So I bought a Dell Inspiron 1545 last November. A decent budget laptop, not as rugged as I would prefer, but more than a thousand dollars less than the cheaper models of field intended laptops. The battery is shit, well on its way to dead after 8 months of use, and the power adapter is what you expect of a dell power adapter, pathetic. I started not working when I’d plug it in after owning it for 5 months. I’d have to plug and unplug it repeatedly to get it to provide power to the laptop. (Really the computer is great, just two of the components blow, and not many laptop makers make a keyboard that I am comfortable typing on. The keys are fairly deep and they have 3/4 to full distance action while I am typing with them. That and the tactile separation between each key makes for a pleasant typing experience. (I hate the apple laptop and knock off keyboards with the flat keys without separation and with minimal keystrike depth. Yet another point of hardware interface fail.)
But I’m not here to review the dell. Adequate computer.
I did some research when the power cord finally died for the last time. This particular model is notorious for not working for long. So when it died, I went to best buy to get a universal adapter. Essentially every adapter hey had came in 2 models. Wall and wall+car. I don’t own a car, so I decided to save 30 bucks and get the APA6922US. It is a 90 watt variable output adapter that comes with a bag of tips that determine the voltage of the adapter. The adapter itself is small, shiny, and dense. It has the ability to fold the socket prongs into itself for transport. That makes it really hard to plug it into the child-safe power-strip in my room. But then it is hard to plug regular plugs into it. The other end uses interchangeable power tips and has two attachment points, intended to be used with a laptop and a usb device concurrently.
They offer up to 10 “free” tips when you register. Tips are usually 9.99 and ship for free, while the replacement ones have a 4.99 shipping fee each. So it is actually half priced tips. Still nice, and given the weight of the cord and the fragility of the plastic, that is a good thing since they do crack. Alas for me, the tip I need, the L109? Out of stock. To the bat cave where I taped my old tip to the cord, giving it some more durability and making it so the cord won’t come out of the tip.
Nice small adapter, fragile tips, deceptive “free” offer that I can’t take advantage of. Like the device not thrilled with the company.
