My Vostro 1500 has arrived!

Greetings from the UK!
Been looking at upgrading from my current laptop and found the Vostro.
Just ordered my Vostro 1500 this morning
Estimated delivery date 23rd August

This is the spec I have ordered :

Intel® CoreTM 2 Duo Processor T7100 (1.8GHz,2MB L2 Cache,800MHz FSB)
2GB Dual Channel 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (Free upgrade from 1GB)
NVIDIA® GeForceTM 8600M GT with 256MB DDR2 dedicated graphic memory
15.4" UltraSharpTM Wide Screen WSXGA+ (1680x1050) display with TrueLifeTM
9-cell 85WHr Li-Ion Battery

Got it for 800 GBP including 50 GBP discount, delivery and 3 Year Business Hardware Support - Next Business Day.

Can't wait to get my hands on it

 

Here are step-by-step instructions on how to get the OS CD from Dell if they did not provide it to you. Hope this helps..

Requesting OS CD from Dell if it was not provided

 

have any decent pics of these things been posted yet? the 1500 in particular. all i've seen is 4 blurry ones.

 

That's all, nothing new

 

^^^^^Yeh^^^^^

 

man they give you 2gb ram and 160gb hd at no extra cost...

 

And where did you read 160gb for free???

 

I'm looking at those pictures, and can not see 1 difference from the Vostro to the new Inspiron series. I don't get Dell, they say its for business?

 

nevermind tricky dell .... they show them both as 399 on the front page then when you click on it they both go up in price..they try to add in the 3 year contract take that out and they are in fact the same price

actually i just looked again when you click on the first two value choices at 399 they both come up at 518 and the first includes the 120gb and the second has everything the same and includes the 160 gb one for free...

so yes they are the same price and you get the 160 at no extra cost

 

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/4x_vostro_1500?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&l=en&s=bsd

 

399 = BASE Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5470 Processor (1.6GHz,800MHz,2MB L2 cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Basic - English edit
HARDWARE SUPPORT Base Warranty - 1 Year Business Hardware Support edit
LCD 15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display edit
INTEGRATED WEBCAM Matte Jet Black without Camera edit
MEMORY 1024MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x512] edit
HARD DRIVE 120GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive edit
GRAPHICS CARD 128 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8400M GS edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive edit
PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr)


and 399 = this also: BASE Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5470 Processor (1.6GHz,800MHz,2MB L2 cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista™ Business - English edit
HARDWARE SUPPORT Base Warranty - 1 Year Business Hardware Support edit
LCD 15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display edit
INTEGRATED WEBCAM Matte Jet Black without Camera edit
*****MEMORY 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x1024) edit
*****HARD DRIVE 160GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive edit
GRAPHICS CARD 128 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8400M GS edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive edit
PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr) edit

both are the SAME PRICE so they get the 2gb and 160 upgrade at no extra cost lucky over there

 

Stupid DHL, didn't do anything with my package today so I probably won't get it until Wednesday :/.

 

It's the same chassis. The only differences *may* be the mylar protected keyboard, hdd with "strike zone protection" and magnesium alloy for the lid. That and the color of course.

 

The upgrade to 8600M graphics is only 40 pounds. It's $169 at US Dell.

 

so will the inspiron battery fit in the vostra??

yeah over in uk they get a great deal wow

 

519 pounds =

ASE Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7300 Processor (2.0GHz,800MHz,4MB L2 cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista™ Business - English edit
HARDWARE SUPPORT Base Warranty - 1 Year Business Hardware Support edit
LCD 15.4" Wide Screen WXGA+ (1440 x 900) Display with TrueLife™ edit
INTEGRATED WEBCAM Matte Jet Black without Camera edit
MEMORY 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x1024) edit
HARD DRIVE 160GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive edit
GRAPHICS CARD 256 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive edit
PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 9-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (85 WHr) edit

 

please post battery life with the 8600.. thanks i may still be able to step to a 9 cell not sure though ...

 

I like the all black look on the Vostro.

 

Thats excluding 17.5% VAT and the shipping charge of £50

 

Yeah it's nice.

 

hey, guys with the laptop already ahha. Any of you guys get the truelife? How is it, and is the screen grainy like the 1520?

 

Can you guys check if the 5470 supports virtualization ?

Thanks!

 

really??? I'm going to order it today, I don't see where it says that you get the 2gb ram free. Am I missing something?

Thanks,

 

Damn when i tried that s*** on the UK website it came to 700 pounds which is like $1400 for the 160gb and 2gb?

 

All signs point to no.

 

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dell...=D4XESS01&l=en&oc=N0715002&rbc=N0715002&s=bsd

uncheck the 3 year warr then go to the basket it will be 399 total w/ the 128 mb gpu, 160 hard drive and 2gb ram for 40 pounds more add the 256 card...or mod it as you want.... its the value package they have right now..

 

anyone order it with 4gb ram?? or who's upgrading?? im unsure if 2 is enough lol..

 

Sorry the thread is taking so long to get up with nice pictures, and the new laptop.. i am trying to install XP over the vista basic they gave me and there are some issues coming up so I gotta troubleshoot. ONce it's done, you will have your review and benchmarks... btw, I upgraded to the 2GB myself... not too bad to remove the keyboard although it required steady hands haha.

 

I do have the truelife. I don't think the screen is grainy. It seems smooth and fluid, I don't see what all the fuss is about.

 

We had a pretty good deal in Australia (I think..well..it seemed good to me), here are specs:

Dell Vostro 1500, 15.4" Widescreen WXGA (1280x800) TFT Display
COST: $1,599AUD (about 1,411USD)

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5470 1.66Ghz
Vista Business
1 year warranty (hopefully will extend later)
2GB Ram
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 256MB dedicated graphics
160GB Hard Drive
90W AC Adapter
6-Cell battery
Intel Pro/Wireless 3945 Dual Brand 802.11 a/g 54Mbps Wireless card
15 months of McAfee secutity center
Dell Large Nylon Case

Free offers included free hard drive upgrade, free carry case, and free shipping.

I upgraded to a bluetooth module for an extra $20.90AUD ($18.44USD) and got them to throw in a 9-cell battery for an extra $9AUD ($7.94USD)

Overall, I'm happy. Can't wait, ordered this past Wednesday, arriving early next week . My baby's coming ^_^

 

Seems like quite a deal Once i get my vostro its time to start saving for a 200gb 7200rpm hdd, and 2gb's of ram

Does anybody know if you can use two hdd's?

 

no 1 HD only

 

Awww shame, whats the biggest 7200rpm hdd for a lappy?

 

200gb right now, there are 250gb 5400 rpm HD though

 

Thank you SO much for the photos. More, more

 

Thanks mate, s*** every day something makes me wanna get a vostro more than any other laptop

 

Update: It does have the interference noise with the earbuds on. I tried it with a set of $120 Shure buds and STILL got interference (albeit, not too bad, and not noticeable with something playing). The cheapo Creative phones would probable pump it into your brain until it bleeds, though.

 

Thnx for the photos shlurpee!

I didnt like the black color of this laptop. Im so glad I ordered Inspiron 1520.

 

Agreed. At first I didn't notice the sound because I was in a noisey environment. But now that I have listen to music/movies it actually sounds like an alarm clock going off in the distance....its a steady beep beep beep and it only goes away when the movie or music makes noise.

 

So I'm ordering a Vostro 1500 today and I'm having a terrible time deciding what wireless card to get. My home router is the WRT54G and I don't know if it's worth upgrading to the Intel Pro card or just stick with the 1390 that it comes with. What do you guys recommend? I'm only using the laptop for Interent surfing (home and away), Word, Excel, and DVD viewing. I was originally going to go with XP but I'm starting to lean towards Vista since that seems to be what everyone is doing. Any help/input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

Unless you're going to be transferring large files back and forth between computers a LOT then just stick with the basic card probably.

as for OSs...
I'd say unless you're wanting to play games, then Vista would be good.

I got 2.0 ghz, 2gb ram, 256mb 8600M GT to be able to do a little gaming on it and went with windows XP because I'm still hearing bad stories about getting things to run with windows vista.

 

The more and more I read I'm thinking about going with the 1390 card and just seeing how it goes. It appears that most people are fine with it and I can always upgrade rather inexpensively in the future. I also saw on the Dell Support forums that there are a large number of people having issues with the Intel card.

The OS seems to be another big debate. At first I was thinking of going with XP because of the instability/compatibility issues I hear about with Vista. Now I'm starting to lean towards Vista because it's more future proof and it looks like about 95% of the people ordering Vostro's are getting Vista with it.

Thanks for your input. Any one else want to chime in?

 

Stick with the Intel card. I've had systems in the past using the Dell cards and they've were flaky.

 

Im ordering xp too...I wanna game so its just a better OS for me. Plus everone keeps telling me vista home basic is the worst OS ever, and I dont wanna pay extra to get less. I could get premium or ultra i guess, but still I dont wanna deal with compatibility issues and the computer wouldnt be as quick.

 

The Intel card helps wonders if you're going to be using Linux too.

 

So I take it you've had good luck with the Intel 3945? What OS do you use? I was just readig another thread where they were discussing the superiority of ordering the Vostro with XP because you avoid some of the compatibility and stability issues that Vista has. They mentioned Bluetooth issues as one. It's crushing me that I'm stuck on these 2 points. I'm ANXIOUS to order but want to avoid buyers remorse.

 

Those are the same reasons I'm going to do a clean install of XP.

 

a lot of the commercial software I've bought (only 1-2 years old) for photo editing, video editing won't work with vista (upgrade to the newest version for $$$ of course). My phone won't syncronize with Vista. My PDA MIGHT work with Vista.Vista will hog up all that nice RAM and resources you have as well.

I haven't seen a compelling reason to switch to Vista just yet. It's pretty, but everyone I've talked to with Vista has had a hard time moving all their accesories and software to it. I'm waiting for Service Pack 2, or Second Edition, or whatever they decide to call it. XP will still be around for a few more years- at least until your next upgrade. Vista is not faster, it's not safer, and it's not more stable.

I specifically went with Vostro for XP. At the time I was building it the Inspirons had free upgrades to 2GB/160 GB wich would have been more machine for the same price (1520 is the same as Vostro 1500) but you couldn't put XP on it (at least from Dell out of the box).

But that's just my opinion. We're getting off topic...

 

Actually those so called "cheapo creative phones" have been compared to the

Sennheiser Lightweight Noise Isolating Earbuds ($80)

Where as the creatives only cost $30

How do I know? well i actually own a pair, and people get blown away when they listen to these on my ipod compared to that apple s***!

But you rite, compared to shure earbuds there pretty s****y