Dell Inspiron 13 Laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 2.1GHz, DDR2 SDRAM 2MB, 320GB)

Dell Inspiron 13 Laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 2.1GHz, DDR2 SDRAM 2MB, 320GB)

Published April 27, 2009 at 07:04:39 AM, by Thai Tan

Short Review: Dell Inspiron 13 Laptop: The Hybrid of XPS, Studio and Inspiron?

After the success of Dell’s Inspiron line laptops, there comes another unit that looks similar to the XPS series but with a more budget friendly price. The Dell Inspiron 13 laptop, with the product code 1318, is one that follows the design and architecture of Dell’s Studio series combined with that of the XPS’. This is a sleek notebook which has an up to date slot-loading CD drive. At less than seven hundred dollars, the Dell Inspiron 13 laptop will very well indeed be popular with students as well as average consumers who are in the market for something that offers a little more in portability than a laptop measuring fifteen inches.

Design

The Dell Inspiron 13 laptop is quite attractive in looks because even though it is part of the Inspiron series it still looks quite distinct. The entire lid slopes down and is covered in glossy Pacific blue – very successful in grabbing one’s attention. The hinges on the screen are rounded, just like that on the Dell XPS M1330. However, black plastic with a metal core middle is used this time. The interior is mostly conservative black with media buttons that have a muted glow when lighted up. Overall, the texture and feel of the interior of the Dell Inspiron 13 laptop is quite nice, but is quite easy in picking up sweat and oil from your hands and skin. Some wiping is necessary every now and then to maintain its pristine look and keep it from looking dirty and tarnished.

Average Screen

The screen included in the Dell Inspiron 13 laptop is only average, especially because of the poor viewing angles on the side. If you will be working inside (such as in a classroom or an office) the brightness is enough. However, the same cannot be said when using it on a sunny day. This is due to the glossy panel that can wash out the screen and adds lots of reflections.

Sound Quality

The included speakers on the Dell Inspiron 13 laptop are loud but the sound is not exactly on the full side. It is a bit tinny, which is to be expected from a laptop but nothing too dismaying. The volume control buttons were also found to be quite tough to use, despite their attractive look.

Performance Results

Keep in mind that this is indeed a budget laptop. As such, one cannot fully expect the Dell Inspiron 13 laptop to be a powerhouse despite its XPS and Studio line looks. But overall, it performs quite well thanks to the Intel Pentium Dual Core processor that comes with it. Compared to the newer Core 2 Duo series. When it comes to heavy duty productivity tasks such as video encoding it can be quite slow – but for simple word processing and multimedia entertainment tasks it should do just fine. And with 320 GB of hard disk space you have a lot of leeway to do what you want – whether it is for work or for pleasure.

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Technical Specifications

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