What's The Deal with The New Dell Inspiron 1000?

This new Dell Inspiron seems to have popped out of absolutely no where. One day I went to dell's site to price some stuff and i see this new (black of all colours) super-cheap notebook, and almost no sites or anything even take notice!

It seems to have almost identical specs compared to the 1150, but is lighter, had a standard combo drive, and is made of black plastic. Does anyone have this model yet? If so, any thoughts on how it performs and such?

Also, why would Dell release a notebook almost identical in specs to the 1150 but a tad lighter and in a different package? Thanks guys!

-VdM

"God, we're living in a global shopping mall and you're the only one who still thinks that there's a bloody exit!"

 

At its current price it better have a damn good build quality because I think people are just better off getting an Avaretec or one of the old models of IBM T series selling for less than this ($600-800).

I don't even think this is much of a bargain just cheap.

 

they just announced it today. Look closer and it's not as good as the Inspiron 1150. The battery is not Li-Ion and it's quite obvious Dell has done everything in their power to drive costs of this notebook down to reach a new market category of extreme budget laptop. I'm sure the feel is pretty darn chinsy on this thing. But watch the prices drop to $600 with special offers and coupon codes, if you want something more than just the cheapest laptop on the market, don't buy this.

 

Well i'm glad I bought an 1150 before this came out, because i'm a sucker for a low price.

At the end of the day, it's just a fancy calculator....

 

I don't recommend the 1000 since most Dell laptops will be usable with one, it is orphan even Dell will tell you not much is complatabilty with other Dell's

 

I bought a Dell Inspiron 1000; got it for $699 w/free shipping through the small business division. The home division had it for $699 as well, but charged $50 to ship. Anyway...

I was looking for a decent re-furbished notebook, and found for the features I wanted, I'd be paying $500 to $600 by the time I had it shipped. Then I found the Dell Inspiron 1000 and decided a brand-new el-cheapo Dell would be worth it for $700.

I like it. It is what it is, nothing more. The keyboard feel is good, and the keys are laid out fine - I can type on it in the dark and rarely hit a wrong key. The integrated SiS M650 video isn't much, but it's probably comparable to my old TNT2-Ultra that served me quite well until recently. I ran 3dMark 2001SE on it, and got 1150 or so at default settings (1024x768x32 is default, right?). It won't run a modern FPS game, but should do fine on older stuff.

I've already added another 256Mb of ram (that seems to be the limit); got a cheap A-DATA PC-3200 for $38 from NewEgg. It looks like the memory runs at only 266Mhz (nevermind that the chipset can do 333Mhz no problem), but the 400Mhz DIMM was the cheapest and works perfectly. Of each 256Mb, 32Mb goes to the video, so with 512Mb installed I get 448Mb for the system and 64Mb for the graphics.

The battery really is bad... only 80 or 90 minutes of life (but I don't really plan on using it with the battery too much). The notebook isn't even smart enough to dim the display when you go to battery power, but if I dim it myself I can add another 30 minutes or so. I can't tell if the Intel SpeedStep throttling is enabled - there's no control app for it, but Intel says it's built in to XP so there wouldn't be. Any clock speed monitoring utility I run always shows 2191Mhz, but I've no idea if such a utility would even show the throttling.

All that said though, a couple of days after I got the Dell, I saw Staples had the Averatec 3220H for $799 after a $100 MIR. That would have been a far better choice for only $100 more net, and I seriously considered returning the Dell. But I decided not to hassle with it.

 

Finally a real user review of this thing! Thanks johnsonx!

I'm thinking of getting this because this notebook will probably be stationed at home most of the time and I'll probably take out the battery and leave the AC adaptor is plugged in. So battery life isn't a biggie for me.

The good thing is that I can buy this from Dell home and I don't need to pay tax