Inspiron e1501

I was looking around online several days ago and found a new laptop from Dell: the Inspiron e1501. Dell's first AMD-based Inspiron. The difference between it and my own Inspiron e1505 is that it uses an AMD processor, has ATi integrated graphics and isn't as upgradeable online. Oh, and it's cheaper, too.

You see, it starts at $549 (wow...one dollar...I hate that). But you can't upgrade the hard drive beyond 80GB on the website, you can't upgrade the graphics card at all, and you can't get the excellent Intel 3945 wireless. But then again, you're looking at an AMD box so whaddya expect?

Anyhow, it seems to be a fair laptop for somebody on a budget. A great deal better than the old-looking Inspiron B130, which tops out at an Intel Pentium M 1.7GHz processor the last time I checked, at about the same price. And the laptop probably gets better battery life, too, considering it has a 6-cell battery that comes standard.

Then again, this is an AMD processor in a laptop. If I remember correctly, AMD processors haven't fared too well against Intel on the mobile front. The base model has a 2GHz Sempron 3400+. Maybe, just maybe, the proc will run as fast as Intel's Core Solo T1350 (1.86GHz), albeit with higher power requirements. At least, that's what I've heard about AMD mobile procs: they like more power than Core Duos\Solos. And the processor lineup tops out at the Turion 64 x2 2GHz model, which, I've heard, can't stand up to a Core Duo, much less a Core 2 Duo, of anywhere near the same clock speed. And, if I remember correctly, the x2 takes more power than the Core 2.

But hey, it's cheap.And if you don't need a ton of power or a ton of battery life this is a great laptop. Upgrade it to 1GB of memory and it will run Windows Vista with all the eye candy turned on, courtesy its ATi Radeon x1150 graphics chip, which looks to be a bit better than Intel's own GMA 950.

But then again, I wish someone would buy the laptop so I could eperience it firsthand. Ah well. But it seems okay for the price.