My first notebook - Dell Inspiron 1520 - opinions?

[Jericho]

I've decided to get a laptop, my first ever. I've had great luck with my DELL PC, so I've decided to stick with them for the laptop. The one I am very seriously thinking about buying anyday now is:

Dell Inspiron 1520

Processor/Display
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5250 (1.5GHz/667Mhz FSB/2MB cache)

Operating System (Office software not included)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition (Check that, I'm ditching Vista for XP)

LCD Panel
Glossy, widescreen 15.4 inch display (1280x800)

Memory
2GB1 Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz

Hard Drive
Size: 160GB3 SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)

Combo or DVD+RW Drive
CD / DVD writer (DVD+/-RW Drive)

Video Card
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100

Wireless Networking Cards
Intel® 3945 802.11a/g Mini-card

Camera
Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam

Battery Options
56Whr Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell)

Sound Card
High Definition Audio 2.0

Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed)Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD

Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-installed)Trend Micro Internet Security 15-months2

Warranty & Service1Yr In-Home Service,5 Parts + Labor,24x7 Phone Support

Anyway, from what I can tell everything looks pretty good, though I'd like a better video card, if possible. The thing is, the better cards would add a few hundred bucks to the $899 price, and I don't want to go over a grand AFTER shipping. I gather this vid card (Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100) won't be able to handle many newer games, but it might do the older games ok. As gaming isn't my first reason for getting this laptop, I can live with that.

Do you nice people (or mean people) think this is a decent system to start out with? Is there anything glaringly bad about it or anything you think might need updating very soon? I'm hoping this would serve my needs for a good handful of years, of course, as I'm too poor to be upgrading regularly.

A vague question I guess, and thanks for reading this far. Thanks even more if you care to share your opinion on this system.

Roger
(i mean Jericho)

[classicsoftware]

While there service and support are improving, They are still not where they used to be and therefore I cannot recommend Dell at this time. There are three brands of Laptops I recommend:

ACER

IBM/Lenovo

Toshiba

[Rick]

I have to echo what classicsoftware posted above
with one exception I don't care for Acer.. Youngest Daughter has one and I am not happy with it.

I will also add that I have owned and used 3 dell laptops.
ALL 3 have failed in the same way in just over a year
That POS touch pad
With problems ranging from erratic behavior ( Bouncing up and down the left side of the screen) to blocking and highlighting text without ever having been touched
Complete key board failure on one
Screen failure on another after 18 months
It costs more to repair/replace the screen than to buy a new laptop

[classicsoftware]

I have to echo what classicsoftware posted above
with one exception I don't care for Acer.. Youngest Daughter has one and I am not happy with it.

I'd have to know why you don't like it. I'm on my second Acer laptop. The first is over 10 years old and still going. The second is coming up on 4 years old and it has great battery life, a nice screen, and it survived a 3 foot drop off my work bench and still runs like a champ.

[Rick]

First one was DOA out of the box ( always a bad start)
second is preinstalled vista and is a never ending head ache.
slow, even after doing an XP downgrade
usb ports work off and on ( when ever they feel like it :) )

[jlreich]

Whatever brand you go with get the 3-4 year on-site next day warranty and accidental coverage. This will cost you $300-$400, but is well worth it. As Rick said if something major like a screen or board go out, or you spill coffee down the KB and fry the system, it's so expensive it isn't worth repairing and you are left with a $1000 paperweight. ;)

I work on laptops all the time and see many first year failures. Trust me get the warranty and accidental coverage. My wife is now looking for a laptop with a $1000 budget. I am insisting she get a 3 year warranty and accidental coverage. She either needs to come up with a few hundred dollars more or she needs to down grade some of the components on the system to fit it in her budget.

Ways to fit it in your budget are:

Drop the CPU down to a 2xxx series.

Drop the ram down to 1GB. You can always upgrade to more later for much cheaper than Dell or any other OEM is going to charge you.

Drop down to a DVD-ROM.

I'm hoping this would serve my needs for a good handful of years, of course, as I'm too poor to be upgrading regularly.
That's exactly what my wife is saying. But you must be real. You have a limited budget for a laptop. If this were a desktop it wouldn't be a problem, but not with laptops. The only way to insure this system will stay working for a least 3 years is to get the warranty and accidental coverage.

[6Sons]

I totally agree with jlreich's suggestions.

[Jericho]

Thanks everybody, for the feedback. I must admit I'm a bit disillusioned at this point, which might be a good thing. Everyone I know who has a Dell has been very pleased and I haven't heard that tech-help is a problem. Happily my Dell hasn't needed any tech-service in years, so maybe things have suffered in that department without me realizing it.

That said, the laptop seems more fragile than my desktop, of course, so calls for service might be more frequent. I'm weighing it over now, rather than making a purchase this weekend.

In a way, I've almost been talked out of getting one at this point. The service plan makes good sense, but I simply can't justify going over $1000 TOTAL. So again I ponder.

I don't mean to post this as a thread-ender, I would still welcome other opinions :)

Happy (almost) New Year!
jericho

[jlreich]

What are you planing on using the system for?

Does it need to be a laptop?

[Variable]

We buy Dell laptops for all our people and they seem to work fine, we usually buy 4-5 per month and then support them after that, maybe a total of 100 laptops. Both laptops I use currently are dells and I have had no issues, I don't like the power saving feature that seems to turn off the NIC when the charger is not in. You have to turn it on everytime manually, even when the box is checked for always on. Personally, I don't much care for laptops but I am evidently a small minority.

[jlreich]

Dell's business service is pretty good. But their consumer service still sucks for the most part.

I am telling my wife to get a Dell, but only because they are easy to fix, on the condition she gets the 3 year onsite warranty, and because I am a DCSE technician and can tell them to just send me the parts overnight and I will fix it myself.

But I do not recommend Dell to anyone else. ;)

[Ajmukon]

Dell XPS support is very good.
their support center for "XPS" customers is in Arizona.
everytime i called with an issue, i almost always get Arizona and a short waiting time (less than 5 minutes usually, and at most 40 (once it got that high)- and it kicked me over to Brazil)

so if you are going to buy a Dell; get an XPS- their a little more expensive- but you pay for the superior support.

www.direct2dell.com
http://www.ideastorm.com/