I bought a Dell 15R Inspiron with a 15.6" Touch screen. So far I love it. The touch screen is fast and feels like a giant Ipad in many ways. The touch pad that would move the mouse, not onl ymoves the mouse, but also allows two finger control of the the screen, just the way the Ipad does.
I bought it with Windows 8, and was surprised that Dell didn't tell me it was the Home editon. I thought that was not an honest thing on their part, because Microsoft changed the terms they use to describe the software, and they told Dell, but nobody told the customer.
Dell agreed with me and sent me a $50 gift coupon, I put that towards the Windows 8 Pro pack. So you should know that there is no such thing at Windows 8 Home. What would have been Windows 8 Home, is simply called Windows 8. In my case, and as it should be in yours, Windows 8 64 bit.
The Inspiron I bought did not have the pro version as an option. I have to assume that it is because I do not have any ports on the back of the latp top, and thee is no port on the bottom for a docking station. They must think that those things are required for someone to want Windows 8 Pro. I ordered the Windows 8 pro Pack today.
Windows 8 has a App Store, just like the Ipad, it even includes a start rating. Where is fals short is in the number of users. The star rating could be 5 stars, but it might only be one person who reported on it. You can be pretty sure if you read the reviews.
Windows 8 Touch has Touch Apps. These are apps that you may already know about, such as a Gmail client. Yes, you can get Gmail by simply going to Gmail, but the app makes it touch compatible. That means that everything is big enough to be accessed with a finger tip. There are a lot of apps in the app store, but no where as many as what an Ipad has. I love it anyway.
I loaded some of my own software, one is a Compiler, and a USB programmer interface, and both worked without a problem.
I have 8 GB of DDR3 ram, DVD double layer burner, and the processor is the next thing to blog about.
The Intel i5 processor comes in many flavors. Th i7 is not an upgrade, it is another processor with other abilities. Gamers, who often build very expensive PC's, would but one of hte Quad core i5 chips. The i5 also comes on a duel core, and it also comes in a turbo boosted version. Many of the laptops, mostly due to cooling, will have a i5 @ 1.7, or 1.8 Ghz, duel core. There is another that says it is "up to 2.7 Ghz" I was wondering what "up To" was getting at, and what I found was that one core will boost its speed to meet the demand of running certain software that needs more speed. So it only boosts one of he cores, not both. It also does not do that unless it thinks you need it. You can't do anything to force it to run faster on your own, it is all about the software you run.
I find the laptop to be fast enough. I may try to install an SSD to boost it a bunch, but only because I have it, and love to play.
The Touch screen was a free upgrade from Dell, but it won't be free forever, so check the Dell web site for more details.
Joe
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