Dell Vostro 1500 laptop review
The Dell Vostro 1500 is the equivalent of small business in the Inspiron 1520. This team, from less than $ 600 can be configured with anywhere from a Celeron M540 processor to a faster Core 2 Duo 7500. Unlike the Inspiron model, an AMD option is not available.
Setting:? (Total: U.S. $ 877)
- Intel Core 2 Duo T5470 (1.6GHz)
- 1GB 677Mhz DDR2 SDRAM
- 120G 5400 RPM hard drive
- nVidia GeForce 8600M GT, 256 MB
- 8x DVD Burner with double layer capacity
- 15.4 "widescreen anti-glare screen (1280×800)
- Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate)
- Dell Wireless 1505 Mini-Card (pre-802.11n)
- 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
- Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic
Note: Since this machine was purchased, Dell has raised the price of this equipment.
Upon unpacking the Vostro 1500 and the first of its handling, I was more impressed by the build. When collecting the system, it is clear that the team is very resilient and will be maintained over time. Unfortunately, the side effect of this quality of construction is the weight and size. This machine is a beast. I can make a note of surrender to the people and see their reaction. Everyone is shocked by the sheer weight of this machine.
Build / Design
The design of this system is rather spartan, but also very professional with solid black style. It is not flashy as a Portable high-end games would be, but does not look bad to my eyes. The LEDs have a good blue color saturation, but was inconsistent in style. Several lights, including the LED battery level, the CD drive LED, Dell Vostro 1500 battery and Wi-Fi Catcher "LED are green. In addition, the low battery light is an odd shade of hot pink, which fits with nothing else in the system. While this is not a concern Major functional, I would have preferred the colors to be more consistent. I do not like the color pink to the battery light turns when the battery is low.
The construction of this system, as noted above, is very good. The back of the screen and the merits of the case appears to be an alloy fairly thick magnesium that is solid but has the side effect of adding much weight. My configuration, without battery is 6.2 pounds. The battery is 1.1 pounds, as is the charger. In total, the system carries the weight is 8.4 pounds. Obviously, this equipment is not designed to move very far. When pushed around cover, the only places that occurred in the main areas of the palm rest, and only a little. The keyboard does not have to discernible. I was disappointed, as I was with the Inspiron 1501 battery VGP-bps8 , with the release button Express card. In the off position, it is extremely difficult to push back for those of us with stubby fingers.
The construction of the screen is a not so good like the rest of the notebook. Neither twisting nor pushing on the back of the screen yielded any rippling. However, the screen itself is relatively easy to twist, and squeals when twisted. By clicking on the top of the screen yields only a small amount of wobble, but not enough to be a problem in my opinion. As noted in reviews of the Inspiron 1520/1521, the screen latches leave a small amount of space between the rubber pads on the screen and the palm rest, approximately the thickness of a dime. This is enough to move a little and make some noise if it is closed and pushed suffer.
Display:
The display in the Vostro 1500 is relatively common. I opted for the anti-glare 1280×800, 15.4 "resolution model. The vertical field of view on this screen can be described as the best of the poor, and often find myself adjusting the tilt of the screen to match the way I'm sitting. The horizontal field of view is considerably better than vertical, and I have no complaints. Even looking closely at the screen, I am unable to distinguish the sound of "Dell", which some critics have described others. It I do not mind, however, is the ability of this screen to attract dust. Cleaning the screen is an ordeal that must be done frequently to remove dust the screen. I do not know if the glossy screen would improve or not.
Defense on the screen is quite bright when put on full brightness, and colors seem adequately saturated and accurate to my eye. The light leaks are relatively minor on this computer and are only detectable on a completely black screen, and only in the top and bottom.
Speakers:
As expected from most laptops in this price range, speakers are nothing spectacular. There is an excess of sound in the range of 4 K, and not enough on the low-end range, causing very metallic sounding speakers. I would recommend using an equalizer if you want to listen to music on this computer. For example, the following screenshot shows my iTunes EQ settings. Fortunately, these speakers get strong enough, and because of the position at the bottom of the computer, do not get muffled by hands.
PCMark 2005 is a synthetic benchmark that tests from all areas of system performance. The Vostro 1500 was, however, could not complete this test. I'm not sure why, but it seemed worthy of note.
Unfortunately, the population of 5400 RPM hard drive does not always cut it. Since we now use this computer as my standard play equipment, games I've uploaded it. As I have found is that with some games, Battlefield 2, in particular, the hard drive loads everything slowly enough that by the time I loaded the game, the game is about end. If you intend to use this equipment for the game and have the money, spend the extra on the 7200RPM hard drive.? If you intend to use it only for applications less intensive hard drive, 5400RPM drive will be fine.
HD Tune is a basic reference point of the hard disk that tests the bit rate and speed hard disk access. Obviously, this hard drive does not provide the results achieved, and the transfer rate is the same.
Keyboard and Touchpad:
The keyboard and touchpad of the Vostro 1500 Battery Lenovo V100 are both very robust and without bending. The keyboard, as with all laptop keyboards, making some adjustments to find the unique position of the keys. I am a big fan of how Dell keyboard layout of this machine. The function key, as shown in pictures, is placed just to the right of the control key and is the same size as the Windows key (Sometimes I pressed the Windows key instead of the function key). The delete key is located on the upper right corner, and is probably the most natural place you can go. It's out of the way enough not to be accidental, and is easy to find.? The function keys are fairly standard, and include F1 for sleep / Hibernate, F3 for battery status (which requires installing the Dell software to operate), F8 to switch monitors and / down arrow keys for monitor brightness. A complaint I have is that not only requires numlock keypad to be, but the function key must be pressed for the use thereof. I also had a stop key works correctly for a while. I'll explain in the section on customer service.
The touchpad is not as good as the keyboard. Dell opted to lower the keyboard in this line of computers, which, while making it more attractive and better designed, significantly reduces the vertical touchpad. In my own opinion measures, 3 "wide by 1.5" tall – certainly useful, but too short for my taste. The areas of displacement at the top and bottom are also difficult correctly set using the software, and often have problems to make activated independently of its configuration. Large users hand care: I often find the edge of the palm of my hand rests or a tap on the touchpad sometimes causing clicks in the which were not anticipated. The large buttons below the touchpad are appropriate size, and although they are soft as older Inspiron computers. There is, satisfying click as with some touchpad buttons.
Ports Input and output:
This equipment includes a series of ports, though surprisingly it lacks a DVI port, as can be expected. The VGA port is located on the right side of the system. Dell designed this system to have four USB 2.0 ports, two on the next turn to the plug, and two on the side next to the Ethernet port. Also there is one IEEE 1394 (FireWire) on the same side as the VGA plug, 10/100 Ethernet port, and the CD. The system also has an 8-in-1 memory card reader, which can read: SD, xD, MMC, SDIO, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, Hi Speed-SD, SD and HD. In contrast to the widely used right side, the left side of the box has with few ports. There is a microphone jack, a headphone / speaker jack, and an Express Card slot. The rear end also is widely used, with nothing the power input, S-Video output (notably also supporting several adapters Dell will sell for component video, etc.), and two USB ports I noted before.
Wireless:
I opted for my computer to use the Dell Wireless 1505, which offers pre-N functionality. Wireless Range this card is fairly average, and connects to most networks with ease. However, it is important to note that this card does not communicate with all wireless routers without a fight. My recommendation, for compatibility, is the Intel wireless card instead of Dell's wireless network. It seems to be more compatible according to what I have read (the low-end cards Dell also seem to have the same connection problems). I, however, like the wireless switch on the left side the notebook. This switch allows control (configurable via the Dell software in Windows or through the BIOS) internal wireless card system including, if installed, Bluetooth, 802.11x, and any WWAN card. This switch has three options: on, off, and a third switch, momentary called "Wi-Fi Catcher." This technology, if used while the system is off, turn on a small green LED if it detects a wireless network in the range of the network for about five seconds. If used within Windows when the Dell software is installed, a window immediately appears with all wireless networks within range. If it sounds pointless, considering a similar feature is available through Windows, Wi-Fi Catcher is considerably fast.
Battery:
I opted for the duration of the extended 9-cell battery in the notebook. This battery extends about three quarters of an inch past the edge of the computer, and spans almost the entire back. In the bottom of the battery are 5 LEDs and a button that, if pushed, illuminates the LEDs to indicate battery charge remaining (20% by the LED). I tested the battery life by instructing the computer in standby mode when the battery gets to 2% and does not close anything on inactivity. The maximum brightness, while connected to a wireless access point and watching a DVD, I know squeeze 3 hours and 20 minutes off the battery before it abruptly went into standby mode. This seems adequate for most purposes, and probably less power consumption (Word processing on screen brightness low without wireless, for example) would yield above four hours, an amount reasonable time for a desktop replacement machine. Not expected to be a road warrior. If you need extra battery life, Dell offers a battery replacing the optical drive.
Operating Systems & Software:
The Dell Vostro 1500 comes with two discs: one to return to reinstall the Dell MediaDirect and the other is a driver CD, including both XP and Vista drivers. There is no disk to reinstall the operating system included, but much to my regret. The Dell MediaDirect install disk appears to be only for Vista, if Vista is the operating system chosen. More on this in a moment.
My system came preconfigured with Windows Vista Home Basic. After a day with Vista, I decided I preferred Windows XP, and quickly began to install the older operating the system. This process, which in the past has been about an hour, took 10 hours to do so. My attempts were plagued by the Dell MediaDirect software. MediaDirect for those not familiar, is a fast boot Linux operating system accessed through a small home 'button near the power button. It allows one to watch movies, read documents, listen to music, view photos, and a few other things. In accordance with the instructions that come with the disc, the disc MediaDirect be installed first, then the operating system will be installed in the empty partition MediaDirect leaves. I did this. Several times. As a result, Dell had no intention to leave a downslide. When I tried invoking MediaDirect, the first few times it was not installed correctly. When he finally did, it was built then I said I could not access the information on your hard disk. When you restart the system, it became apparent that MediaDirect was going to be a problem. It was through his "can not be accessed hard drive "routine again, I was stuck at the windows. Over time, my solution was to install Windows without MediaDirect and simply not press the MediaDirect button.
The software on the Vostro is surprisingly free of bloatware, as announced on the website. I asked my system without security software, and came to exactly as I wanted: a clean slate. This was a welcome relief after some systems I've worked with that take hours to uninstall the software.
The Dell configuration software is relatively spartan and pales in comparison to the configuration software available in systems manufactured by other companies, particularly Toshiba. There are a few power setting options, a configuration tool for Wi-Fi Catcher, some adjustments of the display base, and that is all that is included. There is no option to slow the CPU to improve battery life that was visible to me.
Customer service:
Several weeks after receiving the laptop, the 'a' key on the keyboard began dropping keypresses seemingly randomly. I got in Contact Dell technical support on a Sunday afternoon with my problem. They asked for an address and the morning of Tuesday, the new keyboard was at my door. It was a self-install keyboard that was easy because the instructions in the manual material. When I finished, I put on my old keyboard in the box that was sent to me and use the return label including sending the old keyboard to Dell. (If not, they will invoice for the replacement keyboard).
The note of the manual is impressive by the standards current. It is 222 pages long and covers everything a basic user probably will need. In the second half of the book is reduced service manual, including how remove and install the hard disk, memory, keyboard and wireless cards. For me, having the hard copy was a nice touch.
Conclusion:
He is a moderately potent and relatively inexpensive system for businesses and home users. Its good quality construction and good choices allow configuration is an excellent and versatile machine for many different applications. Despite some design flaws, the Vostro 1500 is still a machine excellent.
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