Dell Inspiron 1520 review

[Pathik]

@infra for how much did ur sis get it?? does it also include a 8600m gt??
cos afaik the 1420 only has two options... either the x3100 onboard or a 8400m gs..
@gx making it 2gb ddr2 667 and a t7100 makes the price 65803/-..
*dellstoreroa01.sg.dell.com/public/cart/configurator.jsp?prd_id=41353&sr_no=4

 

[Ankur Gupta]

Specs look very good. Any idea how much the cost will increse if I change the CPU to something like 1.73 GHz C2D & RAM to 2 GB? If the cost remains under 1 lakh then this is an even better deal then MacBook Pro. Same hardware at much lower price.

P.S.- And someone said Macbook pro is not over priced

The price will come out around 65k...T7100 as the processor...

 

[Chirag]

In 1520 you would need to pay 9k extra for 2 gb ram and 23k for 4gb. Yea 23k, not a typo. 47k is the original price, so 47k + 7k(t7100 processor) + 3k(2gb ram) = 58k approx. Not bad..

BTW Dell lowered the price or what?? Coz when I chose mine, if I wanted 2 gb ram I had to pay 9k extra and 57k for 4gb. Yea not a typo. I had checked with bot Dell and HP and for 4gb cost was damn high. But now only 3k extra for 2 gb and 23k extra for 4 gb..

 

[gxsaurav]

In 1520 you would need to pay 9k extra for 2 gb ram and 57k for 4gb. Yea 57k, not a typo. 47k is the original price, so 47k + 7k(t7100 processor) + 9k(2gb ram) = 63k. Not bad..

Nah, all I m looking for is a laptop with 1.6 or 1.73 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 8400GT & 2 GB RAM as minimum. 1520 is more then enough.

 

[tarey_g]

@tarey (or Gaurav I suppose as GX called u by that name)

Where did u buy it from ?? Internet ? or from Local Dealer ??

Hi , My name is 'Gaurav Tarey' . I saw the config on internet, called the dell toll free number, they directed me towards sales representative who took care of the ordering thing. I just had to send the DD and the laptop arrived in 15 days.

 

[gxsaurav]

^^^^ quite easy. Now that we also have dell retail stores, this might be available here too...

Gaurav, u need a new camera. You blue laptop look black

cos afaik the 1420 only has two options... either the x3100 onboard or a 8400m gs..

If the only thing you need to do is to run OS & no gaming then X3100 is kick ass at really low power usage.

 

[tarey_g]

Congrats! It's a kick-ass laptop at a very good price in India. Could be termed as a poor-man's MacBook Pro. Considering the only thing the Inspiron 1520 lacks out is the faster processor. You won't require all that processing power for normal usage in a laptop anyways.

How is the screen and the viewing angles? Battery life of 3hrs on moderate usage is decent and on par with most other laptops with similar specs. If you tweak the power settings for CPU and 8600M GPU it can only get better. The battery life is very random. If you tweak it right and don't overload the system, it can last up to 4.5-5 hrs with casual browsing.

If possible, post a HDtune benchmark for the hdd. I configured my Inspiron 640m notebook with an 80GB 7200rpm hdd but was quite disappointed with its performance. How good is the 2MP webcam?

Dell's Complete Cover warranty is just great. I've gone in for 3-year standard warranty on my Dell laptop too

Yeah you are right , i was able to run the laptop on battery for 4:20 hrs on normal operation. The webcam is good and the software bundled for it has some cool features. I am dissapointed with the viewing angles of evey LCD screen after i saw the TN panel of my friends 24" dell displays (simply awesome), no laptop comes with TN panels (and they are damn costly ) .

Specs look very good. Any idea how much the cost will increse if I change the CPU to something like 1.73 GHz C2D & RAM to 2 GB? If the cost remains under 1 lakh then this is an even better deal then MacBook Pro. Same hardware at much lower price.

P.S.- And someone said Macbook pro is not over priced

Procesor upgrade to T7100 will cost you Rs 7261/- extra.

Chirag is right , the memory was previously insanely priced from dell , 57K for 4 GIG . I asked them if it was a typo and they said no (wtf). Anyways its cheaper now , but still i wont recommend buying extra ram from dell, still costly.

Even after making all the specs as the mac book pro the machine will still cost much much lower compared to it.

Edit : WTF!! upgrade to 2GB just is Rs 3112/- now , i am crying (baahhhhhh) , last time i chkd it was 9k . GX you will need 10K extra for that config 53+10= 63k

 

[Pathik]

@gx making it 2gb ddr2 667 and a t7100 makes the price 65803/-..

 

[Choto Cheeta]

Hi , My name is 'Gaurav Tarey' . I saw the config on internet, called the dell toll free number, they directed me towards sales representative who took care of the ordering thing. I just had to send the DD and the laptop arrived in 15 days.

I saw that there is a atleast 5k and (a lot more in higher models) price difference in any Dell / Lenovo / HP from their Web Site listing and from a local Retailing shop...

Problem is they are base models... so in the shop they cant tell u for sure, what kind of upgrade are available for the model...

Did u pay the exact price which was shown in the Web Page ?? or rather in ur case too prices were low comapre to the web page price??

 

[Pathik]

@ tarey and chirag and whoever took the 1520..
wich warranty or service option did u take??

 

[tarey_g]

Did u pay the exact price which was shown in the Web Page ?? or rather in ur case too prices were low comapre to the web page price??

No the price was not exact , but it was near to what i saw online . 53k was my last price, includes all taxes.

 

[Chirag]

@pathiks - 1 year limited. Wanted to go for 3 years complete cover but had to pay 8k extra.

@ashu - Thnx. I installed quickset and voila the popup window is back and detecting.

BTW gaurav in how many days u got? 15 working days or 15 total days??

 

[gxsaurav]

Edit : WTF!! upgrade to 2GB just is Rs 3112/- now , i am crying (baahhhhhh) , last time i chkd it was 9k . GX you will need 10K extra for that config 53+10= 63k

Doob mar....

Where are you guys configuring it? I checked dell.com site but there was no option to customise it there. link plz?

I found that you can configure this with a GeForce 8400GT too, well even that is good enough with dedicated RAM & Vista. Might lower the costs further

So my preference would be something like

1. 73 GHz CPU Core 2 Duo
2 GB RAM, if it is costly then I will buy 512 MB RAM & buy 3rd party 2X1 GB RAM sticks.
GeForce 8400GT, X3100 is good for low power usage, but due to shared memory usage, without 2 GB it won't cut it to run Vista.
Rest is normal....15" is good enough.

Link to where u guys are configuring it. plz. The link pathiks gave gives error here due to no cookies.

 

[tarey_g]

@ tarey and chirag and whoever took the 1520..
wich warranty or service option did u take??

i have taken default 1 yr warranty , although it can be extended and it will be worth coz their cust support is awesome . just got a call from dell, they are sending a representative to chk if the laptop shipped correctly in one piece and if everything is working as it is supposed to be.

Doob mar....

Where are you guys configuring it? I checked dell.com site but there was no option to customise it there. link plz?

*www1.ap.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/notebooks?c=in&cs=inbsd1&l=en&s=bsd

here ,go on the 1520 and hit the green customize button

 

[gxsaurav]

Found the link to customize Dell 1520

1 year warrenty is good enough. If it is not laptop hardware problem, then I don't require any technician. Also, local market technicians rock

This thing is even better then MacBook Pro at far lower cost. Somebody should show Salesman this thread . I might end up buying the Pink one, due to my softer side

 

[Chirag]

@tarey - They came to my house yesterday

Lol the prices increased or what??? The config I got for 56k is now for 62k. Tsk tsk.

 

[tarey_g]

BTW gaurav in how many days u got? 15 working days or 15 total days??

15 working days , 18 total days

 

[Chirag]

Oh lucky you. Mine took 23 days total. Got stuck in custom grrr.

 

[gxsaurav]

I will ask the toll free number whether I can skip the OS. I already got 1 Vista ultimate license to use, along with Home Preimum too....so why buy an OS from dell.

 

[Chirag]

^^
I don't think you can. I asked them ki could u install XP or no OS?? They said Vista is fixed..