The best of Dell to date... true-life screen, excellent battery life
Written: Mar 26 '08
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Pros: Cheap yet very durable
Keyboard area not cluttered with nonesense
Battery life VERY GOOD
Cons: Media buttons bug me
Like all dells no backup OS disc provided
The Bottom Line: Great laptop, durable build, reasonable pricing.
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| visio's Full Review: Dell Vostro 1500 (682256103089) PC Notebook |
I have bought many Dells and for the most part I have been ill-satisfied, they are cheap and you can tell many times when you get them. On that I expected little more out of the Vostro line but I was happily disappointed.
When the Vostro came I found it to be the best Dell I have ever seen or used... mine came with the true-life display and I gotta tell you it beats all other screens hands down... very bright and clear.
Like usual I bought the 9-cell battery upgrade, I was not disappointed here either. The battery lasts 4-5 hours even with the true-life screen... I am wondering if a traditional screen would perhaps take even less battery???
I am very satisfied here because my Thinkpads have battery settings which allow me to adjust the power usage to maximize battery performance... the Vostro does not yet it lasts longer than my T61 battery on a better screen... so whatever Dell did here, they deserve thumbs up!
This also has a very durable build, unlike the other Dell laptops I have this laptop actually feels durable, while it is a far cry from my T61 I was very pleased in this area considering what i have seen before.
BTW my liking this Vostro has nothing to do with the fact that it is black, I just tend to think black looks good in a laptop. :P
The keyboard is the an island in this laptop, the rest is open un-used space. Why Dell did this I am not sure, some of their other models have the keyboard taking up most of the space and leaving little room to work while this gives you alot of free room. I guess if you like a clutter-free laptop this is it, atleast outwardly anyways.
I do have to complain about the media buttons on the front of the laptop, I hate them there, Dell seems to love placing them right there but I don't like it.
Be warned if you reboot the hard drive it will remove all pre-installed software which cannot be undone, Dell will not send you backup discs or help you on this... while for many of us this is no big deal as the software is mostly worthless, some of you may want the pre-installed hardware. In which case don't reboot the hard drive without backing up what you want.
Because of the durability of this laptop I compare it with my T61... one thing I really don't like about the Vostro is that the holes in base where the screen clutches lock in are way too large and look alittle out of place... I prefer my T61 style where the holes are slightly off base and very small... I also much prefer my T61 square style over the Vostro rounded, it just doesn't appeal to me for some reason. I do like that Dell has rounded the screen edge out so it more closely connects with the base so as to keep dust and dirt from getting in... I think the Thinkpad line does a better job here but it beats the other Dell models I have which don't even try.
So my conclusion... its a great laptop for a great price, while it has some minor things I don't like I have not really found major issues with it so far.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 870
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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Epinions.com ID:
visio
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Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 1 member
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