Generally speaking, the words “budget laptop” don’t generate very much excitement–that is, unless you’re in charge of the IT budget. Dell is looking to change that, however, with a set of new budget notebooks that are designed to keep both users and bookkeepers happy. Behold: the Inspiron 1525, the thinner, smaller, lighter upgrade to the company’s previous 1521 model. Have we seen these somewhere before? Why yes we have: the Inspiron 1525 launched overseas a few weeks ago and now it’s finally coming to our fair shores. As we’ve mentioned before, these 15.4″ machines don’t skimp on the features–packing HDMI out, built-in Wireless USB, a webcam and a travel remote–yet start at just $500. For under $1000, you can configure a 1525 with 2.0Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 processor, Santa Rosa chipset and DVD burner. The downsides? They’re Vista-only at the moment and are only available with integrated graphics (natch). Still, not a bad deal by any means, especially if your IT shop is looking to load up on some cheap lappies for the new year.

For more on the Inspiron 1525:
– see this post on the Direct2Dell blog