Dell Inspiron 1720 Review
It has been marketed as the all-purpose laptop from DELL. Now the DELL Inspiron 15 comes with a scintillating bright display, aesthetically pleasing attributes and got support. The software built in is also quite pleasing. Its current market price of around $500 is quite reasonable considering the features in this multiutility product.
Its design is quite frugal and does not disturb the senses too much. It comes with a black coloured lid in the standard edition. There are no flashy designs and it comes with matte lid with a standard edition. It has a nine colour option that can be customised at an additional cost of about $40.This customisation is possible via the website and the choice of colour is there in the website. The inside in the black standard edition has a glossy finish. The keyboards and touch pad gels well with the rest of the body, as the rather sturdy and responsive keys performed well under duress.
The speakers are framed onto the panels around the display and have a good sense of placement.
Weighing 5.8pounds it is not lightweight, however it can be carried around with not much trouble. Comparing it with the 6.8Lb range of some of the other similar notebooks it is quite light infact!
Now getting over the looks and feel of the notebook, the Dell Inspiron 15 comes with an array of connection options. Particularly a three USB, VGA and Ethernet. Also the regulation headphone and microphone. Nothing out of the ordinary here. There is an ExpressCard3/4 slot and a 7-in-1-card reader, which is quite basic actually.
The display is quite nice and uniform and 15.6 inch is quite good. At 1366×768 pixels it gives enough brightness and viewing angles give privacy. Watching the climax of ‘Gone with the wind’ the optical drive was a bit sluggish, however quite acceptable.
Checking out the speakers which itself are quite loud, the sound quality left something to be desired.
However the lack of HDMI port and a web cam are felt quite a bit.(although one can customise and have these features)
System specification is a 2 GHz Intel core 2 duo T6400 processor with
3GB 800MHz DDR2 RAM
250GB, 5400 SATA hard drive
It operates on a mobile Intel PM 45 express chipset.
And much like the norm for new products it runs on the windows vista premium!
However in spite of this being a medium level mainstream notebook, it is extremely customisable and has a solid features.
Priced in the $500 range, it appears a good bargain for a personal use or small business needs.
However if one compares it to products in the same range, the ToshibaE1440 (comes with a price tag of $900) or the Asus Eee PC 1005(most economical of the lot at about $380) and the Dell’s own s1440 are the main considerations. Dells own il545-012B is a stiff competitor and has great user feedback.
The need for an upgrade might be there in case of personal requirements and different options are available.
Overall a good package, sturdy and capable of multitasking and good for personal use and small business needs.