Dell Inspiron 1545 Review

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.

hi, i was just gifted this laptop for my birthday. its barely a day old and the scrollers already giving me problems. i did not know untill discovering it the hard way that it doesnt have an integrated bluetooth and no webcam was a huge dissapointment. i have never owned a laptop before so i want to know if apart from these problems i am to expect any more in the future? (i am used to laptops at work from hp and acer which have about the same battery life.)
also, if i need to use an external webcam can u suggest any tht will be compatible with no problems? plus has anyone tried to use linux on this?

I purchased the Dell 1545 as a better alternative to a cheesy Netbook for my 10yo son's birthday present. The bigger screen, built-in DVD burner, and the webcam were "musts"! We found a Pacific Blue model with Vista Home Premium, (with the free Win 7 upgrade) at Besy Buy for $449, August 2009.

It's held up great to the regular use a 10 year old can put to a laptop. It's been upgraded to Win7. Lots of of web surfing, webcam play, and using the USB ports for a plugging in a keyboard, and an iPod.

The only problem to report now that the Best Buy's 30 day warranty has expired is a "STUCK PIXEL" in the lower left side of the screen. I had previously owned Dell, IBM, and Toshiba laptops and abused them for years and never had problems with anything other than the hard drives, (which I could easily replace), so I did not purchase an extended warranty. Now this three month old laptop develops a stuck pixel, (it's a blue pixel, when seen against a black background).

I noticed it. My son has not yet noticed it, and probably won't think anything of it when he does. I'm not sure if I should immediately get Dell tech support involved for this one stuck pixel, or wait to see if more things break and fall apart before the end of the 1 year factory warranty? Hmmm?