My Dell Inspiron 640m review

Dell Inspiron 640M/E1405

I bought this computer mostly for school purposes. I am not planning to use this for games so the planning that went in to buying this particular model from dell did not incorporate this factor.

I640M,CORE SOLO T1350(1.86GHZ)
512MB SHARED DC DDR2 SDRAM 533MHZ,2 DIMM
53 WHR,6-CELL,LION,PRIM BATT
8X DVD+/-RW DRIVE,
14.1 INCH TRUELIFE,WXGA+,
INTEL INTEGRATED GMA950
80GB HARD DRIVE, (5400RPM)
WINDOWS XP HOME,SP2, (including CD)
INTEL PRO/WRLS 3945,A/G
BPACK,CRY CASE,NYLON,INSP,TIED

For reference in the future.
I live in Canada

Order date: 8/12/06 (First system)
Production date: 8/12/06
Ship date: 8/16/06
Dell Estimated arrival date: 8/21/06

2006/08/16, 07:30 In transit in U.S.
2006/08/21, 18:42 Received
2006/08/21, 18:43 Shipment in Transit
2006/08/21, 19:01 Left Toronto sort ctr/ctr trie, ON
2006/08/22, 01:50 Shipment in transit
2006/08/22, 07:53 On vehicle for delivery
2006/08/22, 14:13 Delivered

Order date: 8/29/06 (My system exchange)
Production date: 8/29/06
Ship date: 9/01/06
Dell Estimated Arrival date: 9/06/06

2006/09/06 14:39 Delivered
2006/09/06 08:01 On vehicle for delivery
2006/09/06 01:32 Shipment In Transit
2006/09/05 17:26 Left TORONTO SORT CTR/CTR TRIE, ON
2006/09/05 17:17 Shipment In Transit
2006/09/05 17:16 Received
2006/09/01 07:30 In Transit in U.S.



Looks: The looks of the laptop look quite nice although I must say that the white on the outer part of the notebook looks a bit ugly. Other than that, the overall style of the notebook is really nice. I really love the silver.

Power: I have the Core Solo. For my uses this suits me just fine. Im sure for others, the Duo Core might be more of a priority, but for me, for the things I am going to be using for thi computer, Core Solo is more than enough

Software: When I first opened and powered o the laptop, I noticed a lot of bloat ware on it. I opted to get the CD just for this purposes, so that I could reinstall Windows. I would suggest anyone buying a dell to get the CD unless you don’t mind the bloatware

Weight: The first thing I did when taken the unit out from the box was to weigh it on my digital weighing machine. It gave out 2.5 kg which is about 5.5 pounds. It is quite light and easy to carry

Battery: I bought the 6 cell battery and when I tested it out, it gave me about 2 hrs and 45 mins on full brightness and wifi on doing some web browsing, and sometimes on idle. If you lower the screen brightness im sure you can get quite a bit more.

One week after I received the original system, I had to order a system exchange because of a defective keyboard. When I tried pushing a key from an angle, the key would not enter. Very annoying. The new system has no such problem.

Keyboard: The old system as well as the new system has a weak keyboard. It works properly but it feels cheap but I guess this is one of the corners dell has to cut since the price is so cheap.

LCD: I have the widescreen, ultra sharp true life glossy screen. My original system had the Samsung screen. It definitely had light leakage at the whole width of the bottom of the screen. Although this was no problem at all to me. Didn’t bother me at all. The new system I believe has the LG screen. I think it has a bit less light leakage. In terms of the screen quality, I would say that it doesn’t make much of a eye noticing difference to me. This is purely a personal opinion. Im sure other people might have different opinions about this.

Pros

Light weight
Runs cool
Media Direct
Large touchpad
Audio
Quiet

Cons:

Position of vent
Position of USB
Outer white colour of exterior
Keyboard

Overall: 55

Initially my overall rating of my service from dell was about 75ish but because I have had to deal with them numerous times afterwards, I gave them a lower rating. I liked dealing with the inidian tech service because they treated me like a real customer with respect unlike when I talked to one of the American customer reps. For example: I called to find out how I should return my old system. After giving them all my information (address, phone #, etc) the first thing I thought I should hear from them was “How may I help you” or something along those lines, but even before I had a change to tell them why I called, the customer service rep says with a rude attitude “CD?” and I am like “pardon?” and she is like “Whats wrong with your CD?” (I ordered a 2nd reinstall CD when I first received the original notebook because the 1st one was defective) So they tried to assume why I called even before I had a chance to tell them why I called. That seems pretty rude in my opinion. Not really customer service but more of “Why the hell are you calling this time”
Overall though, after all the playing around and getting everything right, I am really happy that I bought this. It suits me very well even though I had to spend quite a bit of time dealing with tech and customer support.