Dell Inspiron 6400 Review (Canada)

The Dell Inspiron 6400 (also sold as the Inspiron e1505 via Dell Home) is a laptop that meets you in the middle'. It's pretty light and portable (like the Inspiron e1405) and offers high performance and great media options (like the Inspiron e1705). Basically, you get the best of both worlds, at a reasonable price. Before we begin reviewing anything, here are the specs of my system:

• Intel Core Duo T2400 / 5 Mb Cache / 1.83 GHz / 667 MHZ FSB
• 15.4" Wide-screen XGA Display with Truelife
• 120 Gb 5400 rpm Sata Hard Drive
• 1 Gb DDR2 SDRAM / 553 MHZ
• 256 Mb ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 Hyper memory
• Windows XP Media Center
• 9 - Cell Battery

Reasons for Buying

The Dell Inspiron 6400 really interested me because it had everything I needed for the price that I wanted. It's small and light enough to carry (even with the 9-cell) and is powerful enough for my needs. I chose Dell because of their quality, in my mind. I've only bought one Desktop, the Dell Dimension 8200. 6 years later, it's still running incredibly well with Windows XP (designed for Windows ME). Anyways, I was confident that the laptop I was about to purchase will last me a long time, and I have plenty reasons.

Where & How it Was Purchased

I ordered my laptop on Dell's Canadian website. I found that the site was fairly easy to navigate and didn't get lost too often. Dell's main advantage over their competitors is that laptops they sell are always highly configurable. Unfortunately, I had some credit card problems that were beyond my control, so my order was delayed. The sales representative was very polite and assisted me throughout the process. I got my laptop in 15 days. It would normally take about 10 days. Overall, I was pleased with the order process and order tracking is very helpful.

Build & Design

The Inspiron 6400 feels very sturdy. It doesn't feel flimsy, and doesn't look like things are going to get loose anytime soon. Opening and closing of the screen is not too loose or too tight. One hand is sufficient enough to move the screen, provided the notebook itself on a stable surface.

The notebook design itself is slightly above average. The silver paint looks very appealing, but not when combined with the white bumpers. I didn't really like the bumpers, but I guess it looks decent. Overall this laptop can't compare to the XPS series, but its design is good enough to catch some eyes.