Ordered Vostro 1500. Quick question:

Hey there, just wanted to thank NBR for all the help in finding the right laptop for me. I opted for the Vostro 1500 with these specs:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7300 (2.0GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB), English
LCD Panel 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD Display with TrueLife
Memory 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 Dimm
Video Cards 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600M GT
Hard Drive 160G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Professional, SP2, English
Integrated NIC and Modem Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
TBU Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.08
Optical Drive 8X CD/DVD Burner w/ double-layer DVD+R write capability, w/o Roxio Creator
Sound Card High Definition Audio 2.0
Wireless Cards Dell Wireless 1505 Wireless-N Mini-card
Camera Integrated 2.0 mega pixel Web Camera
Batteries 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery

Grand total: 1475.00 CAD

Being Canadian this was the best deal I could find for a fully loaded laptop as I could not apply the Inspiron coupons on the Canadian site.

I have one question about my purchase. I purchased the XGA Truelife screen that comes with the lowest resolution..I believe it was 1200x800 or something similar. I didn't think anything of it but I have now noticed alot of owners opted to buy the XGA+ with the 1440x resolution.

I am not an expert on screen resolutions and was wondering if paying the extra 50 bucks to have it upgraded is necessary or if I am fine with what I have. The notebook will be used for basic university work and gaming.

Thanks again NBR

 

Having higher resolution on a smaller screen will just make everything look smaller and if you try to increase the size of fonts and stuff they look funny. You should be just fine with your setup looks good.

 

I have the TrueLife 1200x800 I think this screen is fantastic compared to the Screen on my old Latitude D620 matte screen. Good choice on the laptop. I know I made the right choice, hopefully you will feel the same way.

 

Well, if you're using a 1024x768 monitor, and you're comfortable with that, then a 1200x800 should be fine. It's practically the same height, and you just have more room in width.

 

I decided on XGA 1280x800 based on the fact that my 20" LCD is at 1680x1050 and is perfect for me. So 1440x900 would look good on a 17", sooo 1280x800 would look good on a 15.4"

Some folks like really tiny fonts and super high resolutions, which I believe is all personal choice. You do want to keep it at native resolution to avoid it being blurry or distorted.

 

Thanks for the input guys. I was kind of worried I was missing out by not getting the better resolution but im currently running the 1024x resolution on my 17 inch desktop so the 1200x should be good on my 15.4 inch screen. Thanks.

I was debating calling Dell to upgrade to Vista Premium but I think I'm gonna stay with XP for now...seems more stable imo.

Thanks for the help, NBR is great. Can't wait for new laptop (My current comp is 7 years old haha)