Vostro 1510

Finally got my 1510 yesterday. Here is what i think.

Build is nice and sturdy feeling. Not the same as the 1500, but still a solid build none the less. Glossy back plate of the screen is not quite as bad with fingerprints as most reviewers have stated. I have really got to have sweaty greasy hands for it to mark. It marks no where near as easy as the PSP for example.

Speakers i am afriad are prety poor, for me this is not an issue as i use headphones away from my desk, if i sit at my desk i have a 5.1 surround system i plugg in.

Conterary to other reviews my Vostro has come with a mute button.

The whole laptop has silver metal flakes, the sides bottom and back of screen being glossy, the keyboard surround is matt.

Keyborad flex is no more or worse when compared to any inspiron, the Sony AR51J, HPdv9750ea, or the shiny new toshiba 1300 for example.

My Vostro was delivered with XP installed, i have my Vista disk for when that operating system is a tad more refined ( in my opinion anyway)

I got the WUXGA screen after alot of deliberating, and help on here. Thanx you know who you are....

First impressions on screen quality were not good as most websites looked bad and pixelated. After playing around for a while, i found that Dell in there infante wisdom had changed the default DPI settings. When i corrected this, although the text became smaller ( but very readable ) i found the screen to be of amazing superb clarity.

I have found that the 2.1ghz cpu, with 3gb of ram make the machine run fast and flawlessly. I could have gone for higher CPU but for my budget and what i wnated out of the machine this would have been costly and pointless.

Other reviewers have also commented on the fan noise, although the fan does kick in apporx every 5 mins . You have to listen very hard to hear it. This is when the machine is idle or if it is under great duress.

The web camm is adaquate but not the best on a note book.

The Geforce 8400GS has played all i have asked it to play. Starcraft, warcraft, Gunbound, CandC to name but a few. No this is no high end gamming rig, but it will play most games at an adequate level.

The wireless assistant was easy to use and getting connected was achieved in record time.

Overall i would state that in Dell's range of notebooks in build and design/performance, for the consumer not business market. The list in order of best to worse would be as follows\:

XPS
studio 15/17
Vostro
Inspiron

Of all the notebooks i have owned this year (13 so far ) the Dell Vostro has far exceeded my expectations.

It is true the build is not as strong as the old 1500, that said it is thinner, alot lighter and does have a very sleek modern look. It is deffinetly a stronger build than the insipron range. This notebook deffinetly suits colledge / business / heavy handed home users like me . In my opinion in the current market you cannot beat the Dell Vostro line for price, quality and support

Rating this machine out of 10 i would give it a very high end 8..
Not to confuse this with an overall everylaptop in the world score ( it is not going to compete with a £2000 laptop per say )
For what it is and the market it is aiming for, i deliver a well deserved and resounding 8

Here are the specs for my machine below £583 inc VAT and delivery. Not bad....Not bad at all.....

1 N0615123A 200-54596
1 Vostro 1510 : Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 (2.1GHz,800Mhz,3MB) 210-20849
1 Palmrest : Fingerprint Reader Biometric 214-10043
1 Display : 15.4" Widescreen WUXGA with TrueLife 230-10171
1 Save £50 ex VAT 239-12277
1 LCD Back Cover : Black with 1.3MP Camera 320-10201
1 Documentation : EMEA 1 Shipping Docs (ENG, ARA, DUT, FRE, GER, ITA, CRO, SPA) 340-15256
1 Resource DVD : Vostro 1510 Diagnostics & Drivers 340-15283
1 Memory : 3072MB (1x2048 & 1x1024) 667MHz DDR2 Dual Channel 370-13281
1 Hard Drive : 160GB Serial ATA (5400RPM) Single Hard Drive no.1 400-14831
1 Optical Drive : 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including software 429-13071
1 Power DVD 8.0 - Vista & XP 429-13078
1 Power Cord : UK 1 meter (3 wire) 450-11784
1 Power Supply : Worldwide 90W AC Adapter (3 wire) 450-11815
1 Battery : Primary 6-cell 58W/HR LI-ION 451-10536
1 Carry Case : No Carrying Case included 460-10239
1 Graphics : 256 Mb NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS 490-10809
1 Wireless : Dell Wireless 1505 Wireless-N MiniPCI Card EUR 555-11084
1 Wireless : Dell Bluetooth 360 Card (Vista) ROW 555-11428
1 Keyboard : Internal English Qwerty Keyboard 583-11797
1 Operating System : English (Downgrade) Windows Vista Business SP1 (32Bit) to XP Pro with Vista Media 619-12555
1 Software : English Microsoft Works 9.0 with Recovery CD 630-11635
1 English - Adobe Reader 8.1 640-10608
1 AntiVirus : No Anti-Virus Software included 650-11266
1 Base Warranty 709-10177
1 1Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day - Minimum Warranty 709-10178
1 No Warranty Upgrade 710-14072
1 Declined CompleteCare 712-10342
1 Vostro Laptop 1510 Order - UK 799-10187
1 FREE FREIGHT VN-VOSTRO 990-10710

 

congrats!!

 

How many notebooks have you owned this year?

 

Around 13. all returned due to poor build quality or faults.

 

You mention you have a mute button? Do you mean using the Fn + Del keys?

I find that the shiny black plate does scratch easily lol!

 

Tricks that is right. Some reviewers have stated they did not have one period wether that be the touch media keys at the back or a funtion key on the keyboard. As for the shiny Black back plate, I can see how it may scratch if careless, but point was with finger prints, as this is what seems to drive certain people crazy