Built to Order: Dell Inspiron 1525

Like the excellent HP Pavilion dv2600se, this $999, 15.4-inch Dell has lots of entertainment features: an instant-on button, a Webcam, and even dual headphone jacks. The 1525's Media­Direct button also lets you view your calendar, contacts, and PowerPoint presentations--without booting into Windows. Our test model paired 2GB of memory and a 2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7250 CPU to produce a WorldBench 6 score of 78; that's 17 percent faster than the average score of 65 posted by the five models in this slide show. With the battery upgraded from the standard four-cell to a six-cell ($15 extra), our unit lasted just over 4 hours on a charge. Though you get only basic integrated graphics, the Inspiron 1525 does include an HDMI connection for HDTVs. And an important difference between this and most other inexpensive laptops: You can customize it down to the smallest detail--even the lid color--before finally clicking the 'Buy Now' button.

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