Dell Inspiron E1505 Review

The Dell Inspiron E1505 laptop computer is a machine perfectly capable of acting as a full-time business computer, as well as serving as a portable media center. The options available help a create a custom designed laptop at a reasonable price. Dell has excellent customer service, and their website is an easy way to get a great computer at a great price.

The first step to take when purchasing a laptop computer, or any computer, is to do your job as a consumer and shop for the best deal. It should take around a month to shop for a computer. It is vital to first determine what type of computer is best for you. Do you need a laptop or a desktop? How much memory and how fast should the computer be? Do you need a DVD player/burner ? What type of programs do you need to buy, as well as what other accessories are necessary?

The Dell Inspiron E1505 battery is really quite good– my laptop lasts a bit over 6 hours per charge even while using wireless networking, and I have two batteries so I cant really even envision a situation where I’d be using it for more than 12 hours without a power outlet. Granted I did buy the extra life batteries, so I’d expect them to be decent. Windows XP Media Center 2005 seems to be pretty slick and I can’t say I have any qualms about it versus having Windows XP Pro. Though honestly I have yet to try out any of the extra media hooha (more on that below).

The build quality and fit & feel of the laptop is about average I guess, but I also bought a midrange laptop, so I think it’s perfectly acceptable for the price I paid. I wasn’t really sure how much I’d use a laptop so I didn’t want to go all crazy, but perhaps next time I’ll be willing to spend a bit more.

The E1505 Specifications:

Intel Core Duo Processor T2500 at 2.0 GHz per core.
15.4" Ultrasharp SXGA+ display with TrueLife
512MB DDR2 533MHz RAM in dual channel mode
Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
100GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
8X DVD +/- dual layer recorder
53 watt-hour 6-cell battery

Weighing in at a relatively hefty 6.8 pounds and measuring 1.4 inches thick, the Inspiron E1505 battery sports a roomy full-sized keyboard that makes prolonged typing comfortable. Air vents flank the left and right sides of the chassis for keeping the machine cool during extended use. The large touchpad with built-in horizontal and vertical scroll areas make navigating Web pages a breeze. Beneath the touchpad, embedded in the bezel, are DVD/CD controls that illuminate when pressed.

The 15.4-inch UltraSharp widescreen display delivered strong colors when watching DVDs, even from a variety of angles. The speakers, which are located on either side of the playback controls, produced surprisingly good sound, even though the bass was a bit weak. This configuration has an 80GB hard drive for storing your digital music collection, along with gobs of photos and videos.

Storage for the higher end Inspiron E1505 is quite good with a very large 160GB hard drive that provides plenty of storage space for both applications and use data. In case users need to save off data, they provide a 8x DVD+/-RW dual layer compatible burner for reading and recording DVD and CD media.

Graphics wise, Dell offers a dedicated graphics processor in the non-budget oriented battery for Dell Inspiron E1505. While the ATI Radeon Mobility X1300 graphics does provide better 3D performance than the integrated solutions it still falls short of the performance required for things such as higher resolution PC gaming. This does put it behind many other thin and light notebooks with dedicated graphics processors.

Wrapping this up
Pros
-Great Price for a great computer
-Top notch screen with great resolution 1680×1050 px
-Hugely customizable
-Looks sharp
-MediaDirect feature

Cons
-Dell support left something to be desired. I called to order the computer and the sales rep was a somewhat rude American and when I called to figure out what was up with shipping I got an incredibly polite but terribly hard to understand foreign girl.
-I was supposed to have overnight shipping but took 3 business days after FedEx received the package because Dell had requested them to hold it.
-There have been reports of issues with the screens where the backlight bleeds a lot. I have very slight bleed at the edges but nothing worth sending it to be replaced
-Excessive amount of programs pre-installed
-Is the dell support program worth having?
-The screen blinks when power is removed/plugged in

Recommend?
It seems to me that we are getting to a point where people looking for a consumer level computer might as well spend a bit more and grab a laptop. You’ve got decent power and you are ready to go whenever/wherever you need/want to. That said, if you are looking to get the most computer for the least amount of money I think Dell is the way to go. Product support is inconsistent so if you know nothing about computers you may want to consider other options. For designers/web developers, in terms of PCs you can really put together a solid machine. Do I recommend? Yes, but know what you need, and what you need out of your hardware and be sure to shop around a bit.