I'm not quite done yet exploring all of the nooks and crannies of my brand spanking new E1505, but I feel I can offer a good summary of my experiences so far, and maybe help the undecided among you. If you already own one, this probably won’t be of much help to you. But hey, go ahead and read anyway. No reason.
First, for the attention span deficient, I’ll jump to the conclusion directly, and you can read on for details: this is an amazing laptop... for the price. AFAIK no other brand offers so many upgrades for such a reasonable price (after coupon(s) that is, more on this shortly). I spent a few hours researching different options / stores / brands, and really couldn't come up with a comparable configuration for a comparable price. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, it means I didn't find it. Also, realize that an Inspiron may not be what you're looking for, unbeatable price or not. If you're on the road all the time for example, you probably want to consider a Thinkpad - much sturdier than the Inspiron line I understand. You'll pay for this however. There are other gotchas you should be aware of. Read on.
Here's my config. Typical upscale-ish E1505:
Core Duo T2400 (1.83GHz)
WSXGA screen (with "TrueLife")
1GB 533MHz memory
Mobility Radeon X1400
60GB 7200RPM SATA HD
Windows XP Media Center (w/ OS on disc)
CD/DVD burner
Integrated 802.11 a/g + Bluetooth
SB audigy "Advanced HD" (See below about this)
85 WHr 9-Cell battery
4 year limited warranty & accidental damage coverage
Dell On Call one year / five incidents
Typical software package MS Works, McAfee (w 2 years subscription I'm not going to use) etc
The price after a $750 off coupon and 3% off for using my Dell Preferred account was $1551.86 (WI tax included). There is an additional $50 mail in rebate, which I just mailed, so I guess the bottom line is $1501.86. Your mileage may vary. A few things about coupons; you'll find them on XPBargains.com and other places, but after reading a few threads here I realize I probably could have done better. So look around and ask, you could end up saving a hundred bucks or two. Also, Dell is always having some kind of promotion on its laptops (at least on the Inspirons), sometimes it's a free HD upgrade, sometimes a free 1GB of memory, etc... This WILL affect your bottom line. I don't remember which one I got, but I also got a free wireless router. Woop dee doo. I guess I'll unload it on Ebay or something. As noted above I used my Dell Preferred account for an additional 3% off, not sure if this offer still stands, but it'll pop up if it applies to you I'm sure, I didn't have anything special to do (i.e. coupon to enter) to get it. An extra $50 or so off, can't complain. Of course have the money ready to pay it off right away during the grace period, because the interest rate is something insane like 28%. The company I work at offers 2 year 0% loans for personal PC equipment, so that's what I used
About the warranty. Get it. AT THE VERY LEAST get the two year limited warranty, best is to get the whole package (4 year complete care -OR- 4 year limited warranty & accidental damage protection). You think this just adds to your cost, but consider it part of the cost of your machine. An amazing number of laptops fail during their first year, an even greater number after that. I've had two laptops fail on me recently, and wouldn't have had to buy this new one if I had bought the extended warranty when I had the opportunity. In particular, mechanical parts such as the optical drive are very expensive to replace, because their form factor is usually unique to your model. This might be less of a problem with the ubiquitous Dells, but I don't want to have to think about that. I know my laptop will last me at least 4 years. (This implies of course that Dell's warranty service comes through should I need it - crossing fingers here).
Now the beast itself.
The laptop is about the size you'd expect. A 15" is perfect for me, because I do need to take it on the road from time to time, so a 17" was out of the question (been there, done that, not going to do it again), and a 14" is just too small, and besides they only come with integrated graphics. These are things to consider before making the purchasing decision. The look of the E1505 is what it is, I gather some like it, some hate it, me I don't hate it but mostly I don't care. Would I prefer black? I suppose. But what matters is that it doesn't look or feel cheap. It's not like I'd feel comfortable throwing it down on the floor and letting my dogs have their way with it... Although I DO have accidental damage protection, he he he
Anyhow it's sturdy and feels good. The keyboard is very comfortable, the only bad thing I have to say about it is the position of the Delete key, which I use very often, and is grouped in the upper right corner with the Home, End and Insert keys; it cannot be found intuitively like on a regular keyboard. No biggie but a minor annoyance. There are "Media" keys on the very front of the laptop; Play, Stop, Rewind, Forward, but more importantly Mute, Volume Up and Volume Down. Now unless there is something here I haven't figured out, this is a terrible design, because there is no hardware volume control. These keys will only start working when the appropriate drivers have been loaded, which apparently doesn't happen until after Windows has played its obnoxious introductory sound. Yes, I know I can turn that off, but I find it amazing the mute and volume buttons don't work at all times. Overall, I don't like this technological trend of replacing a perfectly good design (analog, hardware rotary button) with an inferior one (discrete software buttons), as if digital were inherently superior to analog. It’s not. I’ll stop ranting now.
The mouse device is adequate. Its default setting seems to lock the scrolling mode once you get it going (you know, with the side of the pad), so it just keeps going. This is very annoying but easily fixed in the device settings, so it doesn't really count as a minus in the grand scheme of things. Still, whoever thought this would be something than people would like to have turned on by default? Geez…
The screen is fantastic. Some people don't like the fact that's it's glossy, but this is probably the highest contrast LCD I've ever seen. When Windows is loading, you see the usual logo against the black background... Well the background is BLACK - not a washed out gray as is almost always the case. The resolution is pretty amazing as well. It's only after I ordered it that I realized it's the same resolution as my 19" FPW 2005 I got over a year ago (1680x1050)! Still can't get over that, now my desktop screen almost seems low res. The coating doesn't bug me, but it does reflect ambient light quite a bit. If you plan on working outside (I never do) then maybe you want to see it in action to make sure you'll be able to read what's on the screen. The brightness is automatically turned down when the machine runs on battery power, but this can be adjusted. Of course the brighter the image the more power you’ll consume.
Perfect segue into the battery. I got the 9-cell battery, and it lasts noticeably longer than any battery I’ve ever had – 3 to 4 hours I think, I haven’t measured. The screen is not the only piece of hardware that scales its power consumption depending on whether you’re plugged in or not – so does the video card.
Another excellent segue! The Catalyst Center for the X1400 (or X1300 I guess) will let you adjust performance at different battery levels (plugged/high battery/low battery). Let me put it this way; you won’t want to play unplugged. If you do, expect to run out of juice quickly. The X1400 is a very decent card though. Don’t expect to play recent shooters at max res all cranked up, but I’m pretty sure Doom 3 or such is possible, I will try it shortly. I’ve installed Civ 4, which works buttery smooth at max res with pretty much all effects turned on, and KotOR, very much playable at 1024x768, most options cranked up as well. Yeah, I know, not the most representative palette of today’s games, but that’s what I’m playing right now. IMPORTANT: the version of the X1300/1400 in the E1505 is not supposed to be supported by ATI directly. If you try to update the drivers, ATI has you download a program that checks whether or not they’ll let you download the actual updated drivers. And it will say “No – blah blah blah – terribly sorry – blah blah – contact your laptop manufacturer- blah.” There is an easy workaround, as all you have to do is find a direct link to the drivers themselves. I have installed these drivers, and they work perfect, as far as I can tell. Because if one must wait for Dell to update their version… I would really, really like to know why Dell feel the need to “proprietarize” the graphics card they put in their laptop. Wouldn’t it be easier to just let ATI deal with the drivers? Or… this is a castrated version of the X1400, missing a feature or two… ? If anybody knows, speak up. (I see now that the Nvidia 7300 Go is an option for the E1505. I have no idea how it compares to the X1300/1400.)
The sound is okay, but realize that getting the “Audigy HD” upgrade will not change the hardware – it’ll still be Sigma Tel integrated audio, NOT Creative – the upgrade only gives you software drivers that allows EAX type effects. These drivers are not available online as far as I can tell, so if you want them, you got to order them… or know someone who did I guess. I’m not going to discuss the merits of EAX, software vs. hardware and so on… but I do feel a bit ripped off, as the ordering process really doesn’t make it clear that you are NOT ordering a better soundcard –in fact it pretty implies that you are. On the other hand, EAX effects can be cool, and with a dual core cpu they can’t eat that much resources, now can they? On the third hand, we’re talking about Creative here. Ahem. Anyhow. The integrated speakers are so so – I’ve heard better on a laptop. Good headphones will solve that problem.
Last few pieces of hardware before moving on to the user experience – the memory, the hard drive, the CPU. I got 1GB of memory, and I understand that many try to order the minimum, 512MB, and upgrade to 1 or 2GB themselves. There are two good reasons for that. One, memory is freaking expensive on dell.com. I mean, we’re talking arm and a leg expensive. Two, the memory doesn’t even match the bus speed. The memory you’ll get is 533MHz, but the bus speed ideally requires 667MHz. The performance boost is probably significant in benchmarks, as far as real world use I don’t know – but I know I do plan to upgrade to 2GB somewhere down the line, and then I might as well put in the “right” speed. The hard drive – I switched my config from 100GB 5400 RPM to 60GB 7200RPM (should be about the same price, give or take $10), because I do know from experience that the hard drive speed plays a big role in the computer’s response time… and I really don’t need 100GB (plus, this is also something that can be updated later on if need be.) Finally the CPU: I guess I didn’t want the slowest one, and the fastest was too expensive. Since I plan on re-encoding my CD collection sometime soon, I’m hoping the T2300 will shave a few seconds per CD of encoding time. On the other hand, I’ll never know if it does. But psychologically speaking, it’s quite the relief, let me tell you.
Now… hardware is nice and all, but how does it all work together? Quite well, thank you for asking. In fact, the damn thing is faster than my desktop, thanks to the dual core CPU I suspect – my AMD-64 3400+ is starting to show its age. Watcha gonna do. So yeah, response time is pretty sweet. Starting Firefox while you have Word open, or vice versa, usually renders the machine unresponsive while the new program loads – not so here. It’s quite nice.
Now about all the crapware… As you may or may not know, Dell loads up new laptops with all kinds of software. Some useful, some not so much, some downright designed to make you buy some service (ISP) or the software itself (Paint Shop Pro is installed as a trial version for example). Many people choose to do a complete reformat. I haven’t done that, as I’ve had good luck so far removing every piece of program I judged suspicious or useless. Clue: if you’re unsure, Google is your friend. And remember that it’s nothing but advertising that in the end, partly pays for your machine. So wipe away, it’s your absolute right, but don’t be bitchy about it – you get what you pay for, or in this case, you get what advertisers have paid for. As far as I’m concerned, this is a sweet deal. That said, you absolutely will want to get rid of most of that crap. You’ll be amazed at how long it takes for Windows to load the first time you boot your system, and how much faster it’ll go once you’ve cleaned up the Startup folder, services, and such. Even some of the legit and paid for stuff isn’t really worth it IMHO. A two year subscription to McAfee services is going to waste as we speak. Give me AVG Free and ZoneAlarm any day of the week…
Miscellaneous: it’s amazingly silent. I mean, the cooling board I use, which I can barely hear, is noisier than the laptop itself. The laptop does tend to run hot however, especially when playing games (combination of cpu+gpu usage).
In conclusion… well read the beginning of the review again
I really, really like my E1505 so far. To me it’s the perfect compromise between size & power, and after coupon(s), it’s quite the deal IMHO.
Questions welcome.
First, for the attention span deficient, I’ll jump to the conclusion directly, and you can read on for details: this is an amazing laptop... for the price. AFAIK no other brand offers so many upgrades for such a reasonable price (after coupon(s) that is, more on this shortly). I spent a few hours researching different options / stores / brands, and really couldn't come up with a comparable configuration for a comparable price. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, it means I didn't find it. Also, realize that an Inspiron may not be what you're looking for, unbeatable price or not. If you're on the road all the time for example, you probably want to consider a Thinkpad - much sturdier than the Inspiron line I understand. You'll pay for this however. There are other gotchas you should be aware of. Read on.
Here's my config. Typical upscale-ish E1505:
Core Duo T2400 (1.83GHz)
WSXGA screen (with "TrueLife")
1GB 533MHz memory
Mobility Radeon X1400
60GB 7200RPM SATA HD
Windows XP Media Center (w/ OS on disc)
CD/DVD burner
Integrated 802.11 a/g + Bluetooth
SB audigy "Advanced HD" (See below about this)
85 WHr 9-Cell battery
4 year limited warranty & accidental damage coverage
Dell On Call one year / five incidents
Typical software package MS Works, McAfee (w 2 years subscription I'm not going to use) etc
The price after a $750 off coupon and 3% off for using my Dell Preferred account was $1551.86 (WI tax included). There is an additional $50 mail in rebate, which I just mailed, so I guess the bottom line is $1501.86. Your mileage may vary. A few things about coupons; you'll find them on XPBargains.com and other places, but after reading a few threads here I realize I probably could have done better. So look around and ask, you could end up saving a hundred bucks or two. Also, Dell is always having some kind of promotion on its laptops (at least on the Inspirons), sometimes it's a free HD upgrade, sometimes a free 1GB of memory, etc... This WILL affect your bottom line. I don't remember which one I got, but I also got a free wireless router. Woop dee doo. I guess I'll unload it on Ebay or something. As noted above I used my Dell Preferred account for an additional 3% off, not sure if this offer still stands, but it'll pop up if it applies to you I'm sure, I didn't have anything special to do (i.e. coupon to enter) to get it. An extra $50 or so off, can't complain. Of course have the money ready to pay it off right away during the grace period, because the interest rate is something insane like 28%. The company I work at offers 2 year 0% loans for personal PC equipment, so that's what I used
About the warranty. Get it. AT THE VERY LEAST get the two year limited warranty, best is to get the whole package (4 year complete care -OR- 4 year limited warranty & accidental damage protection). You think this just adds to your cost, but consider it part of the cost of your machine. An amazing number of laptops fail during their first year, an even greater number after that. I've had two laptops fail on me recently, and wouldn't have had to buy this new one if I had bought the extended warranty when I had the opportunity. In particular, mechanical parts such as the optical drive are very expensive to replace, because their form factor is usually unique to your model. This might be less of a problem with the ubiquitous Dells, but I don't want to have to think about that. I know my laptop will last me at least 4 years. (This implies of course that Dell's warranty service comes through should I need it - crossing fingers here).
Now the beast itself.
The laptop is about the size you'd expect. A 15" is perfect for me, because I do need to take it on the road from time to time, so a 17" was out of the question (been there, done that, not going to do it again), and a 14" is just too small, and besides they only come with integrated graphics. These are things to consider before making the purchasing decision. The look of the E1505 is what it is, I gather some like it, some hate it, me I don't hate it but mostly I don't care. Would I prefer black? I suppose. But what matters is that it doesn't look or feel cheap. It's not like I'd feel comfortable throwing it down on the floor and letting my dogs have their way with it... Although I DO have accidental damage protection, he he he
Anyhow it's sturdy and feels good. The keyboard is very comfortable, the only bad thing I have to say about it is the position of the Delete key, which I use very often, and is grouped in the upper right corner with the Home, End and Insert keys; it cannot be found intuitively like on a regular keyboard. No biggie but a minor annoyance. There are "Media" keys on the very front of the laptop; Play, Stop, Rewind, Forward, but more importantly Mute, Volume Up and Volume Down. Now unless there is something here I haven't figured out, this is a terrible design, because there is no hardware volume control. These keys will only start working when the appropriate drivers have been loaded, which apparently doesn't happen until after Windows has played its obnoxious introductory sound. Yes, I know I can turn that off, but I find it amazing the mute and volume buttons don't work at all times. Overall, I don't like this technological trend of replacing a perfectly good design (analog, hardware rotary button) with an inferior one (discrete software buttons), as if digital were inherently superior to analog. It’s not. I’ll stop ranting now.The mouse device is adequate. Its default setting seems to lock the scrolling mode once you get it going (you know, with the side of the pad), so it just keeps going. This is very annoying but easily fixed in the device settings, so it doesn't really count as a minus in the grand scheme of things. Still, whoever thought this would be something than people would like to have turned on by default? Geez…
The screen is fantastic. Some people don't like the fact that's it's glossy, but this is probably the highest contrast LCD I've ever seen. When Windows is loading, you see the usual logo against the black background... Well the background is BLACK - not a washed out gray as is almost always the case. The resolution is pretty amazing as well. It's only after I ordered it that I realized it's the same resolution as my 19" FPW 2005 I got over a year ago (1680x1050)! Still can't get over that, now my desktop screen almost seems low res
. The coating doesn't bug me, but it does reflect ambient light quite a bit. If you plan on working outside (I never do) then maybe you want to see it in action to make sure you'll be able to read what's on the screen. The brightness is automatically turned down when the machine runs on battery power, but this can be adjusted. Of course the brighter the image the more power you’ll consume.Perfect segue into the battery. I got the 9-cell battery, and it lasts noticeably longer than any battery I’ve ever had – 3 to 4 hours I think, I haven’t measured. The screen is not the only piece of hardware that scales its power consumption depending on whether you’re plugged in or not – so does the video card.
Another excellent segue! The Catalyst Center for the X1400 (or X1300 I guess) will let you adjust performance at different battery levels (plugged/high battery/low battery). Let me put it this way; you won’t want to play unplugged. If you do, expect to run out of juice quickly. The X1400 is a very decent card though. Don’t expect to play recent shooters at max res all cranked up, but I’m pretty sure Doom 3 or such is possible, I will try it shortly. I’ve installed Civ 4, which works buttery smooth at max res with pretty much all effects turned on, and KotOR, very much playable at 1024x768, most options cranked up as well. Yeah, I know, not the most representative palette of today’s games, but that’s what I’m playing right now. IMPORTANT: the version of the X1300/1400 in the E1505 is not supposed to be supported by ATI directly. If you try to update the drivers, ATI has you download a program that checks whether or not they’ll let you download the actual updated drivers. And it will say “No – blah blah blah – terribly sorry – blah blah – contact your laptop manufacturer- blah.” There is an easy workaround, as all you have to do is find a direct link to the drivers themselves. I have installed these drivers, and they work perfect, as far as I can tell. Because if one must wait for Dell to update their version… I would really, really like to know why Dell feel the need to “proprietarize” the graphics card they put in their laptop. Wouldn’t it be easier to just let ATI deal with the drivers? Or… this is a castrated version of the X1400, missing a feature or two… ? If anybody knows, speak up. (I see now that the Nvidia 7300 Go is an option for the E1505. I have no idea how it compares to the X1300/1400.)
The sound is okay, but realize that getting the “Audigy HD” upgrade will not change the hardware – it’ll still be Sigma Tel integrated audio, NOT Creative – the upgrade only gives you software drivers that allows EAX type effects. These drivers are not available online as far as I can tell, so if you want them, you got to order them… or know someone who did I guess. I’m not going to discuss the merits of EAX, software vs. hardware and so on… but I do feel a bit ripped off, as the ordering process really doesn’t make it clear that you are NOT ordering a better soundcard –in fact it pretty implies that you are. On the other hand, EAX effects can be cool, and with a dual core cpu they can’t eat that much resources, now can they? On the third hand, we’re talking about Creative here. Ahem. Anyhow. The integrated speakers are so so – I’ve heard better on a laptop. Good headphones will solve that problem.
Last few pieces of hardware before moving on to the user experience – the memory, the hard drive, the CPU. I got 1GB of memory, and I understand that many try to order the minimum, 512MB, and upgrade to 1 or 2GB themselves. There are two good reasons for that. One, memory is freaking expensive on dell.com. I mean, we’re talking arm and a leg expensive. Two, the memory doesn’t even match the bus speed. The memory you’ll get is 533MHz, but the bus speed ideally requires 667MHz. The performance boost is probably significant in benchmarks, as far as real world use I don’t know – but I know I do plan to upgrade to 2GB somewhere down the line, and then I might as well put in the “right” speed. The hard drive – I switched my config from 100GB 5400 RPM to 60GB 7200RPM (should be about the same price, give or take $10), because I do know from experience that the hard drive speed plays a big role in the computer’s response time… and I really don’t need 100GB (plus, this is also something that can be updated later on if need be.) Finally the CPU: I guess I didn’t want the slowest one, and the fastest was too expensive. Since I plan on re-encoding my CD collection sometime soon, I’m hoping the T2300 will shave a few seconds per CD of encoding time. On the other hand, I’ll never know if it does. But psychologically speaking, it’s quite the relief, let me tell you.
Now… hardware is nice and all, but how does it all work together? Quite well, thank you for asking. In fact, the damn thing is faster than my desktop, thanks to the dual core CPU I suspect – my AMD-64 3400+ is starting to show its age. Watcha gonna do. So yeah, response time is pretty sweet. Starting Firefox while you have Word open, or vice versa, usually renders the machine unresponsive while the new program loads – not so here. It’s quite nice.
Now about all the crapware… As you may or may not know, Dell loads up new laptops with all kinds of software. Some useful, some not so much, some downright designed to make you buy some service (ISP) or the software itself (Paint Shop Pro is installed as a trial version for example). Many people choose to do a complete reformat. I haven’t done that, as I’ve had good luck so far removing every piece of program I judged suspicious or useless. Clue: if you’re unsure, Google is your friend. And remember that it’s nothing but advertising that in the end, partly pays for your machine. So wipe away, it’s your absolute right, but don’t be bitchy about it – you get what you pay for, or in this case, you get what advertisers have paid for. As far as I’m concerned, this is a sweet deal. That said, you absolutely will want to get rid of most of that crap. You’ll be amazed at how long it takes for Windows to load the first time you boot your system, and how much faster it’ll go once you’ve cleaned up the Startup folder, services, and such. Even some of the legit and paid for stuff isn’t really worth it IMHO. A two year subscription to McAfee services is going to waste as we speak. Give me AVG Free and ZoneAlarm any day of the week…
Miscellaneous: it’s amazingly silent. I mean, the cooling board I use, which I can barely hear, is noisier than the laptop itself. The laptop does tend to run hot however, especially when playing games (combination of cpu+gpu usage).
In conclusion… well read the beginning of the review again
I really, really like my E1505 so far. To me it’s the perfect compromise between size & power, and after coupon(s), it’s quite the deal IMHO.
Questions welcome.
. I haven't witnessed any leakage either.
