Dell Inspiron B100
Dell Inspiron B100
Justin Jaffe Managing editor
Justin Jaffe is the Managing Editor for CNET Money. He has more than 20 years of experience publishing books, articles and research on finance and technology for Wired, IDC and others. He is the coauthor of Uninvested (Random House, 2015), which reveals how financial services companies take advantage of customers -- and how to protect yourself. He graduated from Skidmore College with a B.A. in English Literature, spent 10 years in San Francisco and now lives in Portland, Maine.
Expertise Credit cards | Loans | Banking | Mortgages | Taxes | Cryptocurrency | Insurance | Investing Credentials
- Coauthor of Uninvested (Random House, 2015)
Dell sells two budget models, the Inspiron B120 and B130. Starting at approximately $500, the B120 is the least expensive laptop in Dell's portfolio and features a 14.1-inch wide-screen display, a low-end Intel Celeron processor, either 256MB or 512MB of RAM (we recommend shelling out for the 512MB), and a CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive. With such anemic components, the B120 is strictly for basic tasks such as e-mail, Web surfing, word processing, and other lightweight apps.
The slightly heavier Inspiron B130, which starts at about $549, offers a similar choice of lower-end components, along with options for a more middle-range Pentium M processor, up to 1GB of RAM, and the choice of a 14.1-inch or 15.4-inch wide-screen display. Though the Pentium processor should deliver somewhat better performance and battery life, the B130 still resides in the basic class of laptops.