I purchased the Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop back in January for my daughter's birthday. I had a limited budget but wanted to get her something with decent enough spec for playing computer games should she wish to do this, and a large hard drive as she is a big fan of making videos on her digital camera and downloading music - two things which can eat up hard drive space.
I did a fair bit of research before purchasing and decided I wanted to get the best spec I possibly could for my money and the Inspiron ticked all the boxes. I paid £399 in January 2009 in Currys for the laptop which was the absolute limit on my budget.
The Dell I purchased has a dark blue coloured lid, however the rest of it is a shiny piano black which looks lovely. I would have preferred metal for the mousepad area - it feels sturdier and doesn't seem to attract the dust the way the piano black plastic does - however that's a small quibble. The screen is widescreen and measures 15.6 inches and overall it's pretty lightweight and easy to carry about if you wish to do so.
So - what came in the box?
As well as the laptop there was an instruction manual, mains lead, Dell restoration CD-ROMs and a CD-ROM for Works 9.
The laptop had Windows Vista Premium pre-installed - and I worried that this might be a challenge for me as it was my introduction to Vista - however setting the machine up was a piece of cake.
I merely switched it on and dealt with a few prompts as Vista set up and then the computer was up and running. It has wifi installed and this picked up my wireless connection without any problems - and once I entered the security details for my network we were home and dry and online in no time!
When I was researching laptops I learned that you really need a minimum of 2GB RAM to run Vista properly, so this was another factor to consider when deciding the spec I needed for her laptop.
The laptop had a trial version of MacAfee installed but I decided to ignore this and installed AVG instead as my daughter is more familiar with it. I also decided to install the Works program that came with the laptop rather than Office as she really only needs a word processing program at the moment. I was concerned she may find it hard to use at first but we had no such worries.
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 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
I did a fair bit of research before purchasing and decided I wanted to get the best spec I possibly could for my money and the Inspiron ticked all the boxes. I paid £399 in January 2009 in Currys for the laptop which was the absolute limit on my budget.
The Dell I purchased has a dark blue coloured lid, however the rest of it is a shiny piano black which looks lovely. I would have preferred metal for the mousepad area - it feels sturdier and doesn't seem to attract the dust the way the piano black plastic does - however that's a small quibble. The screen is widescreen and measures 15.6 inches and overall it's pretty lightweight and easy to carry about if you wish to do so.
So - what came in the box?
As well as the laptop there was an instruction manual, mains lead, Dell restoration CD-ROMs and a CD-ROM for Works 9.
The laptop had Windows Vista Premium pre-installed - and I worried that this might be a challenge for me as it was my introduction to Vista - however setting the machine up was a piece of cake.
I merely switched it on and dealt with a few prompts as Vista set up and then the computer was up and running. It has wifi installed and this picked up my wireless connection without any problems - and once I entered the security details for my network we were home and dry and online in no time!
When I was researching laptops I learned that you really need a minimum of 2GB RAM to run Vista properly, so this was another factor to consider when deciding the spec I needed for her laptop.
The laptop had a trial version of MacAfee installed but I decided to ignore this and installed AVG instead as my daughter is more familiar with it. I also decided to install the Works program that came with the laptop rather than Office as she really only needs a word processing program at the moment. I was concerned she may find it hard to use at first but we had no such worries.
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 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
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