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Dell Inspiron 1520

Yes! I bought a laptop for myself, the Dell Inspiron 1520 (Black). Must say, it’s quite a beauty with the matte finish.

Dell Inspiron 1520

Though delivery time was a bit long (13 days), I got it finally with all the accessories as mentioned in the order, so no surprises. I bought the following configuration :

    Intel(R) Core(TM)2Duo Processor T5250 1.5Ghz 2MB Cache, 667Mhz FSB
    1 GB (2×512MB) DDR2 SDRAM
    15.4 Widescreen WXGA+ Display
    160 GB SATA HDD (5400 RPM)
    Nvidia(R) Geforce(TM) 8400M GS - 128MB GDDR2
    Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy Advanced HD Audio Software
    Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Module
    Intel Pro Wireless 3945 Dual Band 802.11a/g Wirless Mini Card
    Camera
    Dell (TM) Remote Control
    Internal 8X DVD+/-RW combination drive with dual layer write capabilities
    6-cell 53 WHr Lithium Ion Primary Battery

Windows Vista (with Aero) runs fine, although I don’t see much difference between Vista and XP. There are some unrequired features that you may want to turn off. See this link for some help.

All the hardware components, like Bluetooth, Camera, Touchpad, DVD Writer were configured properly. So, there were no glitches with the default installation. Speakers in the front performs well and battery performance is quite good as well.

But there are some other nuisances, I must say when you decide to change the partitioning, either reducing the size of C drive or installing another operating system.

  • I must say that partitioning scheme is crazy. I had 140-145 GB as one partition, C: for Windows Vista. Then there was one recovery partition taking around 10GB of space. And there is also a 2-3GB space allocated for Dell Media Direct.

    Now, since I wanted to install Linux along with it, but I couldn’t due to this partitioning scheme. All these partitions were primary. So, I needed to delete a partition (basically C:) and repartition the whole system. Anyway, I had to do that. Installed Dell Media Direct also, but lost the recovery partition.

  • Hard Disk is another disappointment. It makes a irritating crackling sound already (typical Seagate HDD!). Though otherwise, it works fine. I kept the laptop running for 10-12 hrs, doesnt get too heated. Works fine absolutely except the irritating HDD noise. I think I need to get it replaced to a non-Seagate drive.

The next step is to install Linux (Ubuntu most probably).

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