Got my e1505 today... Initial Impressions...

All,

Well, folks I got my loaded e1505 today... thought id chime in with a few basic first impressions.

Case
The size is about typical for a 15.4" notebook... about what I expected size wise. There are a couple of negatives though...

1. The memory card door ont he back is vented now... in fact there there are alot of vented areas on the back where you can see circuit boards. Probably helps cooling but makes it easy to get stuff in there too.

2. The little rubber numbs attached to the screen... that hold the screen off the keyboard when its closed arent exactly put in accurately... 2 of the 6 on my model were not fully in their holes. This could be easily ignored or fixed... but is a build quality issue.

3. The mouse buttons on the touch pad are very mushy... I always use a usb mouse so not a problem... they do work, its just very mushy... not much tactile response as to when its been pressed.


The model I got is 2ghz, 1gb ram, 100gb hd, SXGA+ screen. x1400 video.

Now on to my show stopper... which is why its going back for replacement...

The screen has a vertical line about 1" from the right edge which runs from about 2" from the top of the screen all the way to the bottom of the screen. The line is not always visible (depending on backgrounds and such), but is clearly visible in the boot screens so this should have been caught before it shipped.

I'll run a 3dmark and other stuff on it before it goes back and post the results.

If anyone has any questions about the e1505... fire way... I have one in front of me.

 

*netb open his mouth wide*

JC

 

The sad thing (for me) is that the screen is otherwise beautiful... and now im going to have to do battle with the deaded dell support.

 

Sorry for the bad luck dude.

Are you going to stick w/ Dell and get a replacment or try something else?

 

Well, Im definitely going to put it through its paces before I decide for sure... This one is definitely going back though... i can overlook cosmetics and such but the screen is critical to me.

All in all, ill probably stick with dell though, theres nothing even close spec wise in my price range. I need more screen realestate than 1280x800 and have a budget of around $1400... and between the two that limits my options considerably. Dedicated video is also a must.

Actually... overally im fairly impressed with the e1505 from what ive seen so far... minor build quality and cooling decisions aside. I'll probably do a more unbiased write up once ive had a chance to play with it some more...

Just disappointed at the moment... partially because its going back... but even more so because I have to call dell... never a pain free experience these days. lol.

 

I BEG you to run 3dmark05 and post your results asap! my e1505 should be coming in this week and im dieing to know how one with the x1400 performs!

Also. . . OC the x1400. . . please!

 

Im downloading it to the machine now... believe me thats the biggest question I have too.

 

thanks for the first thoughts Alchemist, sorry about your luck with the screen though. Dead pixel, fair enough, but a line is a rather huge fault.

I also am interested in what 3DMark05 score is of this one as the one that was reviewed on this site was integrated graphics.

 

Ditto, me too, yo tambien and all that stuff.

 

the first run of 3dmark isnt encouraging...

3dmark 2005 using default settings (Since you cant change them without buying it)

1024x786 resolution (native is 1680x1050)
3dmark: 1775

 

Were you expecting more?

Seems decent enough to me, though I don't know much about this stuff.

Definitely install the Omega drivers, though - those should make a big difference (especially if you use them to overclock, which I believe they can help you with).

 

I was expecting around 2000....like the ThinkPad with the same exact specs got with 2.0 Ghz core duo and the x1400. This is a little disapointing....

 

Well...Dell has a tendancy to clock the cards lower than most other manufacturers. I think if you bump up the clocks you will get better results.

When I got my I9300 stock was 290/590. When I detected optimal it was 463/763 (I think). That went from 3400 to 4500 3dMarks. So I wouldn't doubt if it will hit the 2000+ mark.

 

Could have something to do with the Dell stuff you still have installed on the system -

Could also be that the RAM is slower than on the ThinkPad, or not dual channel -

Could be the way you've got the drivers configured (or what drivers you're using, and if they're up to date) -

Then again, could also mean that 300 points isn't that big of a deal

 

Heres a few more testing results.

e1505, 2ghz, 1mb 533mhz ram, 100gb 5400rpm drive, ATI x1400, Windows Media Center Edition.

Driver: Catalyst - ATI Technologies - 2/8/2006 v8.205.3.0 (Default Settings)

3dmark
1129 @ 1680x1050
1775 @ 1024x768
2095 @ 800x600
2317 @ 640x480

Im working on optimizing things now to... ideas welcome on how to squeeze more out of this. btw... i too was looking for around 2000 at 1024 like the lenovo.

 

A quick update...

After alot of prodding Dell processed an exchange for my previous e1505 (with the bad row of pixels) and said they would call me to confirm things.

I never got a call, but noticed a new dell notebook being built under my account... it was in boxing by tuesday, shipped thursday and arrived today via FedEx.

Im happy to say that the screen on this one is perfect!!! in other areas... the touchpad buttons are firmer than the first notebook... still a bit mushy though.

Ive set it up and run its through its paces a little bit... Its a keeper so far. Yea!!! Now I can actually start installing real software on it and get my 600m ready for resale.

Oh btw, i got the 3dMark05 up to 1808 by removing most of the bloatware dell installs. I still wish there was an oblivion demo to test on it though.

 

I get 1870 with the Omega drivers, without any special tweaking or anything (I think there isn't support for overclocking the x1400 yet) -

This is without a clean install, though (waiting for the replacement HD to arrive from Dell before I install clean MCE). I disabled all the dell start-up ****, but the registry is full of it and I imagine there are some things still going on that I don't know about.

 

Very cool. I hadnt tried the Omega drivers... it said you need to uninstall the ATI drivers first and I wanted to make sure I had a copy of them first in case I wanted to go back. Sounds like you might hit 1900+ with a clean install.

What screen are you running? SXGA+ or XGA?

 

Rellik- how do you like the e1505 VS the 600m? I'm typing on my daughter's 600m now and have always loved it -espicially the matte screen. I have ordered the e1505 for myself with the shiney highest resolution screen. How do the two compare? I love the key pads on the 600m. By the way, the 600m has been the best selling notebook of all time for Dell. You may not want to give it up. I may trade with my daughter when the 1505 comes in.

 

Actually its me with the 600m, upgrading to the e1505.

I really like the 600m... it has the perfect form factor, and has been a solid performer since I got it. I got mine within the first month they were available... and all ive had to do to it is put in a new 40mb last summer after a disk crash. I also have my 600m decked out... Docking station, D-View stand, extra battery for the drive bay (ive squeezed 7hrs out with both batteries before) and an external dvdrw.

So why am i upgrading... mainly for the screen and GPU peformance... the x1400 runs circles around the Radeon 9000, and I needed more than 1024x768 for the 3d work ive been doing the past 6 months.

How do I like the e1505 compared to the 600m?

Screen
The screen on the e1505 is beautiful... 1680x1050 gives me over twice the screen area of my 1024x768 600m. The glossy screen has its good and bad points... its obviously more glare prone, but it also has better contrast providing much deeper blacks and richer color.

Form Factor
The 600m wins here obviously... its about a pound lighter, and noticibly smaller than the e1505. The e1505 seems more utilitarian, function over form.... dont get me wrong it has a nice design IMO, its just more big and boxy than the 600m. Its kinda a necessary evil if you want the screen and dedicated video.

Heat
Id give this category to the e1505... neither of them gets horribly hot... but the 600m tends to get hot under the left palm rest, while the e1505 gets hot to the right of the keyboard... so you never feel it during use. As I said before though, neither of these machines has a heat problem.

Expandability
Ill call this one a draw... the 600m has its removable bay which makes it great to swap in an extra battery, drive, etc which is great... the e1505 doesnt have anything like it, but its pretty solid out of the box with a dvdrw, flash card reader, express/54 slot, 4usb, etc. The 600m might have an edge in flexibility and id love to put an extra battery in the e1505 if I could, but overall its probably a wash.

Battery Life
Using standard batteries id guess these two units are about the same, goto the extended battery in the e1505 and you can run 5-6hrs, put the secondary battery in the 600m and you can go 5-7hrs. Right now id give the battery life to the 600m as its a wee bit longer lived.

Video Performance
No contest, the radeon 9000 is a good dedicated card, but the x1400 is much better with todays games and 3d applications.

Performance In General
No contest, the e1505 wins out. Core Duo provides a good performance boost and FANTASTIC multitasking.

Build Quality
Id have to give this to the 600m. Its very slickly built and I havent had a bit of trouble with it for years. My first e1505 had screen problems, mushy mousepad buttons, and 2 of the rubber screen numbs were not glued on correctly. The replacment has been perfect though so it may just be I got a bad one first time out. In the e1505s defense its case is more sturdy than the 600m... the screen doesnt have the flex problems of the 600m... where if you press on the back of the screen around the edges, you can see the screen dimple... cant do that on the e1505.

All in all I like the e1505 and thing its a good upgrade from the 600m. Honestly id probably use my 600m for a couple more years if not for the 3d work ive been doing... 1024x768 just inst big enough for what im doing, and the Radeon 9000 struggles to keep up... additionally the software im using pretty much locks up my 600m while doing a render. Between the SXGA+ screen, x1400, and core-duo all those issues are addressed.

Anything else you would like me to compare between them?

 

Thanks so much, Alchemist for your comparison between the 600 and e1505. Another thing I have discovered is that there is no DVI out on the 1505 and no way to dock to an interface that has DVI. The lowly 600 can at least dock to a port replicator that has DVI to that 24 inch Dell screen I want to buy for photoshop. Other than this and the shiny screen, I'm sure I will enjoy my newly ordered 1505. I do a lot of photoshop work and look forward to the speed and contrasty screen of the 1505.

By the way, I might be interested in buying your 600m assessories if someone doesn't buy all of it from you.

Jay