Just purchased the e5520...

Are there any owners of that model here? Seems like everyone went for the 6520. I just kind of thought it wasn't worth the upgrade price, to be honest. Maybe I made a mistake?

I got the i7 dualcore, backlit keyboard, 4GB of RAM I'm going to upgrade myself, 256GB SSD I'm going to throw in there, Intel 6300, 1080p display...

I'm pretty excited for it, but I'm wondering if I should have selected the 6520 instead?

 

This is going to become my office and school machine. At work I use mostly web based programs and Office suite. At school however I'm going to be using SPSS statistics software which is why I opted for the faster dual core.

It's not too intensive of a program, so I don't really think I needed a quad for it.

Anyway, is there a major reason the 6520 seems so much more popular? It wasn't really about the money, it was more of just me not seeing a reason to select it over the 5520.

I also took advantage of that awesome $350 discount as well as an additional $50 off coupon.

I got my system for about $1200, which I think is a fine deal for a metal construction laptop.

 

The E5520 isn't a bad machine at all but only offers Intel GPU while some people need Quadro GPU for CAD. Still has the same 3 year warranty + available FHD screen, a must for programmers.

Companies like to buy alot of laptops all at once, and most popular are the E64x0 and E65x0 series. E5xx0 are more of the budget line, like the ThinkPad Edge or ProBook, nothing wrong with them.

 

Yeah, I have my Alienware and Sager to suit my gaming needs and I have no use for professional (or even dedicated) graphics on this particular machine.

The e5520 is still metal construction through and through right?

I noticed after the fact that the e6520 specifically states anodized aluminum lid, and magnesium body. The e5520 only mentions the lid...

The body isn't plastic, is it?

 

They are both good. If you don't need the additional features of the e6x line, you made the right choice.

 

Actually, I do have a question:

I noticed the FHD display of the 6520 covers sRGB and has 660ish:1 contrast ratio.

Is this the same display as found on the 5520? If so, I'm very excited.

 

The E5520 didn't have the FHD option when it was introduced earlier this year. The upgrade was a 15.6" HD+ (1600x900) instead and that's the highest resolution you could get. It's interesting that they now offer the choice of 1920x1080 FHD on both lines. It's a $99 upgrade on the E5520 and $129 on the E6520 (as well as the Precision M4600). But the specs are identical.


It appears to be the same display used on both-

Max. Brightness- 300nits
Viewing Angle- Wide
Contrast Ratio- 600:1
Color Gamut- 60%

The E5520 comes with a 1-year Basic Warranty, but the E6520 has a 3-year Basic Warranty standard. That is probably the most significant difference in value between the two models. To upgrade the E5520 to a 2yr Warranty, it's $100 and for 3-yrs it's $219! So it costs $219 to match the same warranty coverage as the E6520.

The construction of the E5 E420 and E6520 differs quite a bit. The E5520 has an aluminum frame/chassis covered with a heavy-duty plastic shell. The E6520 is made from Magnesium Alloy and Aluminum, so the metal casing/base and LCD back cover (lid) don't need a separate metal frame inside to provide support and protection.

Overall, the E5000-series is a great choice if you don't need discrete graphics (NVIDIA NVS 4200M) and you don't care about the warranty. My dad has an E5410 as his work-issued laptop and I like using it almost s much as I love my E6400. If his had a 1600x900 or 1920x1080 display, I'd really love it! My E6400 has a 14.1" 1440x900 vs. the 15.6" 1366x768 on his E5410....I'm not a standard-res fan!

 

Hrm you are right. I remember the E5520 only offered 1368x768 or 1600x900. Perhaps people were complaining about only being offered such low resolution for a 15.6" laptop, but then again people buying the E5520 want an affordable business laptop. Or perhaps Dell just realized they could make more money selling the FHD panel. Either way it's nice to get FHD + a decent budget business laptop without all the fancy stuff.

 

According to Dell's pages, the E6520 is built to withstand a few MIL-STD 810G tests (temperature, vibration, dust, altitude).

That, and the higher specced processors, seem to be the only difference.

I also assume you used your student discount?

Depends on the size of your data sets, but if it's for classes you probably won't be doing anything that will push the processor. I'm also not sure how much of SPSS is multithreaded; I know a number of algorithms are, but depending on what you do more cores might not make a difference (vs. clock speed).

 

It's going to be used for a thesis, not so much for classes. Data sets will be fairly large, however I believe the SPSS version we use is fairly old, meaning it's unlikely the program is coded to be heavily multithreaded. Also why I opted for the fast dual core.

Thanks for the responses.

I wasn't aware the casing/construction of the e5520 and e6520 differed so much and it annoys me finding that information on the Dell site seems very obscured/unclear.

I would have definitely paid for the e6520 if I knew beforehand the casing was so much different.

Oh well, that's on me for not thoroughly investigating that first.