Dell Inspiron 1564: Mobile i3/i5 for the Masses
by Dustin Sklavos on March 3, 2010 11:01 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Dell Inspiron 1564: A Lightweight "DTR"
Dell's targeting the consumer market with the Inspiron 15, and it certainly does have a lot to offer. The Intel Core i5-520M in our review unit may almost be a bit too much for a unit that otherwise seems fairly stripped down, but otherwise the overall build is well-rounded. The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 isn't going to break any speed records, but it serves its purpose. The chassis is indeed quite light and attractive despite the glossy plastics, and though the fan can get noisy under heavy load, at least hot spots don't materialize under the palm rests or keyboard.
If we had to single out a bright spot for the Inspiron 15, it would be the general build quality and design. Physically it's very attractive and the keyboard has a smart layout that doesn't make too many sacrifices to fit the numeric keypad. The whole thing is sturdy and enjoyable to use. Dell's designers seem to understand the importance of user experience extending beyond simple metrics like system performance. Simply put, the Inspiron 15 is largely a joy to use. For the casual user who's interested in some light gaming, the optional Radeon HD 4330 is also going to be plenty adequate.
The essential problem with the Inspiron 15 is really how stripped-down it feels. While it's lovely, limitations start to creep to the surface as you continue to use it. Three USB ports is really a bare minimum at this point (ASUS tends to offer as many as five on their laptops), and without FireWire or eSATA, backing up data to an external hard disk is going to become aggravatingly slow in short order. These omissions would be forgivable if Dell at least included an ExpressCard slot, but that's nowhere to be found either. There's plenty of room on the 15.6" chassis for some additional ports, and we'd like to see Dell make use of it. The kind of processing power modern Intel processors offer makes them ideal for the home video editor, but the Inspiron 15 has no way of facilitating that. Likewise, the 10/100 Ethernet connectivity and 802.11g wireless networking are both painful omissions. The design is beautiful, but it seems they had to strip too much to get it where it is.
If you're looking for a notebook that's both large enough to be practical as a desktop replacement and light enough to be transported, the Inspiron 15 definitely has something to offer you. It's more than serviceable as a general computing machine, and though the optional ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 isn't ideal for gaming, it's still up to the task. The battery life isn't stellar but it's nowhere near terrible, either. It's just a shame the unit isn't more expandable, because the omissions Dell made are the kinds of choices that keep it from being a slam dunk. If you're not interested in the multimedia aspects of computing, some of the omissions won't matter much, but in that case you very likely have no use for the i5-520M CPU. Stick with the base models of the Inspiron 15 with i3-330M and you'll get a lot more value for your dollar; otherwise, you might find the Dell Studio line to be more to your liking.
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fett327 - Thursday, March 4, 2010 - link
I am assuming that since these are the new H55 based chipsets, hopefully the HDMI port will be about to output a 5.1 track? Or possibly also a DTS-HD or TrueHd track that comes off a bluray?It would be a shame if the HDMI ould output stereo. Can anyone confirm or deny?
warezme - Thursday, March 4, 2010 - link
I wouldn't buy any of these if I were serious about decent gaming. How sad.PyroHoltz - Thursday, March 4, 2010 - link
Where are all the Ultra Mobiles built on the arrandale chips?JarredWalton - Thursday, March 4, 2010 - link
Rumor is that Arrandale ULV has experienced delays and will show up some time in the next ~3 months.cjcoats - Thursday, March 4, 2010 - link
I recently had that experience buying a 2-socket Nehalem workstation from Dell. We're even having to do hardware installation for ourselves ("We'll sell you a SSD but we won't install it"). It was so bad that if it had been up to me instead of the bean-counters, I'd have said "to H--- with this" and purchased from a different vendor (at least two of which were quite willing to deliver exactly the requested configuration).FWIW
crydee - Thursday, March 4, 2010 - link
I've been following laptop progression for awhile now. I'm picking out a new one in summer for Grad school. Every article I read I still want whatever Asus UL will be out around then. These Dell's just don't stack up and for the $ when Asus offers free accidental coverage for a year as well.therealnickdanger - Thursday, March 4, 2010 - link
I know I've said this before and perhaps others have as well, but it would be nice if AT could add a "classic" gaming suite to its benchmarks. If a 'puter can muster over 60fps in games like FC2, obviously it can run older games just fine, but once you enter this mainstream and lower-end market, gaming performance is suspect.We're looking at this laptop that does 20-89fps, depending on the game. IMO, the biggest reason to use a gaming laptop is for LAN parties and mobile multiplayer: WoW, CS:S, UT3, L4D, Halo. If I'm in the minority and my request is unreasonable, so be it, but I believe there is a large gap in AT's gaming benchmarks when it comes to mid-to-low systems. I don't care how well the Core i3 IGP plays Crysis at 1080p, but its performance in the above games at 720p would interest many people.
We can assume a lot, but concrete numbers are nice to have.
LtGoonRush - Thursday, March 4, 2010 - link
Another laptop that continues the trend of taking a decent platform and pairing it with a dedicated GPU too slow to be useful. Have the major OEMs lost all ability to build a balanced system? For comparison, the Acer Aspire AS5740G-6979 for $799 at Newegg has a slightly lower-clocked CPU, larger HDD, and a Mobility Radeon HD 5650 1GB.strikeback03 - Thursday, March 4, 2010 - link
I hate everyone trying for a "balanced system", it means pretty much everything with a fast CPU has a GPU that I don't need.JarredWalton - Thursday, March 4, 2010 - link
Or there's the http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/671930-REG/A...">ASUS N61J for ~$1050 with 5730 and an i7-720QM... though battery life is going to suck on that, I'd wager. The Inspiron 15 is decent as a lower cost model, but the i5-520M is overpowered for what you get.