Customer Reviews

Dell Inspiron i1545-4583JBK 1545 15.6-Inch Laptop (Jet Black)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I'm not sure where the above bad reviews came from, but I find it hard to believe that anyone had such a bad experience with the same system that I bought from Amazon. Looks like most of the reviews are for computers bought from someone else or even directly from Dell, and the guy that bought 3 in the last year and had all of them crash within a month after the warranty expired????? well that doesn't make since.... they all come with a 1 yr warranty, and if he bought three within the last year, then they would still be under warranty..... but I digress,,, and here is my review:

I bought the Inspiron i1545 that is sold on Amazon.com and it has more than met my expectations. I figured that a $619 laptop would be the low end of the spectrum when looking for performance, but this has all the componants of the "high end", as far as RAM and Hard disc. Win 7 makes it easy and has very fast start up and shut down times. It runs very effeciently when I have multiple windows open and I'm gettting close to 8 hours between charges (so far). I did a ton of research for computers before making this purchase, and even went to places like Best Buy so I could get a better feel for what the computer looks and feels like. This Inspiron has all the qualities I was looking for: Sleek, light weight, incredibly clear screen, and responsive keys. Add that together with the 4GB of RAM, 500GB of Hard disc, and I love the "Dell Dock" that allows me to put all my icons in one place, which keeps my desktop clean and professional looking.

My opinion is that you cannot go wrong with this system. You certainly get more for your money!

I have purchased three from this company in the past year -- we have twins in college and each needed one -- then one for personal/home use.

Within a month after each warranty expired, the hard drive died. Nothing could be done but order a replacement - which first requires a $49 diagnostic fee....before they can even tell you what the part is that is needed and how much that will cost.

They cannot replace items lost on the drive --- so be sure to have your own external hard drive or system for back up. They are no help.

This happened three times!! Three different laptops!! All with simple use at home and university. Each just AFTER the warranty expired -- and they are in India -- and make no adjustments to "policy" -- and have the most effective system of blocking customers from access to attaining help.

Never, ever again. Burned THREE times -- with THREE different laptops. Never, never again.

My wife and I have been loyal Dell customers over 10 years and four machines. All our previous machines have performed well and we have never had much reason to call customer service for anything. The few times we did (years and years ago) were reasonably pleasant experiences, though. My impression of Dell has always been that they are a solid company that produces solid products.

Not now.

This laptop, which is my wife's, has been nothing but a nightmare from day one. Pathetic battery life, hardware and software issues, trackpad problems, cursor jumping around, intermittent wireless problems, a shoddily-made machine with flimsy screen hinges that easily break.

Dell's customer service has been the absolute worst experience I have ever had with any company in my entire life. I started out trying to return the unit, but quickly found out that they count the number of days that you have had the computer as starting on the day you order the unit, not the day you receive it, so I was two days past the last day I could return the unit. After being transferred back and forth between two different departments who each thought the other department was supposed to help me, I finally found someone who understood the issue and said he would work on getting special approval to return the unit and then call me back. He also sent me an email. He never called back, never responded to emails, never answered the phone, never returned calls. Anyone else I talked to acted like they knew nothing and told me I could not return the unit. Then I tried to appeal to their business sense, by trying to exchange the unit for a higher model (figuring that if they saw I wanted to pay them more money, they would forgive the 2-day thing).

It took me two more weeks of calling every day to find a guy in their corporate customer service group who (even though he shouldn't have even helped me) agreed that what I wanted to do made good business sense and would help the company hold onto a loyal customer. It took him two more weeks to get what he told me was internal approval for the return (their system only allowed them to process it as a return, not a repair or replacement). He even CC'd me on the email where the manager approved the return and gave him instructions on how to process it. I was told I would receive a return code and instructions on how to return the unit for credit. A week went by--nothing. I called and emailed the guy over and over. No response. I finally got someone else who's email address was on the approval email to respond, who explained that the person who approved the return was in one of two different departments who had to approve the return. He said what everyone else always told me--that he would personally take responsibility for resolving my case. He gave me a phone number that was supposedly his direct number and an email. Never heard from him again. The phone number went to a generic mailbox.

After months of getting the runaround and taking every my lunch hour every day to sit on the phone while eating a sandwich, I simply gave up and decided it just wasn't worth it for a $560 laptop. We are already shopping for a replacement after 7 months of owning this thing. Guess who we won't be buying it from.

After seeing some of the other reviews I thought I would add my two cents worth, as it may help out some of you who are looking to purchase an Inspiron 1545.

I've owned this laptop now for a little over a week and I am very happy with the experience so far. I am very knowledgeable about computers, and currently run several machines running Windows 7, Windows Home Server, Mac OSX, and Ubuntu. I have also worked in IT support in the past, so diagnosing and upgrading PCs is something I'm very comfortable with.

Quick Pros and Cons List:

PROS:
+ Windows 7 (it really is a nice and stable OS)
+ Intel dual-core T4400 processor (works well for most users, easy on battery life)
+ 4GB of RAM (helpful for running programs simultaneously, such as Office, Photoshop, Media Center, etc)
+ 320GB hard drive (plenty of storage for most users)
+ Integrated 1.3MP Creative Labs Live! webcam
+ 7-in-1 media card reader (almost a necessity today)
+ Easily upgradeable (discussed below)

CONS:
- T4400 is a dual-core processor, not as powerful as a Core 2 Duo, or the current Core i3 (1545R)
- Memory is slower 800MHz speed, not current 1066MHz (1545R)
- Wireless (wifi) card is A/B/G, but not N-spec
- While the webcam is 1.3MP, it isn't of the highest quality - but it's okay
- VGA-out included, not HDMI-out like on the newer 1545R
- Bluetooth not included (though upgradeable)
- High gloss surfaces do attract fingerprints (not a big negative)


OVERALL IMPRESSIONS:
I've owned many Dells, and this is the third computer I've purchased from Dell this year... not because something was wrong, but they've had good deals on desktops and laptops this year. This is the first entry level laptop that I have purchased from Dell, and overall I am happy with the design, layout, and quality of the build. The high gloss plastic areas on the palmrest and LCD bezel are obvious fingerprint magnets, but not as bad as an iPhone or iPod. They keyboard is laid out well, with good distance between the keys and a nice feel when typing. The keyboard includes dedicated buttons on the right hand side for Home, Page Up/Down, End, and the four arrow keys.

The hard drive, a Seagate Momentus 5400.6 has decent storage space at 320GB, though it is slower at 5400RPM with an 8MB cache. After formatting, you have about 300GB of usable storage. The memory for this machine is 4GB, though the motherboard can support up to 8GB. The memory speed is 800MHz, which is fine, but is slower than the current 1066MHz memory available. It would have been nice if Dell included an HDMI video port, but instead chose VGA. The HDMI comes standard on the new 1545R with the Core i3 processor. The LCD is crisp and bright, with decent viewing angles. The native resolution of 1366x768 is good, though a little compact, but makes viewing 720p video very nice. The AC adapter is the slim variety... the only issue is that the power plug into the computer fits a little loosely - though probably on purpose to prevent damage to the laptop if the cable is snagged by a passerby.

UPGRADEABILITY:
The nicest aspect of this laptop is that if you find that you need more speed, hard drive space, memory, faster wifi, or even bluetooth - all of these components can be easily upgraded. Reading the service directions at Dell, you can see that taking apart the Inspiron 1545 is easy and straight forward. By removing the keyboard, you can easily add the bluetooth module and cable, which together go for about $25 on eBay. By removing the bottom cover, you can replace the memory, wifi card, and processor with little difficulty. An Intel 5100 N spec wifi card goes for about $12 on eBay. You can also add memory if need be - up to 8GB is supported. The processor can also be replaced, though make sure that the processor you choose is supported by the laptop's bios. The 1545 supports Intel Socket P (478-pin Micro FCPGA) processors; with the bios specifically supporting the Celeron 900, Dual-Core T4200, T4300, T4400, and the Core 2 Duo T6400, T6500, T6600, P7350, P7450, P8600, and P8700. The faster processors, like the P8700 include more onboard cache, faster processor speed, faster bus speeds, and virtualization. Replacement processors like those mentioned can be found on eBay for around $20-150. The hard drive can also be easily upgraded - I installed a new Western Digital 64GB SSD, which took about 60 seconds to install. The hard drive slot is on the right hand side, and comes out with the removal of two screws. I installed the new wifi in about 60 seconds, adding bluetooth took about two minutes. It doesn't take a lot of know-how to upgrade these components - just a screwdriver and a quick read of the manual.

CONCLUSION:
It's a good laptop for the price, which can be upgraded into a better computer easily and cheaply... all you have to do is read the manual, which is straightforward. I usually keep computers for about a year or two, and by next year I'll probably be ready to sell this at a decent price and use the proceeds to get another Inspiron - but it will have been worth it for sure. In my opinion, for the price, quality, and support, you can't go wrong with a Dell.

I have purchased two of these now.

The one I bought at Best Buy lasted 5 days before having hardware failure. I returned it.

I bought the second one at Staples. It lasted 3 hours before giving an error saying, "No hard drive detected."

Don't buy this laptop!

I bought my Dell Inspiron a few months back. It has become apparent that it is not what I am needing. The screen resolution - although 15.6" large only produces a stretched 1024x768 style image that leaves me unable to see most apps.

In addition the mouse cursor stops working periodically and Dell says they will not take a trade-in or return since it is past 21 days. Instead they asked me to buy a new one. The one-year service is a joke because they will not help with the problem.

Seriously, I do not think I will buy Dell again. I even offered to upgrade if they just gave me 50% of the machines value in trade-credit but no they said enjoy your Dell.

I got this dell inspiron 1545 on my birthday around December and its almost been a year since I had this laptop. This laptop is a secondary laptop which is an decent laptop for office, and internet use but that's about it. I would not recommend this for gaming, graphics or even photo shop. This machine is not upgradable after 4gb of ram and the video card is garbage, and this network card does not support wireless N, also I'm an IT guy and Ive owned lots of laptops and net-books but this one was by far the worst of them all. This thing has so many bugs and problems I simply just gave it away to my wife after fixing it many of times. The good side of this laptop is it is really good looking but attracts lots of finger prints. Also if one of the buttons fall off your keyboard good lucking fixing it because the bottom of the button is made of cheap plastic it will break on impact. I've had this laptop have hard drive failure, buttons jamming, and also it locks up on some movies I try to watch or even play. Another problem with this laptop is some times the right click will just turn on by it self causing me to highlight everything or right click on stuff for no damn reason. I have an older laptop with Hewlett Packard AMD dual core that runs perfect and its two years older than this crap. Overall I will never buy a dell again and if you have a problem good luck getting help from dell tech support, they will basically keep transferring you to other departments until some one hangs up on you and you have to start all over again. If you looking for a laptop for overall quality I would suggest looking else where and finding a more up to date computer that is not a DELL and one that supports N wireless, have a separate video card like Nvidia or ATI.

After searching the internet for a product that I thought would suit our needs I found the item, Dell i1545 on Amzaon.com.
It was relatively easy to work through the Amazon site and purchase the product. Delivery was on time and the product arrived in good condition.
Amazon kept us informed on the delivery status and we felt included.
The product itself is as it was described on Amazon and is currently working very well. The new Windows 7 is easier to get to grips with than when we first started with XP all those years ago.
Kind Regards
Ray and Irene McTearDell Inspiron i1545-4583JBK 1545 15.6-Inch Laptop (Jet Black)

I bought this in the beginning of May. It's late June and just today the wireless adapter went kablooey. I spent an hour on the phone with Dell trying to isolate the exact issue. They couldn't find what caused it to stop working, so they offered to send out a replacement and then went on to explain how to put it in myself. They will be calling back in a few days to let me know when the part ships and then again to make sure I have it installed correctly.

I did have to call them three times before I got the help I needed, but I'm sure that's probably because their reps are not native English speakers. This frustrates me, but I guess I get crappy service from American reps all the time with other businesses, so why should the outsourced people be expected to be better.

Anyway, I like this computer, it's sleek, it's light, it does the job for my online schooling and playing online java games. This is what I bought it for.

And I must say, if you use your computer on a daily basis, you should always have a backup. Computers are not made like they used to, so your 10 year old Thinkpad may still work, fine, good for you.

I'm going to cross my fingers and hope that this thing makes it a year. Even the dummies at Best Buy said that's about the normal life expectancy.

NOTE: After doing some research, I have found that the 2 brands with the lowest number of problems after 2 years are:

Toshiba
Asus

HP finished last.

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I purchased this system about 9 months ago and for about 4 months, it received little to no use. However, as my IBM started acting up more and I started teaching online, I switched to the Dell as my primary system about 6 weeks ago. Yesterday, it started powering down randomly throughout the day. Since I teach online, I'm online most of the day. Tonight, it basically wouldn't even complete the boot sequence before shutting down again. I'm VERY VERY unhappy. No -- I didn't pay a lot for the system (less than four hundred bucks) but I expect it to last longer than 2 months of daily use. Well never buy a Dell again.

My primary computer is an Thinkpad T61 which I love. It isn't fancy but my needs aren't fancy, either. I'm an IT person and also teach online so alot of what I am doing is accessing work systems remotely through VPN, using Microsoft Office, using the Internet etc. I'm not into gaming but do listen to music through my computer a lot.

When my Thinkpad started shutting down at random intervals, I knew I couldn't afford to be without a computer... nor did I have the money to get a new Thinkpad. I wanted something pretty inexpensive that would be powerful enough to do what I needed. I went to our local Wally World to see what they had and they had this system for a price MUCH MUCH lower than listed here -- basically for the cost of a netbook. The one I have has 3 GB memory and runs Vista (though I could upgrade to Windows 7 if I were so inclined)

This is a very adequate system for what I need to do. I have been using it for about 3 months now with absolutely no reliability issues at all. I wasn't wild about the feel of the trackpad but since I use it at home all the time, I use my handy dandy Kensington Expert Mouse Optical USB Trackball for PC or Mac 64325. The keyboard is fine to type on -- not as nice and crisp as my Thinkpad but not as squishy as some I have tried. I like the fact that it does not overheat -- I have had issues with HP systems that would get so hot you could barely touch them.

The screen is gorgeous -- though again, I would prefer a non-glare screen but that is becoming harder and harder to find.

Performance is adequate. It doesn't seem as zippy as my Thinkpad but that is probably the difference between running Vista and XP since the specs on the Dell are better than the specs on the Thinkpad.

As shallow as this sounds, the Dell looks really nice -- mine is a medium blue and I really like the styling.

I can tell that the build quality isn't the same as more expensive systems. However, I don't need a rugged system since I'm just using it for home use. Battery life is respectable but again, 99 percent of the time, I have it plugged in.

Overall, I'm very satisfied with the system and would not hesitate to buy it again -- especially for what little it cost. The usability and "ergonomics" of the system are not significantly worse than more expensive systems and for basic home-office use, I believe it is a great system doing what I need it to do without being over-engineered for gaming and other system-intensive applications. Probably the most resource intensive thing I run on it is SAS Learning Edition 4.1: With the Little SAS Book for Enterprise Guide 4.1 and Mathematica and those work just fine.

If you need a good basic system without alot of bells and whistles, I think you will be satisfied with this computer. Just don't plan to get too attached to it because of the quality issues associated with Dell.

After doing some research, I have found that the 2 brands with the lowest number of problems after 2 years are:

Toshiba
Asus

HP finished last.