Lucky 13

I'm jealous. My wife ordered a new laptop the other week, a Dell Inspiron 13. I have an Inspiron B130 from a few years back. The cost was essentially the same. Hers is surprisingly light, glossy, a thing of beauty and packed with features. Mine is bulky, heavy, boxy and slow by comparison. I guess that duality is only fitting.

She wanted something with a DVD drive, so netbooks were out of the question. We ended up customizing the base system with a Core 2 Duo (dual-core 2 GHz, 800 MHz bus), 250 GB drive, 3 GB memory, the Intel wireless option (for Linux support), dual layer slot-loading DVD reader/writer, 8-in-1 card reader, bluetooth and a webcam and the total was around $800 with shipping and Arizona tax included (because they sell at Best Buy here, there's evidently no way around it).

I compared that to the MacBook just for laughs. The base feature set is very similar to the options we choose, essentially the only significant difference was that it has another gigabyte of memory (and for OS X, you'll definitely want it). For around $1400. Without tax and shipping. So essentially Apple is charging twice as much.

Compare it also to my laptop, which is about two years old. Single processor, slower, one-sixth the memory, a graphics card with little or no 3D acceleration, tray loading read-only DVD drive, no camera, no card reader, no bluetooth, a measly 40 GB drive, and of course no support for the newer, faster wireless standard (N). It has a slightly larger screen (14.1" vs. 13.3") but it's definitely not as sharp. And, as I indicated, my laptop is a brick by comparison. It's amazing what two years and a lot of competition will bring.

In addition, the layout of the ports is smarter. Everything is either on the sides or in front. There is only a single USB port, but FireWire on the other side. And still only VGA out (no digital or optical). We can live with that. I like the keyboard layout too.

It came pre-installed with Vista. Before re-partitioning for Linux, I had to check it out. And I have to give them credit, the user interface looks very nice, very polished. It doesn't seem slow compared to XP but then, this is a very fast machine.

I put on Kubuntu Linux, installed Google Gadgets and a few other things. Because of US patent issues, encrypted DVD support isn't pre-installed with Free Software, and I'd forgotten how I got that going with mine. That was basically the only stumbling block. Stick in a DVD and get a 'Play? Copy?' etc dialog. It burns at about 6x. Google Earth is fast: I'm spinning and zooming around landscapes, the frame rate is high; on mine it's like clunk-clunk-clunk. Then I have to give it back to her; playtime is over.

The one slight negative seems to be that the maximum audio volume isn't that loud. It's fine for headphones, but if you couldn't really play something for a person who isn't right next to you.

Weight was a real issue. My laptop was listed at 5.4, while the 13 is 4.9. It feels like more than half a pound of difference though. Who needs a netbook?! This is one outstanding value and if you're looking for a new laptop, I highly recommend it.