Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
This being an informal review im only going to comment on the things that i want to comment on. If you have any questions beyond that feel free to ask them and ill gladly answer.
Inspiron 1520
About me:
Personaly i only have 2 laptop computers in the house. which means 2 things.
1) I dont have much to compare it to.
2) My opinion is not comparative.
The other computer that i own is a DV9000z with integrated graphics and an AMD 64x2 1.66 ghz processor. and a 17" screen. its really in a different class altogether so its not suitable for comparison.
Which means that my opinion will largely be based off of what i experienced with this notebook and not how it compares to other notebooks.
Specs:
Core 2 duo Santa Rosa 1.5ghz/2mb cache
Nvidia 8600GT with 256mb DDR2
2 gigs DDR2 ram
120 GB 5200 RPM HD
1680x1050 native resolution on a 15.4" screen
Standard Dell Wireless card
Bluetooth enabled
9 cell battery.
The Core Components
The core components are the CPU, Hard Drive and memory. Since these component run the entire system i would conclude that they are the most important components in the entire laptop.
The Processor is decent. 1.5ghz X2 is fine for any application within the next 5 years. In anycase the processor is not the bottle neck of anything on this system. Its really the hard drive. 5200 RPM is fast but not blazing. its the sweet spot between battery life and speed.
2 gigabytes of RAM is fine for vista. Ive had no problems with RAM on this machine, Unlike my Dads DV9000z which only has 1 gig of ram. 1 gig ends up being to little as Vista likes to hog ~500 mb of ram at any time. For Office, Web, and music 1 gig may be fine but when you take your computer use to the next level your going to end up being frustrated with low ram.
Graphics:
The Nvidia 8600GT with 256 MB ram is a VERY decent card. Its not the "Hard-core-run-Crysis-at-max-settings-with-60fps" card but it will do for most games. Right now ive played 4 games each ranging in graphical intensity. They will be listed from least intense to most intense
Halo 1(demo): Runs perfectly at max settings no drop in frame rate. Loading/Check points dont even alter frame rate.
BattleFeild 2(demo) : Runs fine at high settings, rare drops in frame rate.(same as halo)
Age of Empires 3: Runs well at Max settings. Small decreases in framerate but being an RTS it doesnt matter much. Very playable.
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2: Settings shouldn't be maxed but is still very playable at high settings. lowering the textures is a good idea due to lower memory clock speeds on DD2 memory still very playable on higher settings.
The Screen
The screen even at a WSXGA+ setting is very nice. People seem to have some questions about the screen so ill try to answer them all here and now:
1) The screen is NOT dark, at max brightness the screen is viewable outside.
2) The text is not all that hard to read. Set Vista's text size to "Large" and everything is fine.
3) Very little flex on the screen. It is impossible to make waves by pressing on the back without breaking something.
4)Hinges are very sturdy screen does not move unless you move it.
Anything else that i missed feel free to ask.
The Case
Im going to skip the rest of the internal stuff and move on the the external portion of the laptop. All of the reviews out there, IMHO, dont do justice to the case.
First off the case is VERY sturdy. Its plastic coating but there's defiantly some kind of metal underneath.
Next lets take a look at the ports.
The right side of the laptop is the one that you will use most of the time due to the fact that it has all of the most important ports and drives. The CD drive and the 8-in-1 card read are situated right next to each other. The CD drive has been shaped so that the card and drive read can fit in the same space that a normal CD drive would take up.
Smart choice on the part of dell for some space saving.
The other thing included on the side is a ethernet port, VGA out and 2 USB ports. Now my only complaint is that they are spaced too close together yet far enough so that the ports dont interfere with one another.
On the back are two usb ports and and power cord as well as a Svideo out and a a modem/fax connection. I think dell made 2 mistakes here. 1) They put all of the USB ports on the laptop into one corner of the machine. this ends up clutering the laptop too much on the right side and adds too much weight to it at one corner. 2) they included a modem out. There are alot of things that could be replaced and used instead of a modem. For example, and extra USB port. or move the USB ports there rather than on the right side (the Modem is situated on the left side of the back)
the left side of the computer has an Wifi/bluetooth switch along with the wifi catcher. Most people will probably end up useing this at least once or twice in their life. But its a nice combination in order to prevent an additional switch on the laptop.
Along with that is a heat sink. which rarely gets hot, sometimes a little warm but never hot. Ventilation is wonderful on this laptop providing nothing is blocking the air flow.
The Audio jacks are also on this side of the laptop. Which is probably better than in the front because that way the headphones are never jabbing into you.
The front of the laptop is made in a way that you can comfortably place it on your lap and on your belly and nothing will stick, poke, or prod into you. the media buttons are non-obtrusive and tend to require a little pressure in order to be pushed. The speakers are also under the front of the laptop. They're angled in a way that when on a desk or on your lap they force the sound to bounce up to your ears off your lap. They also provide very nice sound for small, laptop speakers.
The face is very nice with very little gadgets and do-da's to fool with. Being as simplistic as it doesn't take as much attention off the screen as some other laptops can. Dell made a smart decision with this as the common user doesn't need to have an entire diagnosis of their computer provided on the keypad and with the more lights and buttons on the computer the more power it drains.
The big thing that people have been complaining about is the DVI/HDMI ports not being included. But in all honesty Laptops are usually aimed at the casual consumer so those ports wont be of much use to them. in my years of using the computer i have never had the use for any of them and i doubt that they will become mainstream in the next 3-4 years. Not to mention that the 1520 no longer has any room for any more ports in this current state.
This laptop has some of the better design choices that i have seen in a long time. everything is almost where it should be save some little inconveniences.
The one down side
The one down side of such a great laptop is the weight. this thing is heavy and huge. Very thick but its still small enough to carry around. It realy pushes it when it comes to portability. By the looks of it it was made to be more of a desktop replacement than a portable laptop. But i guess thats what they made the 1330 for.
Overall the laptop makes for a good use experience and something other companies should look to when makeing thier design choises. Its overall look and feel makes me want to use it every day.
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congrats for your new lappy!
and a very good 'nothing official about it' review
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please add pics
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its ddr2 for all the inspirons....
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i would most certainly add pics. but.... my camara broke like a week before i got this thing.
and ya it is ddr2
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Wow... what's the rest of your computer like then.
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My personal, informal, review of the Inspiron1520
Discussion in 'Dell' started by revoletion, Jul 12, 2007.
