{"id":13747,"date":"2014-08-20T06:39:34","date_gmt":"2014-08-19T23:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/?p=13747"},"modified":"2014-08-29T00:58:17","modified_gmt":"2014-08-28T17:58:17","slug":"low-price-laptop-worth-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/low-price-laptop-worth-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Is a Low Price Laptop Worth It?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are a sponsored blog partner with Walmart and Microsoft and participated in their Connected Campus Experience to bring you this article on Back-to-School tech.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Last week we wrote about Back-to-School Tech Tools<\/a> for high school seniors and college students.  As parents, purchasing technology for our kids is an investment, one in which we hope to see many returns.  But due to budget…or even fear as to how long the laptop will last (due to damage, loss, or theft), do you really need to buy the best laptop for your student…the one with all the bells and whistles on it?<\/p>\n

We reported on Microsoft’s Connected Campus and showed a video of college student’s being surprised with the functionality and style of entry-level laptops.  Walmart offers these same laptops, two of which sell for $250.  In order to make a recommendation as to whether a $250 laptop would be money well spent for parents, we began using one of them this past week, the Dell Inspiron 15 3531.<\/p>\n

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Is a Low Price Laptop Worth it?<\/span><\/h2>\n

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Right out of the box, I was surprised with Dell’s 15-inch $250 laptop.  It has a really cool honeycomb textured matte finish.  I found out that it includes a clear IMR finish which can help prevent scratches and reject fingerprints.  Nice.<\/p>\n

The Dell Inspiron 15 weighs in at 4.67 lbs. and its dimensions are 8″ H x 15″W x 10.2″ D.   Upon opening the laptop you see a very nice sized screen.  My current laptop screen is only 12 inches, and believe me, the extra 3 inches makes a big difference.  I don’t need to do as nearly as much scrolling with the Dell Inspiron.<\/p>\n

You can see this Dell Inspiron has many nice features, but it is certainly a starter laptop.  It doesn’t have the bells and whistles of laptops 3 times its price like more internal memory and a 10 hour battery life.  But it does have a dual 2.4 GHz core-processor, the same Windows 8.1 operating system, and a great screen.<\/p>\n

Features<\/strong>:<\/p>\n