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Want to know what you can expect from a Dell laptop? Read our review of the Inspiron 1525.

I shall start from personal experience, with 2 laptops i have bought in the last 18 months. These are the MSI GX700 and the Dell XPS M1530, both of which came to £999. The MSI was purchased in October 2007, and the Dell in October 2008; so comparing spec would be a worthless task. But I can compare the reliability and customer service I received from the two companies.

A fight for customer service dominance

MSI vs Dell
The MSI GX700 was purchased from an online retailer in September 2007, it took 2 weeks for me to receive the machine and only 2 months to be sick of it. For you see during these 2 months the power supply on the machine had failed, and the graphics card was overheating beyond what should be expected. The machine was returned to MSI for repair, and I got it back within 10 days. Now this all sounds well and good, but the start of this took forever. Contacting the retailer I was alerted that I need to contact the support department for the laptop directly. Now this is a normal measure, but much more difficult when the retailer gives you the wrong number, and you then get passed through 4 different phone connections to then find out that you have to phone the retailer again.

After all this, I got the machine back and a couple of months later put a disc into the drive (I rarely use discs, as transfer most data online or with USB memory sticks) and as the drive spins up to speed it makes a horrible buzzing noise. I send the machine back to MSI to be repaired, and it returns with the bottom of the machine not being secured properly, in fact the bottom falls off when I move it on my lap. One return to manufacturer later, and the piece of metal enclosure that covers the processor has been put on badly, and there is a good couple of millimetres gap between the cover and bottom of the machine.

After 11 months with the machine, I was able to wrangle a refund out of the retailer, due to the product and the repairs being useless. And with this refund I purchased an XPS M1530 directly from Dell.

I ordered the Dell machine on Friday, and it arrived on Wednesday. Everything was good, all questions I had at any time were answered, but a problem soon arose. My Hard Drive was making strange noises, and failing to boot sometimes. I phoned Dell Support, and as an XPS customer got launched to the front of the queue, and the technician was happy to talk me through the steps to update my bios, drivers, and check the drive for failures (all at 11PM at the weekend). When it was deemed that the Hard Drive was in fact failing, they sent a technician the next working day with a replacement hard drive and touch control panel (the original had been scratched when it arrived). The laptop was fixed and ready to work again within 2 hours of the technician arriving.

This difference in customer care shows you the added value you can get from buying a certain system over its competitors. Although the modern MSI had a higher spec, the Dell customer and technical support was much more comprehensive and useful.

But this value for money can extend to other areas, for example the ever present Mac vs PC argument.

Who helps you out more?

Mac vs PC
It is well known that if you equivalently spec an Apple Mac and a Windows based PC, that the Mac will more often than not be more expensive. But there are reasons for this, such as the Unix underpinnings that makes Mac OSX more reliable; the fact that the computer and OS are made by the same people, making them more reliable; the inclusion of iLife software giving you easy to use Photo, Music, Web and Video editing out of the box; Apple’s customer service.

Working as an IT technician at a school, you see all sorts of computers come in and out of the site; and end up fixing most of them. This normally involves reinstalling windows and setting the school provided machine back to how we gave it to them in the first place; or replacing a piece of hardware. Now, when it came to fixing a Mac Pro, which we had never done before, we were slightly intimidated; so decided to contact Apple Technical Support. The technician on the other end of the line was more than happy to help us through the installation and fixing of software, as well as have a laugh with us when we were searching for the serial number. Customer service much higher than what we get from our network solution provider, that we pay loads for, and get “Look at this article online” answers from.

Moo.com
But this sort of thing is not just something you should think of when buying your new MP3 player or Computer, it can affect you in more standard medias, such as business cards; something we had to purchase recently.

From recommendations on the internet, mainly Twitter, we decided to use www.moo.com to print our business cards; and we are very pleased that we did. We were unsure if the images we had were the correct size, etc for the cards but one of their customer service agents answered our questions very quickly. He was happy to look at the images we had and make sure they were right, he even checked the cards once they had printed to make sure they looked as good as they did on screen. And we were kept informed at every step. Now is where you get to have a laugh at me.

For you see, I accidentally uploaded and had the wrong image printed onto the cards. This image had the wrong phone number on it, which rendered them useless, something I felt silly over. Shortly after receiving the cards, I had an email land in my inbox from Moo, asking what i thought of the cards. My reply said that the printing quality was awesome, and I jokingly mentioned that I had accidentally put on the wrong number. Twenty-four hours later, I received an email with a voucher code for a free set of business cards.

This has to be some of the best customer service I have ever received, as the number error was entirely my fault. Therefore, I am going to have to go at a tangent here, and say that bitcolumns very much recommend moo.com.

Buying Tips
These tips should help you make sure you get the most from your money, no matter what you are buying.
Do your research. Read about the product and the company online; ask friends if they have ever bought anything from the same company. Check to see what their warranty and technical support cover.
Shop Around. The best prices can be found by looking everywhere you can. Price comparison websites, online retailers, the manufacturer’s website, etc. Never rule out high street stores though, as more and more are putting out offers to attract customers back through their doors.
Check their customer services.If they have an “Ask Us” feature, use it. Get a sneak preview of what their customer service is like. This link is there to entice you into buying their products, but can give an insight to their support. If they are quick and helpful then this is a good sign.
Try the product. If you are able to go to a shop or a mate’s and try out the product before you buy it, do it. This will let you make sure it is the product you want, and ensure it is right for your needs. No point buying something because it is cheaper, or got good customer service, to find that it is useless.

With there being several different versions of this laptop, the features vary, but this particular model includes these:
Windows Vista Home Basic operating system
3.2 hours of battery life (Bapco MobileMark 2007 battery)
8-in-1 media card reader
Intel X3100 Integrated Graphics card
4 USB 2.0 ports
DVD RW drive
Built-In 802.11b/g wireless

Speaking as someone who has been using Window’s XP up until now, the laptop’s operating system does take some getting used to. As a whole it’s a very competent system and even the Basic package comes with everything you’ll need for student life – including the full Microsoft Works, giving you the word processor for those 10,000 word dissertations and spreadsheets for keeping that budget up-to-date! Furthermore, Vista’s ‘Welcome Centre’ is an invaluable help in so far as getting started on your new laptop – walking you through the easy transfer of files from an old computer and getting you connected to the net quickly and efficiently. You can even customise the side-bar to host a whole range of gadgets specific to your own needs. However Vista does have its downsides. It isn’t always the most user-friendly system. One odd quirk I’ve found is that the process of saving documents has been changed considerably since XP and, in my opinion, overcomplicated. On the other hand this is just one of a few small quirks which don’t really affect the laptop’s performance, but just take a little getting used to. On other problem which has been reported with Vista (although I’m yet to experience this problem for myself) is that the operating system takes such considerable effort for laptops to run, that it can severely impact the computer’s performance in terms of speed and the use of multiple applications.

In so far as the graphics go on the Inspiron 1525, opinions are mixed. The 15.4 inch screen and X3100 Integrated graphics card combine to really do justice to those stunning holiday photos and make for excellent viewing if you’re watching films on the laptop. So from what I’ve personally seen the graphics on this computer are excellent. However, I’m no gamer – and reviews of the X3100 graphics card itself in relation to gaming potential aren’t so enthusiastic. It seems that this card isn’t up to the challenge when it comes to games with seriously in-depth graphics and can produce a very slow frame rate. It seems that this graphics card has more to show for itself when used in conjunction with XP than with Vista – so if you’re a gamer, it might be worth looking into something with a different graphics card or operating system.

As for the sound, its nothing extra special, but its not bad either. The speaker is one long strip located above the keyboard / below the screen and its output can be controlled by the touchpad beneath it. The touchpad allows the user to change the volume and mute as well as controlling the media player, with options to change track (or scenes, if you’re watching a movie), play/pause and stop. At first this can be odd to get a feel for, as you can find yourself constantly reaching for the turning dial on the side of the laptop to change the volume, only to find it isn’t there – however, it doesn’t take long before you can enjoy the novelty of your shiny new touchpad! As for the sound itself, it is of a very good quality. Although, like most laptops, not very loud, it does have very good clarity and I’m more than happy to listen to music and watch films without having to plug in external speakers. Furthermore, the laptop does also have a built-in microphone – the quality of sound produced by which I was happily surprised by!

Other features of the Inspiron 1525 include a very reasonable battery life. At 3.2 hours it outstrips many other laptops within its price range, most of which seem only to last for up to 2-2.5 hours. As with most computers it is also possible to change the power settings so as to consume less energy and make that battery life stretch even further. The 8-in-1 media card reader is an excellent little space-saver, conveniently located at the bottom of the laptop’s front and supports several of those commonly used media cards such as SD camera cards. Plus it comes with a card-shaped piece of plastic that slots into place when the reader is not in-use to help keep out the dust and such. The laptop also comes with 4 USB ports (which I find particularly useful and convenient!) and a DVD re-write drive, as is standard for the majority of products on the market today.  The drive is not capable of supporting HD, but considering the youth of HD technology, most (sensible) people won’t consider that to be a serious flaw in a £339 laptop!

All-in-all I’m very happy with the Dell Inspiron 1525. It does have a few small drawbacks, for example certain usability issues, but these just take some getting used to, and some graphics issues – but those are only really drawbacks depending on what you’ll be using your laptop for. It is also worth noting that you can buy this laptop with Window’s Vista Home Premium, and with a higher-power processor and a greater capacity memory through Dell’s own website, although this is perhaps not for most of us ‘financially challenged’ students as it does, of course, mean paying more. I, however, am more than happy with the lower spec version: its still a fantastic little laptop with a good memory and processor, decent sound and graphics, a great battery life and a sleek, stylish look. Gamers; this laptop probably isn’t for you if you’re hung up on mind-blowing graphics – but for anyone else the Dell Inspiron 1525 is not only an excellent laptop, but also great value for money!

Score: 4/5