Dell Latitude D510 PC Notebook

The problem with buying a new laptop is that by the time you have shelled out your £600 you already out of date and have your friends laughing at you. This isn't fun and so i looed at a much cheaper options. Buying secondhand.

The question you need to ask yourself when buying a laptop is "Do i really need this?" And for the best part you lie to yourself. In this review i'll be covering what you need and why the d510 is perfect for it.

As technology progresses the softare, for the best part, stays the same. The biggest software on your computer is your operating system. Lets just say, for arguements sake your running the Windows XP. Since windows XP was released in 2001 we can safely assume that almost all technology since 2001 will run XP. Thats all there is to it.

Laptops consist of 5 important features:

CPU
GPU
HDD
Resolution
Battery Life


CPU
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The CPU is the processor and if your looking for something that handles your office applications, your internet usage and playing the occassional MP3 or video then you don't need anything above 1.40GHz.

GPU
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The GPU is almost completely irrelivent unless you are into 3D graphic design or playing Games. Sadly, even if you buy a top range laptop. Its going to play games like crap so realistically, don't even bother.

HDD
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Unless your pirating DVDs you do not need more than 40GB. Your average application takes up a few hundred MB. By the logic there you can safely assume that 40GB will take alot of filling up.

Resolution
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resolution is different to screen size. You can get a 17" screen with 1024x768 and you can get a 12" with 1400x1020. The higher the resolution the smaller everything looks while still being readable. This is good, it means you can multi task easier on smaller screens meaning that you can increase workload.

Battery Life
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This one is the obvious one. The longer the bettery life the better.

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The Dell d510 ticks all the boxes above. It has between 1.4GHz and 2.0GHz which, being a centrino platform with a high cache is exceptionally amazing and finds itself equivilent to that of a high range Pentium 4. The d510 comes with between 256MB-1GB of ram. Realistically you want 512MB or more if you want to run multiple applications. Hard drive size is between 20GB-80GB standard. the lower end is going to hold a fair few applications but realistically you want 40GB or more. Resolution is standard for a laptop of its age at 1024x768. Its not great but there you go. For an extra £50 you had the option of a 1400x1020 high resolution screen,m so its always worth looking for this in the ebay auctions. In terms of battery life, the d510 has around 2:30hours in it but if you have low settings and wifi turned off you can easily make this hit over 3 hours.

All in all the d510 is ideal for internet usage and due to its centrino technology it handles high demand applications and even games relativaly well. Its downside is the intel GPU which simply won't run games of the last 3years but thats not what this laptop is for. At the end of the day, if your on a budget then this is 10 times better than other equally priced laptops and performs alot better than sub £350 laptops found in your local Comet.

5 stars.

Great laptop. Easy to use. Strong and fast wireless connection. Decided to buy it off Ebay as it was local to me and a good price. I wasnt sure about the make of laptop, but after having it for a few weeks now - it is very good!!