One of the most ubiqutious names in the PC world is now offering a Blu-Ray equipped Inspiron M1525 laptop for the low low price of $879.  At that price you don’t get much besides the Blu-Ray drive.

Selecting the Blu-Ray drive requires a Core 2 Duo processor of 1.83GHz or better, they still make processors that slow?

At this price your operating system will be Windows Vista Basic, you should know my opinion on that and the display is a standard 15.4-inch 1280 x 800 gloss widescreen.

For all the laptop manufacturers out there, I would like to say something about that.  It’s time that all 15.4-inch displays got a standard resolution of 1440 x 900 because 1280 x 800 is too little to watch HD content and to be of any real use when running multiple programs.  Apple has it right.  It’s time everyone else started taking note.

And Dell, LED displays are the way to go, on all your models.  That’d be great, thanks.

You will also get Intel GMA X3100 graphics; there is no option for a dedicated card unless you opt for another laptop.  You’ll get 1GB of memory, an 80GB hard drive and the Blu-Ray/DVDRW combo drive.

Opting for the Blu-Ray drive will also shorten your battery life so plan for that accordingly.

Unless you really need a laptop with a Blu-ray drive, opt for something with better options, a better display, better graphics and a better design.  There isn’t much left to redeem the Inspiron M1525.

I was able to configure the M1525 with Blu-Ray to something slightly less primitive for $1,059 but the only graphics option is the GMA X3100 and I was still stuck with the 80GB hard drive.

If you’re willing to pay a premium and I do mean a premium then just buy a XPS laptop with a Blu-Ray drive because mating a Blu-Ray drive to an Inspiron laptop still makes for an average or below average performer.

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Entry was posted on Sunday, April 6th, 2008 at 9:44 am under Notebook.

Read more entries by Jonathan Schlaffer.
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