Toshiba Satellite A215-S7414 VS Dell Inspiron 1501

[stutsmagee]

Hey guys,

So I've spent awhile trolling about for a good deal on a decent 15.4" laptop at an inexpensive price. I've narrowed it down to two, cutting out anything with a Celeron or less than 2 GB max RAM.

Here are the stats on the two choices:

Dell Inspiron 1501 ($629 w/ free shipping)
AMD Athlonâ„¢ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TK-55
Windows Vista® Home Premium
Anti-glare, widescreen 15.4 inch display (1280x800)
1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm (upgradable to 4 GB)
Size: 120GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
ATI RADEON® Xpress1150 256MB HyperMemory™ (Integrated)
Integrated Audio
85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini Card (54Mbps)
My Software & Accessories
1Yr Ltd Warranty and Mail-In Service
Free 3 GB Online Backup for 1Yr edit
Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem

Toshiba Satellite A215-S7414 ($599 w/ free shipping)
1.8 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor TK-55
TruBrite 15.4" widescreen LCD
1 GB DDR2 system memory (upgradeable to 4 GB)
80 GB hard drive, 5400 rpm
SuperMulti DVD+/-RW drive
Realtek 802.11b/g wireless LAN
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition
512 KB L2 cache
ATI Radeon Xpress X1200
Lithium-ion 6-cell battery pack
Microsoft Works, WinDVD and Microsoft Office trial edition
2 year warranty

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[elvrage]

I looked at the Dell Inspiron which seems to be a pretty decent package, and has only a few things over the Toshiba.

1. The battery has a much longer lasting 'short-term' life, Toshiba's are known for their short battery life.
2. The 120GB hard drive can really come in handy if you love music and/or the growing capacity of space required by newer video games.
3. The anti-glare screen will be a much better screen IMO than the TruBrite unless the TruBrite has anti-glare features as well
4. Over all the Dell seems like it has more features then the Toshiba and you get the free 3GB online back up.

These reasons may not apply to everyone but if it were me, I would pick the Dell, simply because of the extra features.

 

[stutsmagee]

That was one of my main concerns. Battery life will be important to me during the six-hour stream of classes. I could even upgrade to a 9-cell with a 6-cell extra pack. My girlfriend has that setup on her Latitude and seems to like it well enough.

The hard drive doesn't do much for me, but in the long run it can't hurt, right?

I hadn't considered the screen, but that's very true.

Hmm... The only difference I forgot to mention is that I can get the Toshiba sooner.

 

[elvrage]

Well, if it is required sooner, then go for it. Like I said, there are only a few differences. You could probably do some more research on the screen.

Yeah, you could easily buy another battery, but that's adding additional costs to your purchase, so it really depends on how much money you have to flow with.