The dell laptop 1300 B120 is dells prototype of the next generation laptops its is put together in the most apparling of ways and put on the shelf for peanuts, I think I will stick with HP pavillions much better n quality for your money.

I would recommend Dell laptops. Reliability has been good.Suggest some of the other reviewers expecting too much from a basic laptop.Has served me well.Will definately buy from Dell again.
Previous laptops used :
Twinhead -Total Rubbish
Samsung -Unreliable terminal failure after 12 months
Toshiba Tecra -Very good
IBM thinkpad - Over-rated
Acer -Total rubbish worst of the lot

The Dell Inspiron 1300
I bought mine in 2006, Firstly the hardware configuration
Processor: Intel Pentium M (Ranging from 1.3 - 1.8 GHz) TTG Mb).
My machine ran great but I found that the hard drive was getting full and was a little slower then I expected. I had opted for the 1.8GHz processor as it was the fastest one there.

Upon upgrade of the RAM to 2048MB of DR22 SD RAM (2 1024Mb) and upgraded to 120Gb hard drive, the performance of the machine was greatly increased, i.e. the processor had enough ram to support its maximum speed.
This was the best specifications an Inspiron 1300 could have. Dell sell it with 40Gb , 60Gb or 80Gb hard drive for a high price in upgrade, yet it is a simple task to buy a hard drive from a local computer shop and fit it.
Unfortunately the graphics were a bit low to run some games, although some games surprisingly worked on it. (I found more worked with the older graphics driver, the older graphics driver tended to be more stable).
In 2007 Office 2007 and vista came out. Firstly I bought Office 2007, it worked great on my xp installation. However as I like to try the latest software I bough vista home basic. Installing the vista home basic upgrade was easy, downloading most of the drivers of the dell website was easy. The wireless card had a driver, but there were several wireless networks it would not work on that it once did, yet it worked on several others, unfortunately it did not work on my home network. The graphics were the limiting factor for vista, I decided to go for vista home basic as this unit had insufficient graphics for home premium, business or ultimate.
Vista Computer Performance for my Inspiron 1300

Component What is Rated Sub score

Processor: Calculations per second 4.1
Memory (RAM): Memory Operations per Second 4.9
Graphics: Desktop Performance for Windows Aero 1.0
Gaming Graphics: 3D Gaming and Gaming graphics 1.0
Primary Hard disc: Disc Data Transfer Rate 4.8

Base Score Based on lowest sub score: 1.0

As can be seen, my Inspiron 1300 was of high performance except for graphics which are integrated and so cannot be improved. Thus I upgraded to an Inspiron 1501.

To conclude the Inspiron 1300 is a greatly budget notebook and can do anything that doesn't involve heavy graphics.

Great basic laptop for the money. I've had my Dell Inspiron 1300 for 1 year, use it everyday, I don't think it has ever locked up, a big difference from my first Dell laptop. Keyboard easy to work with, solid feel. Low quality speakers.
Dependable and economical. I would buy another one.

I wouldn't recommend this to my worst enemy. Because of the problems I'm having with it, I'd never buy another Dell.

This is a budget laptop for students. Not meant to be used by office workers or gamers. It does have problems but considering the price it is definitely good value for money. A big problem is the software that is provided, and this is the same with all dell laptops, it is awful and so frustrating, If you do decide to get one please get the 6 cell battery.

Basically, my advice is DO NOT buy a Dell Inspiron 1300 notebook! Mine overheats all the time, the battery life is quite poor, It is VERY slow even with alot of space and simple programs running. Not alot of storage if you want films or games, and it is nearly impossible to play the simplest of games on this laptop. Also if you have multiple programs running it will crash and sometimes turn its self off. I don't think I've ever been on it without getting furious, slamming the screen down and having to go for a walk to calm down.
Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere.

Overall great, reliable laptop from Dell, considering the price I paid (£320) recommend to students, it could also be a great family laptop, very fast, reliable, and overall quite a surprising little pack of surprises. I LOVE MY LAPTOP!

The Dell Inspiron 1300 is one of the worst notebooks I have ever owned. I bought the computer two years ago to do school work and go on the internet with however, it overheated with no warning every so often and turned it's self off making school work difficult. But that wasn't the worst part; the worst part would be the performance! It was so awful that if it actually made it to start up without overheating it would freeze because several programs would start up at once. Therefore it fails even to fulfil its role as a typewriter. Further more after only two years the battery no longer charges. To conclude for what you save in the purchase price you will pay for in the long run with the medley of problems and cost of spare parts.