Dell Inspiron 1570 (Inspiron 15z)

I'm surprised there isn't a thread for the Dell Inspiron 1570 (Inspiron 15z) yet, even though it was released three months ago. As of today (12/08/09) it starts at $599.

Any owners yet? I'd love to get some reviews.

 

Bump...well I suppose I will be the first here. Estimated delivery on 12/28. (EDIT: Arrived 10 days early on December 18! Good job Dell)

Specs:
Obsidian Black
Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 (1.3GHz, 800 MHz, 3 MB)
4GB RAM
Intel GMA X4500HD
320GB 7.2K HD
DVD+/-RW Drive
Wireless-N
Webcam
4 Cell Battery
Windows 7 Home Premium x64

$663 after tax from EPP w/$50 stackable coupon

 

whoa thats nice. looks very much like the studio though :S

 

I can't figure out why Dell introduced the Inspiron 14z (1470) and 15z (1570) almost three months ago and hasn't bothered to market them since???

If you go to the Dell Home & Home Office site, where you'd expect to find all the Inspiron models, you won't find the 14z or 15z listed in the 'Laptops & Netbooks' drop down menu. Only if you click on the Inspiron 15's main page will it show one configuration of the 15z as an upsell from the standard 1545.

BUT, go to the Dell Small-Medium Business site and click on 'Laptops & Netbooks' and you'll find the Inspiron 14, 14z, 15 and 15z each listed!? It doesn't make a lot of sense...if they were planning to market them to business customers, they should be wearing a Vostro or Latitude name tag.

I really shouldn't try to figure out the reasons behind some of the decisions made by Dell execs...it'll only drive me nuts! Especially since there probably isn't any thought or logic behind a lot of the decisions they make (or fail to make)!

 

Looks like you're not the only one who shares that sentiment:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5424

 

I don't quite get the point of 15z and even 14z. CULV chips are awesome in small laptop that need to get best battery life for portability. 15z is large, slow and only has Intel integrated video. What exactly is the point here? At least Asus is putting in Nvidia graphics in some of their CULV systems and I believe Acer is doing the same.

 

I think the 15z has a pretty good balance actually.

It's very thin (1.1") and very light (4.8 lbs) but still has a big screen and the Core 2 Duo CULV is a step up from the Atom processors. I know of no other models that have a 15" screen that are this thin and under $700.

As for the integrated graphics, keep in mind that 90% of all laptops today ship with integrated graphics (although you wouldn't know it by some of the specs you see from people on this forum.) The X4500HD supports HDMI and Blu Ray and for non-hardcore gamers like me that's more than enough.

 

I got one about 12days ago really good but i have upgraded to windows 7, love the laptop. got the red lid really nice .... any questions or queries email me on [email protected]

 

Sorry for the delay, I've been meaning to take some pics for a while. The last pic is a height comparision of the 15z with my Inspiron 6000, obviously a huge difference:

 

Well now that I've been using it for about a week I'll give you a few of my thoughts.

1. I LOVE how thin, light, and COOL this thing is. My old Inspiron 6000 feels like a brick and would literally make my thighs sweat from the heat. The 15z manages to stay cool all the time.

2. Windows 7 is awesome. The first few days I was like this is annoying, but once you get used to it, you realize that some of the changes are pretty ingenious.

3. The optical drive tray feels a bit flimsy. Whenever I pick up the laptop from the sides, I can feel the bottom of the optical drive move a little bit. Not a huge deal, just doesn't feel very sturdy.

4. Wish there was a backlit keyboard option and bluetooth option. The weird thing is that this system supports bluetooth and has a dedicated slot for it, but for some reason wasn't even an option during my configuration. And to install it myself is doable but still a huge hassle

5. Startup time is super fast. I haven't timed it but easily less than 25 seconds. Apps open super quickly too. Photoshop takes ~10 seconds to load while on my Inspiron 6000 it easily was more than twice that.

Overall...I am loving it. I would probably not pay retail for this (I had a $50 off coupon code + Dell EPP discount) but if you wait for those Dell stackable coupons that they send out every couple months, I would highly recommend it!

 

25 secs?? wow even with a tweaked win7 pro x64 mines takes 30 secs to welcome screen and another 5 to desktop!

 

Actually you're right; after timing it with a stopwatch I got 29s to password prompt and an additional 4s to desktop.

My mental clock was off a little bit

 

so guys....is this thing fast? any problem encountered? Any disappointment yet? I am planning to buy one on craigslist with the price tag of 600, but still nervous about this thing's performance. Any comment/suggestion is greatly appreciated

 

Still running great for me!

 

Guys, is this right. I went in the shop to get the Dell Inspiron 1545 which is the 4gig Memory and 500Gb hard disk but I was mis-sold the Dell Inspiron 1570 which is the 4gig mem and 320 gb. My gross with even the Dell 1570 is that its got C and D drive of 58.5gig and 229gig respectively and a hidden 10gig for backup. This works out to be less than 320gig. Is this normal or should I return the laptop. Would be glad with your experiences

 

Yes it is normal. I also have the 320GB drive. After I got my laptop I immediately reformatted the drive and created only one partition, which came out to 297GB (exactly the same as yours)

Basically, when they say 320 GB they mean, 320,000,000,000 bytes...

When in reality, 320 GB is actually 343,597,383,680 bytes.

So if you convert 320,000,000,000 bytes into gigabytes, using the actual 1024 bytes per KB, 1024 KB per MB and 1024 MB per GB, you get 298.02 GB.

 

Hi SGMD1, I am a student who will be in college soon and I found this laptop while searching. Overall, I have been really frustrated at not being able to find a laptop with a good balance of battery life, performance, weight, and price but this laptop seems to have it all! Is it too good to be true? Performance-wise, is this laptop decent? I will probably use this laptop only for school purposes (MS Word, Powerpoint, email, chat, and the occasional Youtube videos), so based on what you have seen so far, would this laptop cut it for me? I have read all of the above and I would like to learn more about this laptop. What other cons have you found after using this laptop for a month (your above post was in January)?

Thanks so much!

 

Also, how long, on average, is the actual battery life?

 

the slot for the Bluetooth is functional but it apears that the bluetooth modules from dell are buggy on Windows 7.
but it seems that all of yours 1570 are great machines.

sorry for my english!!

 

Sorry I didn't respond sooner, apparently I forgot to select email notifications in my thread subscription

Performance-wise, it is amazing. I use it daily for basic things like MS Office/Web/Photoshop and occassionally for more processor intensive things like video editing, and I never experience any lag. Boot up time is roughly 35 seconds to login screen, an additional 5 seconds to desktop after typing my password. It's definitely too good for its price!

Absolutely.

My only gripes are the glossy lid (fingerprint magnet) and no backlit keyboard option, although I'm hoping one becomes available at some point.

I've never let it run completely out of battery but I have only a 4 cell battery and it still lasts well over 2 hours at full screen brightness, probably 3 if I turned the brightness down

CLIFFS: get it, you won't be disappointed

 

Its a bit strange as Dell released the 1564 which has similar specs apart from the new Core i3/i5 cpu's with Intel HD gfx and 6 cell battery and yet this older model is called 1570. The wireless N and bigger n faster HD is optional on the 1564 also.
Go figure.

 

Wow!! Thank you so much for your time and advice this has really helped me a lot!

 

Dell's model numbering scheme has absolutely no basis in reality or logic! You will go insane if you try to make sense of them all...because they make NO sense! Trust me, I'm OCD and freakishly analytical- I gave up on this when I started having chest pains!

The Inspiron 14z and 15z are model numbers 1470 and 1570. When they were introduced, the Inspiron 14 was the 1440 and Inspiron 15 was the 1545 (why not 1540?). The intent was probably to separate the "regular" Inspirons from the "z" models which were thinner, lighter and used CULV processors.

The new 1464 and 1564 are replacing the 1440 and 1545. Full size, 'regular' Inspiron model numbers should not exceed 1469 and 1569, because the "z" territory begins at 1470/1570. In all likelihood, Dell will need numbers beyond the 1469/1569 and leapfrog to the 1480/1580 or 1490/1590-range.

Why they jumped from 1440 to 1464 and 1545 to 1564 makes no sense either. Graned, the 1550s are used for the Studio 15 line (1555, 1557, 1558) and the new Studio 14 is 1457 and 1458. But 1447 or 1449 and 1547 or 1549 would make more sense than 1464 and 1564. Or maybe even 1460 and 1560, so they'd have more chronological numbers to use in the future....

See what I mean? It's crazy-making! The most irritating one of all, so far, has been the Inspiron 14 (1440) and Studio 14z which was also called the 1440....

Do they draw numbers out of a hat? Maybe throw darts and use whichever numbers they hit? I think I need to go take a Valium now....

 

lol
Yeah its strange.

Are the Z versions really that much lighter then the 1564? As the new 64 is meant to be quite a bit thinner and lighter than the older standard Inspiron 15.