Dell Vostro 1000

This was a very cheap laptop when it was new, delivered including VAT for £360 in 2007

This machine is a budget buy and is reviewed as such.

Overall this is an excellent basic system. The screen is clear and fairly evenly lit, with strong colours. The keyboard and touch pad are easy to use and feel robust. The keys are also in the correct place for fast touch typing and the tough pad is far enough out of the way so it is not touched while typing.

The machine is not the best looking laptop available, but is solid and has lasted well.

I opted for the larger 9 cell battery when new and was very impressed with the battery life. Achieving 5 hours or so with the wifi off and between 3 and 4 with everything on. (windows however optimistically represented this as nearly 7 hours!)

The system, as with most new machines was a choice of windows operating systems. I chose XP over vista and have had no major problems, other than the standard windows issues. A lot of people complain about their laptops not working when it is just an issue with their incompetence and the far from good Microsoft operating systems.

This not a speedy laptop, but has coped well with everything I have thrown at it (fairly heavy, yet patient, computer user) the start up speeds, from hibernate, are very usable.

2gb ram

Amd 64 cpu of some sort

120gb hard disk

Useful, strong, and reliable cheap little machine.