Inspiron or Vostro?

[AntiFreze]

So this is my 3rd thread about this, but I keep narrowing down the options for my girlfriend.

Quick review:
Wants a 17" laptop to replace her desktop at home, she does finance and will be using microsoft office a lot (especially Excel), a 10-key is important, she also wants to be able to play DVDs on a plane, and play WoW while at home. She also wants to spend sub-$1000 and would like to pick up an external mouse and keyboard for home use.

The tossup:

Which one is more professional - Vostro or Inpiron (Jet Black)
Which Vista OS would suit her better - Personal Home or Business

Some other questions:

Is a Core 2 Duo a necessary for these functions, or will the Dual Core Intel work just as well?
Whats the battery life difference between a 6-cell and a 9-cell?
For the monitor is a normal one, Truelife, Glossy, etc. that much of a difference?

 

[thecoolnessrune]

The Vostro is a far sturdier built laptop. Inspirons are junk.
You can go here for an easy to view comparison of all the features of Vista. Vista Business can provide complete PC backups among other things. VLC could be used for media playing since Media Center is not provided in Business (and Windows Media Player looks like crap for most DVDs). Of course, if you need ALL of it, then Vista Ultimate is your only logical choice.

Core 2 Duo is standard on a vast majority of 17" laptops nowadays. "Pentium Dual Core" was a name that computer manufacturers gave to the Core Duo, the original core processor, to differentiate the two lines from consumers who simply couldn't tell the difference. The Core 2 is far superior in both performance, and battery life, and there is no particular reason a Core should be chosen. If budget is that demanding, an AMD Athlon Turion X2 TL series would be a better option as the performance is nearly the same.

The difference between a 6 and 9 cell battery can be fairly substantial depending on the configuration of the laptop. I even have a 12 cell extended battery in my laptop but I wish the battery life at times were longer.. (Then again, I'd probably cart a battery around with me if given the option ).

If you do ANY sort of outdoor work with the laptop, then do NOT get a Truelife screen. The glare on the monitor will make it impossible to see. However, if all of your work is indoors, the glossy screen just makes things look better, so definitely get it if your work is indoors.

Also, to get more for your money, check out the small business side of the Dell Outlet. Getting a certified pre-owned laptop can save you a lot of money and get you better features. Here is a a filtered list of all Vostro 1700's under $1,000. You can filter further by selecting the OS you want. All the laptops in that list right now can play WOW (Intel X3100 graphics can play it fairly well, but an 8400GS will have absolutely no problem. An 8600GT would almost be overkill.)

Best of luck in your search!

 

[AntiFreze]

Thank you for your reply, it was very informative. I've already been planning on getting one form the dell outlet (thanks to anandtech) just trying to figure out some of the variables

Thank you very much.

 

[Icepick]

The Vostro and Inspiron lines have exactly the same build quality. They are both value lines. The only difference is the color.

 

[win32asmguy]

Right now you can get a refurbished Precision M90 (a 17" notebook based on the previous generation Core 2 Duo) for as cheap as $929, and they have a coupon going for an additional 15% off, on Dell Outlet. I own an M70 that has lasted since June 2005, and I can't stress enough that they are much higher build quality. Oh, and they come with a 3 year next business day onsite warranty too, by default for no extra cost.

Edit: Whoops, I forgot that the M90 does not have a 10-key. I typically use mine docked and hooked up to a full desktop keyboard so it didn't come to mind. However I would argue that while it does not have a 10-key, the M90's keyboard is very nice and easy to type on for hours in Microsoft Office.

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: Icepick
The Vostro and Inspiron lines have exactly the same build quality. They are both value lines. The only difference is the color.

:thumbsup: Ya, they're the same laptop, no difference at all apart from price and name. Just get whatever you can get cheapest, i went for the vostro and saved about £300 from an equivalently specced inspiron.

 

[AntiFreze]

So she ordered her laptop. Went with a refurb'd vostro 1700 for $679.00. Thanks everyone for your advice. She should get it on wednesday

Specs:

-- Vostro 1700 Laptop: Intel Core 2 Duo T5270 (1.4GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
-- Certified Refurbished
-- 90W AC Adapter
-- 8X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
-- Dell 1395 802.11G Wireless Mini Card
-- 17 inch Wide Screen XGA+ Laptop Screen with TrueLife
-- Genuine Windows Vista Business
-- 6 Cell Primary Battery
-- 250 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
-- 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz (2 DIMMs)
-- 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT

 

[IlllI]

Originally posted by: Icepick
The Vostro and Inspiron lines have exactly the same build quality. They are both value lines. The only difference is the color.

i was under the impression that Inspiron used plastic, while Vostro used metal

 

[IEC]

Latitude > Vostro ~ Inspiron

 

[rivan]

Originally posted by: Spartan Niner
Precision > Latitude > Vostro ~ Inspiron

fixed

 

[IEC]

Originally posted by: rivan

Originally posted by: Spartan Niner
Precision > Latitude > Vostro ~ Inspiron

fixed

Heh, I forgot about that one

 

[Yo2]

A new Precision M90 right now is still only $1199 at dell sb deals - pretty tempting