Adequate but not Great Work Machine
Written: Jul 04 '00
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Pros: display, processor speed
Cons: standby, battery time, sturdiness
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| arsteinh's Full Review: Dell Inspiron 3500 A400GT |
I use my Inspiron 3500 as my work machine and I am mostly satisfied with its performance. I feel when choosing a laptop for work, you should value different accessories and features than for a personal computer. I feel screen size and resolution ability are the two biggest features along with the overall laptop size. RAM and hard disk size are also important; even more important than processor speed. For work, you don't need quick processing time required to play the newest games. I like to be able to have a lot of different windows open at one time and be able to scroll through the different screens. The Dell Inspiron 3500 allows me to be my most effective at work.
Its certainly not the smallest laptop available. If you want something extremely light weight and portable, go with a Sony Vaio. However, with a 14" screen size, the laptop's overall size is reasonable, and I would much rather carry the extra weight and be able to have a larger viewable area. Furthermore, it is capable of 1024 X 786 resolution which is about as good as you can get with a laptop with a 14" screen. Furthermore, the Pentium II 400 MHz processor is adequate for running most office applications. The 64 Megs of RAM is also adequate, although I believe 128 would make this computer even better. Same goes for the 4 gigs of Hard Drive space. Its adequate, but more would be better. Since I did not pay for the laptop, I cannot judge whether it is more worthwhile to go for a model with more RAM and disk space in relation to the cost.
Another features important when evaluating a laptop is battery life. The 3500 seems to be able to last about 2 hours before dying. I do not use the computer when I'm out of the office very often, but when I do, two hours is barely adequate. That is, its enough time for me to get some of my work done on the airplane, but I could certainly use another hour or so.
I do not consider the CD-ROM speed to be important; however the 24X work well enough. The floppy drive cannot be attached at the same time as the CD-ROM without the use of of an adapter cable, but this is basically a nonissue. There are 2 PCMCIA slots which are both used up by my Xircom 10/100+ Modem card. It claims to be a 56K modem, but it rarely works the fast. However, I'm usually plugged into a T1 network, so again, as a work machine, this is perfect.
I have only two major gripes. One is that the standby feature does not work well. When the machine goes into standby, I often don't notice and think its turned off. Then rather than resuming from standby, I end up hitting the power switch and turning the whole machine off. This is not the proper way to shut down the computer. I've disabled the standby function and would encourage you to do the same thing. My second complaint is that the case is somewhat fragile. When I originally received the laptop, the case and display were cracked during shipping. I had to wait another 2 weeks for a replacement, and since I've tried to be very careful with it to avoid more cracking. Sometimes I can feel it bend delicately with the slightest movement.
My previous laptop was the Dell Inspiron 3200, which was a complete piece of junk. Therefore, the 3500 was an extremely nice upgrade. Bigger screen, faster processor, more RAM, more everything. I would not recommend the 3200. However, if you need a simple work laptop, the 3500 is acceptable.
Recommended:
Yes
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium II
Processor speed: 301-400
Screen Size: 14"
RAM: 64
Internal Storage: CD-ROM
Hard Drive (GB): 4-6
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Epinions.com ID:
arsteinh
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Location: San Francisco, Ca
Reviews written: 18
Trusted by: 5 members
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