Dell Laptop, £352 Delivered Vista or XP, Good Spec?

tony863

I have been lookin for ages for a laptop and I remember a thread not too long ago with a Dell Laptop of pretty similar spec to this one...

The ones in the previous thread had a bigger hard drive and were slightly cheaper but this does seem a really good deal??

Any comments would be really well appreciated, thanks

The one with windows vista is this one:

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&oc=N05152

The one with windows xp is this one:

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&oc=N05152XP

The basic spec of the system is below:

AMD® Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL50
Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition or Vista - English
Collect & Return, 90 Day Service only
15.4" Wide Screen XGA TFT Display: 1280x800
1024MB 533MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x512)
80GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
256MB ATI ® Radeon® Xpress 1150 HyperMemory™
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software
4 cell Lithium-Ion Battery (29 Whr)
Dell™ Wireless 1390 802.11b/g Mini-PCI Card (for AMD Processors)
No Carry Case
No Security/Anti-Virus Protection - English
Microsoft® Works 8.0 - English
No Photo Organising & Sharing Software/No Photo Editing Software

And if the above links don't work, try going through this page:

http://www.dmxdimension.com/blogcategory/dell_uk_inspiron_1501.html


Hope this helps someone:D

tony863

Oh, and just before anyone says, remember to take the return service to 30 days, otherwise it will be £452

DiscworldLibrarian

first thing, for an extra £11 ish you can upgrade the battery to a 6 cell version... you really really want to do that!

Vista is going to be the standard, but there has been compatibility issues with various software houses, so if you want the latest OS then go with it, but be aware you may have teething issues... plus it's the Home version (Basic version, whatever it's called) which means no aero interface.

Memory and hard drive are fine... the AMD processors are slower and more power intensive than their Intel counterparts, but they're also a lot cheaper.

It's not bad, especially for that price, but you asked for any advice... those are a few things I would consider.

I would stretch a few pounds more (if I had them at the moment!) and go with the N05153/N05153XP. I'm guessing you're trying to go for sub £400, and this one will still just about squeeze under there with the 6 cell battery.

AMD® Turion 64 X2 Mobile TL52 Vista™ Business/XP Proffessional 15.4" WXGA 1024MB 120GB 256MB ATI Radeon® Xpress 1150 8x DVD Writer £387 N05153/N05153XP

As I said, 6 cell battery adds around £11... so you're looking around £398 there... and for the difference (£36) you're getting a better OS, more hard drive and a slightly faster processor

Best of luck!

Kellm9

Tony,

Yes this is the same spec as the one I bought about a month ago via a post on these boards. I think it's a damn fine laptop, does everything I need it for and since it's wireless I dont have to sit at my desk.

I like the Windows Vista, it took a bit getting used to swapping between XP on my desktop but does pretty much the same. I don't game on it or run power apps etc so can't really comment on graphics. I can only say they look great on normal apps and surfing etc

The previous Dell 1501 that I got was £329, also go through Quidco for cashback of 5% which on this is £17.60 making this offer £334.

Not sure why but some people are paying way over this on Ebay for lower spec and not from Dell. I wonder why . They must be caught in the "it's on Ebay it must be a deal" frame of mind.

£$&*"($£&(

I'm not sure that buying a laptop with a 90 day warranty is a good idea. I thought new products have to have a years warranty.

Nostromo

grahawk wrote: »

I'm not sure that buying a laptop with a 90 day warranty is a good idea. I thought new products have to have a years warranty.

It does have a years warranty the 90 day thing just means upto 90 days Dell will collect the laptop fix it then send it back without charge.After that its up to you pay for shipping charges.

beer2006

I've been looking for a laptop as well. I don't think I'd go for one that I couldn't extend its warranty to 3 years, reasonably cheaply.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I have this feeling laptops go wrong alot.

SenorGroucho

I've been looking for a laptop for months and the Dell range in this price band seem to offer the best deal. I've just ordered a 6400 with intel core duo with 1 year collect and return warranty for £385 after quidco...doesn't seem much else around at that price.

beer2006

I'm still undecided whether to go for a 17" screen or a 15".
Neither of our eyes are brilliant, so a 17" would be better from that point of view, but we also are planning to have the laptop on our laps quite a bit, so a 17" presumably is heavier.
Would anyone care to add their experience?

Guessing it would be acer if it was a 17". They have what seems good prices for these.

sockpuppetuk

beer2006 wrote: »

I'm still undecided whether to go for a 17" screen or a 15".
Neither of our eyes are brilliant, so a 17" would be better from that point of view, but we also are planning to have the laptop on our laps quite a bit, so a 17" presumably is heavier.
Would anyone care to add their experience?

Guessing it would be acer if it was a 17". They have what seems good prices for these.

I bought a 17" Acer from Tesco a few weeks ago for my dad who has pretty bad eyesight and it is fine for him, he struggled with a 15".
It was £379 if I remember correctly and had a gig of memory, vista premium and a sempron chip but Vista runs fine.
I have XP Pro on my laptop and much prefer it though .. but I read somewhere Microsoft were thinking of dropping support for XP early next year.

jayne.doe

I have a Packard Bell 17" widescreen. £399 from curry`s 7 months ago. Its not heavy and i use it on my lap or the arm of the chair all the time.

Beer i dont know why you think laptops go more wrong than say a PC. The laptop is all built in therefore less to go wrong. Prior to this one i had a laptop for yrs. One of my children dropped it and broke the screen but i never had any problems with it prior to that.:)