) would be good. (My current Inspiron 1501 turns off when I close it, my New Lenovo netbook does not).
3_What screen resolution do you want?
Not so picky about that. No real game playing or videos. Spreadsheets, text documents, and presentations are my main uses.
4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
12-14” would be portable, 16” would be less so, but would be used that way. I’m disinclined to get a 16” unless it has a true anti-glare screen.
5_How much battery life do you need?
The more the better. A reasonably low power draw processor (for what I do) with a decent battery would be optimum. I sometimes find myself on very long flights. I realize I may need to do some software tweaking to optimize battery life.
6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low, Medium or High)?
I don’t think the games I play (FreeCell and Solitaire) really count in this regard.
7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing, watching movies, Etc.)
The most graphics-intensive thing I do is probably cutting and pasting images (photos and pdf drawings) into proposals. So, no high-end graphics card needed. Probably best to think of a low-power consumption card.
8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
Right now I’ve been using an 80 GB Inspiron 1501 for 3+ years. There are 40 GB stored on it, and most of that is Outlook PST files. So, size is not very important, say 250 GB or so – towards the low end of what’s on the market now, but with an eye towards longevity.
9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them.
I like Newegg and have purchased from Dell. And I have no problem buying from Best Buy or Staples (both have stores locally) if they have something suitable. I did a walk-through at Staples recently, and saw all glossy screens – which is part of what got me thinking I should seek some opinions on this. Would like to avoid getting too much bloatware, as some vendors like to do.
10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
Durability is very important to me, goal would be 3 years.
11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer, Bluray ROM/Writer, Etc?
No special needs here. To be able to burn data CDs would be sufficient. And I can always get an external drive for that. Internal would be nice, but is not absolutely essential.
12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
My desktops have all been locally made and/or upgrades I’ve done. Just built a new Windows 7 system that I’m gradually getting set up the way I want it. Laptops are a bit fussy that way, as there’s less that’s easily user-upgrade-able (from the hardware side).
I’ve got a Lenova S-12 Netbook I like for home use. They’ve done a surprisingly good job with the keyboard for such a small machine. The screen size is smaller than I’m used to, but the compactness is wonderful. Would be great for travel. The glossy screen would not be preferred for extended desktop use, but is fine for general use at home. And it’s got Windows 7, which partially inspired me to build the new desktop. I don’t need the built-in webcam, and hate the Veriface logon. Need to strip that off when I get the chance.
The Inspiron 1501 has been ok to work with. Battery life has recently become an issue, but was ok for a long time (had one of the 9-cell batteries). Seems a bit flimsy at times – there’s a little plastic bit including the hard drive indicator light that’s taped in place and a screw has fallen out of the bottom. But it’s old, so these things aren’t that bad. Biggest issue has been it has been rather high maintenance with large Outlook PST files in Outlook 2003 – have had to do lots of archiving to separate PST files. But they're all on that bard drive now. That should be solved when I get the new laptop. We’re all migrating to Outlook 2007 to be compatible with a rollout of Salesforce across the company.
13_What country do you live in?
USA
14_Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Any links you want to suggest on easing the migration from an old to a new laptop would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance
/accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=310-8814
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