Dell Inspiron 6400 - a solid choice (Dell Inspiron 6400 Essential)

Member Name: Dejavudreams

Product:	Dell Inspiron 6400 Essential
Date:	10/01/09 (33 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to navigate, runs like a dream if kept well, not too pricey

Disadvantages: Occasional hardware failure

I must say, I was skeptical about Dell before purchasing my Inspiron 6400 two or so years ago. I'd heard many bad things, and from what I'd read Dell was seen as being in league with the devil (or perhaps CEO Michael Dell IS the devil, who knows?). However, having recently moved on to a more powerful, modern laptop I now feel I am in a fair positon to say that this reputation is almost completely unfounded.

My 6400 was never the most powerful thing, with a very basic graphics card, only 1Gb of RAM and generally average specs -- it couldn't handle most modern games too well for example. Despite this, it was generally very reliable. For word processing, Internet browsing, downloading, video watching etc, it simply could not be faulted and always performed very well.

I believe that many of the complaints and insults thrown at Dell are done so not because of anything the company itself has done, but rather because of how poorly the users care for their laptops. If your Inspiron 6400 has 50 programs loading at start-up then yes, it will run incredibly slowly. If you download every file you come across, yes, it will certainly crash occasionally. This is not the fault of Dell! I kept mine clean, spyware free and relatively uncluttered, and for two years it ran like an absolute dream. PCs generally don't make errors; people do.

However, I must stress the world 'GENERALLY', as my Dell did suffer a RAM failure for absolutely no reason close to the end of my usage of it. This was annoying, but only inconvenienced me for 24 hours as Dell sent a technician the VERY NEXT DAY and it was up and running again within an hour (the warranty pays, people). While I believe Dell's products are generally excellent, I must admit that my experience with their customer service team went beyond even this: I was extremely pleased.

In summary, the Inspiron 6400 is perhaps becoming obsolete now as faster and more powerful machines are put together on a daily basis, but it still a perfectly reliable and solid choice for any casual laptop user.

Summary: Great for the casual laptop user

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