Buying the right Dell Inspiron
Another academic year is about to kick in and this is the time students like to shop. A very important item in the shopping list would be a new laptop. While this post is majorly for those who're starting college, it will also serve well to those who are looking to upgrade to a new one in the middle. In fact, I will try to make this post useful enough to serve anyone looking to buy a Dell laptop for personal and home use. This post will even serve as a helping guide to those who are self employed/ budding micro entrepreneurs/working from home.
While specs may not vary much across countries but prices will. Also, I have noticed that Dell releases products in India a little later than they do in US. I have based my blog on the laptops Dell is offering in India with the prices as on their official website for India.
I will cover the details of the Dell Inspiron series in my post. This is the flagship laptop series that Dell has to offer for home and personal use. It has a wide variety of configuration options which can cater to a wide variety of user consumer needs. The only problem with offering such a wide variety: it can be confusing as hell for the buyer to decide which one they need to buy. I hope this post can help some of you who are confused just as much as I was when I bought my first laptop.
In addition, Microsoft has announced that everyone with a genuine Windows 7 and up gets a free upgrade to Windows 10 releasing at the end of this month. My money is on the fact the Windows 10 will be an amazing product. I might just regret buying a Mac in the near future.
Now that we've decided we're buying Dell, we come to the next question. Which Dell to buy? Dell Inspiron is the flagship Dell Laptop series for personal and micro-commercial purposes. It's wide variety of variants cater to the needs of a wide consumer base of students as well as professionals. The problem with variety is that it adds to the confusion of which model to buy. So I'm going to try and ease that decision for you in this post.
The Inspiron Series basically has 3 sub series: 3000, 5000 and 7000. Each series has about 4-8 variants with minor differences in terms of screen size, RAM and Graphics card. All this provides you with a rich variety of products that very few brands offer.
Inspiron 3000 is a series of budget laptops. These laptops are high utility, low cost laptops. These have been priced between 28k and 40k and will take care of the needs of most of you who're looking for a laptop. 500 TB hard drive and 4 GB ram will tough out almost anything you throw at them.
This laptop series is ideal for home use as well wherein typical usage would include watching movies or TV shows and Internet browsing. If you need a machine which will be used majorly at home by all members of the family (school going kids, mom and dad etc.), this is all you need to buy. A 500 GB Hard drive with 4 GB RAM will serve you well in the years to come. You won't need to replace it for 3-4 years. The only thing you need to decide is whether you need a 14 inch or a 15 inch screen.
For those you who want something VERY portable and if your lifestyle involves a lot of travel, go for the 11 inch 2-in-1 laptop.
So you've had a look at Inspiron 3000 and you're thinking "If I'm going to buy a laptop and shell out a bunch of money, why buy something dated? Why not spend a bit more to get the latest specs at least and something more powerful" and THAT'S where Inspiron 5000 swoops in like the Superman of your laptop fantasy dreams. They're priced between 40 and 70k and come in 14 and 15 inch screens and a variety of graphics cards to choose from.
Who should buy?
Bachelor's and Master's Engineering students (specifically computer science), don't go any further. All your prayers will be answered by this series. Buy the latest i5 with the graphics card you like and you're done. This also goes for those of you who have work dealing with graphics, designing etc. If your work involves heavy dependency on graphics, these are the laptops you should be looking for. Also, if you run local servers on your laptop regularly, this is the right series for you.
Basically, if you're someone who has slightly heavy processing needs from time to time, this is the series you should be looking at. It's available in 14 and 15 inch variants. Choose the one which suits your budget and needs the best. The models with AMD and NVIDIA graphics card will also handle some of the high end games decently.
This will even serve those who use numbers quite often i.e. CAs and other professionals into Finance or other forms of number crunching as they're typically the ones who need a full keyboard.
So you have a slightly looser wallet and you want a real mean machine. You're like "I want the top of the line of everything. F**k all that compromises and b***sh*t, I don't ever want to hear that my laptop can't run something". Then you, my friend, are the one who needs to come here. You want everything, this series has everything they can possibly put in a laptop.
The have 2 sub series in the Inspiron 7000:
While specs may not vary much across countries but prices will. Also, I have noticed that Dell releases products in India a little later than they do in US. I have based my blog on the laptops Dell is offering in India with the prices as on their official website for India.
I will cover the details of the Dell Inspiron series in my post. This is the flagship laptop series that Dell has to offer for home and personal use. It has a wide variety of configuration options which can cater to a wide variety of user consumer needs. The only problem with offering such a wide variety: it can be confusing as hell for the buyer to decide which one they need to buy. I hope this post can help some of you who are confused just as much as I was when I bought my first laptop.
Why Dell?
1. Amazing personal experience with their laptops
This is one major reason why my post is specific to Dell. Dell Studio 15 was my first laptop when I started my Computer Science Engineering. Since it was my first laptop, I did extensive research back then and I have never regretted my decision to buy Dell. Also, I recently bought a new laptop and since I was so happy with Dell, I researched all their products extensively again. Although I didn't buy one this time (reasons will be revealed later), I was convinced that if I were to go to college today, it would be Dell. Just for the record, I bought a Macbook Air and before you even begin to judge me, the reasons for my actions will be known to you by the end of this post.2. The Microsoft + Linux Dual Boot Experience
So when you buy a Dell, you will get Microsoft 8 with it along with a free upgrade to Windows 10 by the end of this month. Apple may have become a bit popular now but 90% of all computers and laptops around the world are still running Windows. So you know that no matter what your needs are, there will be a software on this platform to take care of it. Whether you're studying design and fashion or liberal arts or a DJ, Windows will take care of you. Just in case, you're that small minority who aren't satisfied with it (which means you enrolled your ass in a Computer Science Engineering program), all you need to do is install Ubuntu on dual boot or in a Virtual Box and you're sorted. Personally, I like to keep Ubuntu and Windows side by side in dual boot and would advise you to do the same.In addition, Microsoft has announced that everyone with a genuine Windows 7 and up gets a free upgrade to Windows 10 releasing at the end of this month. My money is on the fact the Windows 10 will be an amazing product. I might just regret buying a Mac in the near future.
3. After sales service and avenues for repair.
If you're located in India (I can speak for Delhi and NCR at least), Dell has the most widespread services network to my knowledge. Even if you don't want to spend too much by going to their authorized service repair centers, a Dell laptop can be easily replaced in areas like Nehru Place (in South Delhi). Dell is like the Maruti of laptops.Buying the right Dell Inspiron
Now that we've decided we're buying Dell, we come to the next question. Which Dell to buy? Dell Inspiron is the flagship Dell Laptop series for personal and micro-commercial purposes. It's wide variety of variants cater to the needs of a wide consumer base of students as well as professionals. The problem with variety is that it adds to the confusion of which model to buy. So I'm going to try and ease that decision for you in this post.
The Inspiron Series basically has 3 sub series: 3000, 5000 and 7000. Each series has about 4-8 variants with minor differences in terms of screen size, RAM and Graphics card. All this provides you with a rich variety of products that very few brands offer.
Inspiron 3000
Inspiron 3000 is a series of budget laptops. These laptops are high utility, low cost laptops. These have been priced between 28k and 40k and will take care of the needs of most of you who're looking for a laptop. 500 TB hard drive and 4 GB ram will tough out almost anything you throw at them.
Who Should Buy?
If you're a student who is looking for something not very expensive, this is your final destination. Buy the model with Intel Core i3 processor. If you're someone who likes to play a few games from time to time, buy 1 of the models sporting NVIDIA graphics card and you're set. This won't run ultra high end games (you need Alienware for that) but it has enough firepower to help you with quite a few. This laptop series is ideal for home use as well wherein typical usage would include watching movies or TV shows and Internet browsing. If you need a machine which will be used majorly at home by all members of the family (school going kids, mom and dad etc.), this is all you need to buy. A 500 GB Hard drive with 4 GB RAM will serve you well in the years to come. You won't need to replace it for 3-4 years. The only thing you need to decide is whether you need a 14 inch or a 15 inch screen.
For those you who want something VERY portable and if your lifestyle involves a lot of travel, go for the 11 inch 2-in-1 laptop.
Drawbacks
While Inspiron 3000 is great value for money, it comes with it's own drawbacks. All of these laptops are sporting 4th Gen Intel core i3 processors. 5th Gen processors are here. So you're basically buying slightly dated technology. Another drawback would be the weight of these laptops. Each of them will weigh about 2 kgs at least. In addition, these laptops aren't likely to have a very long battery life, which means you'll end up looking for a plug point more often than you'd want.
Inspiron 5000
So you've had a look at Inspiron 3000 and you're thinking "If I'm going to buy a laptop and shell out a bunch of money, why buy something dated? Why not spend a bit more to get the latest specs at least and something more powerful" and THAT'S where Inspiron 5000 swoops in like the Superman of your laptop fantasy dreams. They're priced between 40 and 70k and come in 14 and 15 inch screens and a variety of graphics cards to choose from.
- You want more processing power or the latest processors: i5 (5th gen), i7 (4th gen)
- You want graphics: AMD, NVIDIA options.
- They even have models with a full keyboard i.e. you have the number keys on the right just like a standard desktop keyboard. This is also available in 1 of the 3000 series models also though.
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| Full size back-lit keypad is a key selling point for Inspiron 15 |
Basically, if you're someone who has slightly heavy processing needs from time to time, this is the series you should be looking at. It's available in 14 and 15 inch variants. Choose the one which suits your budget and needs the best. The models with AMD and NVIDIA graphics card will also handle some of the high end games decently.
This will even serve those who use numbers quite often i.e. CAs and other professionals into Finance or other forms of number crunching as they're typically the ones who need a full keyboard.
Drawbacks
Like the 3000 series, these laptops also weigh beyond 2 kgs. Also, the battery life may be slightly improved as compared to the 3000 series but if you're looking for something that will run the entire day, this isn't the one you're looking for.
Inspiron 7000
So you have a slightly looser wallet and you want a real mean machine. You're like "I want the top of the line of everything. F**k all that compromises and b***sh*t, I don't ever want to hear that my laptop can't run something". Then you, my friend, are the one who needs to come here. You want everything, this series has everything they can possibly put in a laptop.
The have 2 sub series in the Inspiron 7000:
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| Beautiful style, portability and utillity: Deadly combination |
13.3 inch 2-in-1 series:
Portable laptops which are convertible to a tablet (360 degree screen rotation). Amazingly styled and priced. They are the SAS of Dell laptops. These were, in fact, the ones I actually considered buying as well. Some of the key features of this series:- Priced well: 60k-70k
- Extremely light and portable: They weight negligibly above the weight of Macbook Air and offer more ram and Storage Space (HDD instead of SSD though). In fact, if you want a Macbook Air like machine with Windows in it, this is the bad boy you should look at.
- All of these bad boys run on 5th Gen i5/i7 processors.They have HD as well as full HD options.
- Beatiful on the outside. The look and feel is much better than any other in the entire Inspiron range.
- Battery life of 5-6 hours (Dell claims up to 8 I think)
Who should buy?
This is for people who're going to travel frequently. So if your college life is likely to involve a lot of travel (college fests/ band competitions/ home on the weekends) this laptop will be nothing short of a blessing for you.
Drawbacks
While these machines are well rounded beasts, they don't have much to offer on the graphics card department. Which means, this is not a gaming device. I think this should run games like Fifa (although you shouldn't go by my word on this), don't expect a lot out of these in that department. In fact, in this department they lag slightly behind Macbook Air (Intel HD 5500 in Dell, 6100 in Air).
Additionally, I'd like to see a bit more on the battery life front from this series in the future. With laptops offering battery life of about 10 hours plus becoming mainstream, 5-6 hours is too less for a laptop that is being portrayed as a portable and travel friendly option for consumers.
15.6 inch 7000 series:
The meanest machines of them all. The Optimus Prime of the Inspiron series (if not the entire Dell collection). This series has EVERYTHING that was possibly possible to put in a laptop back when they made it. Some of the key features:
- Display: HD, Full HD, 4K
- RAM: starts at 8 GB
- Battery: 5-6 hours (Dell claims up to 8 though so it depends on usage)
- Graphics Card: Don't even ask. Just have a look for yourself.
- Processors: i5 5th and 4th Gen), i7 (5th Gen)
- HDD (1 TB) and SSD options
Drawbacks
Well the weight is 1 major drawback. All of these weight 2 kg and above. Another is the price tag. If you're a gamer, you'll consider spending this much money on Alienware rather than an Inspiron. Another issue is the battery. They have integrated battery as well which slightly disappoints me. Also, I have a feeling that you'll be looking for plug points with these laptops more often than you'd want to.
Who should buy?
Personally, I don't think this series has any "use" for a student professionally. I mean, this will take care of your 99% of your needs as a student just as well as Inspiron 5000 will. Still, this is for the ones who want the baddest of them all laptops in their bag. The ones who don't want to hear about a task their machine can't handle.
Also, if you're planning to host a lot of projects and you're planning to use this as your server machine, then I think this is the one that you should go for. This is mainly the series that people who're planning to set up a home office should look at. Although, I'd suggest you check out the business series of Dell laptops as well before you do so.
Well, this was my personal view of how one should go about buying a Dell Inspiron series laptop. That said, you must know that Dell has a lot of other variety of laptops on offer. The latest is the new XPS 13 series which is by far the most amazing laptop series in Windows I have seen. It has been dubbed as the official Mac killer. That said, I decided to deal with only the Inspiron series as buying a laptop in this series can be a nightmare for a lot of people.
If you have any suggestions, queries or comments, feel free to post them on the comments section below. I'll be happy to adress them.
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