The Dell Inspiron 15 is a 15.4″ screen mainstream multimedia notebook that competes head-on with the likes of the HP dv6700t and Sony VAIO FZ. Dell has introduced the Inspiron 15 as a thinner and lighter alternative to the previous Inspiron 1520. Dell has always been known for its direct to order model and ability to configure to your hearts delight, and now they’ve taken that a step further by giving you the ability to customize the color of your notebook from a selection of ten designs.

The Inspiron 15 is the follow-on to the popular Inspiron 1520 notebook. The Inspiron 15 is actually less powerful than the Inspiron 1520 because it does not offer a dedicated graphics card. Instead Dell has taken the approach that buyers should look to the Dell XPS M1530 notebook for those that want dedicated graphics, while the Inspiron 15 is a reasonably priced multimedia laptop that suits the average user that does not get into gaming or other high performance demanding tasks. The Inspiron 15 comes with the Intel Core 2 Duo processor platform dubbed Santa Rosa.

System as Reviewed

The specs for the Inspiron 15 as reviewed are the following:

• Screen: 15.4-inch WXGA (1280 x 800) CCFL TrueLife (glossy) screen
• Processor: 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7250
• Memory: 2GB DDR2-667 SDRAM (up to 4GB DDR2 SDRAM available)
• HD: 80GB 7200 RPM SATA HDD
• Optical Drive: 8x Dual-layer DVD�RW drive
• Graphics: Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
• Wireless: Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini Card
• Colors: Jet Black
• Media Card: 8-in-1 flash memory reader
• Input and Output Ports: 4 USB 2.0, HDMI, VGA, IEEE 1394a, RJ11, RJ45, 2 headphone, 1 microphone, 1 ExpressCard 54mm slot, 3 mini-card slots, consumer IR, S-Video
• OS: Windows Vista Home Premium
• Dimensions: 1.00″ - 1.48″ (height) x 14.05″ (width) x 10.08″ (depth)
• Weight: 6.0lbs with 6-cell battery
• Starting price: $499
• Price as tested: $907

I paid around $900 after all was said and done. Using the ubiquitous Dell Coupons found around the web you can drive the price down a bit. Dell is always one of the tops when it comes to price competition

Places to buy

It used to be that you could only buy online to get a Dell notebook, but that has recently changed. If you want to buy a notebook you can go to their website and configure one, call and order over the phone or go to a Dell kiosk in a mall and place an order. You can also now walk into a Best Buy or Staples Electronics store to see Dell notebooks, so the options are quite endless — shop around to find the best price.

What you get

• Inside the box you get the Dell Inspiron 15
• CDs with preinstalled software and driver files
• Product info guide and Owner’s Manual
• Ear buds in a small black bag
• A/C Adapter
• Remote Control
• Battery

Weigh in

One thing I like to always do with any new gadget I get is take it to the scales and see how much it weighs:

With the 6-cell battery you can see the Inspiron 1526 is quite reasonable in terms of weight, it’s much lighter than the Inspiron 1520 predecessor and lighter than the competing HP dv6500t. The Inspiron 15 would actually be quite reasonable to carry around in a backpack for a while, though 6lbs would begin to hurt your shoulder if you’ll be walking for more than a mile.

Size-Up

Another interesting metric I like to look at is the dimensions of the notebook compared to similar notebooks.

At its thinnest point the Inspiron 15 is an 1″ thin, which is really good for a 15.4″ screen notebook. Indeed, it’s almost a full half-inch slimmer than the previous Inspiron 1520.

Looks

The Inspiron 15 allows for customization of color for the lid. This is a nice option, although I sometimes find that too much choice leads to indecision in the configuration process and you always second guess if another color might have been better after you finally decide on one. I went for the black color simply because I was looking for a plain looking notebook.

The actual design and shape of the Inspiron 15 isn’t that earth shaking, it’s certainly not as eye catching as the XPS M1530. Still, the the look isn’t bad and the blue LED lights give a nice effect, especially in the dark. The slimmer styling of the 1525 also makes it look nice.

Construction

The overall build of the Inspiron 15 is very good, there’s no flex in the body. The material used to build this notebook is rigid and thereby contributes to it being solid. The hinges for the screen feel extremely firm, I have no doubt they’ll hold up over time. The lid cover itself is rock solid and will protect the screen with ease.

Ports

The port selection of the Dell Inspiron 15 is pretty standard for a mainstream multimedia notebook. Again I�ll compare it to what similar notebooks have so you get an idea of where it stands relative to competition

Let’s take a look at the port offerings and locations on Inspiron 15:

On the front side you have the headphone and microphone jacks, memory card slot and LED lights.

On the left side you get a lock slot, DC jack, two USB ports, VGA out, Ethernet and modem ports, HDMI and FireWire.

On the right side is the ExpressCard slot, optical drive, Wi-Fi on/off, S-video port, and 2 USB 2.0 ports

On the back side there is absolutely nothing!

Keyboard

The keys on the Inspiron 15 keyboard are well placed, I have no complaints here. The feel of the keys is nice too, they have a bit of a grip to them. The travel is a bit shallow and light touch typists will prefer this keyboard over those that like to pound on a keyboard and get a ton of travel with a key. There’s no sag to the keyboard anywhere, it’s very firm.

The touchpad works fine, it has horizontal and vertical scroll areas and the mouse buttons are quite nice. It would be nice if there were an on/off switch for the touchpad like the HP dv6500t offers, instead you have to go into software and disable it.

Screen

Dell offers only a WXGA resolution screen on the Inspiron 15 notebook at the moment, it would be nice if there were more options and a WSXGA screen like the previous Inspiron 1520 had. You do get a choice between glossy and matt screens. Glossy screens provide for bolder colors and more contrast, but with the caveat that the gloss finish tends to be quite reflective.

The screen is fairly bright, though not as bright as recent Sony or Fujitsu notebook screens I’ve seen. That said, the viewing angles are good and there’s little in the way to complain about regarding the screen.

Sound

The speakers for the Inspiron 15 are located at the top of the keyboard. The speakers get loud enough with minimal distortion, but the sound is somewhat tinny sounding, but this is the case with nearly all laptop speakers. At least you get two headphone ports on the front for easy access to plugging in your headphones.

Performance

The Inspiron 15 has been enjoyable to use, it’s snappy for most general uses with the Intel T7250 2.0GHz processor, but it won’t suit for gaming since there’s no dedicated graphics cards offered — just the Intel X3100. Bootup is fast, and programs load instantly in Vista.

I ran PCMark05 on the 1525 to get an overall system performance score, you can see that the system performs well with a 4,163 score. This result was gained using out of the box configuration settings and before any of the bloatware was removed from the system.

Remember that the configuration of the Inspiron 15 as reviewed is pretty high-end since it has the fastest processor configurable (at the time of this writing) the performance will vary a lot depending on how you configure the 1525. Bottom line is that if you really want a more powerful notebook you’ll have to step up to the XPS M1530 with dedicated graphics and a faster processor.

Noise

The Inspiron 15 is fairly quiet, though at times the fans did get a bit noisy. Basically you won’t hear this notebook at all in an environment with ambient noise, but if you’re in a library like quiet environment you might bother those nearby with some fan noise.

Heat

I’ve been completely amazed by the total lack of heat buildup in the Inspiron 15. The 1525 is very comfortable to use on the lap due to lack of heat buildup.

Battery

The 6-cell 56WHr Li-Ion battery provides good battery life for the Inspiron 15. Even under normal usage with the screen brightness all the way up, Vista set to “high performance”, and wireless on I managed to get 2 hours 53 minutes of battery life out of the 6-cell. If you had the 9-cell battery you might expect up to four hours — under conservative usage this could be 5 hours on the 9-cell. Thanks to the integrated graphics the Inspiron 15 is good on battery life.

Conclusion

The Inspiron 15 is definitely a solid notebook. It won’t win any awards for performance since it doesn’t offer the fastest processor or dedicated graphics. It is good for those that want a quality computer that performs well on office tasks and multimedia, but don’t want to spend a whole lot of money. I really like the fact the Inspiron 15 is relative light and thin for a 15.4″ screen notebook. It has most of the port options you could want too. The lid design offerings are nice, though the actually look and shape of the notebook is pretty sterile and nothing as cool as the XPS M1530. Overall the Inspiron 15 is a good buy, will get the job done, but won’t win any design or performance awards.

Pros

• Nice personalization option with lid color selection
• Very good pricing, starting at $699
• Very cool running
• Good port selection
• Nice and light for a 15.4″ notebook and slimmer than average notebooks of this size
• Very good wireless connectivity options
• Good price

Cons

• They added color to the outside, but the design is still kind of bland on the inside
• Not much in the way of different screen options
• No dedicated graphics meaning no good 3D performance
• No Blu-Ray drive offering at the current time