first impressions: inspiron 1520

hey, there's been a lot of discussion about the 1520 and it's problems, so i just thought i'd take some time to talk about mine.

i ordered july 22nd and it arrived at my doorstep on the 26th, quite faster than i expected. my specs are as follows:

2ghz 800mhz fsb 4mb L2 core 2 duo
160gb 5400rpm hdd
2gb 667mhz ddr2 ram
intel a/b/g wireless
nvidia 8600m gt
WXGA+ glossy true life screen
jet black
no bluetooth, no camera, standard sound

okay, first of all about the screen. yes, there is silk screening, but it's not terrible. i would say it's probably a little below average in that respect. to me, the silk screen effect is more apparent when the screen brightness is dimmed; when the brightness is near max the effect is very negligible.

second, the headphone jack interference: i don't have any, even with sound muted and/or at 0 unmuted. i used sony ex-71s to test.

now that the important points have been taken care of, i can get to regurgitating what all the other reviews have said.

-video card is underclocked, but it doesn't matter much as i can run F.E.A.R, Doom 3, CoH, etc at pretty high settings while getting good fps.

-the jet black lid does not have microsatin so it does tend to pick up oils from my hand more readily than i thought, but it's still pretty easy to maintain.

-the latch that holds the lid shut when closed is really subpar. it wiggles and is made of weak plastic

-the express card slot's ejection plunger (best way i can describe it) is made of what feels like very low quality plastic. i wouldn't be surprised if i accidentally broke it while ejecting my remote.

-other than those two faults, the remainder of the notebook is extremely sturdy. no body flex anywhere, not even the keyboard. feels pretty light for its size (despite what it says on paper, even with the 9cell)

one last note: the connection between the screen and the rest of the computer really heats up at max screen brightness. touching the "dell" logo at the base of the screen will confirm it. it's a little worrying, but max screen brightness makes my eyes strain too much so it's okay, i guess.

all in all i'm pretty happy with it. the 9 cell battery lasts forever on full charge for how big the laptop is and how power hungry the 8600m gt can get.

 

Man, it seems like these 1520's are getting shipped really quickly. I hope that is the case with mine. Some pics would be cool. Glad you like it.

 

That's pretty gay, I ordered mine JULY 16TH and it's estimated for Aug 2...

 

How's the noise from the fan, when idling and also when doing intensive activity?

 

during idle the fan is near silent, but under strain the fan can be heard quite clearly. just sounds like a quiet stream of air. i think applying some arctic silver/alumina will really help keep things below the high fan speed threshold.

 

Try ordering 7/1 and having it delayed until 8/3....

 

Arctic Silver will do nothing, you have fallen for their marketing department. Please don't open up your laptop and potentially void you warranty to potentially save 1 degree of heat.