Dell Review - Inspiron 1520 Review

Dell Inspiron 1520 Review

This laptop is for sale @ Lelong Aution

Intro

June 26th , Dell rolled out their new Inspiron lineups: 1420, 1520 and 1720. 1520 is the new brother for the popular Inspiron 6400 (E1505 in the US), which is the mainstream Inspiron model that features a 15.4" screen. 1520 is available for preorder on 27th June. Dell has no retail outlet in Malaysia and therefore, ordering a Dell means you have to call in or order it online.

Specs

All components belong to default package except those highlighted in blue, which are either upgraded items (selected by me) or free upgrades that comes with DELL's weekly promotion.

Pentium C2D T5250 - 1.5Ghz -
15.4" WXGA (1280x800) Display with TrueLife (TM)
80GB SATA Hard Drive
2.0 Megapixel Webcam
2GB RAM (default is 1GB)
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 256MB memory (default is 128MB)
9-cell battery (default is 6 cells)

Total Price : MYR 3371 (USD $991)

Look and Feel

Color is the major selling point for the new Inspiron. Dell offers 8 colours for users to choose, but unfortunately, choosing a lid colour other than black an white will delay your shipment, so I stick to the conventional black color, and got the laptop two weeks after I placed my order. The remote control for media playback is not included. The new inspiron also comes with a built-in 2.0 Megapixel web camera, which is more superior than the ordinary 1.3 Megapixel camera offered by other manufacturer. Other than that, Dell keeps most of it's chassis design intact, no major revamp and no big suprises.

Conventional Black Colour Lid

Indicator and Power Button

LCD Screen

Before buying the laptop, I had a hard time deciding between a matte screen and a glossy screen. Googling the web giving me mixed results and comments. Finally, I have chosen the TrueLife™ (glossy) screen.

As far as image quality is concern, the LCD throws out vivid tones and impressive colours, a very admirable screen for viewing photos and watching movies. In term of brightness, it is above average. Most of the times, I need to lower the brightness level to around 60 % when reading text, only adjust to maximum when watching movies.

However, I was a bit regret with my initial decision of choosing the TrueLife screen , because the glare from the glossy LCD is indeed "quite annoying". Fortunately, glaring can be reduced by facing the screen away from direct light sources. Of course, the best and permanent way of solving the problem is to choose the anti-glare (matte) screen

Follow this link to see Inspiron 1520 LCD screens at different brightness level.

Inspiron 1520 LCD

Input and Output

4 USB ports should be sufficient for most users. Other ports are pretty standard.

front view (click for bigger image)

back view (click for bigger image)

right view (click for bigger image)

left view (click for bigger image)

Keyboards

In overall, I’m very satisfy with the build quality and the layout of the keyboard, very solid and no flex. It’s on par with the IBM’s Thinkpad series according to some reviewer. But I never have a chance to type on a Thinkpad so I can’t give any comment on this. For me, typing experience is very comfortable.

Webcam

Very bright and good picture quality even under low light condition. It's so bright that in fact it has a tendency of over-exposing image, but this can be corrected by setting the brightness level via the software.

When I compare the Inspiron 1520 webcam against my standalone Logitech webcam (Logitech Communicate STX) , which I bought 1 month ago, it noticeably outclass the Logitech model when comes to colour intensity and brightness. Inspiron 1520 webcam produces crisper and brighter image, partially due to the higher resolution (2.0 Mpx against 1.3 Mpx of the Logitech model).

But these is a bit of lag issue with this webcam. The delay is quiet prominent, anywhere between 1/2 to 1 second.

Follow this link to compare webcam quality :

Inspiron 1520 Webcam vs. Logitech Webcam

Webcam Software

The Inspiron webcam is manufactured by Creative. The "Creative Webcam Manager" software comes with avatar function that can turn your face into a lion face and faces of other creatures. The face tracking system works quite well for me, it has no problem keeping track of my face. No matter I moved away or getting close to the camera, my face always stay at the center.

View some photos taken by the webcam with avatar function turned on :

Webcam Avatar Photos

Noise

Noise is generally not an issue for this inspiron notebook. The processor's fan is so quiet you can barely hear any noise even when running intensive task (the time during which the fan is running at top speed).

The only noise that I managed to hear is a very soft hum. It is quite similar to the noise produced by my 19-inch desktop LCD screen (LG brand). I can’t verify the components that actually produce it, it’s quite persistent and sometimes would disappear for a while and come back again. But unless you’re in a very quite room, you won’t be able to hear it. In a normal room setting with ceiling fans or air-cond turning on, you can call this a silent machine.

Heats

This laptop gets moderately warm when running for prolonged hours. Using this laptop on your lap is not encouraged. Dell may need to put more effort to make their next inspiron run cooler.

Performance and Benchmark

The default processor is a Core 2 Duo mobile processor - T5250. Running at 1.5GHz, it is probably a slower processor in the Core 2 Duo line. However, having two core rather than one meaning that it’s more than enough to handle the most demanding applications out there. Those with extra budget might want to consider the 2.0 Ghz, or even the 2.2 Ghz. both features 800 MHz FSB and 4MB cache. The latter is the highest speed processor you can configure under this package.

Windows Experience Index is 4.6, which is relatively high considering that the processor is only a T5250 running at 1.5GHz.

Super PI is just about average - 1 minute 24 seconds.

3DMark06 result is 3153, which is very impressive, thanks to Nvidia 8600M GT. The score even outshines many laptops with more powerful CPU but slower graphic cards.

Compare 3DMark06 result here

If you’re interested to know how Inspiron 1520 measured up against another contemporary laptop, you can always compare my test result with those found on other websites.

Battery Life

The 9-cell battery gives a impressive edge when comes to battery life. I managed to achieve 3 hours of movie playing with LCD screen set to maximum brightness and speakers volume adjusted to maximum.

Follow this link to read more about Inspiron Battery

Inspiron 1520 Battery Life

Pros

Great value for money
Webcam with great picture quality
Color lid
Quiet operation

Cons

Glossy screen is too reflective (choose a matte screen for reading or demo)
Slightly heavier and larger
A bit warm when running for prolonged hours

Bottomline

If your budget is around RM3 – 4K (1000USD), Dell inspiron 1520 is currently one of the best deals in town. Equipped with a decent processor, a whopping 2GB RAM and a dedicated graphics for under RM3500 (1000 USD), you simply can’t any get any notebooks with a higher specs at this price. If you can spare an additional RM800, upgrade to a 2.0Ghz processor is highly recommended, that will boost up total price to RM4000 ++ .

Inspiron Pictures

Dell Review - Inspiron 1520 Review

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Monday, July 23, 2007