A Hardy laptop (Dell Inspiron 6400 Extreme)

Member Name: tlmartin

Product:	Dell Inspiron 6400 Extreme
Date:	25/05/09 (54 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: MediaCentre, Powerful, Hardy

Disadvantages: typical laptop problems, hard to upgrade

I am currently writing this review on a Dell Inspiron 6400 I have been using over the last few weeks as a test laptop for a clients new network I have been setting up. To ensure the configuration of their VPN etc.

They have a number of these laptops onsite that I have been supporting. My review here is going to be of how it arrives out of the box, with nothing different added.

First of all it is an impressive specification 2Gb of Ram, a Dual Core processor, a large screen, Network Card, Wifi, etc.

This computer is quick to boot up and use, and does everythign a computer should do.

The one beautiful thing about Dell computers is the drivers/specification, etc is all online fully personalised to your specific computer based upon the Assett tag. Also to ensure rebuilding is done easily there is the typical hidden partition containing the factory settings install that you can re-install upon pressing Shift+F11 upon boot up (be aware this deletes all data)

The battery life is pretty impressive as I have been using this to browese on line and write these reviews tonight and at 50% it said 1h50mins and I had been using it already for over an hour prior to that, so battery life is 3hours+

Typically there are a number of Dell applications installed including ones that expire after a year, and thus need uninstalling after the computer is rebuilt which takes time and is a hassel, as well as the fact that if you don;t rebuild after a year, once the initial year has gone you have to uninstall them.

These computers have been used in a business environment for a number of years and have been used in a conservation industry which means they are subjected to large amounts of dirt, dust, and possible droppages. These comptuers have handled themselves very well. I have had very few problems, which are more software based than any hardware based. The only issue there was, was a hard drive issue which was covered under warranty by Dell, with 1 of these within the first 3 months of having it. Dell quickly collected replaced and returned the laptop.

Overall these laptops are pretty hardy, quick, easy to use, easy to recover and well worth the money. If you need a good quality laptop that can handle itself well then this is one for you.

As an additional bonus for personal users of this laptop it has an inbuilt media centre which allows for offline usage as a CD player, music player, etc.

Summary: This is a useful laptop to have.

Processing/Quality:
Reliability:
Ease of use:
Installation:
Battery life:
Features: