LAS VEGAS — You can't buy a whole lot of laptop for $200, but you can buy one that's decent enough to surf the web, stream HD video and bang out a report.
Dell's new $199 Inspiron 11 3000 is one such low-cost laptop. At its CES press conference in Las Vegas, we got to take a look at the 11-inch laptop and we have to say it's not too shabby of a machine.
As you'd expect, the specs on the Inspiron 3000 are on the low-end: Intel Celeron processor, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal solid-state storage. It's not the weakest, but don't expect to be able to do anything power-intensive on it. Still, the laptop was fast enough to run Windows 10 fairly well and open several Chrome tabs without choking up too hard.
The matte, 11-inch screen has a 1,366 x 768 resolution. It's good when you view it head on, but the viewing angles aren't great when you look at it from the sides.
The keyboard's chiclet-style keys felt good and roomy, and the trackpad, while not the smoothest, is definitely one of the better ones out there on a budget laptop. For obvious cost-cutting reasons, the keyboard isn't backlit at all.
There are two USB ports (one on each side) and Dell says the laptop gets 10-hours of battery life.
The laptop is plastic through and through, but it feels solid in all the right places. The glossy exterior makes it look like it's a $500 laptop, and the construction looks sturdy enough to survive light drops.
The Inspiron 11 3000 will be available in white, red and blue.
