Dell Inspiron 1545 Review

@Ardjuna: I was planning on buying this laptop until I read your review. Can you recommend an alternative that has a spec as good as this, is reasonably priced, but has the extras that you believe it needs - bluetooth, webcam, etc. I am totally clueless about laptops and really don't know what I am doing so I would be very grateful for your help! However, the one I found does appear to have a built in webcam - has the model been updated since your review?
Many thanks.

I purchased one of these for my daughter about 6 months ago, since than it has had it's hard drive replaced, had many Vista problems, and now the power supply won't charge, Dell says it's the motherboard... I just wanted to let people know how my experience is going. Maybe i just got a bad seed, but it has been a major headache!!

I won my Inspiron 1545 in a contest at school. Overall its a nice looking computer, but not exactly my favorite computer in the world. It came with Vista Basic, and that in itself was a downer. I personally don't like vista, because it's slower and comes with too many things preinstalled. Personally I dont like the gloss finish, yeah it looks nice, but it attracts fingerprints like none other. haha. I like the keyboard setup and the size, but i have had a problem with it clicking buttons i don't touch, whether it be the ctrl key, or the mouse buttons, and sometimes while typing, it opens new web browsers, clears text, or closes out of programs which is frusterating. After having the laptop for 3 months the AC adapter quit out on me, my laptop doesn't reconigze its own battery adapter, and had to change to an older dell power adapter. I love the size of the screen, and really enjoy the widescreen look. It seems like a smaller laptop, but really has a beastly weight. I was hoping to upgrade some stuff on it from RAM to processor to video card, and was really disheartening to find that the video card cannot be upgraded. I'm a gamer who can't afford a nicer computer haha. All in all, this computer is great for internet, and sometimes typing, on a good day =] Its much faster now that i run Windows 7 RC, and can't wait until the full version comes out. This computer is very nice for older games. Warcraft, World Of Warcraft(Not old, but still, it runs quite nicely)Battlefield 2(Quite suprisingly, i can run that on high graphics), Oblivion(On lower then low graphics). It runs most games, but sometimes it needs a little help, from editing game data =] haha. Hope my review was somewhat helpful =]

I bought this laptop essentially because of the customizable properties it has when its purchased direct from the Dell website. I wanted a blue one but I wasn't prepared to pay an extra 30 dollars just for a different colour... this makes little sense to me because it costs them no extra to make it blue (or so i'd imagine). I'm on a student's budget and this laptop represented best value for money throughout the various laptops I researched before purchasing.
Its an absolutely gorgeous computer despite the fingerprinty nature of the sexy glossy surfaces.
Mine ships with Vista home premium, which is a crappy operating system anyway in my opinion, but it was eligible for a free windows 7 upgrade, which I think is great because there's nothing worse than buying something new and then having it be outdated within months. Its also an attempt from Microsoft to maintain sales deals with computer manufacturers.
Its gonna cost a hefty 100 dollars extra for a dedicated graphics option, and even then its no gaming laptop. My version obviously shipped with the X4500HD Intel Integrated Graphics Accelerator, which is reviewed to be a more powerful integrated graphics accelerator.

3 gig of DDR2 ram comes standard, but in my opinion the upgrade from the standard Celeron 900 2ghz single core processor is probably the only truly "necessary" upgrade from the baseline options.

I like the fact it gives you the options for enhanced customer support or none at all, saving you money, or costing it. I chose to have no customer support because I know my way around well enough not to rely on customer support, even though Dell's support is supposed to have a reputation as one of the best.

Its a beautiful laptop and I think the reveiw is a little bit harsh... its not the best choice, sure. but its what you make of it and no matter what you're getting a great little computer.