Dell Inspiron 5100 at $938 vs. HP Ze4610us at $699

[NBC]

Hi,

I posted this in the Dell forum, and was hoping to hear some of your ideas as well, since I am deciding between the Dell and HP.

First of all, this site has been a tremendous resource of good information for me....thanks a lot guys for bothering with the work to host this!

Ok, Here are my needs:
I am a college student who will primarily use this for word processing, Outlook, and websurfing. I intend to take the laptop with me everywhere I go to increase productivity and time management. I am looking for a low price laptop with good reliability/durability/battery life. I want to keep the price between $750-1000 so that the machine is essentially disposbable should something go wrong (I dont wnat to buy a $250-300 extended warranty). However, bear in mind I am very good with my gadgets and tend never to use those extended warranties anyways; but with a laptop I am a little concerned because of their fragile very expnesive screens. Thus, one of the primary areas of durability I am concerned about is the strength of the screen. Dell's I have squeezed seem pretty sturdy, (Im not all that thrilled about their styling, but thats secondary to durability/reliability). The HP is a looker, but is it relaiable/sturdy?

As far as features, I want atleast 256MB, 15", CD-RW/DVD ROM, the best deal on the processor I can get, a processor that does not get too hot (ouch!), the longest lasting battery, and additional batteries and RAM that arent too expensive.

Dell Business has the Inspiron 5100 configured with P4 2.8GHz, 384MB, 30G, CD-RW/DVD, 15" XGA.

BestBuy has HP ZE4610us for $699 after rebates. Has Anthlon 1.87GHz ("2500+"), 256MB, 40G, CD-RW, 15" XGA.

So which one based on reliablity/durability? How good is the battery life on this HP, and how expensive are spares? The Dell has a really good battery life rating on cnet.

here is the link to that Dell: http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=i5100lo&s=bsd

PS: Also, it would be good to be able to watch DVD's with good images....will the XGA suffice? Im not sure of the video processing abliities between the Dell 5100 and HP ZE4610

Heres the BestBuy ad for the HP:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?j=1&id=1069300677464&skuId=6237351&type=product


Does the HP or Dell have a built in antanae for 802.11G....I guess not. So if I get a "G" card it will only have the antenna thats built in to the card? What kindo fo range/receptivity would that work out to? Would it be fine for a wireless home network or a university library?

Thanks for any help,
Neil

[Brian]

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