Search

Monday, August 3, 2009

What I really noticed about this little beauty was the speed

- it loads really quickly and smoothly. The processor is an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.00 Ghz and there is 3GB RAM. This combination makes the Inspiron easily the fastest computer in the house - making me What I really noticed about this little beauty was the speed green with envy!
So onto the litmus test - did my daughter like it? Well yes - she loved it! She was really pleased to have this compact little laptop in her bedroom instead of the old desktop computer she had had in the past. She loved how she didn't need a wireless adaptor, the speed, and everything about it! The laptop has a large hard drive of 250 GB but this is half full already - just over 3 months since she got it, so I can foresee me having to get an external hard drive for her in the future.
I had worried about her learning how to use Vista, but like all 12 year olds, she picked it up far quicker than I did, so my fears were unfounded.
There are three USB ports, which so far I have found sufficient. The laptop does have speakers but they are a bit on the tinny side and given my daughter listens to a lot of music on her computer, I got her some USB powered speakers which offer fantastic sound quality.
The laptop also has an integral SD card reader which is invaluable for my daughter as she can easily upload photos and videos from her camera and also copy music onto the SD card she uses in her new Nintendo DSi.
There is a CD/DVD RW drive which works a treat - my daughter thoroughly enjoys making music CDs up using it and has also burned the occasional DVD featuring some of her many video clips. She can also watch DVDs on the laptop but hasn't used the laptop this way - she prefers to watch her DVDs on TV. It also came with Windows Media Center already installed which was an extra bonus as my daughter was already familiar with this from her old desktop computer and was delighted to still be able to use it for her videos, photos and music.
The Inspiron I purchased does not have a built-in webcam but this feature is available on some models.
The one thing we haven't tested is the battery life - Dell claim it's 2 hours however. As my daughter hasn't removed it from her bedroom since she got it I cannot tell you for sure. As she just recently broke the screen on my Samsung laptop, resulting in a large repair bill, she is probably too scared to move this one!
I am really pleased with the Dell Inspiron 1545 and think it's a really good buy for children or students as it's easy to use, fast to load and has a large hard drive but is available at a good price for the spec offered.
I do advise getting some half decent speakers to use with it however and cleaning it regularly - the piano black doesn't half attract the dust and show up fingerprints.
Overall this is a good machine for the money and it can be found in various outlets right now, including Currys, Tesco and Dell online.
**Previously published on dooyoo by me under the same user name

No comments:

Post a Comment