Dell Inspiron 1525

I couldn't decide what my first post should be. Then I thought, why not tell about the thing from which it all began.
My first laptop, DELL Inspiron 1525 (Ruby Red).

Configuration:

• Processor – Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo Processor T5750 ( 2.0 GHz, 2 MB Cache, 667 MHz FSB).
• RAM – 3 GB (1*2 GB + 1*1 GB) 667 MHz Dual Channel DDR 2 CDRAM.
• Hard Disk – 250 GB SATA Hard Drive.
• Screen – 15.4″ Widescreen WXGA (1280*800) TFT Display with Truelife(TM).
• Graphics – Intel(R) Integrated Graphis Media Accelerator X3.
• Ethernet – Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945 Dual Band 802.11a/g 54 Mbps Wireless Mini Sound.
• Bluetooth – DELL(TM) Wireless 355 Bluetooth Module.
• Operating System – Genuine Windows Vista(TM) Home Premium with AERO technology.

(NOTE :: Also if any one wants to install Linux the warranty for one or four years which ever you opted for still holds good. But if there is any problem with the hardware then the customer care will ask you to load Vista for any change being made through the software. So go for any OS. I myself have both Vista and Fedora 10 (earlier had Vista and Ubuntu 8.04) loaded in my laptop and it works fine).

• Security – McAfee(R) Security Center(TM)-15 Months OEM.
• Others – 6-Lithium Battery,65 W AC adapter,Keyboard with touch pad,Travel Remote Control.

Other assets:

• A 1 year full warranty(you can also get a +3 years accidental warranty which includes replacement of parts if damaged due to some tea spills on keyboard or dropping from hand etc., but not for national calamities).
• A set of touch panel with the traditional buttons(Play/Pause,Stop,Previous,Next,Mute,Volume high or low).
• Then the best feature that I found was the “DELL Media Direct” button which allows me to access all the movies,videos,music,pics,play DVDs and that too without the startup of your OS, only I have to press the button of “DELL Media Direct” given above the keypad.
• Talking about the graphics.. its fine & with AERO I can fell a bit close to 3D, though not even a bit close as compared to a linux user.
• The OS has at times given problems but it was mainly due to a software I had installed. So not to worry on that front.

Problems:

• The sound is not very loud though the quality is excellent.
• The colour of the keypad is silver-gray , it would have been better if it was black.
• The mouse touch pad is not of very high quality.
• If you are a gamer, you would probably not go in for this due to its lack of graphics card. Though a video memory of 359MB is not bad for games with low end video requirements(where minimum requirements is 128MB or so).

Queries:

A query which I had before the purchase of DELL and which most of us have with DELL is the presence of service center. Not to worry! DELL has a toll free number for the working hours and you can contact it to get the support you want regarding the software or hardware problem or query. If by chance any part goes wrong you just have to contact them. They will suggests you steps like hardware diagnosis and if the problem remains, they will send engineers to set whats wrong. Just imagine you don’t have to walk a single step yourself.

So one should definitely go for it since its a value for your money. I might have left out something so please bear with me.

Here are the screen shots of my Vista and Fedora desktop.
Enjoy!