Dell Vostro 1500

Specs:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T5470 (1.6Ghz)
• 2GB 677Mhz DDR2 SDRAM (upgradable to 4)
• 120G 5400RPM Hard Drive
• nVidia GeForce 8600M GT, 256MB
• 8x DVD Burner with Double Layer capability
• 15.4” widescreen anti-glare screen (1280x800)
• Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate)
• Dell Wireless 1505 Mini-Card (Pre-802.11n)
• 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
• Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic

Build:

The Dell Vostro 1500 like most of the Dell Laptops is extremely sturdy and has an excellent build quality. The build quality is reflection upon its weight as well. Yes, the laptop is extremely heavy! In total, the system carries a weight of monstrous 8.4 pounds! Well this laptop is not at all easy to carry around. The LEDs have a nice saturated blue color, though Dell was inconsistent in the styling. Several lights, including the battery level LEDs, the CD drive LED, and the “Wi-Fi Catcher” LED are green. In addition, the low battery light is an odd shade of hot pink, which fits with nothing else in the system.The build of the screen is a not quite as good as the rest of the notebook.

Performance:

There are also some strikingly odd touches in the specification of the Vostro 1500. Dell claims the graphics card, an Nvidia 8600M GT in this particular specification, is for "web design, programming and CAD applications", although it's extremely rare that these applications will make much use of a gaming processor. It does, however, make the Vostro incongruously good at games: it scored 19fps in our Call of Duty 2 test at its medium settings. The optical drive could have been better.
The rest of the specification is ample. The 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo T7100 is powerful enough to ensure responsiveness in high-end applications, and there's a healthy 2GB of RAM to keep Windows Vista happy. The Hard disk space is quite ample for business user with 160GB.

The heat generation of the laptop while running high requirement software and games is not that comfortable. The left side of the laptop burns up and be sure not to get your finger near that side. Even though the heat is an uncomfortable factor, the system does not generate much noise which is a plus point.

As the Vostro 1500 customizable notebook is wireless, it makes it easier for the users to carry the notebook with ease. There is the attractive HyperConnect feature which helps in working virtually whenever and wherever required. Bluetooth technology is also a main feature of this notebook which enables connecting wireless peripherals, such as headphones, mouse and keyboard.

Battery:

This battery extends about three-fourths of an inch past the edge of the computer, and spans nearly the entire back. On full brightness, while connected to a wireless access point and watching a DVD, I managed to squeeze 3 hours and 20 minutes out of the battery before it abruptly went into standby. This seems adequate for most purposes, and it is likely that with lower power consumption would yield above four hours, a reasonable amount of time for a desktop replacement machine.

Conclusion:

The Dell Vostro 1500 is a moderately powerful and relatively inexpensive system for businesses and home users alike. Its good build quality and good configuration options allow it to be an excellent and versatile machine for many different applications.