Reviews of Dell Inspiron i14RN-1227BK 14-Inch Laptop (Diamond Black)

Customer Ratings:

At this price, this machine is a steal. It has the capability of a full-fledged computer and the convenience of an extremely portable laptop. At just over 5 lbs. it's certainly heavier than a tablet, a Macbook Air or an ultrabook, but then again it has all the advantages of a "real" computer. Responsiveness is outstanding since Windows 7 is a great OS, certainly when compared to Vista. Even compared to Apple's OS X, Windows 7 performs quite well, although it is of course much more "labor intensive", which is another way of saying that it's not quite as user friendly. On the plus side, it provides what is possibly the most widely used software platform in the world. All in all you can't go wrong with this device if you are looking for something that provides heavy lifting computing power as compared to a tablet or even an ultrabook.

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Before choosing this laptop I researched the other options in amazon and other websites and I believe this one has the best value for the price.

A few things to note on it's favor:

Did not come dead on arrival (DOA).

Windows Installation was fast.

Can run entertainment apps / casual and social gaming perfectly.

I love the idea of being able to use different covers (I have not tried it yet).

The trackpad's surface is one of the best I have used so far.

The battery holds it's charge as described and intended.

The internal speakers have great power, enough to watch a video in a medium-size living room without plugging other speakers.

Wireless adapter is pretty strong, it can list-down wireless points that my desktop adapter can't.

Some downsides:

Comes with the already-known Bloatware, simply uninstall all those pesky useless programs/games/antivirus.

After modifying the mouse / trackpad settings I got a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) STOP Error: 0x000009f DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE (This problem occurs because of a race condition between two bus resets.). However, after I updated Windows 7 everything seems to be in order now.

It's glossy, expect a lot of fingerprints on it.

Multi-gesture trackpad feature doesn't work 100%, it seems not to be so accurate.

The Trackpad can get warm when running process-extensive software or features but not to a point it is uncomfortable.

I have yet to find anything that ruins my experience, reason why I scored the laptop a 5. I will update this review in case it's necessary and let you know.

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I was in the market for a small laptop for school. Because the computer would be traveling as much as I do I didn't want to spent a lot nor did I want a overly large machine. I was contemplating on a net book before I came across this.

For the price you can't beat it. The Intel core i3 2.30GHz processor with 6G ram make it fast enough for just about everything you would possibly need it to do. The 446GB hard drive is large enough for most folks, just don't try to store your entire movie collection on there.

The reviews that I did read questioned a few things. One was over the graphic quality of the monitor. I found no issue with it. I'm sure for someone involved in editing photos or animation this laptop wouldn't do it, but for less than $500 your not going to get those sort of capabilities.

There are some bad reviews out there over the battery. Battery performance is based on how long the computer will hold power under the most ideal of circumstances. Heavy use, such as movie watching and gaming, and the use of outside peripherals will reduce your battery life. Even using the built in wi-fi antenna will reduce your battery life. This holds true for all laptops I have used over the years. Sony, Avertec, Toshiba, and HP were no exception. This is my first Dell computer.

There are only two issues that I have with the computer and they are minor. The first one is its lack of software. It does come with ms-office starter. Word on it has a lot of the functionality of it removed so for a student you will need to get another word processing program or update your starter edition. (openoffice.org has one downloadable for free. It also doesn't come with copies of the software so you will need 3 recordable dvds in order to make your backups.

The other issue is the cover. This laptop is party of the Dell Inspiron series with the switchable covers. While I like the black and won't get another cover for it I have no idea how to remove it and the documentation in the box gave no explanation on this.

I am extremely satisfied with this machine and have no regrets in purchasing it

Honest reviews on Dell Inspiron i14RN-1227BK 14-Inch Laptop (Diamond Black)

Bought one of these a few weeks ago to use for a sports club I administer. Needed a simple machine to do basic taskse-mail, web browsing, word processor....and to run a sports meet software. Great machine for these basis tasks. Price point is super, cheaper than many tablets or even in some cases a cell phone, and much more capable. Tested WiFi in an area where most cell phones and computers have trouble with weak signal, and this works great. Runs cool, battery life even with the basic battery is good, and weight is light enough to make it easily used on a...laptop. HDMI output is great, I hooked this up to my projector with no issues. Connectivity options for USB, HDMI, eSATA great for this price range. Overall this is a great price on a premium brand laptop with super solid features.

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I am delighted with this purchase. I use it for business about 12 hours every day of the week. Staples had these on sale for $449 and was giving a $100 Visa card rebate with every purchase, so I could not resist the sub $400 price.

Pros: The PC is fast and reliable. Boot time and wake up time is *much* faster than my old Compaq Vista. Win7 is a much faster and user-friendly OS than Vista or XP. 6 Gig of memory on this laptop ensures the applications run smoothly and seamlessly with many windows open at once. The laptop is relatively small and light yet has pretty much all the features of a powerful desktop. Keypad feels very nicely when you are typing. The trackpad has some neat new features and is very adjustable. Machine automatically shuts off the trackpad when you plug in a mouse.

Cons: Battery only lasts 3 hrs if you are using the machine. It says 6 hrs when you mouse over the battery icon when fully charged. Also the ports are not labeled on the edges of the typing surface of the machine so you have to crane your neck to find the locations of the USB ports or the power jack if you are trying to connect something.