Dell Latitude D420 Battery |
Posted: March 4, 2014 |
The Dell Inspiron 1100 is Dell’s entry into the ring for the budget notebook class. A Celeron based notebook, this system provides for some of the fastest performances and greatest battery life among the competitors in the budget class. The price of the Inspiron 1100 can be had as low as $700, an amazing price for a decent notebook. Of course though, you can’t expect it all from a notebook of this price range. Its a bulky machine with poor sound, no integrated wireless and few to none standards bells and whistles. The most basic configuration for a Dell Inspiron 1100 will give you everything you need for basic work and play. The base configuration includes a 2GHz Celeron processor, 256MB of 266MHz DDR SDRAM, a 14.1-inch screen (XGA 1,024×768 resolution), a CD drive and 20GB 4,200rpm hard drive. You can of course configure the Dell Inspiron 1100 to your hearts desire using the Dell.com online shopping site. For instance, you could include a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 CPU, 1GB of RAM, DVD/CD-RW combo drive, 40GB hard drive with 5400rm and up to a 15-inch XGA display. In other words, you can turn a budget laptop into a not so budget laptop! One positive point about the Inspiron 1100′s large case is that it provides room for a spacious and firm keyboard. There’s plenty of room for ports and slots too, but this being a budget notebook you kind of get the minimum necessary as far as expansion ports go. A 56K model port sits on the right side while an Ethernet, VGA, S-Video out and two USB 2.0 ports run along the back edge. The left-side has headphone and microphone ports and one Type II PC Card slot. The front edge has two speakers, the sound from those is tinny and of low quality.Celeron processors aren’t the fastest on the block when it comes to speed in processing computer instructions, but for the casual PC user it will likely be fast enough for everyday uses such as email, web-surfing, word processing and what have you. In the Celeron class of notebooks the Inspiron 1100 actually stacks up well performance wise. The HP Pavilion ze420 and Gateway 400E are direct competitors that the Inspiron 1100 outperforms in speed tests. The fact that Dell uses an independent graphics chip in the 1100 while HP and Gateway use chips that borrow video RAM from main memory might explain this speed difference. In using a mobile application performance rating program named BAPCo MobileMark 2002 the Dell Inspiron 1100 scored a 103 rating while the HP Pavilion ze4200 scored 102 and the Gateway 400E a miserable 89. In using the 1100 I was pleasantly surprised by its snappiness in using basic programs. Opening multiple programs did not bog the system down and the opening of applications was instantaneous — no hard drive spinning or indication of a struggle to open such applications was displayed by the 1100. I’m used to using higher-end notebook machines and was pleasantly surprised the the 1100 didn’t force me to have a magazine at the wait to deal with slow loading of applications! One downside to the Celeron processor used is that it tended to run hot, the fan used to cool the processor is pretty loud so be prepared for a sometimes annoying fan.
Let’s be honest, the Inspiron 1100 isn’t the sleekest, or the fastest or the coolest notebook on the market, but it’s not supposed to be, it’s supposed to be one of the most affordable. Dell has achieved providing a respectable notebook that can do every day tasks without any problem for a low price. I recommend this notebook to anyone on a budget or just doesn’t want to spend too much for an extra computer in the house. Maybe your kids want a computer in their room, a $700 (and sometimes less depending on what deals Dell is offering) notebook might fit the bill perfectly for that. Maybe you’re not sure how much you’d use a notebook so you’d rather spend a little rather than a lot right off the bat. Whatever the case, the Dell Inspiron 1100 is a good buy if what your looking for is a basic notebook that can provide portability to a degree and the ability to perform basic to intermediate computer related tasks.The Dell Vostro 1510 is available with a range of Intel processors (from the 1.86GHz Celeron M M540 up to the T9500 2.6GHz Core 2 Duo). There are four 15.4″ screen offerings, a WXGA or WXGA+ display with matte anti-glare coating and WXGA or WXGA+ “TrueLife” glossy display. The notebook can take up to 4GB of RAM and Dell offers 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows Vista Business or Windows XP Professional. The system is priced starting at $599 with integrated Intel X3100 graphics at the time of this writing, but is also available with nVidia 8400M GS dedicated graphics. Another of the new innovations for the Vostro line is the “Hyperband Multi-Antenna” housed inside the LCD lid which Dell claims “can provide excellent reception and help reduce dropped signals” for both Wi-Fi and bluetooth. I’ve never had serious problems with dropped signals while using older Dell notebooks so I can’t speak to whether the new internal multi-antenna actually improved wireless reception … but I can say that I never experienced dropped Wi-Fi connections during the testing period. This budget 15.4″ notebook is available with either integrated graphics or a dedicated graphics card option. While most business professionals only need integrated graphics, the optional Nvidia 8400M GS is great for mobile video editing and Photoshop as well as budget gaming. Our configuration of the Vostro 1510 with the 1.8GHz T5670 Intel Core 2 Duo processor and Intel X3100 integrated graphics performed adequately during testing. This configuration will meet or exceed the performance needs of small business users.A series of touch-sensitive media buttons with blue LED backlights are located above the keyboard similar to the buttons on the XPS notebooks. One nice feature about the media buttons is that the blue LEDs only stay lit for a fraction of a second after being pressed, so they won’t distract you by staying lit all the time. The power button also features a blue LED backlight, but this light says on whenever the notebook is on.
The Dell Vostro 1310 is available with a range of Intel processors (from the 1.86GHz Celeron M M540 up to the T9500 2.6GHz Core 2 Duo). There are two 13.3" screen offerings, a 1280×800 WXGA with matte anti-glare coating and 1280×800 WXGA "TrueLife" glossy display. The notebook can take up to 4GB of RAM and Dell offers 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows Vista Business or Windows XP Professional. The system is priced starting at $749 with integrated Intel X3100 graphics at the time of this writing, but is also available with nVidia 8400M GS dedicated graphics.Dell received some much needed attention in 2007 with the introduction of the sleek, high performance XPS M1330 and XPS M1530 notebooks. While these more expensive notebooks in the Dell lineup were praised for their looks and low weight, the Dell Insipron and Vostro notebooks were criticized for being bulky and unattractive laptops. Dell listened closely to this criticism when they designed the new Vostro 1310. The Vostro 1310 is in fact roughly 20% smaller and lighter than the Vostro 1400. wPrime is a program that forces the processor to do recursive mathematical calculations, the advantage of this program is that it is multi-threaded and can use both processor cores at once, thereby giving more accurate benchmarking measurements than Super Pi. Lower scores indicate better performance.The Vostro 1510 does an impressive job keeping heat under control. The system fan and heatsinks in the 1510 do a great job managing heat when the system is under load … as we discovered when we ran multiple benchmarks back to back. What we found most impressive was the fact that the bottom of the notebook (usually the hottest side) ended up being slightly cooler than the surface of the keyboard and palm rests. This is quite nice and makes for a more enjoyable “laptop” experience. Below are images with temperature readings listed in degrees Fahrenheit: The 6-cell 58WHr Li-Ion battery provides reasonable battery life for the 1510. With screen brightness set to maximum and wireless on, the 6-cell battery delivered 3 hours and 26 minutes of battery life Display options for the Vostro 1510 include a matte finish 15.4″ Widescreen XGA (1280 x 800) and a 15.4″ Widescreen XGA (1280 x 800) with TrueLife (glossy finish). Dell also offers higher resolution WXGA+ (1440 x 900) displays in both matte and glossy configurations. The screen on our review unit looks flawless from straight on and the horizontal viewing angles are great. Upper vertical viewing angles are good with just a slightly washed out look, but colors did begin to invert at lower viewing angles when the screen is tilted back. The touchpad surface utilizes the same matte texture with just a hint of metal flake that is used on the palm rest surface. The touchpad is nice and responsive but feels a little smaller than it should be. The touchpad buttons have excellent travel and cushion. Unfortunately, because of the way in which the touchpad buttons are slightly recessed the touchpad buttons are not very comfortable to use. The screen on our pre-production unit looks flawless from straight on and the horizontal viewing angles are great. Upper vertical viewing angles are good with just a slightly washed out look, but colors did begin to invert at lower viewing angles when the screen is tilted back.The keyboard on the Vostro 1310 is quite nice with minimal flex near the center of the keyboard. The keys have a nice matte texture with proper spacing and each of the keys have excellent travel and cushion. There are dedicated page up and page down keys but the home and end keys require the use of the function key, so this might be a little frustrating for users who do a lot of coding. The touchpad surface utilizes the same matte texture with just a hint of metal flake that is used on the palm rest surface. The touchpad is nice and responsive but feels a little smaller than it should be. The touchpad buttons have excellent travel and cushion. Unfortunately, because of the way in which the touchpad buttons are slightly recessed and close to the edge of the chassis, the touchpad buttons are uncomfortable to use. The edge of my thumb kept hitting the edge of the chassis when I pressed the touchpad buttons and I ended up with sore thumbs after just a few minutes.A series of touch-sensitive media buttons with blue LED backlights are located above the keyboard similar to the buttons on the XPS notebooks. One nice feature about the media buttons is that the blue LEDs only stay lit for a fraction of a second after being pressed, so they won’t distract you by staying lit all the time. The power button also features a blue LED backlight, but this light says on whenever the notebook is on.
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