ATTENTION: Dell Inspiron 1525 Owners

[Rod]

If you own, or have owned the Dell Inspiron 1525, what are your thoughts on its performance and durability? I need a new laptop and I'm leaning toward the Dell Inspiron 1525 with the following specs:

- Intel® Pentium® Dual Core T3200 (2.0GHz/667Mhz FSB/1MB cache)

- Operating System Genuine Windows Vista

- Memory 3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz

- LCD Panel High Resolution, glossy widescreen 15.4 inch display (1440x900)

How much more of a difference is this from (1280 x 800) Resolution?

- Video Card Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100

- Hard Drive Size: 250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)

- Network Integrated 10/100 Network Card

- Modem Integrated Modem

- Combo or DVD+RW Drive CD / DVD Writer (DVD+/-RW Drive)

- Sound Card High Definition Audio 2.0

- Wireless Networking Cards Dell Wireless 1505 Wireless-N Mini-card

- Camera Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam

- Battery Options 6 cell battery

Thank you~

[Show-me]

I'm on one now and have had no trouble. I bought it before I went to training in July. I don't use it for anything fancy, just surfing and trading. Performance wise I have no issues, I download pictures and videos.

Only thing I don't like about it is the keyboard. I miss the 9 digit key pad that is separate from the main keyboard. I have gotten use to it. Wireless mouse is a must.

[Show-me]

It is my first laptop so I can't tell you much more than the basics.

[Rod]

Thanx Show! I wouldn't be using a mouse, and the 9 digit key pad wouldn't make any difference to me. Thanx again for taking the time.:)

[XL-entLady]

Rod, the computer I bought last March is spec'ed out exactly like the computer you listed below except that my screen resulution only goes to 1280x800 and I bought the kind of screen that doesn't give you light glare. I also bought the long-life battery, which makes the unit weigh 13 lbs overall but the extra battery life is worth it when I'm on a project.

I love my green Inspiron 1525, except for the operating system. My experiences with Vista are that it is incompatible with many printers and other hardware, hiccups with some of my software programs, that the security holes in it are wide and still being discovered, and that it is bloat-ware and gets bigger with each nightly auto-downloaded patch. :mad:

Vista is so broken that Uncle Bill Gates is abandoning the name and introducing the next version of the MS operating system early because Vista is driving people to Apple in droves.

For what it's worth,
Lady

[ChemEng]

the unit weigh 13 lbs overall
That is a massive laptop. I have a Dell M1330 as my primary computer, and it weighs little under 4lbs. That makes a HUGE difference when you are lugging it around.

[XL-entLady]

That is a massive laptop. I have a Dell M1330 as my primary computer, and it weighs little under 4lbs. That makes a HUGE difference when you are lugging it around.
Yes it is heavy. The computer itself is 6 lbs, and the battery is another 7. I have to have a lot of battery life when I am on a project, so that was a choice I made. I have a wheeled carrier for my laptop rather than a shoulder bag, becuase my shoulder would rebel if I tried to lug my laptop through airports with a shoulder bag!

Lady

[350zCommTech]

- Video Card Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100



You won't have any fun playing any 3D accelerated games with that. Even games such as Civilization and Sim City requires a decent graphics accelerator. If you think you might play some games, I would recommend upgrading to a Nvidia GeforceGo graphics.

[EW_ret]

Yes it is heavy. The computer itself is 6 lbs, and the battery is another 7. I have to have a lot of battery life when I am on a project, so that was a choice I made. I have a wheeled carrier for my laptop rather than a shoulder bag, becuase my shoulder would rebel if I tried to lug my laptop through airports with a shoulder bag!

Lady


Is that the 9-cell extended battery, or something special? I never seen, or realized those batteries are that heavy, weighing in at 7 pounds! I agree that battery life is an important feature when buying a notebook.

I have a Toshiba Satellite P105-S6197 (17 inch LCD) that I bought 18 months ago, and it only weighs 7.2 pounds with its 6-cell battery. It only runs about 1 1/2 hours on the battery, so its battery life is low. It came with VISA Home premium which I like, but it took some time to tame the beast. The used disk space grows daily because it saves every change through the System Restore and Shadow Copies it records. I just cleaned my C:\ drive of restore and shadow copies and my used disk space went from 40.5 GB to 19.1 GB. I perform this disk cleanup before creating a backup image of the C:\ partition.

[XL-entLady]

Is that the 9-cell extended battery, or something special? I never seen, or realized those batteries are that heavy, weighing in at 7 pounds! I agree that battery life is an important feature when buying a notebook.

I have a Toshiba Satellite P105-S6197 (17 inch LCD) that I bought 18 months ago, and it only weighs 7.2 pounds with its 6-cell battery. It only runs about 1 1/2 hours on the battery, so its battery life is low. It came with VISA Home premium which I like, but it took some time to tame the beast. The used disk space grows daily because it saves every change through the System Restore and Shadow Copies it records. I just cleaned my C:\ drive of restore and shadow copies and my used disk space went from 40.5 GB to 19.1 GB. I perform this disk cleanup before creating a backup image of the C:\ partition.
Yes, 9-cell extended. I can get 6 hours of hard use out of it. Thanks for the tip on cleaning shadow copies. I'll try it!

Lady

[Rod]

Thank you for your feedback!

I finally have a new laptop. This is what I decided to purchase:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9053098&type=product&id=1218012529416

I'm quite happy with it.