The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
I've had it for about a month. I agree with most of the review posted above. It's a pretty solid, average laptop in all regards that's not overly impressive in any aspect. However, it is a decent price without really sacrificing on much.
By comparison, my company got an IdeaPad Yoga 13 which I got to use quite a bit. It's lighter, but doesn't have a network slot or DVD drive which makes installing applications on there much harder considering you really only have the wireless connection to work with. You're essentially paying for the trick hinge that let's you use it as a laptop or tablet. The fact that you don't sacrifice the network slot, several USB slots, and DVD drive is pretty big in my opinion.
One of my bosses had to have a 1080p display and all the other bells and whistles. I forget exactly which Dell he got. However, it was much more expensive and also much heavier. There is quite a difference between 2 lbs, 4lbs, and 6 lbs, and the Inspiron is just about as heavy as I would want in a laptop.
My other boss got one of those extra lightweight ultrabooks. It's great for him since he really wanted that. This laptop, just like the one above, did not have touchscreen capabilities. Having worked with both Windows 8 with and without a touchscreen, I have to say, you might as well try to get one with a touchscreen. While most things can be done with a touchpad/mouse, having the option to use the touchscreen is very important in my opinion. In some cases, it is just more intuitive. My 5 year old daughter loves to use the touchscreen instead of the touchpad (and she has used older laptops with only the touchpad before) which tells me how much more intuitive it is. Also, as the apps start rolling out, you know that programmers are going to find great ways to take advantage of the touchscreen.
My company also go a Surface. Let's just say Windows RT is garbage and end it there. The Windows 8 version will probably be better. It's very light, but it's really stripped of everything also. It will probably be a hit as a tablet.
In short, this was a long-winded way to say this is a very competent ultrabook that you don't really sacrifice anything. However, it's mostly average in everything, so if there is a feature you have to have (such as an ultra-lightweight, or 1080p display, or whatever), try to go with that instead if you are willing to sacrifice on other features you hopefully don't need. I like my Inspiron and wouldn't trade it for the others that I worked with. And get the touchscreen. You may not use it much now, but who knows, maybe it will be great later on.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
