Dell Inspiron M101z a good option as ultra portable?

luckylucky

I'm looking to get an 11'.6" to 12'.1" laptop. i.e Smalll enough to carry around comfortably but big enough to view 'reasonably' comfortably. I don't want to spend a huge amount of money either - €600 at absolute tops but prererably less.

One of my prime uses for the Laptop will be to play Poker on. For this reason by far the most important requirement for me is that the laptop is very comfortable to use as I will be playing 4 tables at a time on occasion - the reviews I've seen on the M101z suggest that the keyboard is excellent so this is a big plus for me.

Anyway this laptop has received very positive reviews on 2 review sites

http://www.trustedreviews.com/laptops/review/2010/08/19/Dell-Inspiron-M101z/p1

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/laptops/360457/dell-inspiron-m101z

And one although not totally negative, less glowing report on another review site

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/laptops/1279690/dell-inspiron-m101z

I have my own reservations about buying a Dell as my current laptop is an older bigger Dell Inspiron model. The battery failed in this quite early in its life and I can't remember the cost of a replacement battery but suffice to say it was too expensive to be worth the bother. Though I did a quick search on the cost of the M101z battery and at £45 it didn't seem so insanely expensive http://www.kingbattery.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=1283 .

I realise I probably will have to compromise on some areas as I'm not going to be buying a high end laptop but other things I'm ideally I'm looking for ideally are Windows 7 (preferably 64 bit), at least 3 GB DDR3 Ram. Fast Hard Drive and any other useful bells and whistles don't go amiss either

So basically I'm asking if this Dell Inspiron M101z sounds like a good option for me or is there a better option for around the same price or better again cheaper?
Thanks,
LL.

Don't have this laptop but have the 11z (one with updated trackpad) which quite similar (chassis, keypad, screen, ports) except for the processors (main and gpu). Lovely screen, keyboard and hdmi out is really handy for connecting to Tv. Nippy enough too. Will play full HD and run office and browsing with multiple windows at really good speed. I haven't used it for games except things like trackmania and world of goo - runs fine. The model that you're looking at would be better for games I imagine with dedicated gpu. Overall really happy with it. Only reservation is the battery life - it's not that great on the 3 cell battery - 2 hours or just over. A second battery or 6 cell needed.

luckylucky

I'm having trouble finding somewhere that delivers this model to Portugal. I've actually found a Portuguese site which has the 11z Model at what appears to me to be a very reasonable price of €299. By the sound of glasso's post on it - I'd imagine it'd do the job for me well within my budget.
Worth going for?

Just be careful on the 11z - there are 2 processors available - the dual core su4100 and a celeron. The dual core is obviously more powerful. If you are only looking to watch movies (non-hd), browse internet and do office stuff the celeron would do. as I said before check the battery too - the 3 cell on the 11z will only be good for 2 hours movies / wifi browsing on the go. 6 cell twice that.

this packard bell dot u seems to be well reviewed - maybe search for a good price on that too. good battery life and dual core processor.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/laptops/360589/packard-bell-dot-u

luckylucky

glasso wrote: »

Just be careful on the 11z - there are 2 processors available - the dual core su4100 and a celeron. The dual core is obviously more powerful. If you are only looking to watch movies (non-hd), browse internet and do office stuff the celeron would do. as I said before check the battery too - the 3 cell on the 11z will only be good for 2 hours movies / wifi browsing on the go. 6 cell twice that.

this packard bell dot u seems to be well reviewed - maybe search for a good price on that too. good battery life and dual core processor.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/laptops/360589/packard-bell-dot-u

Well I guess at that price there was always going to be a catch - the processor is the Intel SU 743 which I've googled and it's the Celeron. The Portuguese site I'm on doesn't specify the battery type - but I imagine it's probably the 3 cell one. . One strange thing is the spec for the Hard Drive is 500 GB which seems to be pretty big for these ultra-portables particularly the cheaper end.

Yeah I was seriously considering getting that Packard Bell model as well. Again it doesn't seem to be the easiest thiing to find over here, but I'll have a better look, will probably be easier to get than Dell.