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- Average user rating:
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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4 out of 4 people found this review helpful
5.0 stars
"No problems others have experienced"
Pros: Build-to-order from Dell website, good battery life, downgradable, light for it's size.
Cons: Glossy screen is not good with light source directly behind user shining onto screen (outside in strong daylight). Would have preferred an option for a black interior (keys and hand rests).
Summary: I should say that after I received mine I made a few changes. First being that I ordered a 250gig drive with mine but my plan all along was to downgrade to XP Pro so I got a good deal on a 320 gig drive and bought that to install XP Pro. Much of what I use regularly does not like Vista so I opted to downgrade so I might be dodging some of the problems others are having.
I am a heavy user and my 1525 is on 24 hours a day for much of the time just allowing the blank screensaver to kick in on durations of no activity. I have owned mine 3 months now and have not had any problems. The fan is actually a bit quieter than the one in my C640 that the 1525 replaces. The glossy screen issue in bright light is not one for me as I rarely need to use it in such bright enviroments.
I do miss the swapping ability of the DVD drive that allowed another hard drive in it's place but minor when are so many USB options. I use old laptop hard drives as external with USB cases that let them power right off the USB port.
The touchpad issue I've not experienced either but I can say a light touch will cause erractic movement so I recommend solid contact with the surface. I use an optical mouse except when not at home so I cannot say much about the touchpad over time.
I do wish there were graphics card options but as much as I read this can't do gaming very well I play Spore with no issues. Extremely intensive games I suppose could suffer but I have read some laptops with more horsepower than this one are unable to run it graphically so I can't complain.
Mine is the 1.86Ghz Dual Core model w/3gig memory. I would not recommend any computer these days below 1.7Ghz as it seems with each new incarnation of software they need more drive, memory, and CPU speed.
Overall based on my own personal experience I say for a build-it-yourself on the Dell website I say it is a good deal and if you surf around you can find online discounts that can be applied on the Dell site at the time of order.
Thus far I am quite pleased with mine. If that changes you can be sure I will report on that as well.
