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- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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5 out of 5 people found this review helpful
3.0 stars
"Better looking than previous Inspirons, no ddr2-800?!!!"
Pros: Body consists of smooth, rounded edges, above average bright screen
Cons: Draft-N internal card range is suspect, lacks in ddr-2 800 support (the chipset does support it, but not here), loud optical drive
Summary: Sold Athlon 64 3700+ HP running XP and bought the 1520 with C2Duo 2.2, 2GB DDR-2 667 RAM, Draft-N support, 160GB 7200 (Fujitsu) HDD, 1680 x 1050 LCD on nVidia GeForce 8600M GT.
: : : The Good News : : :
The shape and size of this laptop is an improvement from the older inspirons....less blocky, sleeker looking.
-The keyboard is quiet
-The bluetooth options work well
-The screen is big, bright etc. etc.
-The fan noise is about average
-The speaker quality is a hair above average
-The AC Adapter "Brick" doesn't get nearly as hot as the inspiron e1505's did
-The Front Audio controls work great
-Face tracking on the integrated web cam is neat (not entirely useful, but neat)
: : : The No Big Deal News : : :
For those interested in the different colored lids, the matte finish isn't all that great.. Dell really should have used a glossy finish. That would have looked fantastic.
: : : The Bad News : : :
The touchpad is too small! It really needed to be at least a half-inch taller (y-axis).
The optical drive is fast, useful, but loud when in use.
Found that with the included Vista Home Premium, you really need a lot of horsepower....sheesh.
Speaking of hosepower....
The bus speed on this notebook (PM965 chipset if I'm not mistaken) is 800mHz, but the fastest supported RAM is DDR2 667! It is an annoyance that the RAM slots aren't both on the underside of the laptop. To access the 2nd DIMM slot, you have to remove the top bezel and keyboard.
This laptop gets very warm. Everywhere. I would have liked to see dell attempt to put in 70 or even 80 mm "slim" fans that spun at a lower rpm instead of the small, whining 40mm fans.....again they're not too noisy.....but again, this laptop can be a bit of a oven, even during standard office/internet use.
And, of course, this notebook comes with the usual compliment of dell-installed gunk that you wil spend a hour or two removing. And game support for vista is sparse as of this writing.
: : : Conclusion : : :
This laptop is a hair above average. It has it's pros and cons. You will notice both. Try it before u buy it.
