Dell Inspiron 14 user reviews (Intel Core 2 Duo T6600)

5.0 stars

"It Really Inspires!" on October 26, 2009 by MrMurder

Pros: Touch gesture trackpad, cheap, fast Pentium Dual-Core processor, very nice design, free Windows 7 upgrade, small power brick, excellent keyboard, memory is upgradeble to 8 GB, WLED screen.

Cons: Wimpy 4-cell battery, somewhat poor speakers, Vista Home Premium 64-bit, lacks indicator lights, uses older DDR2 memory, glossy design is a fingerprint magnet, tons of "crapware" installed, funky funciton thing.

Summary: This laptop is amazing. I bought one with a Pentium Dual-Core T4200, 4 GB of DDR2 SDRAM @ 800 MHz, the Intel GMA X4500MHD, a Dell Wireless N card, a WLED-backlit screen w/1366x768 resolution, and a 320 GB hard drive for $524. It performs very well with these configurations. If you're a student, you'll find the lack of HDMI to be somewhat of a benifit since your dad can't hook it up to your HDTV and watch sports (if your HDTV doesn't have VGA). It is also very light, and is usually cool. Also, the graphics processor is powerful enough to play HD video on Youtube, but you'll need a Core 2 Duo w/1066 MHz FSB to play Blu-ray. It appears that a majority of laptops these days have a glossy design (which is a finger print magnet), and so does the Inspiron 14. No wonder lapotps are so cheap. If you want to see the least amount of fingerprints, I would suggest getting the Alpine White cover. Although, the weak point of this laptop is a 4-cell battery. A 4-cell battery only lasts about 2 hours. I would suggest a 6-cell battery if you want battery life with expanding the lapotp's dimensions, which the 9-cell battery does. Some surprising features of this laptop are an LED screen (it uses white LEDs, which are cheaper yet provide lower picture quality compared to the RGB LEDs found optional in the Studio XPS lapotps) and a touch gesture track pad. The laptop does have media keys, but their actually the function buttons. So if you want use the actual function buttons, you have to press the Fn key along with the function button. Overall, I think it's a great laptop as it is targeted towards students. I think Dell is the best brand above all others.