Best Dell laptop

[Hoosiers15]

ok, i was told by my parents that I have to get a dell for college because we have an account with them already. I have been looking around but i can't make up my mind. I want something around 13" and that will last me as close to 4 years as possible. Ive been looking at the new xps studio 13 and the m1330, but i am open to other ideas. any help would be appreciated

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[tennisball80]

Look for 3 factors. CPU, memory and hard disk.

CPU
Look for:
Clock (Frequency)
Cache L1/L2/L3 T (2MB works better than 1MB)

Memory
4GB is enough

Hard disk
150GB is enough. Most stuff are online now. Watch movies online instead of downloading them and you will be fine.

Graphic Card
The more graphic memory, the better when it comes to play games.

 

[DLi]

Make sure you get your laptop with Dell Small Business. I got a cheap Vostro 1000 with Dell small business and I used to to replace a battery and when I broke the recharging port on my computer. I get service from people in America instead of the Indians who don't know the computer any better than you do. Few questions asked, they sent me a box, and two weeks later my computer was fixed.

If you are looking for a powerful 13", I recommend the XPS M1330 or a Studio XPS 13 if you like the styling better.

You won't regret making this decision.

--Satisfied Dell "Small Business" customer

Edit: Looks like you already picked those two, and those are the best available.

 

[EyEnStein 07]

from what you have said, i would probably go with the XPS m1330. its probably the strongest one right now, and you can probably get a decent deal and get a better price.

Just make sure whatever you get has a big enough hard drive (160 or 250 is good, unless your looking for Solid State), make sure you have atleast 2 gigs of memory but i think go with 4gb if the price is not that much off.

 

[broken tibula]

I have the XPS M1330, and I'd give it a pretty good rating! It's a good size and weight, the keypad is nicely laid out (although it's missing the lock controls that my old HP had), and it runs very fast if you tone down the Vista graphics, and even faster when you overclock it! It comes with a pretty little remote that's very handy, and the webcam and microphone are decent. The fingerprint reader is also very cool!

The drawbacks are the battery life, which isn't horrible, but makes you think about upgrading a 12-cell... a lot. There are also only two USB ports, something that I curse every day, the optical drive doesn't have a manual release, and the media buttons at the top are touch, not tactile. But the last two are really just nitpicky things that bother me, but probably won't bother anyone else...

 

[DrJosephKim]

This should probably go to the technology forum.

I've been a fan of Dell laptops because the offer nice products for a fair price.

 

[DrHoosier]

has anyone heard about the dell studio 15? they just redesigned it, and it has an LED screen and is much cheaper than the studio xps 13. plus, i went to best buy and looked at the studio xps 13 and it wasnt very impressive, especially for the high price tag.
heres a link to the studio 15: http://www.dell.com/content/product...ptop-studio-1555?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn

 

[MilkmanAl]

Just out of curiosity, OP, why do you want a 13" screen? That's really, really small. In any event, I'd get a Latitude - specifically an E6400 (14.1" screen). Then again, I don't know your price range. That'd help.

 

[Salvorix]

Just out of curiosity, OP, why do you want a 13" screen? That's really, really small. In any event, I'd get a Latitude - specifically an E6400 (14.1" screen). Then again, I don't know your price range. That'd help.

I concur, a 14" screen is the smallest that I'd get.

OP, are you looking to do any gaming on your new laptop? I noticed that the graphics cards on both of the Dell models that you like weren't very good - and both of them had ~256mb of dedicated video memory. Newegg has some really great deals on ASUS laptops that are in the same price range as those Dell's (actually cheaper than some of the Dell configurations) but with much better graphics cards. Here's one that I'm looking into with a 14" screen:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220488

It has a NVIDIA GeForce 9650M GT graphics card that outperforms all of the Dell graphics cards (some by more than double) on benchmark tests including 3DMARK2001 and the ASUS laptop has a whooping 1024mb of video memory which is ALOT. I'm looking into either getting one of these ASUS models or some sort of HP Pavillion because they have pretty good graphics cards too.

 

[DrHoosier]

No Im not into gaming at all, but I did realize that the 13" is too small. And about the asus, I have to get a dell because of my parents account they have with them. My price range is up to $1K, and did anyone see my post about the new dell studio 15? I really like it I just have no way to try one out. Also, how often do they update dells? People have been telling me to wait until a month before college to get my laptop, but since they just updated it last week, I should be ok with getting it sooner right?

 

[MilkmanAl]

I'd wait until they have some big back to school sale. I bought my laptop last July one such sale, and it actually got quite a lot more expensive during August.

 

[tennisball80]

I am finding the solution....