This is really more a review of Dell's warranty than of the laptop itself, but as there was no section for such a thing I thought I'd combine the two.
The laptop: It's a good little machine with pretty good specs for its price. You can already get more for your money than when we bought it just a few months ago, so check the current offers (make sure to look around the Web site, as I found by clicking on various offers I got the same machine for less) You can also now get a free upgrade to Windows 7 when that comes out later this year. It's fast, cute, and does everything we need. You can get it in a variety of colors, either for free if there is an offer on or for about 30 quid otherwise. Black is free whether an offer is on or not. Also, some have said it's not good for gaming -- that is probably only true if you are a hardcore gamer. My husband really enjoys this laptop for playing games, but that is not the laptop's main purpose for him and anyone who wants a gaming machine probably needs to do some research.
It doesn't have indicator lights showing when the hard drive is working or when wifi is connected or when it's running on battery power (like my old Dell Inspiron does). Some people hate that. I'm not too bothered as I rarely paid attention to those lights, anyway. It also has buttons on the keypad to let you mute or change volume, which is very nice as my husband's last laptop didn't have that and it seemed to take forever for him to get the volume down if an ad popped up or a page had music! My current laptop has the "media" keys on the edge of the case facing me, which I like best, but having them on the keypad is a nice second-best option. The laptop also feels a bit lighter and flimsier than our last Dell laptops that were bought four years ago.
The Specs of our laptop: 3 gig of RAM 250 gb hard drive Intel Celeron Dual Core T1600 (1.66 ghz, 667mhz, 1MB) Vista Home Premium 4-year in-home warranty support 4-year accidental damage support Total Cost (including warranties): £660
The Warranty: Now here is what I really love! We've already had two mishaps with this computer (husband is bad to drop or spill), and it was repaired quickly in our home at no cost to us. The first problem took about a week for someone to come fix because a part was not in, and the second took about 5 days -- but we reported it just before the weekend, and when someone came out after 4 days a second problem had developed from the spill, so someone else had to come with a second part the next day.
The 4 years of accidental damage support cost £129 on top of the 4-year package for extended warranty (can't recall what that cost; something like £89? Maybe £100?). Those warranties have already more than paid for themselves. We'll want to replace this laptop in four years, so it's covered from any clutzy mishaps for the entire time we'll be using it. Really, really pleased with this warranty! That said, we had this same warranty on our last Dell Inspirons (we each had one; I'm still using my old one), except it was for three years instead of four, and never once had to file a claim - though we both developed problems in the fourth year with our computers and wished we had the four-year warranty.
The warranty is quite pricey if you never have a problem, but it really has come in handy for us this time and means a lot of peace of mind! I'll be getting these warranties on my next Dell when I replace my current laptop later this year (the Dell we just bought was for my husband).
Also, these warranties can be transferred to another country. If you move, just contact dell in that country and transfer the warranty over. It was also possible to order it with a U.S. keyboard layout, which we wanted and could find no other company in the UK that would do that for us.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: The look of the dell inspiron laptop seems more classy then other notepads. It is simplistic. Disadvantages: Maybe Dell Have gone too simplistic with this model as the features are nothing to rave about
Advantages: Easy to use, perfect for storing vast amounts of data, very big hard drive! Disadvantages: No webcam, poor battery life when watching films/episodes
Advantages: Easy to use, perfect for storing vast amounts of data, very big hard drive! Disadvantages: No webcam, poor battery life when watching films/episodes
Aug 6th, 2009
very helpful by (100%):
