Dell's 15.4-inch Vostro 1000 laptop hits $399
By Darren Murph 
posted November 20th 2007 2:17AM
posted November 20th 2007 2:17AM
Tired of waiting for Black Friday? Just plain terrified of getting mauled? If you happen to fit into either of the aforementioned categories, take heart, as Dell's got you covered. The firm's 15.4-inch Vostro 1000 -- which was listed earlier this year for as low as $449 -- has now dipped $50 lower to crack the oh-so-crucial $400 barrier. The all-black lappie features a 1.7GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 TK-53 processor, Windows XP Home Edition, an XGA panel, 120GB 5,400 RPM hard drive, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a DVD writer (with dual-layer DVD+R write capability), ATI's Radeon Xpress 1150 integrated graphics set, 802.11g WiFi and a four-cell Li-ion battery to boot. Nah, this budget machine won't satisfactorily churn through any advanced audio / video editing, but we'd bet it can handle Doom just fine.
just ordered this...
has better specs than my macbook which i paid 3x for
but,
when did you get the macbook?
if you got it 2 or 3 years ago, well, thats life!
this doesn't have a webcam
this doesn't have ilife
webcam? don't need it
ilife? don't need it
i don't see the problem
Ilife isn't a free bundle anyway and isn't a killer feature for notebooks. Webcam is good, but no ordinary person would pay 3x the cost of a notebook to get an integrated webcam.
FYI, iLife is free so long as you purchase a new system. Otherwise, it's $79.
The MacBook is severely overpriced. The basic warranty stinks too.
So... it has a core 2 duo processor, clocked at over 1.8 ghz (at the very least), a webcam, Mac OS (which is worth a lot more than you pay for it), a super drive, iLife, intuitive controls, etc?
Not to sound like a complete d*ck but...meh.
Nice for parents to give to teenage girls to use AIM and teenage boys to surf for porn but not much else. Same story with all these budget lappies. However, throw on a linux distro and all is well. It would probably be a bit cheaper, too.
Linux fanboi alert!!!!!!
In your eyes everything is crap but as soon as you put linux on it, its a whole different story.
IMO, all operating systems are pretty crap: XP is ugly and simple; Vista is pretty yet buggy and slugish; OSX is nice but compatability is lacking and linux is just sh*t.
OSX is the way of the future, linux is hell on earth!
Sh*t...now that I foolishly have two threads going, I'll start with this one first.
1. I am in no way a Linux fan boy nor could I be considered an enthusiast. I recognize when certain choices have their benefits and when they don't. In this case, Linux would be the better option since it's free, better supported, and would garner more use from such a limited piece of hardware.
2. I'm writing this reply on a 15.4" MBP C2D with 10.5.1, you don't have to lecture me on the benefits of OS X. Again, it has it's uses. That shouldn't, however, be confused with "OS X is the way, the truth, and the light and everything else can burn in hell." I do like Apple products but I don't love them by any means. If I could turn back time, I'd buy my own components and build a Hackintosh. I'd be cheaper, probably more powerful, and I'd learn something in the process.
BTW, where, in what is I'm sure your vast profusion of expertise, did you stumble upon the realization that Linux is in fact, crap?
@ Lance
I have to say, being pretty impartial at the whole OS table that all have their ups and downs. I don't think OSX is going to be the clear winner at all. What Apple have done on the marketing side of things is very clever but they're offering an operating system that also has bugs and is reliant on expensive hardware. While fanboys/girls will maybe have the patience to save up or just go nuts and buy something, Apple are still missing a huge segment of the budget market. Oh, and don't try and tell me that a mac mini is budget because that thing is overpriced weakness.
The low-end market is tied up with PC and now Linux distributions, while Linux has a place in the high-end heart of purist techno enthusiasts and PC has a place in hardcore gamers. This market segments are getting seriously hot at the moment with the introduction of reasonable hardware prices (ASUS EEE and Dell Vostro, VIA, OLPC) and free software (Ubuntu linux) or preloaded Windows Vista Basic.
My point is Apple can only grow so far with fanboys/girls while they pitch themselves at "blind" consumer end of the market. If Apple ever want to seriously be considered as a viable alternative to Windows then they have to have the whole package, not just pretend they have by tacking on boot camp last minute, especially as today I see that the adverts on Engadget are openly slating PC yet again (specifically Vista).
Just to confirm, I use PC at home, OSX at work and have played around with Linux (it's still not for me, but they're making leaps and bounds!). This Vostro laptop is a steal for all those who want to do what most people want to do, send emails, watch YouTube videos and store digital photographs.
@ Lance
Mac FanBoi {get there is an "i"} alert
Not to sound like a complete d*ck but...meh.
Nice for parents to give to teenage girls to use AIM and teenage boys to surf for porn but not much else. Same story with all these budget lappies. However, throw on a linux distro and all is well. It would probably be a bit cheaper, too.
Too late, you DO sound like a complete d*ck.
I use Linux at home on my lappie (an old VAIO with similar specs, cost 4k about 4-5 yrs ago!) and sure, it's pretty good but come on, don't be an idiot, putting a linux distro on a $400 laptop doesnt suddenly turn it into a 6 grand Mac Book Pro.
Linux has it's place and maybe it would suit this laptop but realistically, it's not gonna make a MASSIVE difference.
You sir is an idiot. Nobody needs a dual core AMD processor to run AIM or read porn. I can do that on my 10 year old Dell Inspiron.
My gf has a similarly spec'ed Dell laptop (Latitude) that her company gave her. She can run (some) games, gets plenty of work done including Auto CAD, watch films, burns DVDs and plenty more. All on XP.
@ Ollie:
...who the hell buys a 6 grand MacBook Pro?
Now for round two...
@ Daliminator:
That's a damn good question. My MBP C2D w/ 2GB RAM and TV-tuner? $1800 Granted, I got a mighty fine discount and I do like Apple but I don't love them enough to throw down 6 grand. Whoever is willing to spend that much on a laptop has way too much money and not enough sense.
@ Jon:
You're right, no one needs an AMD processor to read porn, unless it's some really impressive text encoding that I haven't come across before. But no, I'm not to going ridicule you over a typo, I'm going to ask what kind of Auto CAD your GF does with a gig of RAM and a, frankly, POS processor these days? Beyond that, I hope she doesn't multitask. I can only imagine the problems she'd face with a few spreadsheets, couple of word docs, and a CAD project running simultaneously on one of these.
TJ:
They used to run AutoCAD on 486s back in the early/mid 90s. I'm sure this laptop would work just fine for it.
Jeebus, people have grossly inflated views about just how much computing power they need to do things today... -_-'
I remember rendering c4d scene on a p4 2.4 non ht with 512 of ram without any prroblem... Sure you can't use the computer but it was fairly fast to get the job done...
At that price I would say it gives the Asus and OLPC a little run for their money.
Now if they could only get the Vostro 1500 notebooks that cheap!
And if they change its name to Nostromo I'll buy it.
-Lt. Ripley
Ubuntu with Compiz Fusion, and a price tag $50 lower? Done.
Sure, but can it play Do....
Aaagh, damn you engadget.
Score!
I rent out laptops for presentations at the rate of $100 a day, normally it's a Thinkpad T60, but these will do the same job just fine.
$429 at dell.com and $499 at dell.ca Trying to scam a few bucks there dudes?
Yeah? Wanna know how much it is on the Australian site? AU$698 (with AMD sempron 3600, 80gb HD and 512mb RAM) which, according to XE and the crappy US dollar, is US$619. Thanks dell.
499$, plus lower specs by default (80 gb HD instead of 120, no DVD writer, etc)
You should be happy! In Germany you would have to pay at least 379€ + 65€ Shipping = 444€ (~655$).
And you will have a slower processor (Mobile Sempron 3600+), only 60GB hard drive and only DVD/CD+RW Combo (no DVD writing).
That is without taxes! Taxes will make the price about €528 (779$).
can you say "weak dollar?"
bet you can read books on it too.
wow. way to totally blow the EEE out of the water, dell. this is an awesome deal, and if i hadn't just blown a bunch of money on one of those new nokia tablets i probably would pick up one of these.
Different markets... Eee is truly ultra portable, but I would buy this over the Eee probably.
Well; maybe... Not to be superficial, but I get way more comments on my ultra portable than anyone else does on their normal sized lappy.
Kinda makes Apple's pricing on Mac Mini look extreme. Especially given Mac Mini doesn't have a screen, and Apple doesn't have to pay Microsoft for each copy of the OS.
If Apple really wanted to dominate, they would be well-served to push as many Mac Minis as they can at $249 (low end SPU speeds, 512MB, 80GB), and make it easy on me to figure out what system to get my Mom this year.
Oh heck, I'll end up getting her the Mac anyway, don't want to spend my weekends removing viruses from her system...
My 70 year old aunt has a XP laptop. Never had to get rid of viruses for her ever since I installed AVG and a free Firewall. Windows viruses are out there but usually only affect people who does not apply enough security measures and visits unsecure sites.
Oh, btw Viruses are pretty easy to get when you want to get things for free. Software, porn, music. I don't see a 70 yr old trying that. My gramps is 80 yrs old, he has not even got a firewall and has never had a virus since he's mostly to scared to visit websites that are not google.
He uses his computer to make DVDs from footage he shoots of construction or family events and he's happy doing that. No viruses, no porn, no music, no illegal software.
Try teaching OSX to somebody who forgets everything you just say to them. It would freak him out to make the switch to mac.
I suggest you get your mum a vostro and tell her to stop trying to get Jazz Around Midnight from some russian warez site.
Okay normally I would say XP is essentially virus free, but in the case of an older woman, even I would go for the mac. She had FIVE toolbars on IE... FIVE. How the hell I asked. Tried giving her firefox, but she complains about it (why???). So if I were to buy her another comp, it sure as hell would be a mac. Now I would never buy one for myself, but granny is a different story.
I have my mom set up with SetSafer (look it up in Google.) Works really well in preventing things from getting installed from browsing sites.
Where is this at that price? I just went over to dell.com and that configuration came out to over $500.
I ordered two last night for the office. Good thing too, because a couple of the models (including the $399 Vostro I got) are "sold out."
What is the EXACT url on Dell's site ot order this box at $ 399 ?
When I click the read link it shows as $399.
ordering a Dell Vostro 1000 at dell.com (US)
price $ 449 for the following CRAPo:
Mobile AMD Sempron Processor 3600+
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition
LCD PANEL 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD Anti-Glare Display
MEMORY 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ, 2 Dimm
HARD DRIVE 120GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
OPTICAL DRIVE 8X DVD+/-RW with double-layer DVD+R write capability, Cyberlink Power DVD
VIDEO CARD ATI Radeon® Xpress 1150 256MB HyperMemory™ (integrated)
WI-FI WIRELESS CARD Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Wi-Fi Mini Card
ordering a (like an succker) at Dell.GR (Greece) for a pos Dell Vostro 1000
€ 495,00 w/o VAT. Add 19% VAT, and pay 589,05 EUROS ! that is about $ 862 (1 Euro = about 1.4626 USD by google)
for this Greek crappo:
Windows Vista Home Basic - Greek (what the @@@ are Vista doing on a 1 Gig of RAM ? ask Dell)
AMD® Sempron Mobile Technology 3600+
15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display
1 Year Hardware Support - Next Business Day
1024 MB 667MHz Dual-Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x 512 MB)
60GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
Video Card
ATI Radeon® Xpress 1150 HyperMemory™ (integrated)
Fixed 24x DVD-ROM Drive, including SW
Wireless Networking No Wireless Card Selected
if you want it with XP Home ,add 10 euros.
for XP PRO add 80 euros.
Seems like a DAMN good deal to me...only bad thing I see about this is the processor...and it's not horrible...just not all that great, haha
way to push the limits again dell!
At least the ram isn't 256mb running Vista. Too many times have I seen laptops with 2.8ghz processors and 256mb of ram.
Order of importance for performance:
- Ram
- Video Card
-
-
-
-
- Processor
I gamed on a 1ghz processor for a long ass time before upgrading, and when I did barely noticed the difference, but the change from 512mb of ram to 1gb, and also to 2gb, was impossible to miss.
I can't get anywhere near that low a price with that configuration.... Comes to almost $600.
if a $400 dell can have a dvd+rw dl as a standard feature, then so should the macbook. it drives me insane that we're approaching 2008, and a $1,000+ laptop still uses combo drives. i'd love a macbook, but not when the entry-price for a "decent" model is $1,300
You know you could upgrade the specs too...
if you're referring to upgrading the combo drive to a DVD+RW, no you cannot. you have to buy the next-highest model.