1520 Practical Guide

Hello everyone!

This is my first post but i've been lurking for sometime before buying my 1520 and found some useful info so I hope this will give back for some.
Well this is my practical, non biased guide if you're thinking about getting the 1520. I do apologize if things seem disorganized but I will do what I can do to dispurse the info in my hectic schedule so again I do apologize.

Good things to note:
-decent value for the dollar
-nice screen
-pretty quiet and cool
-really not as heavy as people make it out to be. I own 12", 14", 15.4" 17" laptops

Important things to note:
-Be sure you get the bluetooth option for $20, its well worth it and you can use your cell phone as a remote and presenter for the laptop
-The best mouse to get for the 1520 w/bluetooth is either the v270 logitech mouse (but it only has 3 buttons) that you can get for $20 or the MX5000 bluetooth laser desktop which has an amazing mouse like the revolution mouse for $50 refurbed.
-get the 3 year warranty, trust me, its a really good deal and competitively priced
-the SD slot if you are going to keep a card in for readyboost doesn't stick out too bad so you dont have to worry
-get the larger harddrive instead of the 7200rpm drives because the 5400rpm are pretty much same speed as the 7200rpm in real world benchmarks
-get the 6 cell battery instead of the 9 cell battery because less bulk and you'll probably have your laptop plugged in most of the time anyways and the sleeves will actually fit your lappy.

Bad things to note:
-The system is cosmetically unappealing compared to other laptops if thats your pet peeve
-do not get the black color. I got it and its really bad fingerprint magnet, and even with a cloth the fingerprints are kind of hard to remove
-The keyboard keys are very slippery
-the silverish paint will probably wear out within a year based on experience with other laptops i've owned
-Vista is a really poor OS

My system:
1520 t7500
250gb harddrive
2gb ram
8600gt
3 year warranty


Thanks for reading and have a nice day!

 

Cool..But you might wanna get a few facts straight..

1) It isn't painted silver.. The plastic is actually silver.. It won't ware off black or white.. I've proved this myself. I took my palm rest off, and took sandpaper to the bottom - result = not painted, so no ware.

At most the keyboards grain/bumpy/smooth texture it has, will ware to a almost glossy texture.. which happens to everything.. Ever seen a black keyboard after a few months of repetitive use?

2) The Vista thing is an opinion, not a fact. That's your choice alone to decide if it's poor. As a matter of fact, I think it destroys XP as far as being stable and secure goes. Since moving to Vista, Not one crash, not one virus or spyware. Don't give any of that environment B.S either people.. a 1520 is a 1520.. Let's not forget NO MORE BIT-ROT! WOO! But XP has a lot of advantages, don't get me wrong.

3) Cosmetically unappealing? Beats the hell out of a frigging IBM or Lenovo laptop.. Again, you're choice to decide if it's ugly or not, your opinion but don't state it like it's a fact.

Besides for my 3 arguments, I agree with a lot that you have to state, good insight. Words of the wise to people considering getting a laptop.. Don't always believe everything you hear or read.. Get more then just 1 or 2 opinions. Get a few different opinions from people of all types, from noobs to enthusiasts.

 

Umm, yeah...

 

i have to agree that black is not a good color for the 1520 because of the fingerprint. anyway, the Vista is an option. since it is a new OS (uhmm... a year old for the business edition RTM) there are a lot of issues (just like XP when it first came out).

like what B2TheEYo said, get words of wisdom from different people.

 

Really? That's great news. There are pictures of older Dells where the paint did wear off.
http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/72686
I've also seen an E1505 where the silver on the touchpad was worn off with ivory-colored plastic showing through.

 

The old ones are painted, for sure on that.

Yeah usually they have a ivory/white color plastic or black. But after taking sand paper and such it appears the palm rest piece is as you see it, no paint so that's great.

The keyboard I'm unsure about but so far, it doesn't appear to be, at least the buttons, but that silver stuff under the keys is painted, the likely hood of that getting scratched is zero to none lol. Unless you intentionally jam knifes and needle in there trying to scratch it.

The screen bezel, I'm not sure of. It might be but I doubt it. The lid of the screen is painted! (obviously) it's not a paint though it's like a rubber type, it's a weird type of paint unsure how to describe it. It's scratch resistant but if you take sharp objects to it, it will scratch.

It sucks nothing is forever but with proper care I believe these new inspirons are extremely durable cosmetically

 

I like my black inspiron...i think the pain is very durable. i don't think its even paint. its supposed to be a different material, and i think its plastic.

really, the silver and black are nice contrasts

although i haven't seen one other color insprion in life yet, so i can't compare

 

I should have gotten blue tooth

 

screw bluetooth, most cell phones got mmc/sd/etc card slots, so just use that and don't be lazy lol

 

Bluetooth can also come useful for connecting bluetooth keyboards and mouse and also to easily connect two or more laptops over lan...

 

yeah, yeah, u're right