Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
first off 4gb of ram shows as 3.58 total. the bios shows 4gb.
BE VERY VERY VERY CAREFUL IF YOU ARE ADDING RAM UNDER THE KEYBOARD!!!. hopefully now ill never have to remove it again im afraid next time it may not come off in one piece..
the plastic cover that you need to remove is super SUPER fragile and there are about 10 or more clips that hold it in place. it does not unsnap easy at all.. i thought i was going to break it personally i almost said screw it... i did get it off hence the 4gb now.. one of my keyboard screws was already stripped straight from dell. im going to call them and see if they will send me just that screw.
the negatives: this could take a while now that ive had time with it and was able to really study it..
overall quality... well this is a mixed bag for me at this point. id say mid level to poor assembly overall. my touchpad has a high spot or "bump" in it.. i will also address this with dell its very annoying that you can feel it when gliding..
the bottom edge of the display when closed has a large gap on the backside not a crack but kinda looks like one it can be squeezed together and then the 2 piece mate back up.. basically where the front and back lcd cover meet except they def dont meet well. boo on that as well..
the display has a lot of backlighting coming out from the bottom int the screen VERY VERY VERY visable on fully dark or black screens like when watching a dvd movie in letterbox format "widescreen" it travels up maybe 1/2" almost the whole way across the bottom not sure how normal this is for this type of display.. the wifes toshiba does this a tiny bit but no where near what the dell does.. not even close
the hard drive is supposed to be a 160 gb drive... there are 2 partitions the problem is adding them up gives me about 140 at most total... i know you never see the full 160 but a 20gb loss of the top?? i would not have paid for that...this does upset me some
i requested NO SOFTWARE INSTALLED.. no trial ware or even works, adobe etc... they are all there i spent a good while uninstalling everything that they bloated me with.. i thought the vostro had no bloatware nope they have a lot
i got 2 battery's both 6 cell i have an extra "just in case" and ill get a spare charger from dell and make my own way of charging it out of the 1500 it can be done ive done it with other ones before.. one of the two 6 cell's rattles like a son of a b%^$&.. the other fits much tighter still shakes a bit but not anywhere near as bad..
the good:
i love the color.. its not really black, the cover is jet black but the rest is more titanium or gun metal sorta.. more of a gold/black in a way if you look close
keyboard is very NICE.. very comfortable MUCH more so than the toshibas we have. the mouse (touchpad) is great (except for the bump in it which sucks), has a great feel to it and movement is awesome.. much MUCH BETTER than the toshiba's again. this notebook just has a great "feel" to it while using it.
the wrist rests are great they have plenty of room overall i find them very comfortable to use..
performance as mine is configured (see sig) is pretty sweet runs everything now great.. the slowness i spoke of in the other thread imo was from nortons being installed (no offense but i cant stand nortons anyting not even a small little bit i use nod32 and i am beta testing eset ess internet security right now blows nortons out of the way) got rid of that and it runs great now i did nothing else to start with except uninstall nortons..
my vista score is a 4.9 as configured now (see sig).. ill get some shots later when i take pics for here.
it does offer a solid build and feel overall but imo there is better build quality out there.. i like it ill probably keep it if dell fixes the issues for me or sends me the stuff to fix it. not sure what to do with the display though.. the light bleeding thing is really annoying imo...
imo i would buy the toshiba or asus branded or other notebook next time. this will def do the job for me while i have it though butfor less money (because on configuration) the toshiba is way better built then this and my thinkpad (older one) is a tank compared to this..
weight is not bad at all.. actually weighs in less than the toshiba.. and is slimmer when closed.
be warned the t7500 generates a lot of heat from the side just so you know before ordering that one.. it gets pretty warm when on the lap..
i like the glossy display overall as well...it does somewhat hinder the viewing angle a bit though.. now dont read that the wrong way let me explain.. when viewed straght on the top is nice and dark and the bottom is very faded out sorta.. if i move the screen back away from me it becomes even in color/brightness all the way around but its totally not usable that way..if i did it again is probable get the anti glare or matte finish for this notebook..(all my other ones personal and business are glossy so this is the first is take the matte over glossy)
i can say its super fast as configured and runs pretty much anything. im throwing some flexisign, photoshop, and cad at it all at once and its is not blinking.. very impressive i can only run one of those with the toshiba at a time with the t2080.. any more and it bogs down..
they also screwed up in my favor though and put the "n" card in it instead of the 1390.. not sure why but i did the checking and its the intel n version.. hey whatever right??
i do wish i got the 1700 instead and that there was not so many small issues with it they bug me.. i guess for the deal these were i cant complain to much though no where and trust me ive looked could i get this or any brand configured as i did for anywhere near this price..
oh yeah and the packing was poor.. the unit was in a foam back but nothing was over the keys or screen.. every laptop ive ever bought had the keys and screen covered when i opened them.
thanks for the time.. any questions let me know and ill answer them.. ill post pics when i find the stinking camera the wife always "hides" on me..
okay some updates on my vostro 1500, not sure if im happy with it
Discussion in 'Dell' started by zfactor, Aug 10, 2007.
