DELL VOSTRO A860 INTEL M560 2.13Ghz NOTEBOOK LAPTOP PC

I bought this laptop about a year ago, when my classes were beginning again.

This laptop is good for everyday use; it can connect to the internet with relative ease, the HD screen is generally very bright and easy to read, and I've never had a problem with responses from either the keyboard or the track pad that functions as the mouse. As far as function is concerned, this laptop is an excellent choice.

Now, having said that, there is still one big, often frustrating issue with this laptop: the battery life. It can run for perhaps an hour on a single charge. If you just plan to do some typing in a document, it will last for about an hour and twenty minutes.

What may also be of frustration to a user is the number of USB ports: there are only two, one above the other, on the left side of the laptop. If you use any external devices (hard drive, mouse, 3G internet, etc.), this can be frustrating. Thank goodness for USB hubs.

And although less of an issue than the battery and USB ports, the laptop has a black shell, meaning fingerprints and smudges will show up very easily on the shiny casing. Bad news if appearance really matters to you.

All things considered, this laptop is a good buy for the price, though it would be much better if the battery could last longer than it does. Otherwise, keep the cord with you, and stay near power outlets. You'll need it if you plan to use this for any extended length of time.

Ironically, as I was bringing the computer out of sleep to write this review, it sat in a black screen for several minutes, then the "windows is resuming" screen for several more minutes... so I had to cold reboot it.

I don't know enough about computers to know if this is a CPU problem, or a windows problem, or both, but all I can tell you is this is a typical unpredictable windows machine. The other thing that drives me crazy is, coming out of sleep mode, sometimes the USB ports don't work for anything, mouse, flash drives... causing you to have to restart the computer, which takes several minutes, by the way.

Now, those are the major grips. The design is fine, the battery life is fine, the weight of the laptop is average... I will say that the fan runs almost non-stop, spewing out hot air constantly.

It's a workable computer, I just wouldn't pay too much for it. Plus, this is my work computer and the factory-spec processor speed and memory aren't adequate for what I do, which is alot of graphic design. In fact, in my proprietary software I had a project where there was so much lag it took 10 seconds for every keystroke to appear. So if you do buy this unit, beef it up.

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