Dell's Inspiron 1525 has some of the lowest price offerings available if you are willing to shop around for special offers. For those looking at the least expensive budget versions, the system tends to lack a few features compared to the average budget laptop system which makes it a mixed offering unless you are willing to upgrade the system.
Pros
* Excellent Value With Incentives
* High Resolution Webcam Built-In
Cons
* DVD Burner Not Standard
* Only 1GB of Memory
Description
* Intel Pentium Dual-Core T2370 Dual Core Mobile Processor
* 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 Memory
* 120GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
* CD/DVD Combo Drive
* 15.4" WXGA (1280x800) Wide LCD Display with 2.0MP Webcam
* Intel GMA X3100 Integrated Graphics
* v.92 56Kbps Modem, 10/100 Ethernet, 802.11b/g Wireless
* Four USB 2.0, FireWire, ExpressCard/54, 8-in-1 Card Reader
* 14.1" x 10.1" x 1.5" @ 5.9 lbs.
* Vista Home Premium, MS Works
Guide Review - Dell Inspiron 1525 Budget Laptop PC
4/9/08 – Dell's Inspiron 1525 is based around the Intel Pentium Dual-Core T2370 processor. This is a step up from the lowest end Celeron M processor as it offers two cores over a single core but still falls a good deal behind the Core 2 processor lineup from slightly more expensive models. The big drawback to Dell's low cost systems though is that they are only shipping with 1GB of memory. This limits the performance compared to the 2GB that most companies are offering standard on budget notebook systems.
Storage also has some issues with the Inspiron 1525. The big issue is is the optical drive. For the budget versions of the system, Dell still uses CD/DVD combo drives that fall well below the industry average. Sure, they can write to CDs but only playback DVDs. Pretty much every company now offers DVD burners standard so it doesn't make much sense for Dell to keep using these when the price difference is so minimal. The 120GB hard drive is a bit smaller than the 160GB average in the sub-$750 price range, but acceptable.
The display uses a 15.4-inch wide screen that is pretty much the standard size for a budget notebook these days. The Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics don't have much in terms of 3D performance and should not be considered for PC gaming, but that is true of most budget notebooks. Dell does include a 2.0 megapixel webcam built into the display frame though.
The big advantage of the Dell Inspiron 1525 systems is Dell's various special offers. While the system is a bit subpar for the features, Dell often provides incentives, bonuses or discounts that consumers willing to shop over time can find extremely good deals that can upgrade the features or reduce the price to make it a much better value.
Dell's Inspiron 1525
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