Studio 1535 vs. Inspiron 1420

Well. After getting fed up with my Studio 1535, I sold it and purchased an Inspiron 1420 from Dell Outlet. I sold the Studio 15 for $445 and purchased the Inspiron 1420 for $467. I got 15% off and free shipping, so that saved me quite a bit of money. Below are my thoughts on the Inspiron 1420 vs. the Studio 1535.

Inspiron 1420 Pros (As opposed to the 1535)

-It is very lightweight. The Studio 15 was a little heavier than I wanted for carrying around at school. I carried it in a messenger bag which started to hurt my shoulder after awhile. The Inspiron 1420 is the perfect weight for school.

-The 14.1" screen size is great. The screen is crystal clear, bright, and it's the perfect size. I was afraid it would be to small, but I really like it.

-Tray load DVD Drive. As much I did enjoy the slot load drive, I would rather have a noisy tray load drive that actually ejects when you press the button.

-A massive heatsink and side vent. Personally I prefer the exhaust vent on the side of the computer. The Studio 15 did have a great heatsink design, however, the exhaust vent was poorly placed in my opinion. Most of the time I placed the Studio 1535 on a flat desk or table. With the feet not being high enough, the vent was blocked by the screen. This can easily be solved by using a cooling pad, but I don't take my cooling pad with me everywhere. With the Inspiron 1420, the vent is roughly 1/4" bigger than the Studio 15 vent. It doesn't get blocked by the screen and the fan pumps out a lot of hot hair.

-No sticky touchpad. The touchpad on the Inspiron 1420 is very responsive and doesn't freeze every few seconds. It is just a tad small though.

-The Headphone and Line In jacks are placed in the front. I personally prefer the headphone jacks in the front of the computer rather than the side. It's more convenient for me.

-The Computer status lights can be viewed even when the LCD lid is closed. I really didn't like this about the Studio 1535. I like being able to see if the harddrive, battery, etc are active or not active when the lid is closed. I'm sure it doesn't make that much of a difference to most of you, but it was a pet peeve of mine.

-Silver colored keyboard. There are two things about black keyboards that I don't like. The first is that they show fingerprints like the moon at night. The silver keyboard hides fingerprints very well. Second is that they make it very hard to see the keys in low light situations, fortunately a backlit keyboard was an option on the Studio 15. However, since the Inspiron 1420 series doesn't have an option for a backlit keyboard, the silver keys are easier to see at night because they are lighter colored.

Inspiron 1420 Cons (As opposed to the 1535)

-No 64-bit support. I really enjoyed the 64-bit Vista on the Studio 1535. Unfortunately Dell does not offer 64-bit drivers for the Inspiron 1420. I could install it anyways, but I don't really want to fiddle around with 64-bit drivers from other models.

-No touch media buttons and their placement. I really miss the touch media buttons (except for the eject button, as stated before) that was one feature I thought I could live without. Apparently not. I also really don't like where they placed the media buttons. They are above the keyboard next to the power button. Honestly....if you are going to place the media buttons on the top of the computer you might as well assign them to the F keys.

-In order to apply AS5 to the GPU heatsink I had to remove the motherboard. WHAT THE ****? I can't even think of how to yell at Dell for such a horrible design decision, lol. Even though it's easy for me to perform such tasks, I don't want to take apart the whole computer a few days after I have had it. I did happen to find out that either Dell or the previous owner did a copper mod on the GPU so that made up for the time spent.

-The WiFi card is underneath the keyboard. Enough said.

-I ordered the Midnight Blue LCD cover but I received Ruby Red. I wasn't willing to send the computer back and I actually like the Red better. So it's all good.

There will probably be more later after I have used the computer for a while. I thought I would keep you guys updated.

 

As sad as it is to see your Studio 1535 go, I'm glad to see you're happy with your new Inspiron 1420. I've used one before, and it's definitely a great machine for its class. And I'm sure you're happy just to be rid of that eject button.

Looking at the specs in your sig...I hope you got your 8400M GS from a good batch. Those tend to be very hit-or-miss.

As for me, I'm going to stick with this 1535 to the death. I'll probably qualify for a system replacement soon, anyway...maybe I'll see about getting a 1537 special edition.

 

Yeah. I was sad to see it go too and I hope that the person who bought it is enjoying it.

The 1420 fits me perfectly and I think I will stick with 14.1" laptops from here on out. To be honest 15.4" is just a little big for my lap.

I did read about the 8400M and it's problems, I also hope that I got a good batch. Fortunately if the GPU has any issues it will be covered under the warranty.

At first I was wary of purchasing an old Pentium Dual Core Processor. I was shocked to see that it scores 4.9 on the Windows Experience Index. That score is really good compared to the 5.3 that my T8300 scored in the Studio 15. It can handle all the multitasking that I throw at it. Personally I think that Intel Pentium Dual Core sounds better than Intel Core 2 Duo, but that's just me.

Let me know how the new BIOS update goes for your Studio when it is released.

 

Is your laptop getting hot?

 

led screen was never offered on inspiron 14?
its a 2006 product.

 

The left side of the laptop gets pretty warm, but that is expected because the CPU and GPU are both located there. Temperatures are well below normal for the HDD, CPU, and GPU. The CPU idles at 43-46C which is also expected considering that it is an older processor. The GPU idles at 57C and the Harddrive is at 36C. These are the same temperatures I encountered with the Studio 15. That's pretty impressive, although I wouldn't expect huge temperature differences since both the Studio 1535 and Inspiron 1420 are based off of the Intel Santa Rosa platform.

I purchased mine from Dell outlet, I didn't even bother to look at what screens were offered. Mine is 1280x800 which I assume is the standard one.

 

Ok, your temps are alright,

 

how possible can 2006 inspiron models overheat? only 2007 and after dell computers overheats.