I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 and my opinion of it is, uh, it works. I don't do much high power stuff with it, but it does still function after a couple years of my abuse. By abuse I mean that I routinely put it in my checked baggage for long flights, let it overheat, knock it off my bed in my sleep, and let my cat gnaw on it. It runs Photoshop, but does have some lag if I try to run anything else at the same time.

On the other hand, I have an older Inspiron (I forget the number) that barely works, does some fairly bizarre things (like beeping loudly while booting and randomly scrolling downward without cause--problems that a complete hard drive wipe failed to fix), and runs so slowly that you think the damn thing froze. So my evaluation of Dell laptops is mixed at best. My brother has always been able to pick them up for dirt cheap at online sales though, which is why I got the newer one despite the massive suck of the older model.

. . . and that's about all I know about laptops. Sorry.