Dell Inspiron 15 (iN5030-2399B3D) Notebook PC (Color 3D black) - Intel Pentium T4500 (2.30GHz) / 15

"How on earth could a laptop this good be $300 (after coupon codes applied)?" I asked myself reviewing its fantastic stats on Amazon reviews, bestbuy, and dell's website. I purchased it on the Dell Outlet (refurbished laptops), and when it arrived I congratulated myself on not buying something more expensive like that money-grubbing Samsung which demanded a horrific $450 for a laptop (ignoring PC Magazine's chart saying that Samsung leaves most customers very satisfied and Dell leaves most customers neutral to unsatisfied).

The video quality is great: Amazon Instant Video works well, Games like World of Warcraft, Runescape, etc all passed the System Requirements Lab test (independent system requirements website).

Everything about the laptop is great just don't write that 75% of your end of term report without saving it only to have to start all over again.

I wish I could give this laptop a 5/5 stars it really deserves it. But the whitescreen rules any chance of that out. You need to think twice (three times is preferable) before buying this laptop. Just search "Inspiron 15 white screen" on Google and you'll see I'm not alone in having this problem. You are warned.

== EDIT: (8/8/11) ==

After spending about an hour and twenty minutes on the tech support line with Dell, they remotely accessed my computer and updated the drivers for the BIOS (no driver update needed) and the video card (not on the latest version). The video card driver, 200+ megabytes in all, took an hour to download, and now that it's installed no more white screens. Therefore, for me at least, the fix was: install the latest video card driver.

Now it works great again I will be sure to update this review if my computer white screens again, so stay tuned.

== EDIT: (8/14/11) ==

How could I have guessed?! Pink-screen... I had a CPU and video card intensive program running, locked my computer, and came back to a screen that worked... however, it was flickering like it was set on 35 hertz refresh rate and the screen was about 75% pink pixels. My programs were all running normally... but...

I have had more problems with this laptop... sigh...

== EDIT: (8/21/11) ==

The Saga ends, hopefully. After another 20 minutes with Dell on the phone, they sent out a customer service repairman who installed another motherboard/videocard/cpu in my laptop for free. It works perfectly now.

1. not bad on your eyes, decent size screen.

2. do not like the texture on the surface and the same texture present around the keyboard & pad as well. :-(

3. I am using a mouse as the keypad is not responding well after three days of use :-(

4. had a decent built in sound and microphone, but built in webcam is low quality though. I recorded a 3 minute clip under decent lighting and while the voice quality wasn't bad, the quality of the video was not even as good as some of the old OBL recordings :-)

5. The DVD drive made an audible sound (from 10 feet away) when I put in the printer install CD. :-( The install went through fine though.

6. Wireless works decently (I got 11Mb download and 4Mb upload via wireless through my comcast, when i am 100 feet away from the router, with just three bars of signal strength and I am using a old linksys router that supports 'g' only)

7. keyboard doesn't feel great. It feels cheap overall.

8. The security that came bundled or windows 7 security extensions I don't know which one it is, it warns you when you visit web pages that are known to have some malicious content, which is a nice feature.

9. It works for general browsing for my spouse and my daughter uses the laptop as well for her school work, multiple user accounts courtesy windows 7.

I give a three because it does the job, performs fine. Better keyboard and mouse pad would have been better. For our use, I honestly don't care about anything much else.

DVD drive making noise is a concern though, perhaps it is a fault in just my unit. Anyone else notice the same thing on yours ?

Buy Dell Inspiron 15 (iN5030-2399B3D) Notebook PC (Color 3D black) - Intel Pentium T4500 (2.30GHz) / 15 Now

I was in need of a laptop really fast, so I decided to jump on to this Dell being that it was a popular name brand and it was only $299 at the time! In the past I've purchased Gateway computers, (some people saying that its a lower quality than Dell) but actually after owning this Dell for the first time, Gateway computers seem pretty durable, lasts longer and performs better as well. Sometimes with this computer I experience some slow down and the touchpad is a major headache. Again, it was only $299 at Micro Center BRAND NEW so that was the plus to purchasing this computer. To deal with the heachache of the touchpad, I simply use a wireless mouse. I only use this computer to chat, email, and browse the internet so im not exactly sure of why it slows down sometimes. Its not a bad computer but I've just had better. I like the design, its pretty light as far as weight and the webcamworks well but it does have some flaws (mostly the touchpad). This is a good computer for a high school student. If you are paying more than $300 for this computer then I would go with another brand.

Read Best Reviews of Dell Inspiron 15 (iN5030-2399B3D) Notebook PC (Color 3D black) - Intel Pentium T4500 (2.30GHz) / 15 Here

I heard that the graphic cards on these laptops make the screen freeze so I just immediately updated it before even using the laptop and so far I've been getting great results.

It is a good buy.

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I love Dell. I bought this for my little sister, mine is just like it. I abuse my pc in everyway, dust, sun, heat. still works like new and its 7 months into its desert use. ill buy a better dell next time for multimedia, but at entry level this dual core rocks!