I've had a Studio 1535 for about a year now and that's given me plenty of time to get a good idea of how this laptop works.
The first thing I really liked about the machine was that Dell allow you to customise pretty much every aspect when you order online. I was able to maximise both the hard drive size (300Gb) and the RAM (4Gb) as I consider these to be essential for me. I also ordered the larger battery pack which, although it makes the machine heavier, does give me 5 hours of battery life for lighter tasks and doubles as a heat sink by raising the machine up and allowing air to flow underneath to cool it.
Now you might not need specs as high as mine, and the beauty of the online build is that you can choose as wide or narrow range of specs as you need and not pay any more or less than you want to.
Once the machine arrived and I started playing with it, I did have some initial teething troubles. The machine wouldn't stay in sleep mode but, worryingly, would wake itself up when the lid was shut which led to it getting very hot.
Dell were pretty good at helping me out here. They spent a lot of time on the phone with me and, when that didn't work, they had someone come and collect
it for a free fan replacement. Eventually, as that didn't solve the problem, they sent someone to replace the motherboard.
In the end, the problem turned out to be Vista and a Service Pack 1 update has solved all my problems. So, the machine was not to blame but I share this because it illustrated that, while under warranty, Dell provided very good customer service support.
The screen is nice and bright and has a nice range of brightness settings. The keyboard is comfortable and doesn't get too hot while typing on it. I'd like the mouspad to be a little more responsive. The finish on the mouse is glossy and sometimes, if you've a little perspiration on your fingers, the mousepad won't respond to your touch unless you really press hard. But that's a minor gripe.
All the ports are in the right places. There are no ports on the back of the machine so you won't be snapping USB ports by inadvertently tilting the machine up at any point. I've got four USB ports - two left above each other and two on the right next to each other. Curiously, my line in jack has a headphone symbol next to it which is duplicated on the actual headphone input. The jack's aren't faulty but they've obviously got the wrong logo there.
Cleverly the power input on the machine is not fixed to the motherboard but to the inside of the case. That means that jiggling it around (as will happen) will not lead to a short with the motherboard. At worst, you'll need to replace or resolder the power jack to the inside of the case. This is a Good Thing.
The CD drive is not your pop out type. It takes the disks in and even works with little mini CDs. At first, having never had one, I was worried about disks getting stuck in there. But they never have. On the one or two times that the eject button hasn't worked a quick reboot always makes it.
I've been able to remove the keyboard and cover from the top of the machine to give it a clean. It's good that this is straightforward for those who are happy to do light maintenance like this. It meant that I could get right into where dust collected near the fan and blow that out. This means the machine should last longer with this user maintenance.
In terms of robustness, i think the machine is holding up well. It looks pretty much like it did when I took it out the box a year ago and I've had this thing around the world from the UK to Papua New Guinea. Once, I walked into a door handle while carrying it. The corner of the casing above the screen made contact with it and I picked up a deep scratch about a cm long. It was quite a whack but didn't do the lid much damage.
Overall, I'm really happy with the machine. There are only two things that I think Dell could do better with next time and these involve the touch sensitive media buttons along the top of the keyboard. These control media playback (stop, play, ffd, rew etc) as well as volume.
Firstly, they're not illuminated until you touch them which means you can't see them against the black casing. It's taken me a year to train myself to jab a finger in the right direction. I've even thought of putting stickers there to guide me. You'll want to mute the sound and find yourself pressing the button to skip a track. Aaarghh!
Dell should also give up any hope of taking over the world's media player market. The machine comes bundled with Dell Media something or other. It was lousy and I uninstalled it only to find that the 'start media player' button above the keyboard cannot be mapped to any other media player. it sits there uselessly now. Come on Dell, don't sulk if I don't like your media player, make it mappable!
Would I recommend the machine. Yep I would!
PS - the specific criteria I've rated according to my own machine.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
(+) positive aspects include the speed, apperance/design of the laptop, and the enhanced performance. (-) i have a matt black laptop and it shows dirty finger prints.
Channel DDR2 SDRAM [1x2048 + 1x1024] - Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit- English - 250GB (5,400rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive - 15.6in Widescreen High
Postage & Packaging: see site for shipping costs Availability: 3-7 days
Studio 1555 Pentium Dual Core T4200(2.0GHz,800MHz,1MB) 160GB (5,400 rpm) Sata Hard Drive ... more
Dell Wireless 1397 (802.11 b g) Graphics Intel Integrated GMA 4500MHD 6 cell 56W HR LI-ION Battery Camera Integrated 2.0 Mega Pixel Camera Power Supply And Pow...
Studio 1555 Pentium Dual Core T4200(2.0GHz,800MHz,1MB) 160GB (5,400 rpm) Sata Hard Drive ... more
Dell Wireless 1397 (802.11 b g) Graphics Intel Integrated GMA 4500MHD 6 cell 56W HR LI-ION Battery Camera Integrated 2.0 Mega Pixel Camera Power Supply And Pow...
Advantages: Wide Screen, Integrated Webcam & Card Reader,WiFi Access, Blue-ray Drive, Two Headphone Ports Disadvantages: Mic Problem, No Bluetooth Access
Darvaish 28.05.2009 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
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