Dell Inspiron 1545

[Jeep Stone]

Looking to get one for FIL. Wants to do normal office tasks and a little bit of video editing. Would this do or is there something better like Samsung R560 or Asus N50Vc

[net-curtains]

We've just bought one and quite pleased with it. Make sure you get one with the T6400 processor though. Ours was supposed to have one but Dell tried to swap it to a slower model.

Pros: fast for the money, build quality quite good.

Cons: Dell bloatware and trial versions aplenty, screen not the best I've seen on a laptop.

For video editing you'd need the dedicated graphics card option, or better still spend another fifty quid and get an HP DV5 with built in firewire port.

[keri]

Cons: Dell bloatware and trial versions aplenty, screen not the best I've seen on a laptop.

http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/ helps with that


If you get the option of a pretty colour i wouldn't bother, it rubs off if you keep the laptop in a case.

[net-curtains]

Cons: Dell bloatware and trial versions aplenty, screen not the best I've seen on a laptop.

http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/ helps with that


If you get the option of a pretty colour i wouldn't bother, it rubs off if you keep the laptop in a case.

Thanks for the link keri, I'll have a look at that

Yeah, we just went for the standard black matte version as it was cheaper.

[Jeep Stone]

How did you find the laptop?

[net-curtains]

How did you find the laptop?

Do you mean where did I get it from? I bought it direct from the Dell website....or if you're asking what I think of it, I actually think it's a nice little laptop. Good speed, nice and light, and great battery life (we upgraded to the 6 cell battery). 

[Jeep Stone]

I meant the latter

Thanks.

[net-curtains]

I meant the latter

Thanks.

  The only thing that makes me hesitate recommending it more fully is the display. It's not terrible, but it's not as bright and crisp as the HP DV5 we have. Then again I may have got lucky with that one as other laptop brands I looked in the shops at had similar displays to the Dell, whereas the HP is not far off the quality of a Macbook Pro. If display quality is important then you might want to check the Dell out first - they've got the slower models in PC World.

[Jeep Stone]

ok. It's for my father in law to do a bit of emailing/word processing and some video editing. Nothing too hardcore. Sound ok?

[net-curtains]

ok. It's for my father in law to do a bit of emailing/word processing and some video editing. Nothing too hardcore. Sound ok?

Depends on what connections your camcorder has. I've got an old one here so I have to use a firewire port to connect it to a laptop, which is one of the reasons why I went for the HP. The Dell doesn't have a firewire connection but if you're using a newer camera then it might have a card or USB connection which wouldn't be an issue.

Video editing takes a fair old hit on your resources so I'd advise having a decent amount of RAM and larger hard drive option, especially if you're working in high resolution. If you're just editing mobile phone sized movies and outputting them for use on the web though then it won't be such an issue.

[Jeep Stone]

It'll be a Standard Def camera and it has USB and was already thinking plenty of RAM/storage. Thanks.

[net-curtains]

Yeah should be fine, we're quite impressed with the Dell.