Dell Inspiron E1505 Media Center Core Duo Laptop w/ DVD, WiFi - $729 AR - Dell Home

[GottaDEAL]

<a href="http://www.gottadeal.com/Deal/14549" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.dell.com/images/global/configurator/chassis/inspn_e1505_cfg.jpg" border="0"></a><br /><br />HOT! Dell Home has the new Dell Inspiron E1505 Dual Core Laptop w/ DVD, WiFi and much more for a low $729 after $250 mail-in rebate. Free shipping (no handling fee!) is also included. <b>Features 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo CPU, Windows XP Media Center, 15.4" Widescreen LCD, DVD Burner, WiFi and much more.</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.gottadeal.com/Deal/14549" target="_blank">Dell Inspiron E1505 Media Center Core Duo Laptop w/ DVD, WiFi - $729 AR - Dell Home</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.gottadeal.com/Coupon/751" target="_blank">All Current Dell Coupons</a> (Expires December 31, 2006)<br /><a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=RjWYtCqO0*M&subid=3&offerid=34197.1&type=10&tmpid=442&RD_PARM1=http%3A%252F%252Fconfigure.us.dell.com%252Fdellstore%252Fconfig.aspx?CS%253D19%2526kc%253D6V658%2526oc%253DE1505S2" target="_blank">$250 Rebate Form</a> (Expires March 8, 2006)<br />

[Brad]

Free (and almost worthless) Dell color printer also included.

 

Also if you get a bunch of upgrades and your pre-rebate total is $1599, there are coupons on our Dell Coupon Page to save a few hundred more.

[Mara]

so how good it this eal in the dell laptop scheme of things? I can hold out for better if you think better is within the next 3 months lol Thanks

 

Mara

[Brad]

It's a very good deal, especially compared to the recent deals Dell has been having. Their next fiscal quarter doesn't end for another 6 weeks, so you could always wait, but their end-of-quarter deals have been lacking lately as well.

 

In the "glory days" with the $750 off $1499 coupons, you'd get a deal similar to this one with a pretty loaded system for just over $700. This one has the new Core Duo chip which is nice as well. The "true" free shipping (without the annoying $24 handling fee) is also nice.

[RossMAN]

so how good it this eal in the dell laptop scheme of things? I can hold out for better if you think better is within the next 3 months lol Thanks

 

Mara

Like Brad said this is a very good deal on a new model featuring Intel's new Core Duo processor.

 

You can play the waiting game but 3-4 months from now you might be paying $900-$1000 for this same laptop.

[Brad]

I can also say that judging by the number of clickthroughs this deal is getting this morning, it is probably the most popular Dell laptop deal since those $379/$399 deals during Black Friday. Don't know if Dell will pull it, but if you are on the fence, I wouldn't wait too long.

[RossMAN]

Don't know if Dell will pull it, but if you are on the fence, I wouldn't wait too long.

Otherwise you will hear those famous words, "you snooze, you lose"

 

This will probably be dead in a matter of hours.

[BobbyDouglas]

How are these CPUs compared to a single core Pentium M? I don't need the dual core technology for a laptop, but would rather have a single, faster, cpu.

[RossMAN]

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=2663

[Brad]

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=2663

To sum up the review:

It’s tough to argue with the numbers - at worst, Intel’s Centrino Duo platform offers the same battery life as the previous generation Centrino, while outperforming it. But at best, Centrino Duo can not only offer better performance than last year’s notebooks, but also longer battery life.

 

You really can’t get say anything else - you get better performance, longer battery life and all of this at the same price as last year’s notebooks; Centrino Duo is a no-brainer and it is quite possibly the strongest step into a new year that we have seen from Intel in a very long time.

[RossMAN]

It’s tough to argue with the numbers - at worst, Intel’s Centrino Duo platform offers the same battery life as the previous generation Centrino, while outperforming it. But at best, Centrino Duo can not only offer better performance than last year’s notebooks, but also longer battery life.

 

You really can’t get say anything else - you get better performance, longer battery life and all of this at the same price as last year’s notebooks; Centrino Duo is a no-brainer and it is quite possibly the strongest step into a new year that we have seen from Intel in a very long time.

 

I'm not really a power user, my main concern was battery life.

 

It looks like the Intel Core Duo is a winner :)

[Brad]

Now if only Dell would release a new 12" model with the Core Duo to replace my 700m :)

[RossMAN]

Now if only Dell would release a new 12" model with the Core Duo to replace my 700m :)

[dream mode]

 

and bring back the infamous $750 off $1499 laptop coupon and Dell 2005FPW for $334

 

[/dream mode]

[jonottawa]

Ehhh, same old Dell shenanigans. If you're just using your laptop for email, this isn't the computer for you. If you want a nice upper mid-range laptop, this will run you about $1200 ($1423 before rebate) once you select all the upgrades (60 GB (their smallest) 7200 RPM hard drive, SXGA+ screen, 1 GB RAM, 9 cell battery) that get you from a lopsided lunker into a somewhat reasonably equipped machine. Then, if you want to hit those coupons you have to start choosing the upgrades you don't really need. They've got this thing down to a science.

 

Plus, expect it to take over two weeks to ship.

 

On a slightly different note, I'm surprised that Lenovo hasn't offered any great deals. I thought they were after market share and name recognition.

[Brad]

The thing is, in the vast majority of cases doing the upgrades at Dell is a rip off. You are better off buying this machine as is (maybe upgrade the screen for $29) and then do the HD/RAM upgrades by yourself IF YOU NEED THEM (which most people will not, at least not right away).

 

Sell the HD/RAM that comes with it and replace it with stuff you buy elsewhere for cheaper. The cost of your upgrades is much much less doing it that way. For example, they want $145 to upgrade to the 60GB 7200rpm model. You can get one of those for pretty much the same price elsewhere, so the upgrade isn't really worth it as for the same price you could get both. Same thing for the RAM.

 

As for Lenovo, they are like the other companies. They want market share but they don't have deals to back it up. We get contacted by HP begging us to promote their offers like we do for Dell, but their offers don't sell. Simple as that.

[RossMAN]

I wouldn't mind an HP DV1000T or Lenovo ThinkPad Z60T ... if they had good deals :)

[jonottawa]

Here's my logic on the upgrades:

 

1. Hard drive: 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM (1/3 faster.)

 

Do you really want to spend this much money on a computer with a newly-introduced processor and have your hard-drive be the bottleneck?

 

2. Screen: Again, if you're buying this computer for the processor, you're going to be using it for videos, at a minimum. Don't you want them to look halfway decent?

 

3. Battery: 'Yeah, I bought a kick-a** computer from Dell but I didn't want to spring for the standard-size 9-cell battery that everyone else has so I'm stuck with a piddly little econo-size battery that comes standard.' I don't think so ...

 

4. RAM: On this, you could probably get by on 512 MB without taking much of a performance hit but 1 GB is rapidly becoming the standard Goldilocks number for price-performance tradeoff. If I had to live without one of my upgrades, this would be it.

 

And yeah, you could rip open your new Dell laptop and try to sell their crappy components on Ebay and replace them with better ones and hope for the best. But if you're that good at building computers you really don't need Dell at all, do you?

 

Anyway, my two cents ... I'll be shocked if this 'deal' expires early.

[cthulhu]

[dream mode]

 

and bring back the infamous $750 off $1499 laptop coupon and Dell 2005FPW for $334

 

[/dream mode]