Sunday, September 5, 2010

Dell Inspiron 1464 Review

The chips inside the Dell Inspiron 14 (1464) should push this average laptop beyond midrange quality. A 2.13GHz Intel Core i3-330M processor and 4GB of RAM should power any typical home or office workload. A decent, 14-inch display gives room to edit side-by-side documents or to watch videos. Why, then, does the Inspiron 1464 end up feeling more low-end in actual use?

Without a dedicated video processor, games and high-performance applications stumble. The 3-hour, 20-minute battery falls short of mobile demands. And the ho-hum, faux-metal case feels a little cheap. Nearly every aspect of this model feels adequate without being impressive.

Dell Inspiron 1464 Laptop Technical Specification:
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
14″ inch (1366×78 pixels) WLED Glossy Display
Intel Core i5-430M Processor (2.26Ghz (turbo boost up to 2.53 GHz), 3MB cache)
Intel HD Graphics
3GB DDR3 RAM
320GB Sata Hard Disk
8X DVD Writer
Dell Wireless 1397 802.11 b/g/n
1.3 Megapixel Webcam
Bluetooth
Memory Card Reader
6 Cell Battery

With Core i5 and ATI graphics, the mid-end laptop is good for graphics and gaming needs. I tested this machine with the SIM-3 and Modern Warfare 2nd Both games can be played without problems with good graphic details, but it begins to overheat, play a little after 1 hour. That’s pretty normal for a laptop with heavy graphics applications. In addition, run smoothly when running multiple applications at the same time, perhaps, thanks to Windows 7 Ultra capacity will also be used. The disadvantage is the limited storage capacity, I expect to 500GB memory for this notebook. However, given this price, this notebook is still very decent. This small laptop runs good, looks good and handles your wishes for the coming years.

The Dell Inspiron 1464 is an affordable 14-inch notebook that delivers good performance and acceptable battery life at the expense of durability. If your child or your family is looking for a convenient laptop for general use then the Inspiron 1464 can handle daily multitasking with ease. That said, if you're willing to put up with a smaller screen I'd have a hard time recommending the Inspiron 14 compared to the Alienware M11x at the same price.The fact that the Inspiron 1464 includes an optical drive and a Core i3 processor helps make this laptop an attractive purchase. However, the abundance of flexible plastics and lack of special features like backlit keyboard or more advanced ports make the Dell Inspiron 1464 battery far more average than exceptional.

Pros
Speedy, modern Core i3-based configuration. Size and weight make it a versatile laptop. Big audio. Little bloatware. Sleek yet understated design. Comfortable keyboard and touchpad.

Cons
So-so battery life.

Bottom Line
The latest Intel mobile platform, a pleasing design, and booming audio highlight the Dell Inspiron i1464-4382OBK, a versatile 14-inch mainstream laptop.

Lighter than its predecessor and offering a sleeker design, the Dell Inspiron 14 (i1464-4382OBK) in Obsidian Black weighs under 5 pounds and measures just 1.27 inches thin. And this Dell Inspiron 1464 features include a 7-in-1 memory card reader, up to 4 hours of battery life, and an HDMI port that lets you connect your laptop to a compatible HDTV or external monitor for uncompressed high-def video and audio.

The Dell Inspiron 1464 model i1464-4382OBK is all-in-one performance laptop, It’s ideal for office-task, travels or multimedia. Comes with 14.1″ HD display with Integrated Intel GMA HD engine, the i1464-4382OBK is powered by 2.13GHz Intel Core i3 330M Processor, 4GB System Memory, and 500GB 5400RPM Hard Drive and runs on Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) Operating System.

This Inspiron 1464 battery also loaded with Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive, 6 cell battery, 1.3MP webcam, 7-in-1 Media Card Reader, High Definition Audio 2.0, as well as WiFi LAN. Price, staples offers Dell Inspiron 1464 model i1464-4382OBK – for $629.98

The design of the Inspiron 14 hasn't changed much in the last year since Dellreleased the Inspiron 14, Inspiron 14z and Studio 14z laptops. As mentioned in the specifications above, our review unit comes with the newer Intel Core i3 330M dual core processor. We're calling this laptop the "Inspiron 14" in our review, but it's worth mentioning that Dell markets this system as the "Inspiron 14" as well as the "Inspiron 1464." You can also find this system selling on the Dell website under the older configuration name "Inspiron 1440" with older Intel processors. Of course, there's also the Inspiron 14z (also called the Inspiron 1470) that uses the Intel CULV processors for extended battery life. Are you confused yet? We sure are.

Moving beyond the superfluous model names for essentially the same laptop, the Inspiron 14 looks like an average budget notebook with a 14-inch display. The plastic construction, average screen resolution, and lack of a backlit keyboard certainly don't give this laptop the same premium look and feel as the Dell Studio 14z. You might think that the palmrests and area surrounding the keyboard are made of metal at first glance, but upon closer examination you'll find that it's just plastic with a fancy metallic finish.

We’re of two minds when it comes to the Inspiron 14’s keyboard. The keys provide strong, springy feedback, and their terraced design makes them easy to grip. However, the right Shift key is undersized, which will frustrate touch typists until they get the hang of the layout. We also wish the Backspace key was slightly larger; at first we kept hitting the Home key to the right. Surely Dell could find a better home (ahem) for that key and others in this row, such as Page Up, Page Down, and End. Does anyone really use those?

Although the palm rest on this notebook has a shiny finish, it thankfully doesn’t carry over to the fairly large touchpad, which has a slightly grittier surface; it’s easy to find because it sits slightly lower than the rest of the deck. Navigating the desktop was easy and only a bit slow at the standard setting, though it should be noted that this system lacks multitouch. Strangely, the mouse buttons underneath don’t stretch across the length of the touchpad, so they’re needlessly small. They also felt somewhat mushy, but that’s not a deal-breaker.

Many of the ports fall below that minimum threshold. Sure, you get an HDMI and VGA port. Audio-in and -out appear alongside a 7-format memory-card reader. A Webcam captures video and photos. 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth handle wireless connections. But the Inspiron includes only three USB 2.0 ports and a 10/100 ethernet jack. Additional USB, gigabit ethernet, and even eSATA would have been welcome additions.

All together, the Dell Inspiron 1464 battery replacement is missing that certain something that would boost its overall quality, and Dell fares poorly in our reliability survey of PCWorld readers. A more-impressive battery--even one running 5 hours--would offset most of the midrange features, but the Inspiron 14's died after 3 hours, 20 minutes in our tests. Better graphical performance, a higher-resolution display, or brighter colors could make a difference. Even excellent sound could propel this laptop above competitors. But all of the features are just adequate, and no single spec can offset this midrange aesthetic. The speedy processor comes closest, but today's great laptops include more than a good CPU.

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