Dell has been on something of a roll recently. Its new range of XPS notebooks, the M1330 (dell inspiron 700m battery )and M1530 were both great machines, while its desktop offerings, like the XPS 420, haven't been half bad either. But let it not be said that Dell has had things all its own way, because there have been a few turkeys lodged in there too - the XPS M1730 springs to mind.
Another underwhelming effort was the previous Inspiron laptop, the Inspiron 1520. Though it introduced some new elements, such as a range of colourful finishes, it was bulky and uninspiring in a time when notebooks were becoming slimmer and easier to handle. Indeed, the new XPS notebooks were very much the response to such criticisms and Dell seems to have taken the lessons learnt there and applied them to its replacement, the Inspiron 1525.
If you don't like the specifications of the particular Dell Inspiron 1525 (dell inspiron 1525 battery )we tested, you can easily configure your own online. That's an important difference between this unit and most other inexpensive laptops: you can customise it down to the smallest detail - even lid colour - before finally clicking the 'Buy now' button .
Our review unit will please those for whom good performance is a priority.
Equipped with 2GB of memory and the best notebook CPU Dell offered for this model at the time of our review (a 1.66GHz Core 2 Duo T5450), our £429 Windows Vista Home Premium machine earned a WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 78. That's 17 percent faster than the average sub-£500 laptop's score of 65.
The Dell Inspiron 1525 is wedge-shaped but svelte at 2.8kg, including a 15.4in 1,280x800 resolution screen, a DVD writer and a good keyboard. The port variety and layout is fine (the Dell Inspiron 1525 is one of the few notebooks in this price range with an HDMI connection).
And the Dell Inspiron 1525 gives multimedia lovers lots of entertainment features: an instant-on button, a webcam, and even dual headphone jacks. Alas, the raspy-sounding speakers take some of the shine off the 1525's entertainment appeal.
The real beauty of the Dell Inspiron 1525 (dell inspiron 8600 battery )is its customisability. For instance, our glossy screen (a no-extra-cost option at the time of our review) was pretty reflective, so you might be happier with Dell's standard antiglare screen. From a base configuration of £329 inc VAT, you can build your perfect sub-£500 laptop that includes a lid in any one of 11 different colours (£30 usually), Bluetooth (£30) an integrated mobile broadband card (£89), and so on.
An entry level 15.4in notebook, the 1525 (dell latitude d600 battery )shares a very similar wedge shaped base to that of the XPS M1530. This is definitely not a bad thing. Dell quotes a starting weight of 2.7kg with a four-cell battery, but we found it weighed exactly that with a standard six-cell battery. This is a very decent weight for a notebook of this size, while the quoted thickness of 25mm to 37mm, front to back, means it feels slim and elegant.
An entry level 15.4in notebook, the 1525 shares a very similar wedge shaped base to that of the XPS M1530. This is definitely not a bad thing. Dell quotes a starting weight of 2.7kg with a four-cell battery, but we found it weighed exactly that with a standard six-cell battery. This is a very decent weight for a notebook of this size, while the quoted thickness of 25mm to 37mm, front to back, means it feels slim and elegant.
Overall, initial impressions of the Inspiron 1525 are almost entirely positive. Its new slimmer and lighter frame is a massive step forward, while the selection of lid designs is exhaustive. Inside things look good too; with nice textured sliver plastic and handy touch-sensitive media controls ripped more or less directly from the XPS range. Dell has also borrowed a trick from HP by sinking the touch pad into the chassis, and the keyboard is truly excellent, with light, crisp and responsive keys that make typing a breeze.
Again, the keyboard is identical to that found on the XPS range, but not everything is the same. You don't get a slot-loading optical drive and the battery packs lack the useful little battery meter that the premium line has. But, though the 1525 (dell latitude d800 battery )is noticeably cheaper, it doesn't look or feel like a cheap laptop, so you needn't feel embarrassed to own one - quite the contrary, in fact.
Dell received some much needed attention in 2007 with the introduction of the sleek, high performance XPS M1330 (dell latitude d610 battery )and XPS M1530 notebooks. Although these more expensive notebooks in the Dell lineup were praised for their looks and low weight, the Dell Inspiron 1520 was criticized for being yet another bulky and unattractive laptop. Dell listened closely to this criticism when they designed the new Inspiron 1525. The Inspiron 1525 is in fact 25% smaller, 30% slimmer and almost half a pound lighter than the Inspiron 1520.
In addition to the eight color options available on other Inspiron notebooks, the 1525 (dell latitude x200 battery )offers four new patterns. These designs are inlaid molds so there's no risk of the design coming off.
The 6-cell 56WHr Li-Ion battery provides excellent battery life for the 1525. With Vista's power management running in "high performance" mode, screen brightness set to maximum and wireless on, the 6-cell battery delivered 2 hours and 53 minutes of battery life. We're certain that the 6-cell could deliver three and a half hours of life with the notebook set to "balanced" or "power saver" mode and the screen brightness turned down.
There is also an available 9-cell 85WHr Li-Ion battery for those users needing extended battery life. One thing to mention is that with the 9-cell battery in you get an overall larger dimension for the notebook as the 9-cell battery sticks out of the back of the notebook.
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