Looking at a laptop on slick deals...good?

I was checking SlickDeals today and I saw that they have a Dell laptop up on the frontpage for $599. My parents are buying me a laptop for graduation (I'm getting at least 500 and then whatever else I want to throw in) and its going to be used for college next year.

It looks like it has everything I need, but I've never had a laptop, dont know what the difference from one to the next are, so I dont know what to do. The computer I'm running on now is a crap Emachines and my old computer was crap Compaq so I figure anything will seem good compared to them. I'm mainly just using internet, music, ipod, email, downloading, etc. No gaming really. Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc.

Here are the specs

Dell SB has well equipped Inspiron 6400 for $599. You may choose a configuration with Windows XP Home or Windows Vista Basic. Shipping is free. Thanks cmharcou

Specs

Intel Pentium dual-core T2080(1MB Cache/1.73GHz/533MHz FSB
Genuine Windows XP Home or Windows Vista Basic
15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display (with or without TrueLife for the same price)
1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm
160GB 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive
8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300 TurboCacheli
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11b/g Mini Card (54Mbps)
53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
1 Yr Ltd Warranty, 1 Yr Mail-in Service, and 1 Yr Tech Support
Good upgrades to consider

15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display with TrueLife™(glossy) [Free!]
Intel Core DUO T2350 (1.86GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 533MHz FSB) [add $40]
85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery [add $49]
Alternatively, if you would rather have 2GB of memory, and a T2350 CPU, with an 80GB hard drive for $81 more there are 2 other configurations available, with all else identical to the above

Windows XP Home $680
Windows Vista Home Basic $680

If you can look at the Mac laptops just bought a Macbook pro and wow is it worth every penny. Check them out at your local stores and they work perfect for what you just mentioned.

Yeah I might get a Mac in the future but not right now....I just wonder if brands are that important. Ive heard people say Dells suck, but also that HP, Gateway, Sony, all suck too so its like they dont leave much.

Mac is having a sale on referbs at apple.com

Dell's are not bad....you would have more options with a MAC....dual boot and all its like the best of both worlds

for 599 that is not really a good laptop. It has a pentium dual core chip so its gonna generate a lot of heat and consume a ton of power. Your battery life may be as low as 1-2 hours.

for 200 more you can often find a core 2 duo chip /w 2 gigs of ram and a dvd burner with all the other same specs. The only truly impressive thing about that laptop is the 256mb dedicated graphics card, a really rare find.