How to buy a Dell Laptop in India

Dell is a wonderful company to interact with. The people that it has on board are some of the most well trained professionals in India. You will be able to make the best well informed choice of a laptop by just talking to the Dell sales representatives. But lets still try and understand how to make a perfect buy of a Dell laptop in India.

If you are a home user or if you intend to buy any of the Dell Inspiron, Dell Studio or the Dell XPS model, than what you need to do is to log on to the Dell website and configure the laptop that you like the best. Check out the price, which does not include VAT, Taxes and Delivery charges.

Next, if you want to see your choice of laptop, go to the nearest Croma store (that is the chosen reseller though other too stock Dell) and check out the model. If you are uncomfortable surfing the internet and making the decision, feel free to talk to the Dell sales representatives there. They will not only help you make the right choice, but if you are ready to shell out the money, they will help you buy too.

Next, according to my method of best buying from Dell, get on the phone and talk to the sales representative about the Dell laptop that you want. The sales guys will send you a quotation. The best price that you will get for a Dell laptop will be the price that you see on the internet + delivery charges which means no taxes. This means that since the Dell Inspiron 1545 with a T6400 processor will sell for Rs 33,900 (sale price on internet) + Rs 900 (Delivery Charges) = Rs. 34,800 (Final price).

Once this is done, you can still ask for freebies like a mouse, wireless mouse, earphones, sound system etc. If you ask at the right time, usually the last day of the week or a month, you will be able to make a very good buy then. Sometimes, depending on the schemes and promotions you might not get all this too, but you definitely will be able to make a very good buy if you order on the phone.

Dell will accept all sorts of money transfers. They will take money by credit cards, internet transfers and also cash if you get it from a reseller.

Dell Inspiron Series of Laptops

The Dell Inspiron series of laptops are basically laptops that are configured for "Home Users". The functions that these laptops are optimized for are much different as compared to what other laptops are configured and used for.

While Dell does provide the best customization options available amongst all other laptop manufacturers, beyond a point, a laptop is not that easily customizable. The body of the Dell Inspiron laptop is built for home users.

The Dell Inspiron laptops have a better processor so that the user doesn't need to upgrade too often and a laptop lasts for atleast 3-4 years. The insufficient battery life that is usually attributed to the 4 cells that it comes with, the attractive looks, the webcam, the large hard disk, the glossy screen, the softwares that are packaged with it are all aimed at the home user.

Remember that a Dell Inspiron laptop is not meant for regular use of 10-12 hours a day, like any other desktop or business laptop. But it is wonderful to watch a movie and surf the internet everyday for a few hours. It is not really supposed to be taken to the office everyday. Doing so may damage the case in the long term. But you can log it for a long distance journey once in a while in your backpack.

If used properly like this, the Dell Inspiron laptop is a wonderful piece of hardware more than sufficient for all your needs.

Do read the How to buy a Dell Laptop in India guide, before you go and buy a Dell Inspiron laptop.

Dual Channel RAM

Without getting into the technical specifications of what a dual channel RAM is, let me explain what you need to know about Dual Channel RAM while buying a laptop.

The RAM of a system is the only bottleneck in a system with a reasonably fast processor and I/O devices. A dual channel RAM utilises both the slots in the RAM to the optimum and hence provides the best speed possible.

Theoretically, a dual channel RAM increases the speed of the memory by 100%. This doesn't necessarily translate into a higher system speed.

In order to work with a dual channel RAM, a laptop needs to have identical RAM in both the slots. For example, both the slots need to have 1 Gb RAM each making the total system RAM to be 2 Gb. If there is 1 Gb RAM in one slot and 2 Gb RAM in the other, then the system will again move to a single channel mode.

So, the important thing to remember while choosing a laptop is that it has dual channel RAM enabled, which will help you get better speeds out of the laptop.

On the Dell website, try configuring a laptop for 3 Gb RAM vs 2 Gb or 4 Gb. You will see that the RAM speed decreases from the 800 MHz FSB to 667 MHz FSB in the case of the 3 Gb RAM. This is because it doesn't implement dual channel.

So, when you go out to buy a laptop, stick to either the standard 2 Gb of RAM or go for 4 Gb to get the best performance from your laptop.

Dell Inspiron 1545 Review

I have used previous models of the Dell Inspiron series. They were decent machines and I liked them all, but I was never a big fan of the Inspiron series laptops. What I disliked the most was the silver color. Even the cheapest Compaqs in the market looked better than these Inspiron machines. Dell solved that problem for me this time around.

Welcome the new Dell Inspiron 1545 - in a glossy black color. Gone is the scrubby silver. And with options to team the black with different colors from the default Black, to different shades of blue, white and even beautiful flamingo pink, Dell has made the new Inspiron 1545 look far more attractive than any other home laptop in India. For this Dell Inspiron 1545 Laptop review, we will be sticking to the Dell Inspiron 1545 Laptop with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor T6400 which has a clock speed of 2 GHz, 800 FSB and 2 Mb cache memory. The processor is one of the latest offerings from Intel, if not the fastest and is more than enough for most home users' processing needs.

I looked around some Croma stores and Dell resellers in Pune and Ahmedabad. I haven't yet set my eyes on the red colored Dell Inspiron 1545.


Looks
It sports looks that kill for sure. The Dell Inspiron 1545 is one of the best looking budget laptops available for home use in India today. The build quality is very good with minimal flex. The glossy finish does mean that you will have to keep cleaning the laptop with a soft cloth from time to time.

Screen
The Dell Inspiron 1545 sports a new wide angle 15.6 inch screen, perfect for watching movies on. The 16:9 movie friendly aspect ratio hides the black lines that you see both at the top and the bottom of a screen while watching a movie. Dell's native screen resolution is 1,366 x 768 while most laptops these days sport the 1,280 x 800 screen resolution. The screen quality is average. The viewing angle is limited as it is for most Inspiron series laptops. Once you are set though, you can watch a movie quite comfortably on this splendid laptop.

Processor
The Inspiron 1545 is built on the Montevina platform. The T6400 processor that offers a decent clock speed of 2.0 GhHz is not too great for gaming but is more than enough for all your usual needs. The Cantiga GM 45 chipset also will last you a while. 2 Gb RAM that is offered with the laptop and this is upgradeable. So you can increase it to 4 Gb to use the dual channel capability of the RAM, probably when the next version of Windows is launched. The graphics card that is provided is also adequate for home users.

Battery Life
The laptop gave a battery life of nearly 89 minutes while reading and 74 minutes of DVD playback with a balanced profile, 40% brightness and wireless off. The battery life performance is pretty dismal compared to most laptops that we have tested. But considering the fact that this laptop in particular was built for home use, we might just acquit the Dell Inspiron 1545 here.

Laptop Shades
The laptop comes in six different shades. The default one is black and it won't cost you an extra dime. But if you want to go for the Red Paint LCD Cover or the Pacific Blue High Gloss finish you will have to pay Rs. 819.38 extra over the original price. The Alpine White, Ice Blue and Flamingo Pink shaded laptops are priced a wee bit higher at Rs. 820. 46.

Tell you what, these guys at Dell do beat Bata in setting their price tags.

Weighing 2.58 Kgs,it is not a very light thing to carry, but it is not meant to be carried around a whole lot too.

On the whole, the laptop is a good buy if you are strictly a home user or a student looking for a cheap bargain to last a while. Remember that the Inspiron series of laptops is not meant for heavy use, and this laptop just reiterates the point. It is an excellent laptop for home use nevertheless and still the main bread and butter model for Dell.

And the price, at 33,900 (ex delivery and taxes) is dirt cheap as compared to any other laptop with a similar configuration in India.

Before you go buying a Dell laptop, do remember to read this How to Buy and Order a Dell Laptop in India post so that you do not miss out on the best bargains and tricks to get them.

Singh is King

So, the true Sardar is going to rule the country once again. We just hope that he is able to do so for the whole of the next five years. Given the sycophancy that exists in the Congress Party, it seems certain that sooner rather than later, Rahul Gandhi will be promoted to the Raj gaddi.

What sort of a democracy is this, where the default option is the winner, where DMK wins after it promises rice at 1 kg and free color TVs to all. Can we ever expect an Obama in India. I doubt it. Primarily because the Indian political system is a very closed circle. Being a part of this circle is tough and being able to make a difference after being a part of this circle is tougher.

The commentary on TV is saying that the people of India have voted for stability and that they are far more intelligent than what we presume. Its just another example of the intellectual paucity that we face as a nation. The gaurds of our culture, tradition and the so called mouthpiece of the nation - our media is going gung ho because what they wished to happen, did happen. I fail to understand how the Indian junta is responsible for this verdict and how they voted for "Stability".

Personally, I wished well for Gujarat and Modi's comprehensive victory has proved that nothing works as well as development does. All credit to the smart Gujjus who know where their money is. Moving a little further with that, it is really sad albiet a bit expected to see that MNS did have an impact on the votes in Maharashtra. With the kind of tactics that they have resorted to gain votes and attention, it would have had been nicer if the Maharashtrains would have thrown them out too.

Am in Gandhinagar these days and this time too, there have been a lot of changes in my city. It is surprising to note that every time I come here, I see a lot of new things happening and the proactive Gujarat government seems to be working really well nowadays. Mr. Modi rocks. And Gujarat seems like heaven compared to Mumbai and Pune now. Hope this continues.