Which Dell for me?

First off, I am a Freshman in College majoring in Bussiness Economic looking for a laptop to satisfy all my course needs, as well as dowload some music, surf the web, maybe play a light game or two...I want to be flexible.

Weight and screen size are fairly important. I will be bringing it with me to class, so I want it to be light and fairly small, maybe around a 14inch screen.

Other then that I have no idea which Dell to get. I want XP Pro, 2.ghz, 1gb ram and a 100gb hard drive, and I'm flexible.

I've been thinking either the E1505, Lattitude D620, or Inspiron640m?

 

As far as "light" dells are concerned you are limited to e1405/640m or the m1210, which have 14.1" and 12.1" screens, respectively.

 

I have an e1505, and am very satisfied with it. It isn't heavy for me at all, and I got a 9 cell battery with it.

 

I have an e1505 and it's a bit of a beast (7lbs). Don't get me wrong, I love it, but I don't mind lugging it around in my bag when need be (virtually no one at my school brings their notebooks to class, still traditional notebook & pen)

Honestly, sacrifice some power for your money and get something lighter, if that's what's really important to you. Dells are heavy, (moderately)powerful, and cheap. Maybe look into a Lenovo.

 

I'm not sure about college life, so I want to be flexible. It doesn't have to be 4lbs, but I dont want a 10 pounder either. E1505 or 1405 are prolly my best bets, but these business laptops could be good too. The lattitude620 is around 5lbs and the 640m is even lighter.

 

I'm sure an e1505 would be fine for bringing back and forth to the library, student center, etc. But you should probably get an e1405 if you want to bring it to class. It really depends on your school and classes. Can you contact any upperclassmen (possibly through a forum on your school's site) and ask them if students generally bring their notebooks to class or not?

 

Most of them do not I think.....

 

This may or may not help...
Last year when I was starting my 1st year in college I wanted to be very flexible, so I sacrificed some performance and got a toshiba satellite r15 tabletpc (14"). When I got to school, I carried the computer to class in my backpack everyday, but I ALMOST NEVER actually used it in class. This summer I sold the computer and got myself a dell e1705 because I know that I don't actually need a laptop to take to class. I can take it to the library if I need and that is all I need it to do.

 

If you want to take notes with it, I would reccomend even the 12 inch xps m1210. At least i know that some colleges have very samll desk sizes, and therefore even at 14 inch would take up all of the desk.

If you are going to college away from home and will be traveling by airplane everytime you go home, I would advise away from a 17 inch. Of course the 17 inch has power, but it would seem not practical, to me at least, unless you are a die hard gamer to travel with it at all. You might also want to take a look at where your dorm is and your classes and library. If you are very near them, a bigger laptop (15.4) will not be a problem, this year at least.

 

I am about a half mile walk from the Library and classes, since my dorm is on the edge of campus. I will have to fly home from college as well. I'm thinking a Dell E1405 might be a shade more convienet then the e1505...not sure. I wish Dell didnt have so many different types of laptops.

 

If you want any type of gaming, go for the E1505 over the E1405, and be glad that dell has many laptops to choose from .

 

Laptop I'm prob getting...

D620
2ghz Duo Processor
1gb RAM
100GB Hard drive
XP Pro

I start school Sept 20th.....really worth waiting for the new Merom? or Vista or any of that stuff?