Budget notebooks have never been better! Low-end notebooks were always priced at $800 or more, and never really packed the "oomph" of higher-spec expensive notebooks. This may have changed. The Dell Inspiron 1300 starts at $599, and the model we reviewed is just $800 (Although you can get one for less with upgrades thanks to Dell's generous coupon offers) and can handle most if not all day-to-day tasks.
The Dell Inspiron 1300 (dell inspiron 1300 battery)is a 15.4" widescreen notebook, depending on how you configure it the Inspiron 1300 can be considered a budget offering or a mainstream type notebook with decent performance. The following is a review of the Inspiron 1300.
The 1300 is a customizable notebook that's built to order, so the price and features will depend on what you pick when you buy. The mode we used for this review has an Intel Celeron M360 processor running at 1.5GHz, a 60GB hard disk at 5400RPM, 512mb of RAM, a nice 15.4" Widescreen display, and to top it all off, 802.11a/b/g WiFi.
This is a budget notebook and as such is constructed in a manner to keep costs down. The body casing is entirely plastic, no fancy aluminum or magnesium protection. The plastic used is not flimsy though, it's actually really quite sturdy. I used the Dell Inspiron 1000 (dell inspiron 6400 battery )while back and was highly disappointed with the flimsiness of the casing, the 1300 is certainly a step up from that. There's no major flexing issues of the body and the keyboard is firm.
The hinges are firm, there's no wobble of the screen even if you move the notebook around. This is impressive, often with budget notebooks the hinges can be somewhat weak. The protection provided by the lid is also good, if you push in on the lid area it's hard to (apple powerbook g4 battery )get ripples to appear on the screen. However, the plastic area around the screen is not held on very well. I can pull the plastic covering away from the LCD with ease.
The look of the Inspiron 1300 is a mix of silver and black. The lid is an entirely silver-grey color while the rest of the body is black with an accent of silver trim around the keyboard. The look is not bad in this author's opinion, and actually better than the some off the exisiting Dell Inspirons available with the silver and white finish. It's certainly not sleek or pretty by any stretch,(dell xps m1330 battery )it looks like the plastic it is built from, the front speakers are ugly holes in plastic that look more like vents, and the largish green LED light indicators on the front are reminiscent of a 1980's mainframe computer. So no design awards but due to the well selected and professional black-silver coloring it's not ugly either.
If you pick up the notebook and wave it around (I don't recommend it) you will find that the screen hinge does not wobble or bend, and the display stays firmly where it should - open. This is great for such an inexpensive notebook, when I remember an old Dell Latitude l400 (dell inspiron e1505 battery) would fold flat if you even moved it on your lap. The notebook is 14" x 10.5" x 1.41" in size and weighs 6.7 pounds. Now I wont pretend that this is a subnotebook. In fact, this is more of a mid-sized model that's much more portable than a desktop replacement. The DVD+RW drive is on the right of the notebook, towards the front. The left side houses the three USB 2.0 ports, a VGA port, microphone and headphone jacks (3.5mm), ExpressCard (supporting 34mm and 54mm cards) slot, RJ-45 Ethernet jack, and a modem jack. The back of the notebook is empty apart from the power socket, and the front of the machine houses the two speakers and four LEDs.
As mentioned, the Inspiron 1300 is a customizable notebook, with processors ranging from a 1.4GHz Celeron M to the 1.73GHz Pentium M, all with a 400MHz front side bus. Mine came with a 1.5GHz Celeron M360 processor, 512mb of RAM in a 2x 256mb configuration, so if you want to upgrade you'll have to throw one away(1gb RAM maximum), a reasonably fast 60 gig 5400 rpm hard disk, and WiFi 802.11a/b/g. I wont deny that I was expecting to be disappointed by this notebook. Although I cant really class myself as a gamer, I do play on some intensive games (Rome: Total War and Sniper Elite to name a few) and was expecting them not to run well. Well, I now take it all back. I have migrated from a PC desktop running a 2.4GHz Celeron and 512mb of RAM with no dedicated graphics and an XGA screen, and I'm getting better frame rates on the notebook! Okay, Sniper Elite just isn't the same with a touch pad, but hey, it works! You wouldn't want to run serious CAD (dell inspiron 1501 battery )apps or Half Life 2, however. The built-in DVD+-RW is a bonus for mobile DVD burning, and a steal for $780! I'm not really strongly opinionated about the Express Card slot. I think it's good that Dell is thinking forwardly, and since WiFi is built in, I cant really think of a use for a PCMCIA slot. Unless you really want to use an EVDO card, then this isn't really a drawback. You decide whether this is a benefit or drawback.
Display, Graphics, and Multimedia
The keyboard on the 1300 is fine. The keys have a nice click when pressed, but are not loud. The buttons are all full size, including full size Backspace, Enter and Shift keys. There is no sag or problems with the keyboard. The touchpad is as usable as they get, its size is appropriate and there's enough room to move your finger around. I've used notebooks for years and still dislike the touchpad form of input mechanism -- I still often find myself pulling up menus and losing them as my finger slips slightly and thereby takes the cursor off of the menu (webpage menus like this are the worst as they're sometimes hard to use even with a mouse). I've always favored a pointing stick mechanism such as the ThinkPad line of notebooks offer -- and if that's not available a wireless
The Inspiron 1300 can house either a 14" XGA screen or a 15.4" WXGA (800 x 1280) screen. I went for the 15.4" option. Although not as bright or shiny as some other notebooks on the market, it does the job and is certainly an improvement over an XGA monitor. The backlight is sufficient for everyday use. If you're in a dark room, then it can actually be painful to set it to full brightness, but about 75% should be good enough. This screen is not driven by a dedicated graphics card, but, as mentioned, it is good enough for reasonably demanding games. The Inspiron 1300 has Intel's integrated Media Accelerator 900 Graphics and you can set up to 128mb of RAM as video RAM.
The audio package provided is reasonable. While you're not getting an amazing, mind-blowing audio experience, your not disappointed either. The two speakers on the front are adequate, but if you want to listen to some serious music, plug in some headphones or better speakers. The lack of a microphone is rather annoying, especially when using Skype.
DVDs play well on this laptop, although the mentioned speakers can be pretty dismal sometimes. Battery life can be an issue if you want to watch a two and a half hour film at full screen brightness with WiFi turned on, but because 50% brightness is acceptable and the lack of need for WiFi when watching films, most will find it usable.
Speakers
You're not buying a multimedia machine with the 1300 and for that reason you can expect to get the usual rather poor sounding notebook speakers. The speakers are located on the right and left front sides, which is good placement since they fire forward to where you are sitting. If only the audio they pumped out was good. The speakers are good enough for system sounds and the likes, but playing audio music or listening to DVDs is pretty painful. You need external speakers or headphones via the lineout to get any type of decent audio.
Processor and Performance
You can opt to have your Inspiron 1300 configured with either a Pentium M or Celeron M processor. You'll save money with the Celeron M configuration and to be honest, I think that's the best route to go with this notebook. It's a budget machine and when you have the Intel 910GML chipset and motherboard (as the 1300 does) you're going to be limited to a bus speed of 400MHz between the processor and memory. Even though my system indicated a 533MHz FSB on the Pentium M 740 processor I configured and the memory I have can theoretically run at 533MHz, it does not, it runs at 400MHz. So esentially Dell put together a machine in which the chipset is the weakest link, and since components work together as a team, the system can only be as fast as that weakest link is willing to work (400MHz).
Battery Life
I decided to pay $20 more and get the 6-cell battery option. I suggest that, if you have the money, you get it. It's a small price to pay for 1.5 times the normal battery power.
The 6-cell is a 5045mAh battery, which isn’t bad for a 1.5GHz notebook. I got about 3 hours of use with mainly Skype over WiFi, and about 3 hours with no WiFi playing mp3s. Overall, I think the battery is acceptable. If you need WiFi, full screen brightness, and full CPU speed, then you may only get a few hours out of it, but otherwise its a pretty impressive battery. The standard battery is a 4 cell, 29 WHr Lithium Ion battery that Dell estimates lasting 2 hours.
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