Dell Vostro 1400 vs HP Verve dv2550se
Since I sold my DELL Inspiron 1150 laptop on ebay last week, I’m now shopping around for a replacement. I did have my eye on the new Dell XPS M1330, however when configured according to the minimal Vista requirements it costs around $1500 and that is way above my budget. I just don’t want to spend that much money for a laptop, which will be used for the most part only when I’m on the go. The primary computing power in my household still remains my Athlon 3700+/1Ghz FSB/2Gb/750Gb dual monitor desktop PC.
So, I decided that I should stay under $1000, preferable around $700-$800. My other two requirements were - 1) thin and relatively light laptop (hopefully not heavier than 4lbs) and 2) Battery life would have to be at least 2-3hours (more is better :-).
With that in mind I went out to Circuit City, Best Buy, CompUSA, Staples and Dell outlet. I looked at HPs, Sony VIAOs, Toshibas, Acers, Dells and Gateway lappies. One thing I realized right away - I’m not going to get a decent laptop under 5lbs in this price range. So, I had to “relax” weight expectation to “under 6lbs”. That pretty much translated into “14″ or lesser” screen size.
One of the Toshibas caught my eye - it was a 13″ (or even lesser) screen laptop, very small, probably weighting under 4lb. I was going to seriously consider it, however it had one major drawback which I could not get over - quite poorly made keyboard. Closer to the center, the keyboard was flexing inside so much that it was really hard to type. The rest of the tochibas as well as all of the gateways simply did not appeal to me aesthetically. Acers looked and felt very cheap. There were some very nice Sony VIAOs, however the ones I really liked were priced around $2k while less expensive units looked just awful.
Finally, there were HPs. One thing I do not like about HPs is the metallic looking finish on the inside. Also, I find somewhat annoying shiny bezel around LCD screens. I did like however one of the models they had on display at BestBuy - the dv2550se, also known as Hewlett-Packard Verve Special Edition Notebook, which apparently is only sold at BestBuy stores. The design looked gorgeous. I loved the imprinted finish. The specs were quite good as well - Intel Duo CPU, 2Gb of RAM, 160Gb hard drive, bright screen LCD, wireless, memory card reader, and so on - basically, it had all the bells and whistles. However, even while on sale it was priced at $999 (which with tax, would put it a little above $1k). ReviewPub has a wonderful review of this beautiful HP Verve Special Edition Notebook.
Once I got the feel of what local retail had to offer, I went online and did some research. I found terrific site which from now on I plan to use as my primary source of reviews and information on anything that has to do with laptops and/or notebooks - Notebook Review (http://www.notebookreview.com). I surfed its forums for few days and came to realize that I haven’t even considered yet any of the DELL products (other than the XPS I saw in the outlet). There was absolutely nothing that would interest me in the Home section of DELLs online store, while Small Business line of products definitely had few promising units. D630 was one of them. Equipped with a decent 1.8Ghz/800Mhz FSB, 80Gb hard drive and 14″ screen it weights only 4lbs! It’s 9cell battery life is reported to be exceptional (more than 5 hours) and it iss not a bad looking laptop overall. But then again, even with only 512Mb of RAM it costs almost a grand. On the plus side - it comes with 3 years manufacturers warranty - something you don’t see very often.
I finally decided to go with a less expensive Vostro 1400 model. It’s a bit heavier than D630 (probably weights similar to HPs Verve), but armed with 2Gb of RAM, 160Gb HDD, 14″ TrueLife XGA+ screen and long lasting 9cell battery it only costs $695 (tax/shipping included). $300 less than the Verve, yet with virtually the same tech specs. Notebooks Review forum has a very nice analysis of the new Dell Vostro 1400.
I really wanted my Vostro with matte panel, and with a lesser resolution - I didn’t want TrueLife XGA+, which is 1440×900, I would much rather prefer XGA’s 1280×800… But this particular pre-configured laptop was deeply discounted ($300 less than similar configuration w/o discount with cheaper(!) XGA panel!) - so I decided to give it a shot. This is the configuration I ended up ordering:
Intel Core 2 Duo T5470, 1.6GHz, 800Mhz FSB 2M L2 Cache
14.1 inch Wide Screen XGA+ TL LCD
2GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 DIMM
Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
120G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Integrated 10/100 Network Cardand Modem, for Inspiron
8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
Integrated High Definition Audio 2.0
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini Card
85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic
Considering the fact that I got almost $360 for the old Inspiron I just sold on ebay, for extra $340 I’m getting quite an upgrade. Order has been placed, DELL is promising to ship it to me on September 7th… I CANT WAIT :-)