First Review: DELL Vostro 1500 0
It’s black, all black, I like it that way:
First review is from Notebook review:
Dell Vostro 1500 Review
The Dell Vostro 1500 is the small business equivalent of the Inspiron 1520. This computer, starting at less than $600, can be configured with anywhere from a Celeron M540 processor to a much faster Core 2 Duo 7500. Unlike the Inspiron model, an AMD option is unavailable.
Configuration: (Total: $877)
- Intel Core 2 Duo T5470 (1.6Ghz)
- 1GB 677Mhz DDR2 SDRAM
- 120G 5400RPM Hard Drive
- nVidia GeForce 8600M GT, 256MB
- 8x DVD Burner with Double Layer capability
- 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 increased the price of this computer.
First Impressions
Dell Vostro 1500 (view large image)
Upon unpacking the Vostro 1500 and first handling it, I was rather impressed by the build. Upon picking up the system, it’s clear the computer is very sturdy and will hold up over time. Unfortunately, the side effect of this build quality is the heaviness and size. This machine is a beast. I make a note of handing it to people and watching 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 the solid black styling. It’s not flashy like a high-end gaming laptop would be, but it doesn’t look bad to my eyes. The LEDs have a nice saturated blue color, though Dell was inconsistent in the styling. Several lights, including the battery level LEDs, the CD drive LED, and the “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 by no means a major functional concern, I would have preferred the colors to be more consistent. I also dislike the hot pink color the battery light turns when the battery reaches a low level.
The build of this system, as noted above, is very good. The back of the screen and bottom of the case appear to be a fairly thick magnesium alloy, which is solid, but has the side effect of adding a lot of weight. My configuration, without the battery, is 6.2 pounds. The battery is 1.1 pounds, as is the charger. In total, the system carrying weight is 8.4 pounds. Clearly, this computer is not designed to move very far. When I pushed around the casing, the only places that gave were in the largest areas of the palm rest, and then only a little bit. The keyboard has no discernable give. I was disappointed, as I was with the Inspiron 1501, with the Express Card release button. In the out position, it’s extremely difficult to push back in for those of us with chubby fingers.
The build of the screen is a not quite as good as 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 squeaks when twisted. Pushing on the top of the screen yields only a small amount of wobbling, but not enough to be a problem in my opinion. As noted in reviews of the Inspiron 1520/1521, the screen latches leave a slight amount of room between the rubber pads on the screen and the palm rests, about the thickness of a dime. This is enough to wiggle a bit and make some noise if it’s closed and it gets jostled.
Right side
The right side of the case features the DVD burner, Firewire, two USB ports, the memory card reader, and Ethernet.
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Left Side
The left side of the case includes the wireless card switch, as well as the audio plugs and the ExpressCard slot.
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Back
The back of the case has the modem, the power plug, two USB ports, and an S-Video plug.
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Front
The buttons on the front are the media control buttons, which are mute, volume up, volume down, pause/play, skip backward, skip forward, and stop. Also on the front is the infrared window (receive only).
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Screen:
The screen on the Vostro 1500 is relatively ordinary. I opted for the anti-glare 1280×800, 15.4” resolution model. The vertical field of view on this screen can be described as poor at best, and I frequently find myself adjusting the tilt of the screen to match the way I’m sitting. The horizontal field of view is considerably better than the vertical, and I have no complaints. Even looking closely at the screen, I am unable to distinguish the “Dell noise” that some other reviewers have described. What does bother me, however, is this screen’s ability to attract dust. Cleaning the screen is an ordeal that has to be done frequently to remove the dust from the screen. I do not know if the glossy screen would improve this or not.
In the screen’s defense, it is rather 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 noticeable on a completely black screen, and then only on the top and bottom.
Speakers:
As can be expected of most laptops in this price range, the speakers are nothing spectacular. There is an excess of sound in the 4K range, and not nearly enough in the lower-end range, causing very tinny sounding speakers. I would recommend using an equalizer if you intend to listen to music on this computer. As an example, the following screenshot shows my iTunes EQ settings. Fortunately, these speakers do get rather loud, and due to the position on the underside of the computer, they don’t get muffled by hands.
Processor, Performance, and Benchmarks:
The Core 2 Duo processor is, simply put, awesome. The T5470 that was configured in my system was the slowest processor available in the Core 2 Duo variety, but it still performs tasks with great ease. When multi-tasking, the dual-core functionality of the system really shows what it’s capable of. Having run single-core processors up until this computer, the difference is amazing. It’s possible to do CPU-intensive tasks and still have a perfectly responsive computer at the same time, which is a welcome relief.
Super Pi is an application that calculates Pi to 2 million digits of accuracy and reports the time it took to perform the calculation. The time on the T5470 was 1 minute 16 seconds with no applications running, and 1 minute 27 seconds while watching a DVD in Windows Media Player.
| Notebook | Time |
| Dell Vostro 1500 (Intel T5470 1.60GHz) | 1m 16s |
| ThinkPad X61s (1.6GHz Core 2 Duo L7500) | 1m 08s |
| ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7300) | 1m 01s |
| MacBook Pro (2.4GHz Core 2 Duo T7700) | 53s |
| HP 6515b (1.6GHz Turion64 X2 TL-52) | 2m 05s |
| ThinkPad T42 (1.8GHz Pentium M 745) | 1m 58s |
| Sony TX850p (1.2GHz Core Solo U1400) | 1m 22s |
| ThinkPad R60 (1.66GHz Core Duo T2300e) | 1m 26s |
| Lenovo C100 (1.5GHz Celeron M) | 2m 19s |
| VAIO S380 (1.86 GHz Pentium M 740) | 1m 45s |
PCMark 2005 is a synthetic benchmark that tests all areas of system performance. The Vostro 1500 was, however, unable to complete this test. I am uncertain why, but it seemed worthy of note.
Unfortunately, the stock 5400RPM hard drive doesn’t always cut it. Since I now use this computer as my standard gaming computer, I’ve loaded games onto it. What I’ve discovered is that with some games, Battlefield 2 in particular, the hard drive loads everything slowly enough that by the time I have loaded the game, the match is half over. If you’re intending to use this computer for gaming and you have the money, spend the extra on the 7200RPM hard drive. If you intend to use it solely for less hard drive-intensive applications, the 5400RPM drive will be fine.
HD Tune is a basic hard drive benchmark that tests the transfer rate and access speed of the hard drive. As is evident, this hard drive sets no performance records, and the transfer rate is inconsistent.
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The graphics card, the 8600M GT, in this computer configuration has been no less than spectacular thus far. Among the games I own, I was unable to find one that I could not run at full graphical settings acceptably.
3DMark 2006 is a synthetic graphics benchmark that is designed to take advantage of the latest and greatest in graphics technology. The 8600M GT performs well for this price range, at 3319 3DMarks.
3DMark06 comparison results:
| Notebook | 3DMark06 Score |
| Dell Vostro 1500 (1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5470, Nvidia Go 8600M GT) | 3,319 3DMarks |
| Dell Inspiron 1720 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8600M GT) | 2,930 3DMarks |
| Dell Inspiron 1420 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB) | 1,329 3DMarks |
| Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100) | 532 3DMarks |
| Asus F3sv-A1 (Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0GHz, Nvidia 8600M GS 256MB) | 2,344 3DMarks |
| Alienware Area 51 m5550 (2.33GHz Core 2 Duo, nVidia GeForce Go 7600 256MB | 2,183 3DMarks |
| Samsung X60plus (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7200, ATI X1700 256MB) | 1,831 3DMarks |
| HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400) | 827 3DMarks |
| Sony VAIO SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400) | 794 3DMarks |
| Samsung R20 (1.73GHz T2250 and ATI 1250M chipset / GPU) | 476 3DMarks |
Optical drive performance was not what I would consider spectacular. The DVD burner drive appears to be capable of reading and writing at a maximum of 24x for CDs, and is capable of burning DVDs at 8x. Nero InfoTool shows the drive’s capabilities:
Running Nero CD-DVD Speed on an audio CD reveals the drive’s lackluster speed:
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Heat and Noise:
The Dell Vostro 1500 produces an ungodly amount of heat if you run processor or video-card intensive programs. While the system manages to keep itself cool enough to continue operating, it can get almost uncomfortable to leave this computer on your lap while playing games or running processor-heavy applications. The areas I noted that get the hottest are noted below.
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While it does get hot, this computer never gets noisy. The whir of the hard drive and fans remains whisper-quiet even when the fan is on full blast. I often keep the system on overnight because I can hear no difference between having it on and having it off.
Keyboard and Touchpad:
The keyboard and touchpad of the Vostro 1500 are both very sturdy and without flex. The keyboard, as with all laptop keyboards, takes some adjustment to learn the unique positioning of the keys. I am a huge fan of the way Dell laid out this machine’s keyboard. The function key, as seen in pictures, is placed just to the right of the control key, and is the same size as the Windows key (I have on occasion pressed the Windows key instead of the function key). The delete key is positioned in the upper right corner, and it’s probably the most natural spot it can go. It’s out of the way enough not to be accidental, and it’s easy to find. Function keys are fairly standard, and include F1 for sleep/hibernate, F3 for battery status (Which requires installed Dell software to operate), F8 to switch monitors, and the up/down arrow keys for monitor brightness. One gripe I have is that the numpad not only requires numlock to be on, but the function key must also be held down while using it. I also had a key stop working properly for a while. I will explain in the customer support section.
The touchpad is not as good as the keyboard. Dell chose to move down the keyboard in this line of computers, which, while it makes it more attractive and better laid out, shrinks the touchpad significantly vertically. By my own measurements, it’s 3” wide by 1.5” tall — certainly usable, but far too short for my tastes. The scroll zones at the top and bottom are also difficult to adjust properly using software, and I frequently have trouble getting them to activate regardless of their setting. Large-handed users beware: I often find the edge of my palm rests or taps the touchpad on occasion, causing clicks where they weren’t intended. The large buttons placed below the touch pad are suitably sized, though they are mushy as with the older Inspiron computers. There’s no satisfying click as there is with some touchpad buttons.
Input and Output Ports:
This computer features a host of ports, though surprisingly it lacks a DVI-out port as may be expected. The VGA port is located on the right hand side of the system. Dell designed this system to have 4 USB 2.0 ports, two on the back next to the power plug, and two on the side next to the Ethernet port. Also featured are an IEEE 1394 (Firewire) port on the same side as the VGA plug, 10/100 Ethernet port, and the CD drive. 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, and Hi Density-SD. In contrast to the heavily utilized right side, the left side of the case features few ports. There is a microphone jack, a headphone/speaker jack, and an Express Card slot. The back is also fairly unused, with nothing but the power input, an S-Video output (notably also supporting several adapters Dell will sell you for component video and the like), and the two USB ports I noted earlier.
Wireless:
I opted for my computer to use the Dell Wireless 1505, which features pre-N functionality. The wireless range on this card is fairly average, and it connects to most networks with ease. However, it’s 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 the Dell wireless. It seems to be more compatible according to what I have read (the lower-end Dell cards also seem to have the same connection problems). I do, however, like the wireless switch on the left-hand side of the notebook. This switch allows control (configurable via the Dell software in Windows or through the BIOS) of the system’s internal wireless cards, including, if installed, Bluetooth, 802.11X, and any WWAN cards. This switch has three options: On, off, and a third, momentary switch, dubbed “Wi-fi Catcher.” This technology, if used while the system is off, will turn a small LED green if a wireless network is detected in range of the system within around five seconds. If used from within Windows when the Dell software is installed, a window will instantly pop up with all the wireless networks in range. While it sounds pointless, considering a similar feature is available through Windows, the Wi-Fi Catcher is considerably faster.
Battery:
I opted for the 9-cell extended life battery on the notebook. This battery extends about three-fourths of an inch past the edge of the computer, and spans nearly the entire back. On the underside of the battery are 5 LEDs and a button which, if pushed, illuminates the LEDs to indicate battery charge remaining (20% per LED). I tested the battery life by instructing the computer to standby when the battery got to 2% and to not shut down anything on inactivity. On full brightness, while connected to a wireless access point and watching a DVD, I managed to squeeze 3 hours and 20 minutes out of the battery before it abruptly went into standby. This seems adequate for most purposes, and it is likely that with lower power consumption (Word processing on low screen brightness with no wireless, for example) would yield above four hours, a reasonable amount of time for a desktop replacement machine. Don’t expect it to be a road warrior. If you need the extra battery life, Dell offers a battery that replaces the optical drive.
Operating System and Software:
The Dell Vostro 1500 comes with only two CDs: One to reinstall the Dell MediaDirect feature and the other is a driver CD, including both XP and Vista drivers. No operating system reinstall disk is included, much to my dismay. The Dell MediaDirect install disk appears to be only for Vista, if Vista was the chosen operating system. 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 promptly began to install the older operating system. This process, which in the past has taken around an hour, took 10 hours to do. My attempts were plagued by the Dell MediaDirect software. MediaDirect, for those not familiar, is a quick-booting Linux operating system accessed using a small ‘home’ button near the power button. It allows one to watch movies, read documents, listen to music, look at pictures, and a few other things. According to the instructions packaged with the disk, the MediaDirect disk is to be installed first, then the operating system is to be installed in the empty partition MediaDirect leaves. I did this. Several times. As it turns out, Dell did not intend to leave a downgrade path. When I tried invoking MediaDirect, the first few times it didn’t install properly. When it finally did, it set itself up then told me it couldn’t access the information on the hard drive. Upon restarting the system, it became apparent that MediaDirect was going to be a problem. It went through its “unable to access the hard drive” routine again- I was stuck out of Windows. Eventually, 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 is advertised on the Dell website. I requested my system without security software, and it came exactly as I wanted it: A clean slate. This was a very welcome relief after some systems I’ve worked with that take hours to uninstall the bundled software.
The Dell configuration software is relatively spartan and pales in comparison to the configuration software available in systems manufactured by some other companies, particularly Toshiba. There are a few power setting options, a configuration tool for the Wi-Fi Catcher, some basic screen settings, and that’s all that’s included. There is no option to slow down the CPU to improve battery life that was visible to me.
Customer Support:
Several weeks after receiving the laptop, the ‘a’ key on the keyboard began dropping keypresses seemingly randomly. I contacted Dell technical support on a Sunday evening with my problem. They asked for an address and by Tuesday morning, the new keyboard was at my doorstep. It was a self-install keyboard, which was easy due to the instructions in the substantial manual. When I was done, I put the old keyboard back in the box that was shipped to me and used the included return label to ship the old keyboard to Dell. (If you don’t do this, they invoice you for the replacement keyboard).
On the note of the manual, it is impressive by today’s standards. It’s 222 pages long and covers everything that a basic user could likely need. In the second half of the book is the shortened service manual, which includes how to remove and install the hard drive, memory, keyboard, and wireless cards. For me, having the printed copy was a nice touch.
Conclusion:
The Dell Vostro 1500 is a moderately powerful and relatively inexpensive system for businesses and home users alike. Its good build quality and good configuration options allow it to be an excellent and versatile machine for many different applications. Despite some design flaws, the Vostro 1500 is still an excellent machine.
Pros:
- Tough construction
- Many configuration options
- XP available preinstalled
- Good keyboard
- Quiet
- Comprehensive manual
- Fast support
Cons:
- Heavy!
- Mediocre screen
- Tinny speakers
- Slow hard drive
- Picky wireless card
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Second review from YOUTUBE:
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Third Review from: Raydbomb.com
Introduction
I sold my previous laptop, a Dell Inspiron 700m 12″ notebook, and shortly after I purchased a Dell Vostro 1500 15″ notebook. I’ve had it for a month and a half now, long enough to make a balanced review.
Click to see my hi-res Flickr photoset of the Dell Vostro 1500
Build Specifications
I purchased the laptop as a default build, with the exception of the screen, warranty and graphics card. The specs were:
- Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5470 (1.6GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
- Genuine Windows® XP Home
- 15.4 in Wide Screen SXGA+LCD (1680×1050) Display w/TrueLife™ — Default is the 1280×800
- 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 DIMM
- 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600M GT — Default is the 8400
- 120G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
- Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
- 8X CD/DVD Burner w/ double-layer DVD+R write capability
- High Definition Audio 2.0
- Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Wi-Fi Mini Card
- 56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
- Get $70 Dell Dollars w/3Yr Ltd Warranty and Next Business Day On-Site Svc — Default is 1 year
Final price: $968.00, with free next day delivery. Shortly after I ordered, Dell was giving away free webcams on the LCD, but my order was too late. Subsequently, they gave me a $50 voucher for the difference. That effectively made the final price $918.00.
As soon as I found a deal, I bought a 2×1GB Memory upgrade, “Patriot 2GB (2×1GB) PC2-5300 DDR2 667MHz CL5 200-Pin SO-DIMM”. Aftermarket RAM is always going to be cheaper than ordering it preconfigured with the notebook. I installed the memory via a guide I found, it was easy, took about 20 minutes from powering the laptop down with 1GB to powering it up with 2GB of RAM. Final price including the RAM upgrade: $972.00.
It’s hard to go from a 12″ to a 15″ notebook, but not nearly as hard as it was to go from a 15″ to a 12″ notebook. The hardest things for me to get used to were the new key sizes and the new key placements on the keyboard. The graphics on my 12″ were very sub-par, so comparatively this laptop performs exceedingly well.
Gaming
So far this laptop has played every game I put on it flawlessly, at full settings. I’ve yet to bring it to a LAN party, but given that it’s more powerful than my desktop in every way, I doubt I will be using the desktop for gaming “because my laptop can’t handle it” anymore. The games I play most often on my PC are
- Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne custom map Defense of the Ancients: Allstars
- Counter-strike: Source
Admittedly not the most impressive game repertoire, but that will change in time.
I was able to adjust the settings to max for every option on Counter-strike: Source. I could notice a slight lag, but I was still getting 40fps easily.
A few times inside of a game, I’ve had my graphics driver fail, which either causes the system to lockup, or revert graphics to 800×600×16 and not allow correction until reboot. This happens so rarely I won’t really know that it’s fixed. I’ve had the same issue on other systems, other graphics cards, other drivers. I’m certain that there will be an updated graphics driver that will fix it and not mention anything about it in the changelog, so it’s almost not even worth mentioning.
Appearance
The Vostro 1500 has a sleak brushed-looking black Magnesium-alloy chassis. This makes it more rigid looking and feeling than the previous plastic chassis of the Inspirons. Unfortunately, this makes the case very sensitive to fingerprint markings, as can be seen in this picture:
No, I didn’t just eat some greasy potato chips and plant my fingers all over this before taking the picture. It’s overly sensitive and shows its markings. This might be a turn-off to some people, not to me.
The latch that holds the lid closed is very cheap and flimsy feeling, and doesn’t come to a snug close. I’ve heard stories of people breaking this off already, and I’m sure (ironically) that it’s not a cheap replacement. Once the lid is closed, there’s a fraction of a millimeter between the screen and the keyboard, just enough so that pressure upon the back of the screen will make it feel like it’s moving toward and away from the keyboard. That’s a little nerveracking, and I feel it detracts quite heavily from the quality of the notebook.
It feels like the hinge that connects the screen to the base is too tight, it’s impossible for me to open the screen from closed position with one hand. This is just a minor annoyance, but it’s constant. Every time I have to put down something in hand #2 to help hand #1 open the screen, I get just a little bit more annoyed at the notebook.
There are some obvious draws to the default specs of the Vostro. It is pretty thick and heavy, and the battery life is less than optimal compared to some other notebooks in its class. I don’t mind it, in fact I prefer it. I’ve had a portable laptop in the past, and frankly I find more use to a decently priced desktop replacement. I guess what I’m trying to say, is if I could get away from paying extra for a lighter, longer-charged, thinner notebook, I would…, and I did. That being said, I was still able to get almost 2 hours of battery life with casual use — more than I’d need.
Administrativa
One of the selling points of the laptop is that it doesn’t come prebundled with Dell’s bloatware. The bloatware never really affected me too much. I ordered the Vostro with Windows XP Home, because I have my student license of Windows XP Pro with which I planned to wipe the hard drive as soon as I received the laptop. I did just that, and found the drivers from Dell’s Vostro 1500 driver page without any problems; every device worked. At some point in the past month and a half, Dell decided to no longer host the Windows XP drivers for the Vostro 1500, now you can only select “Windows Vista 32-bit” as your Operating System. Now this is not to say the drivers they have listed won’t work with Windows XP, it just means that they’re working toward no longer supporting XP on the 1500. This is very discouraging, considering I don’t have a student license of Windows Vista :). As of Oct-12th, Windows XP is available again. It must have just been a temporary outage.
Two or three times since I’ve received the laptop, I would get weird BIOS messages, saying something to the effect that “the battery is not found or not supported.” I wish I would have captured this image to find out more about what it means, but since pressing F3 to ignore has been working, I’ve been content with that thus far. Next time I get it, I’ll be sure to capture it and followup with that error message.
Conclusion
This is only the second laptop I’ve owned or used very heavily, the first being my Dell Inspiron 700m. I’m very impressed with the power of the unit, Dell has made it very customizable and upgradable. There are quite a few shortcomings, this is really Dell’s first shot at a Magnesium-alloy chassis. However, I applaud their efforts, and I couldn’t be happier with the result.
Score: 9.0/10
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Fourth from PCMAG.COM
What do you get when you strip a Dell Inspiron laptop of its colors, remove all the trial software, and add a full range of support services for small businesses? You get a Dell Vostro, of course. The Dell Vostro 1500 ($1,282 direct) is a laptop that caters to business environments with less than 25 employees. It’s a little on the heavy side, but overall, you get quality features and premium processing parts for a price that even Inspiron lovers can love.
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Everything about the Vostro 1500 is reminiscent of the Inspiron line, with the exception of the black-clad frame. It’s obvious that Dell instructed the design squad to make the Vostro line as bland and conservative as possible, to meet the expectations of serious business users. Luckily, only the color scheme was sacrificed. The 1500 is a desktop-replacement laptop with a 15.4-inch glossy widescreen and a back-straining 7.3-pound chassis; alternatively, Dell offers a 14-inch model that relieves some of the weight. The keyboard is just like the one found on the Inspiron models—comfortable and very responsive. I’m also a huge fan of the quiet mouse buttons.
Just because this is a small-business system doesn’t mean you lose out on multimedia features. The standard features include four USB ports, a FireWire port, VGA-Out and S-Video out. A four-in-one card reader (SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro) lets you transfer images from your digital camera. The Vostro 1500 comes standard with a dual-layer DVD burner and an ExpressCard slot, and you can select a variety of optional features, including a 2-megapixel webcam for videoconferencing. Ordering a cellular modem results in an extra one-time charge, and you have three carriers to choose from: Verizon (EV-DO Rev A, $150), Sprint (EV-DO Rev A, $150), and AT&T (HSDPA, $180). The modem lets you access the respective carrier’s broadband networks wherever you can find a cell phone signal, but it’s a costly upgrade.
Of course, there are features—or rather, services—that define the Vostro line. First, you have the option of removing all unnecessary third-party software, whether it’s trial software from Norton and McAfee or EarthLink ads trying to sell you a DSL connection (this option is offered across all of Dell’s systems). In addition, Dell throws in a one-year subscription to DataSafe and 10GB of storage space through its DataSafe Web service. If your company doesn’t have an IT department, Dell can get you up and running, via its 24/7 phone-based service, guiding you through tasks ranging from removing viruses and spyware to solving simple networking problems. But if your company has a more complex, enterprise-style setup, such as running on a domain or via complex switches and firewalls, you’re out of luck. Dell troubleshoots only simple networking problems.
You won’t be disappointed with performance, because the Vostro 1500 loads a 2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 CPU and 2GB of RAM. This configuration is good for any operating system, including all the flavors of Windows Vista. SYSmark 2007 Preview scores were higher than those of the HP Compaq 6910p, an enterprise laptop. Scores even surpassed those of its enterprise sibling, the Dell Latitude D630. My review unit came with the nVidia GeForce 8400M GS graphics card, an ideal option if your work entails intensive 3D applications. (You can opt for integrated graphics to maximize battery life.) There are two options for batteries–six-cell and eight-cell–though I suggest the eight-cell battery that came with my unit, which generated 4 hours 11 minutes on MobileMark 2007.
The Dell Vostro 1500 is basically an Inspiron 1520 that had its colors stripped off. Like any other Dell laptop, it offers a wide range of features, including graphics, mobile broadband, battery, and a webcam option. The primary difference between the Vostro line and other Dell notebooks is the additional services geared toward small businesses. Overall, the $1,282 configuration that I looked at is an excellent buy no matter who you are.
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The last one is from Associated Content:
For several months I’ve been looking for anew laptop as a Christmas gift to myself and my wife. We like to travel, and having a laptop is great for those casual weekend getaways we love so much. Also, we’re planning to eventually get rid of the desktop computer that is currently in our living room acting as our entertainment center. I wasn’t looking for anything fancy, and I certainly didn’t want to pay for anything fancy. I talked to some friends and co-workers and a few of them recommended Dell for a quick and easy (but inexpensive) way to get a laptop that would suit my needs. So that’s where I started.
At work, I’m certainly a power user. I run my machine into the ground sometimes. I typically use some pretty heavy-duty CAD applications for my work in designing electronics. I also do a fair amount of programming and research, usually all at the same time on my dual 19 inch monitor. But at home, I don’t need that much power, and certainly not for a laptop. I needed something that was reasonably portable, had enough power to do what I needed it to, but was still on the cheap side of the market. I set out with a few minimum requirements:
Less than $1000 (this was a very important requirement)
At least a 15 inch monitor
2GB of RAM (seems like a bit much, but it’s really worth it)
80GB of storage
A few USB ports
Decent video support
Wireless card internal
Notice, I never specified a processor, operating system, optical drives (such as a DVD Drive). These things were left to the preferences section:
Intel Core 2 Duo (on the recommendation of a friend)
Ability to run Windows Vista or XP without a hardware change
Driver support for Windows XP
DVDRW drive
3+ hours normal usage battery life
The cheaper, the better
Now that I had my requirements and preferences set, i first headed to Dell’s website to look around. I quickly found that none (or at least few) of the laptops designed for home use would fit my needs very well. So I ventured over to the ‘Small and Home Business’ section. There, I found my unicorn: the Vostro Series. A laptop series designed specifically with small businesses in mind. No fluff, no junk, low prices, quality hardware. Some were even able to be purchased with Vista or XP preinstalled. (As a side note, I’m avoiding Vista like the plague, I wanted my new laptop to run XP, but would have done it myself is needed.)
I identified the Vostro 1500 as being the only laptop in the series as having a 15 inch screen. So, I clicked the little button to start configuring my new Dell Vostro 1500. I had a lot of choices to chose from after that. Everything from which processor, to hard drive size, to software packages, and so on. As it turns out, the basic Vostro 1500 package nearly perfectly suits my needs. I upgraded a few critical options and came out with the following configuration.
Dell Vostro 1500
Intel Core 2 Duo 1.4Ghz, 800Mhz Front Side Bus, 2MB cache
15.4 inch widescreen XGA+ LCD with TrueLife (upgrade; I’ll explain this later)
2GB DDR2 RAM
128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS Video Card
120GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
Integrated modem and network card
Dual Layer DVDRW drive
Dell Wireless 1490 802.11a/g wireless card
Integrated 2.0MP webcam (upgrade)
85 Whr 9-cell Lithium Ion Battery (upgrade)
Windows XP Home installed, nothing else installed
About $750 before taxes and shipping (which was free)
Now that I’ve had the laptop for a while, I’ve decided I made a very good choice. Running Windows XP, the system is highly responsive, can multi-task easily, never lags and does everything I throw at it faster than either my desktop, or my work machine (which is impressive). I’ve found the Core 2 Duo and 2GB of RAM to be a very good combination. Sure, there were lots of upgrade options for the processor, but they were expensive, and I really couldn’t justify putting money into a processor that I’d probably never fully utilize anyway. The 2GB of RAM was the base configuration, and it seems to be plenty, especially running Windows XP. If you wanted to run Vista, it would work, but not quite as well.
The NVIDIA video card was not an upgrade. (yup, it’s in the base package). This is nice, because those integrated card don’t really please me very much. Note: Vostro’s used to have an integrated card as the default, so watch what you are picking, they might switch back. This card, coupled with my upgraded XGA+ LCD works beautifully.
Now, a few words about the ‘TrueLife’ thing from before. TrueLife is Dell’s marketing for a high gloss LCD screen. It’s like the difference between a plasma TV and an LCD TV. Try watching a plasma TV with a bright light sitting behind you. All you’ll see is the reflection of the light. But, watch the plasma and normal lighting conditions, and it’s simple beautiful. Same here. I can see the reflections and a light source with the glossy screen (a window behind me for example). But under normal lighting (diffused lighting, even if bright, or dim/dark rooms, even outside), the display looks wonderful. Colors are richer than a normal LCD, text is sharper, and the entire display seems brighter than I would expect. I was scared to go to the TrueLife display, but all of the higher resolution options forced that choice on me. I’m glad I did now that I have it.
My other upgrades were to the webcam and the battery. The integrated webcam is optional, but it only costs $30 to get it. No, I didn’t need it, but though it might be some fun. I tested it out, and it works great. Like all webcams, the lighting conditions play a large role in how the image looks. The webcam has it’s own microphone system including some software sound canceling technology. I upgraded the battery to a 9-cell from a 6-cell to get the extra life out of it. It lasts around 4 hours in normal use, sometimes closer to 6 hours depending on what I’m doing. The only disadvantage to the larger battery is that, well, it’s larger. It sticks out of the back a half inch or so. Don’t worry, it doesn’t look entirely stupid, but it does make the weight and the footprint of the notebook a little larger.
The Vostro 1500 is pretty subdued. No fancy colors or options, just a Dell emblem on the top. The casing is plain black and it does pick up some fingerprints, but no worse than most other laptops. The keyboard and touchpad are both high quality, and feel good to the touch. The surface of the touchpad is integrated with the palm surface, so there’s no gap or edge to get dirty stuff stuck in. It’s a bit heavy as a whole, maybe 6 pounds with the battery installed, but that’s just fine for what I use it for. It’s still perfectly comfortable on the lap. And heat doesn’t seem to be an issue. Some laptops I’ve had on my lap got a little too warm in a place that I didn’t really want that warm. Sure, the Vostro gets warm on the bottom, but nothing to make me uncomfortable.
As I said before, I had my laptop configured with Windows XP, and no other software installed. I hate uninstalling all that junk you usually get when you buy a computer. None of that stuff came with my Vostro, and I has pretty happy about that fact.
Overall, I’m please with the Vostro 1500. It does what I want it to, has some extra little perks, but none of the useless junk that normally clutters a laptop. It performs better than I had anticipated it to. It’s plain, but still fairly attractive and professional looking. It works like a champ, and I hope it continues to serve my needs. I’d recommend this little beauty to anyone looking for a solid laptop with great performance without paying a premium for useless upgrades.
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Hope you enjoyed this.