Vostro 1400 Vs. Inspiron 1420

I'm trying to buy my wife a laptop that she will be using for word processing,web browsing, and studying. I bought her a Thinkpad T61 with Xga screen thinking it would be ok for those tasks, but when we got it, we found the screen to be blurry and hard on the eyes. We went to the mall yesterday to see now the inpirons look and she was happy with the display on the Insirpon 1420 Wxga(1280*800). I would buy it for her, but I would prefer to give her win xp,since she's very comfortable with it and it runs better than Vista. I'm considering a Vostro 1400(similarily equipped as the one above) instead of an Inspiron 1420 since it has the xp option and it's a better deal on Dell.com. The only problem is that she hasn't seen it in real life and I'm not sure if the screen will look the same/just as sharp (when equipped both equipped with xga). Maybe I should just get the inspiron, I just dont' want to be out another 15%(as I am with the Thinkpad). Vostro 1400 just seems like the same exact laptop as the Inspiron, but with a different outer skin.

Thank you

 

The Vostro and Inspiron lines are built off the same exact platform.

And yes, they do use the same screens.

I'd definately go with the Vostro 1400 simply because a similarly configured Inspiron is at least $300 extra...

 

T61 is a pretty good notebook, are you sure that you are running at the native resolution? Did you return it ?

As for Vostro 1400 and Inspiron 1420, they are both essentially the same notebook sold with different color and warranty/support services.

 

This has been asked so many times.

They are the same thing. Exept the Vostro comes in a different color (black only, whereas the inspiron you can customize), XP option, and it is somewhat cheaper than the inspiron model.

The vostro also comes with less "bloatware" than the inspiron.

 

Definately running at native resolution. I guess lenovo doesn't care about screen quality.

 

Does the vostro come with a glossy or anitglare screen?

 

either..you can choose glossy (trulife) or antiglare (not truelife)...

 

It depends on what you're getting. "TrueLife" = glossy. Otherwise, it's anti-glare. Higher resolution screens are only available in glossy, while WXGA [1280x800] is the only one with both glossy and anti-glare as options.

Your wife may want the Inspiron better because of the color options. Just a suggestion

 

Wound up buying the Vostro 1400 with antiglare, 2gigs of ram, and a Geforce.

Thanks Guys.

 

enjoy it