I've wanted to play the earlier games for a while but im not entirely sure if 1) my laptop is capable or if I would need to get anything beforehand. (its a dell inspiron 15R) and 2) how the general transition would be to Fallout 1/2 from Fallout 3/NV.

Any advice is welcome!

Fallout and Fallout 2 are from 1997 and 1998. So if your lap top was made at that time or after it will run those games. I am not sure if you need anything to run them. In the past you would need to get a patch depending on where you bought them. Steam I am not sure if it has a patch it didn't before but it might now. Good Old Games came with a patch.

They are top down turned base isometric games. So there is a big difference between them and Fallout 3 and New Vegas when it comes to graphics and game mechanics.

I would also suggest trying Fallout Tactics.

These games are sloooooow. You need to become slow too in order to appreciate them.