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Last month’s Poll was ‘Do you own a Laptop or a Desktop?’  Results show that a majority of our voters, 44%, own both a Laptop and a Desktop, compared to 36% who own a single Desktop and 19% who own a Laptop.  Both Laptop’s and Desktop’s have their good sides and bad sides.  To find out more read our post on Brandstar titled ‘Laptop vs Desktop‘.

Don’t forget to vote on this month’s poll, ‘Do you have a Webcam?’!!

As we can only talk about the machines we have actually tested it does limit us a little to the wide range that Dell offer.  But here are our Top 3!

1. Studio 15 – This may not be a high end laptop, but not everyone can afford a Precision or XPS Studio!  The Studio 15 starts at around £399 and comes with the options to be a very  powerful or gaming laptop.  Intel Core Duo 2 Processors, up to 4GB Memory, Running Windows Vista, Graphics Card from 128MB!  Perfect for the average home gamer!  These laptops are stylish and well built and best of all great value for money!  Can’t be bad!
2. Latitude E5500 – Starting at around £530 this isn’t a cheap business laptop, but neither is it a really expensive one with some great like back-lit keyboard, ambient light sensor as well as all the usual stuff this laptop has incredible battery life, one user in particular can’t believe how good it is.  If you are looking for a machine that will give you a long time running the machine away from a power source then the Latitude E5500 is a certain.  We haven’t reviewed the E5500 but here is our review of the E6500 which is a similar machine!
3. XPS M1330 – This neat little laptop is brilliant, although no cheap.  For anyone who wants a lightweight, small notebook this should definitely be considered.  With options for high memory and a decent graphics card it is really a showy off laptop!  Read our Dell XPS M1330 Reviews:

• Dell XPS M1330 – Long Term Test

• Dell XPS M1330 Crimson Red Laptop Review

One the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me a brand new Dell Computer!  Sounds pretty nice eh!  We are a big fan of dell as they provide very good quality machines at reasonable prices!  They are bound to have some great deals going on around the festive period!

Want to read review before you buy?  Check out the Dell Machine Reviews on the Brandstar Website!

The question I get asked so often is how much is the cheapest laptop? Which isn’t as black and white as people seem to think (or maybe hope!). Using our favoured supplier Dell let’s look at a some prices and see what we get!

The Cheapest…

Going on Dell laptops for Home you can buy a laptop for £269 including VAT and Delivery. Not bad. But what will the laptop be any good for? Well this is an inspiron Mini 9 running Ubuntu (not Windows) and really is designed solely for internet, emails and maybe the odd word document. But you won’t get much more out of it than that. It is small with a 8.9″ screen so isn’t designed for people who use a PC/Laptop a lot and want an everyday machine. Something portable for checking emails etc whilst on holiday or travelling then this is great! Otherwise…read on.

The Cheapest we would recommend for the average user…

For the cheapest machines you need to look at the Inspiron laptops of the Dell range and they currently start at £329 inc VAT & Delivery. I personally would upgrade the processor to an Intel Core 2 Duo from the Celeron and also increase the memory to at least 2GB rather than 1GB so therefore giving a cost of £439. Not so much because the user would need the specification straight away but most people will look at this being a long term investment and not change it as often as some businesses would. So for the extra £110 I would say it is well worth it.

Sound advice? We believe so, but contact your local independant IT Supplier and see what they have to say too.

The Short Answer

£269 but I would say spend £439 if you want the machine for more than just emails and internet.

If you have read any of the blog posts over at brandstar.co.uk you will find that I often rave about the Dell XPS Notebook range, and they really are great machines. However yesterday I got my first play with the new Dell Vostro 1510. Ultimately (well in my opinion) Dell have combined the Vostro 1500 and the XPS 1530 and produced a very nice machine!

Compared to the older Vostro 1500 it is smaller, lighter and thinner. The matt finish of the laptop lid has gone and is now a glossy, almost sparkly finish. Dell have taken the multimedia button idea from the XPS and put buttons above the keyboard on the 1510.

The slot loading CD drive helps the laptop be thinner than its older brother too and the model I saw had an inbuilt web cam much like my xps 1330.

I said when I got my XPS that I would never go back to the Vostro range, but now I am not so sure that is true! What’s more the Vostro is cheaper than the XPS! Well worth a look if you want a portable laptop and a good price

They’re my first thoughts on the Vostro 1510.