Better than a desktop
Written: Apr 17 '04
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Pros: cheap, equal to desktop
Cons: lack of enough USB ports.
The Bottom Line: For the college student, small businessman, or person who just wants a smaller computer that is portable, this is the BEST choice
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| godzthunder's Full Review: Dell Inspiron 1100 (1100SAP) PC Notebook |
Ok, I have a child, a 10 month old. I also have a home office where I do the majority of my business on my computer, particularly over the internet. A home office is no place for a baby and a living room/play room is no place for a desktop/slew of office tools. The compromise was to find a PC that could travel to any room of the house while keeping the full power of a desktop pc.
What I found was the Dell Inspiron 1100. I stayed with Dell (the desktop was a dell as is my handheld pocketpc but those are other reviews) because they have a great "award winning" customer service. They have been more than helpful on occasion and they are quick to accept blame if they trouble is on their end of the hardware user agreement, something you just don't find in tech support agencies anymore. I will say that the customer service is well worth the purchase of a Dell but customer service is not the hardware itself sooo...
This unit is every bit as good as a desktop. Granted that on a typical desktop you need only 256MB to comfortably run Windows XP but on the lap top you really should have 512MB. There is a downside here in that this is the maximum amount of memory you can have BUT unless you are trying to run twenty full programs at one time, you DO NOT NEEED ANYMORE!!! With even 256MB this computer runs smooth and pretty fast with little or no hang-ups.
My computer runs on a celeron 2.2ghz and has a 30GB hard drive. I run 256MB of memory and I have a DVD rom drive. The only real review I can givce this unit is that so far I cannot really tell a difference between this and the desktop I had, which was a pentium 4 2.0 gzh w/256MB. It can take a little longer for programs to load, hence my desire to upgrade to 512MB which I feel will end that small qualm. In addition I have added a wireless lan card to the cardbus (sadly there is only one type 2 slot where most other laptops have two slots that can either fit two type 2 cards or one type 3).
This unit has most every periphial you can imagine from built in modem to built in LAN to seiral port. My one true complain about the hardware of the unit is that there are only TWO USB ports but at least they are USB 2.0. None of my programs run differently on my laptop than they did on the desktop, which is what really counts.
All in all I must admit that it is truly wonderful to have a computer that I can take literally anywhere. Several coffee shops, taco bells & shops have wireless ports that offer free internet so I truly can take my business EVERYWHERE.
The battery is very nice also, it gives me three hours of semi-heavy usage and is quick to charge.
Compared to other laptop units there is not much difference. I have tried various gateways VAIOs & HP's. While I prefered the HP because of its integration of SD slots I must admit that down to the wire there is no difference in speed, power and usability. It comes down to what built in perphials you want, such as the SD reader, number of USB ports, PS/2 ports, etc. The cost of the dell is far lower than her competitors and you do not lose MUCH anything for the difference that can actually be of use to the average user.
All in all this is THE best laptop on the market for the just wanting to surf the net or use a word processor or do basic computing. This is the BEST laptop for a college student or small businessman.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 650
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Celeron
Processor speed: 201-300
Screen Size: 15 inches
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 21-30
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Epinions.com ID:
godzthunder
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Location: Augusta, GA
Reviews written: 57
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
Southern Baptist Pastor, Teacher
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