T-Mobile Sidekick 4G: Great Keyboard, Funky UI

laptopbatterymag.com:Those who rocked older Sidekicks a few years back should definitely find vgp-bps10/s battery that the new version carries the torch well. Now built by Samsung, the latest incarnation boasts access to T-Mobile’s 4G data network plus all the powerful apps that Android 2.2 offers. Running a 1GHz Coretex A8 Hummingbird CPU, the phone felt responsive to us. The Sidekick 4G features an excellent keyboard

with solid, clicky feel; a sturdy spring-loaded hinge, vgp-bps13b/q battery and a revamped UI.

Muvee Unveils HD Video Editing Tool for Android

A company with a long history in mobile video since the days vgp-bps10/b battery of the first Nokia N90 for Symbian, Muvee has a new solution up its sleeve. According to Muvee, this new technology will allow for fast video edits right on Android smart phones.

Based on CODEN (Compressed Domain Editing Engine), a platform which Muvee had previously announced, these new tools will allow for quick editing of HD video on mobile Android devices, without the need for the robust CPU horsepower resident on more powerful laptop vgp-bps13a/q battery and desktop computers.

We met with Terence Swee, Founder and CEO of Movee to find out how it works. According the Mr. Swee, today’s smart phones have become both extremely powerful video capture and computing devices , or as he jokingly put vgp-bps10a/b battery “Camputers”. The problem, says Twee, is that the image capture prowess of phones has not kept up with their CPU might.

Muvee circumvents his issue by editing vgp-bps13/q battery and altering only the software

container of video, and not working with the raw and copious amount of data within. The result is nimble editing which we observed first hand. Sadly, this Muvee platform is being pitched to wireless carriers, toshiba pa3535u-1brs battery and not directly to consumers via an app in the Android Market. This video lays out the basic operation.

That said, Muvee also demoed an interesting Android app that the company is working on, called the Social Picture Frame. It, as it’s name implies, will pull images from various social networking sites such as Twitter Toshiba PA3534U-1BRS Battery and Facebook. It will also integrate heavily with these services. Take a look at our video for a better view.

T-Mobile’s 42 Mbps Rocket 3.0 Faster Than LTE

T-Mobile is doubling down at CTIA on 4G, literally. The carrier has announced that it has lit up Orlando, Las Vegas, vgp-bps21/s battery and New York with a network upgrade that can deliver theoretical download speeds of 42 Mbps. Since we’re in Orlando, we swung by T-Mobile’s both to see just how fast T-Mobile is getting.

Using the new T-Mobile Rocket 3.0 data stick, vgp-bps21a/b battery made by ZTE, we saw a blazing download rate of 25 Mbps. That’s on a par or faster that the best speeds we’ve seen from Verizon’s LTE data sticks. Upload speeds weren’t as impressive, registering 2.7 Mbps, compared to 5 to 12 Mbps for LTE. Still, if these speeds hold true, T-Mobile’s network

will definitely lap Sprint’s Mobile WiMax, which peaks at 10 Mbps.

T-Mobile says that it will continue to expand its 42 Mbps upgrades to Chicago, Long Island, N.Y, vgp-bps21b battery and North New Jersey, and that 140 million Americans in 25 cities will see increased 4G speeds by mid-year. No word yet on pricing for the Rocket 3.0, but it will go on sale later this spring.

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dell laptop battery

When we last reviewed the Dell Inspiron E1505 (dell e1505 battery), the notebook’s rich multimedia features, wireless performance, and strong battery life garnered it an Editors’ Choice award. Now, Dell follows up the E1505 with the 1501 ($844, as tested here), a low-priced alternative and the first Dell machine to house an AMD processor. It’s also Vista capable and Premium ready–something you’re not going to find with run-of-the-mill value notebooks. The 1501 (inspiron 1520 battery )gives you solid performance at a decent price, but what you gain in savings you lose in functionality.The inexpensive Dell Inspiron 1501 doesn’t have all the extra media-centric features or quick-launch keys you’ll find on similarly priced notebooks from Acer and Hewlett-Packard. This $974 laptop does have other things going for it, however—namely, respectable performance and a superb display.Decked out in silver, white, and dark gray, the Inspiron 1501 won’t be mistaken for a business notebook, but its looks are suitably understated for the meeting room. The laptop measures 1.4×14x10.5 inches and weighs 6.2 pounds, straddling the line between travel companion and stay-at-home desktop replacement. It has a sturdy build, too, and feels like it could take a few knocks.The 15.4-inch WXGA (1,280×800-resolution) display, which uses Dell’s contrast-improving TrueLife technology, is definitely a highlight. Text was sharp, and DVDs and Vista’s Aero interface looked great. An integrated ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 (dell d820 battery )adapter that shares up to 256MB of system memory powers the graphics. Casual gamers won’t be disappointed with this chip.The 1501 came configured with a six-cell battery, which enabled us to go unplugged for a solid 3 hours and 16 minutes of life with Wi-Fi on, and an additional two minutes with the wireless connection off. Wireless throughput measured a robust 12.6 Mbps at 15 feet from our access point, and 13.2 Mbps from 50. This is a slight improvement over the E1505’s measurements of 12 Mbps and 9.9 Mbps from the same distances.Despite the missing multimedia controls, the 1501 offers plenty of other ports and jacks: four USB, VGA, headphone and microphone jacks, and a 3-in-1 memory card reader. This is a step down from the E1505, which featured all of those connections plus S-Video, FireWire, a 5-in-1 card reader, and optional Bluetooth. You’ll also find an ExpressCard slot, but nothing for a PCMost of the owners of Inspiron laptops criticize the design of their computers. Not surprisingly, most of the modified laptops are Inspirons e1505/1501 (dell b120 battery , dell b130 battery). In my opinion, designers were having an “off day” when they created those white bumpers. Maybe the most annoying thing about the design is that certain parts of the notebook do not match others. For example, the keyboard, touchpad, and screen have a “keep-it-simple” design (nothing shinny, nothing stylish) while the back of the lid makes a quite different impression.?Despite these style blemishes, the Dell Inspiron 1501 (dell latitude d620 battery )has some charm in its design.The overall build quality is quite good. The chassis feels sturdy, it does not creak when lifted on any of the corners. Applying even a quite strong force on the back of the lid does not make ripples on the screen appear. The screen hinges are tough and keep LCD in place. You will need to use both hands to open the lid. That said, there are places which deform when excessive pressure is applied, but this isn’t an issue. The one negative might be that the screen latch does not feel sturdy — it has a “floating” feeling as you can both move it up/down and left/right — but it holds the screen perfectly well.A very nice feature is that you only need to remove two screws to access the memory modules, WiFi card or HDD. A little more effort is required to access the CPU (I was not that curious).Other budget notebooks we’ve seen have dedicated media-player controls, independent buttons for switching off wireless radios, and a healthy assortment of input/output options, but the Inspiron 1501 falls very short in this area. If having extras like these (and a few more configuration options) is important to you, we recommend stepping up to Dell’s Inspiron E1505 (dell xps m1530 battery). For a couple of hundred dollars more, you get slightly improved specs and lots of extras. Most users, however, will be satisfied with the basic array of connectivity here: four USB 2.0 ports, mic and headphone jacks, a VGA monitor out, an SD/MultiMediaCard slot, and Ethernet and modem ports. Also aboard are an ExpressCard slot and a double-layer DVD±RW drive.The keyboard function keys are marked with icons for easy access to actions such as adjusting volume and screen brightness, switching to an external monitor, and turning on and off the built-in 802.11b/g wireless networking. The keyboard itself is a bit mushy for our tastes, as are the touch-pad buttons, though all are a comfortable size. Speakers at the front of the notebook push (hp dv6000 battery) out clear, loud sound.Dell did a good job outfitting our review model with capable core hardware. Its dual-core 1.6GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-50 processor, aided by 2GB of DDR2 memory, turned in impressive results in our tests and certainly has enough pep to run Vista Home Premium. Battery life was comparable with that of other notebooks in its class, which means it’ll get less than two hours on a full charge (1 hour and 41 minutes, to be exact).For storage, our test unit had a 60GB hard drive. Factor in formatting, as well as the space taken up by the OS, its applications, miscellaneous software Dell includes, and the partitioned section for the built-in system restore, and you’re left with only 40GB. The other notebooks in this roundup have the same problem, but because they have 120GB drives, plenty of room is still left over for files. If you’re not using the notebook as a primary computer, you can get by with 40GB, but an extra $35 will buy you an upgrade to an 80GB drive.Dell includes a standard one-year parts-and-labor warranty, as well as 24/7 tech support.Although the Dell Inspiron 1501 demonstrated stronger wireless performance than the Dell Inspiron E1505 (dell d400 battery)and has a lower price point, we can’t recommend the notebook over its far more functional predecessor. If you’re looking for a decent machine that won’t break the bank, it’s worth a look. Just remember, you get exactly what you pay for.Anyone buying a PC from a well known manufacturer like Dell, HP or IBM hopes to get a good customer support. No surprise, Dell provides fast and pleasant-to-use support. I had to contact them about several minor questions and replies came back very fast.After several weeks I noticed that my laptop did not have a DVD-RW, it only had a DVD Combo. Since DVD-RW is a necessity nowadays and the optical drive cannot be changed in this PC, I went directly to the retailer. They contacted a local Dell office and I got my refund in two days. Sadly, I had to buy a new laptop or risk losing a tax refund from the government. Because they did not have any Dells left in stock, I had to go with another PC. ?

dell latitude d820 laptop review

Traditionally Dell has had two primary sections in the notebook department, one for business and one for consumers. The business section, unsurprisingly, would consist of notebooks right for business, a spartan or basic configuration containing only those options truly needed to do your work. Consumers, on the other hand, had more choices in terms of options for multimedia enhancements, different designs, or maybe even more cutting edge technology built-in. But now times have changed and both selections have overlapping configurations for each notebook flavor.
The business section is basically divided into two series, Precision and Latitude. Precisions are more cutting edge technology, sacrificing some stability for the latest features, which might have some instability possibly caused by new drivers. Latitudes are the more conventional choice for businesses offering increased stability due to being built on a proven platform.

Today we have the pleasure of reviewing the Latitude D820 (dell latitude d820 battery)series which falls into the high-end of the Latitude range and it’s our very first of many new notebook reviews here at TweakTown. While this notebook is listed under Dell's business section it actually boasts some nice features for an entertainment system, including a WUXGA display (that is 1900x1200 pixels to you and me) and HD audio.

Is this a perfect all round notebook for work (boo!) and fun (yay!)? Let us get cracking on this review and find out

As a high school graduation gift, my parents bought me a Dell Latitude D820 15.4" widescreen notebook. While Dell's Inspiron line is squarely aimed at the consumer market, the Latitude line is geared more towards the academic, small business, and corporate user. This is evidenced by the Latitudes' superior build quality, sober styling, lack of media-centric features, and higher price. Price-wise and size-wise, the Latitude D820 (dell latitude d620 battery)sits atop the thin-and-light 14" widescreen D620 and the budget oriented 14" standard-aspect D520 in the Latitude lineup. The D820 is an updated version of the D810 and features the Intel Core Duo processor to replace the D810's Pentium M as well a significant weight reduction from the D810. According to CNET Labs

Features Overview

While the HP had the nicest graphics card of them all (ATI Radeon x1600) and would have allowed me to play the latest games, I ruled it out because of price (>$2,000). My budget was limited to ~$1,500 max.

The IBM ThinkPad has long been legendary in the corporate world for its durable portability, excellent support, and strong management software suit. I came to the decision, however, that I did not want to pay the significant premium for the ThinkPad's class-leading ruggedness, which I probably had no use for anyway. The ThinkPad T60 was aimed more towards the road warrior. I, however, was not going to be traveling much with the laptop save for the occasional trek from the dorm to the library and back.

That left me with the perennial value-king Dell. For hundreds of dollars cheaper than a similarly spec'd 14" ThinkPad T60, I was able to price out a 15.4" Dell Latitude D820. A comparably equipped D620 checked in at about $150 less. I settled on the D820 (dell inspiron 1525 battery)because I figured I wouldn't be traveling much with this notebook and would not be carrying it to class on a daily basis. Thus, I thought I would benefit more from the increased productivity of the D820's 15.4" screen (and higher resolution) than the increased portability of the D620.

Shopping Experience

When we purchased my machine, Dell was having a sale which involved a $350 instant rebate on all Latitudes, sweetening the deal some more. I configured the machine on the Dell Small Busines website. Almost every component of the machine was highly configurable, something that IBM/Lenovo and HP could learn from, and the online shopping experience was, overall, very pleasant. After having pulled the trigger, I realized that I did not select the option for the Bluetooth card. I called up Dell Small Business and asked them to add the card. It was too late to modify my original order but the associate was very helpful. Though the sale price was no longer in effect for the new order, she let me add the discount retroactively. The wait times to speak to an agent were negligible (definitely not the case with my past experiences with Dell Home) and the agent herself was polite and helpful. The total price for my D820 (after adding the Bluetooth card) came to $1496.25, which I felt was a good deal, especially since the Latitude line rarely goes on sale.

First Impressions

When I first uncased the D820 from its Styrofoam packaging, I was impressed by the solidness of its build. It felt sturdy and the laptop casing didn't flex when handled. The case is billed as being magnesium alloy and most of the notebook's body looks as if it is. The laptop was about as thin as I expected but it was a bit heavier than I thought it would be. It's not an uncomfortable heft but one that implies a certain quality of build. At first glance, the notebook is not awe-inspiring but it is pleasing to the eye with an understated charcoal gray finish. At first blush, a tastefully styled (though by no means beautiful) and well-built notebook. Also included in the packaging were the user manual, software and OS CDs, and the AC power adapter.

Build & Design

The D820 has a magnesium alloy body that is supposed to protect the laptop from flexing and the wear-and-tear of corporate travel and use. The whole underside and lid of the laptop feel like metal but, unfortunately, the wrist rests are plastic. Thus, there is some amount of flex when handling that area but by no means is the amount of flex disturbing. The rest of the notebook, however, is very rigid.

Screen

The screen is most likely the Achilles heel of the D820, if it has one. The screen is 15.4" diagonal and is matte, not glossy. The trend in most consumer notebooks is towards the glossy screens which feature vivid colors and higher brightness for the benefit of gaming, movie-watching, and photo-viewing. Most business machines, however, still come with the old-style matte screens which are more suited for office rather than multimedia tasks. Unfortunately, the D820's matte screen is not very bright and the higher brightness settings drain the battery quickly. A cool feature is the automatic light-sensor which adjusts screen brightness based on ambient light conditions. This is useful when running on battery power or when using the notebook in different settings but I ended up turning this feature off because it oftentimes results in an unacceptably dim screen.

My D820 came with the WSXGA+ (1680x1050) screen. The other options were the base WXGA+ (1280x800) screen and the ultra-high resolution WUXGA (1900x1200). I am used to the WSXGA+ resolution on my Dell monitor and I chose it because I thought it was a good balance between screen real estate and legibility of fonts and icons. I could have gone with the highest resolution option and increased the Windows DPI and font sizes (indeed the WSXGA+ and WUXGA models ship with 120 DPI setting out of the box) but browsers and other applications do not always adhere to Windows settings. I changed the 120DPI setting to 96DPI because it made Windows fonts too large and screwed up graphics on web pages. I think I made the right choice here because the WUXGA display would have yielded fonts and icons too small for even my young eyes.

Sound & Multimedia

It is no secret that laptop speakers are bad. They usually feature tinny sound, distorted highs, and nonexistent bass. The Latitude D820's speakers are no exception though admittedly not the worst I've heard. The D820 (dell inspiron 1520 battery )being a business machine, I didn't expect any better. At least on the D820 you get stereo sound with a speaker on either side of the keyboard; on its cousin the Latitude D620 there is but one speaker. The volume is adequate for me but I don't like to listen to music at high volumes. Using Sennheiser HD-202 headphones plugged into the side-mounted headphone jack, the sound improves significantly and is clear, accurate, and mostly distortion-free. The sound subsystem on the D820 is controlled by the Sigmatel audio chipset.

The D820 provides just volume control and mute buttons above the keyboard as opposed to the various media buttons found on most consumer laptops. While not absolutely necessary on a business notebook, it would have been nice to have a few more control buttons like play, pause, etc. for controlling Windows Media Player, PowerDVD, or WinAmp.

Processor & Graphics Performance

My D820 came with a 1.83GHz Core Duo processor and by all measures it's a speed demon. I choose two 512MB sticks (total 1GB) to take advantage of dual channel memory capability which in theory doubles the bandwidth of the pipe from the RAM to the memory controller. I also chose the 667MHz RAM over the standard 533MHz. I wasn't sure of the utility of this faster memory but my logic was that the Core Duo has a 667MHz front side bus and I would need the RAM to match that speed if I were to maximize performance. Startup times on my D820 (dell inspiron b120 battery )(dell inspiron b130 battery)are fast but not as fast as I expected. The machine takes 28.34 seconds to reach the login screen from a cold boot. Thus far the laptop has been snappy in every day usage such as internet browsing and word processing as well as during benchmarking. Applications load quickly as do Control Panel and My Computer and there's a good degree of responsiveness to all user inputs. I have not had a single hang, lockup, freeze, or BSOD so far. I haven't installed any games on this machine so I cannot attest to the performance of the Quadro NVS 120 graphics solution, the workstation version of NVIDIA's consumer GeForce 7400 graphics solution. Do not expect stellar game performance out this card however my D820 received 670 3DMarks on the 3DMark06 benchmark.

Heat & Noise

For the most part I was very pleased by the amount of heat and noise emitted by the D820 (dell inspiron e1705 battery ). When idling or performing everyday tasks the fan speed is very slow resulting in relatively silent computing. When performing more demanding tasks (such as during the Battery Eater Pro burn-in and battery life test or rendering 3D graphics) the fan speeds up but it is not at all offensive. The only caveat is the Philips DVD-RW drive. Compared to the rest of the notebook, it sounds like a turbofan engine spooling up when it reads a CD or DVD. Moreover, the drive is not well damped causing the whole notebook body to shudder as the drive spins.

Dell has designed the D820 for excellent heat dissipation. There are two exhaust vents: one on the side and one on the rear. The left wrist rest heats up a tiny bit after a long period of operation and the right wrist rest stays completely cool throughout. Touching the underside of the laptop after the ~2 hour Battery Eater Pro stress test I found that the laptop was warm but certainly not hot enough to preclude lap-top usage for an extended period of time. The power brick stays cool even after days of keeping the notebook plugged into the wall. In short, Dell has done a superb job of managing the heat emitted by the D820's high performance components.

Conclusion

In summary, the Latitude D820 is a very nice choice for the desk jockey professional or student. This machine, with its 15.4" widescreen, is not meant for world travel but for flexibility, productivity, and a little bit of portability. At a pinch it can be used on a plane or on a lap but, for the most part, I would not travel extensively with the D820. For its form factor, however, I do not think you will find a better balance between portability and build quality than the Latitude D820. I would wholeheartedly recommend this notebook to anyone looking for an effective tool to get some serious work done.

dell inspiron b120 , b130 laptop review

I recently acquired a Dell Inspiron B120 (dell inspiron b120 b130 battery )notebook. Essentially the B120 is a starter machine, at the very bottom of the Dell totem pole. The configuration that I got had the Celeron M360 (1.4Ghz) processor with 400 MHz FSB, 256 MB RAM, 40 GB hard drive, 14.1" wide screen, a CD-R/RW/DVD ROM, 4 cell Li ion battery, power supply, bundled Windows XP home (SP2) and other software. Along with the B120 a Targus CTM300 case (since the one made by Dell was out of stock) and MS-Office for students were also purchased. I paid Cdn$599 (for the computer only plus taxes), the shipping was free. I went with Dell since I had heard good things about their quality and service. I used to own a Compaq notebook (386SL) nearly 13 years ago. That machine had a 386 MHz processor, 10" monochrome screen, 4 MB memory, 60 MB hard drive with windows 3.1 operating system and had set me back by nearly $1,200 bucks -- and the Canadian dollar was stronger back then! The Dell sounded like a really good deal and it is amazing how much power comes for a fraction of the price these days compared to a decade ago.

I bought this Dell notebook from a student who decided to sell the laptop because it did not have a wireless card built-in, and it was too much of a hassle for them to carry a USB adaptor with its trailing tail. I decided to make a clean start when I took over the notebook and got to test out the PC restore software in the process. It turned out to be really easy. Boot the machine, hit CTRL-F11 and the machine is restored to factory-fresh' state in a few minutes with the operating system and bundled software. This was way faster than reinstalling windows from XP CDs and all the service packs and software that were included, some of which were freebie junk, but others weren't. The cost of this convenience is of course that the restore' utility claims a little over 3 GB of the 40 GB hard drive and one has to be careful to not get rid of the 2 hidden partitions (easy to do if you are poking around and do not know what you are doing). I have had the opportunity to repeat the restore a couple of times after that and am happy to report that it worked perfectly each time. The reasons for the restores were software-related and had nothing to do with the system supplied by Dell or any defects (apple macbook pro 15" 17" battery)therein. What else have I done with my chance acquisition -- well I did try out both Linksys and D-Link USB adaptors and both worked well but the software with the D-Link turned out to be a bit quirky. Wireless access, once established worked well. The modem and network cable also work fine, as do the 3 USB 2.0 ports and the CD writer. Some of the supplied software, such as MacAfee (with messages that remind me of the irritating MS office paperclip pop-up') got a bit on my nerves and I chose to replace it with another time-tested antivirus software. I also removed the jukebox and AOL and a few other unwanted goodies that Dell so kindly' provided.

Performance

As more software got added to the computer, I noticed a noticeable slowing down particularly during booting and screen refreshes and in the page file activity (disk activity during boot and slow screen-refreshes as the virtual memory got used actively). The proverbial handwriting was on the wall! It was time to add more memory, obviously, particularly given that the video took up 64 MB of the 256 MB (shared RAM). Having heard about the pros and cons and hypes around dual channel memory and its latency etc., I first tried to add a 1 GB module made by Kingston. Unfortunately, the Kingston SODIMM would work only by itself but not with the DELL supplied Nynya 256 MB module (probably some density conflicts). So I next tried an Infineon 256 MB module purchased from Dell to pair with the original 256 MB. This worked very nicely even though it was more expensive than buying from other sources. With 512 MB on-board, the computer works quite fast and the hard drive gets a lot of rest, as does the battery since hard drives are power hogs!

Overall, my needs are very simple: email, web-surfing, word processing, spreadsheets, access-based databases, a bit of web design, some digital photo-retouching (Nikon software), an occasional movie and some music and web-access, as well as speech recognition for dictation (Dragon) and an astronomy type calculating program. What I have works very well now and unless something breaks I hope to be happy with my system for some time to come. Oh, and I added a USB Fantom Titanium external hard drive for backup. It is a 80GB drive and works like a charm right out of the box. I returned the Maxtor One Touch II external because there were problems with its touted restore operations and software reinstallations (hence the 3rd PC restore on my B120 -- that story, some other time ... sigh!).

At one point I got a bit concerned by the fact that the computer was not shutting down unless I hit the shutdown or restart options twice. This turned out to not be computer specific but due to some application hogging the resources and not (dell )shutting down in the first go. The first shutdown or restart terminates the application and the second one actually turns the computer off. In my case it was the Dragon speech recognition software. Once I deselected its quick-launch mode, the problem was history. The standby and hibernation functions, worked flawlessly even when the quick launch mode of Dragon software was selected. I generally prefer to use the hibernation mode to shutdown the computer since it is faster and I haven't experienced any problems or flaws even when I had programs running at the time of invoking the hibernation. Indeed that is the bonus of using this mode because the programs are already launched when you reboot the system from hibernation. It saves time.

I ran the super pi benchmark which tests the CPU (math processing) and memory as well as disk function, since some amount of writing to disk is associated in this test and this is what I got:

Overall, let us not lose sight of the fact that the Dell Inspiron B120 is an inexpensive notebook, and an extremely good value, and not just for students but their parents as well! For many of us, who are not all that much into computer games, we often do not realize how much we are oversold in the electronic warehouses and E-mags and E-reviews on the power and capacities of our computers that we really need and actually utilize.

Build and Construction

I suppose if your needs are modest, like mine, and games and video performance are not a big issue, then the Inspiron B120 will serve you well for quite some time. Construction is moderately sturdy with a reasonably bright screen, good power management options, though it would have been useful to have the option to drop the CPU (apple )speed when on battery just as Acer notebooks allow. My screen does not have dead pixels and though a bit of twisting of the notebook lid is possible (after all it is made out of plastic), the image held steady. I did poke at the screen a bit and found it to be firm. My ancient Compaq, on the other hand, had a squishy screen and even with slight pressure showed a dimple'!

Speakers

The speakers are quite tinny, with audible distortion and do not play very loud. On the other hand, when I plugged in my Bang & Olufsen earphones, they proved to be a bit too loud even at the lowest volume setting, but the sound quality was extremely good, much better than what I got from the built-in speakers, so the sound card is not going to disappoint you entirely. I tried my plantronics earphone/microphone combination that I use with my Dragon speech recognition software and they were quite (toshiba )decent, audibly. If you want to watch DVD movies and music, perhaps relying on the earphone/headphone would be more fruitful than the built-in speakers, particularly since the included software allows an audio experience that goes a bit beyond plain stereo imaging that is better experienced through earphones / headphones.

Optical Drive

The CD-ROM (CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-read) is quite speedy, and somewhat sensitive to CD imperfections (it chattered audibly when playing slightly off-centered CDs which ran relatively quieter on other units, though there were no functional problems; music played well, and programs loaded flawlessly). The CD tray (all notebooks, not just this one) was a bit flimsy, though it is holding out fine and unless you are all thumbs and have 600 pound fingers, you are not likely to bend and break it when placing CDs or smudging the oh so exposed laser diode. The supplied Sonic CD writing software works well, but shows the backup function as a teaser that you get only if you upgrade to the rather pricey full edition.

Software

The notebook comes with a wordperfect 12 office suite, with the trial versions of the spreadsheet and presentation software, with option to upgrade after 60 days, or you may simply choose to keep the wordperfect(ibm ) wordprocessor. You have to live with the nag' screen though. I generally use the wordperfect/corel office 10 with service upgrades and found the wordperfect 12 quite friendly with older files as well as ms-office components. It is more so the case with the corel presentation files which are now more tolerant of MS Powerpoint files.

Battery

The battery is a 4-cell unit and lasts a bit under 2 hours. A heavier 6-cell unit is available for those who need more mobile power. I haven't had the notebook long enough to gauge the true battery longevity which is claimed to last about 300 (sony )charge cycles (about a year if you use your notebook daily on battery power). Lithium ion batteries might charge faster, may not suffer from memory problems but we still need something with a longer lifespan. Work is in progress, from what I hear!

Heat

With any modern computer, heat is always a problem. I am happy to report that this notebook only runs warm and not hot (I have used it for several hours at a stretch, days after days) and I did not observe any use-related errors or sluggishness or worse. If you are concerned about heat, though, USB powered cooling platforms are available, though given that the notebook is not really slim, you might find the raise' a bit troublesome. I tried a thin cardboard wrapped in several layers or aluminum foil and it was quite effective in dissipating the little heat that the notebook produces. It is really a minor point. Incidentally, I have found the best posture to use a notebook to keep it on a table with the notebook set farther away at the back so that the elbows can rest on the table and the wrists on the notebook. This is somewhat different from what is recommended when using a conventional desktop keyboard. To each his own, as they say.

dell inspiron 1300 laptop review

Budget notebooks have never been better! Low-end notebooks were always priced at $800 or more, and never really packed the "oomph" of higher-spec expensive notebooks. This may have changed. The Dell Inspiron 1300 starts at $599, and the model we reviewed is just $800 (Although you can get one for less with upgrades thanks to Dell's generous coupon offers) and can handle most if not all day-to-day tasks.

The Dell Inspiron 1300 (dell inspiron 1300 battery)is a 15.4" widescreen notebook, depending on how you configure it the Inspiron 1300 can be considered a budget offering or a mainstream type notebook with decent performance. The following is a review of the Inspiron 1300.

The 1300 is a customizable notebook that's built to order, so the price and features will depend on what you pick when you buy. The mode we used for this review has an Intel Celeron M360 processor running at 1.5GHz, a 60GB hard disk at 5400RPM, 512mb of RAM, a nice 15.4" Widescreen display, and to top it all off, 802.11a/b/g WiFi.

This is a budget notebook and as such is constructed in a manner to keep costs down. The body casing is entirely plastic, no fancy aluminum or magnesium protection. The plastic used is not flimsy though, it's actually really quite sturdy. I used the Dell Inspiron 1000 (dell inspiron 6400 battery )while back and was highly disappointed with the flimsiness of the casing, the 1300 is certainly a step up from that. There's no major flexing issues of the body and the keyboard is firm.

The hinges are firm, there's no wobble of the screen even if you move the notebook around. This is impressive, often with budget notebooks the hinges can be somewhat weak. The protection provided by the lid is also good, if you push in on the lid area it's hard to (apple powerbook g4 battery )get ripples to appear on the screen. However, the plastic area around the screen is not held on very well. I can pull the plastic covering away from the LCD with ease.

The look of the Inspiron 1300 is a mix of silver and black. The lid is an entirely silver-grey color while the rest of the body is black with an accent of silver trim around the keyboard. The look is not bad in this author's opinion, and actually better than the some off the exisiting Dell Inspirons available with the silver and white finish. It's certainly not sleek or pretty by any stretch,(dell xps m1330 battery )it looks like the plastic it is built from, the front speakers are ugly holes in plastic that look more like vents, and the largish green LED light indicators on the front are reminiscent of a 1980's mainframe computer. So no design awards but due to the well selected and professional black-silver coloring it's not ugly either.

If you pick up the notebook and wave it around (I don't recommend it) you will find that the screen hinge does not wobble or bend, and the display stays firmly where it should - open. This is great for such an inexpensive notebook, when I remember an old Dell Latitude l400 (dell inspiron e1505 battery) would fold flat if you even moved it on your lap. The notebook is 14" x 10.5" x 1.41" in size and weighs 6.7 pounds. Now I wont pretend that this is a subnotebook. In fact, this is more of a mid-sized model that's much more portable than a desktop replacement. The DVD+RW drive is on the right of the notebook, towards the front. The left side houses the three USB 2.0 ports, a VGA port, microphone and headphone jacks (3.5mm), ExpressCard (supporting 34mm and 54mm cards) slot, RJ-45 Ethernet jack, and a modem jack. The back of the notebook is empty apart from the power socket, and the front of the machine houses the two speakers and four LEDs.

As mentioned, the Inspiron 1300 is a customizable notebook, with processors ranging from a 1.4GHz Celeron M to the 1.73GHz Pentium M, all with a 400MHz front side bus. Mine came with a 1.5GHz Celeron M360 processor, 512mb of RAM in a 2x 256mb configuration, so if you want to upgrade you'll have to throw one away(1gb RAM maximum), a reasonably fast 60 gig 5400 rpm hard disk, and WiFi 802.11a/b/g. I wont deny that I was expecting to be disappointed by this notebook. Although I cant really class myself as a gamer, I do play on some intensive games (Rome: Total War and Sniper Elite to name a few) and was expecting them not to run well. Well, I now take it all back. I have migrated from a PC desktop running a 2.4GHz Celeron and 512mb of RAM with no dedicated graphics and an XGA screen, and I'm getting better frame rates on the notebook! Okay, Sniper Elite just isn't the same with a touch pad, but hey, it works! You wouldn't want to run serious CAD (dell inspiron 1501 battery )apps or Half Life 2, however. The built-in DVD+-RW is a bonus for mobile DVD burning, and a steal for $780! I'm not really strongly opinionated about the Express Card slot. I think it's good that Dell is thinking forwardly, and since WiFi is built in, I cant really think of a use for a PCMCIA slot. Unless you really want to use an EVDO card, then this isn't really a drawback. You decide whether this is a benefit or drawback.

Display, Graphics, and Multimedia

The keyboard on the 1300 is fine. The keys have a nice click when pressed, but are not loud. The buttons are all full size, including full size Backspace, Enter and Shift keys. There is no sag or problems with the keyboard. The touchpad is as usable as they get, its size is appropriate and there's enough room to move your finger around. I've used notebooks for years and still dislike the touchpad form of input mechanism -- I still often find myself pulling up menus and losing them as my finger slips slightly and thereby takes the cursor off of the menu (webpage menus like this are the worst as they're sometimes hard to use even with a mouse). I've always favored a pointing stick mechanism such as the ThinkPad line of notebooks offer -- and if that's not available a wireless

The Inspiron 1300 can house either a 14" XGA screen or a 15.4" WXGA (800 x 1280) screen. I went for the 15.4" option. Although not as bright or shiny as some other notebooks on the market, it does the job and is certainly an improvement over an XGA monitor. The backlight is sufficient for everyday use. If you're in a dark room, then it can actually be painful to set it to full brightness, but about 75% should be good enough. This screen is not driven by a dedicated graphics card, but, as mentioned, it is good enough for reasonably demanding games. The Inspiron 1300 has Intel's integrated Media Accelerator 900 Graphics and you can set up to 128mb of RAM as video RAM.

The audio package provided is reasonable. While you're not getting an amazing, mind-blowing audio experience, your not disappointed either. The two speakers on the front are adequate, but if you want to listen to some serious music, plug in some headphones or better speakers. The lack of a microphone is rather annoying, especially when using Skype.

DVDs play well on this laptop, although the mentioned speakers can be pretty dismal sometimes. Battery life can be an issue if you want to watch a two and a half hour film at full screen brightness with WiFi turned on, but because 50% brightness is acceptable and the lack of need for WiFi when watching films, most will find it usable.

Speakers

You're not buying a multimedia machine with the 1300 and for that reason you can expect to get the usual rather poor sounding notebook speakers. The speakers are located on the right and left front sides, which is good placement since they fire forward to where you are sitting. If only the audio they pumped out was good. The speakers are good enough for system sounds and the likes, but playing audio music or listening to DVDs is pretty painful. You need external speakers or headphones via the lineout to get any type of decent audio.

Processor and Performance

You can opt to have your Inspiron 1300 configured with either a Pentium M or Celeron M processor. You'll save money with the Celeron M configuration and to be honest, I think that's the best route to go with this notebook. It's a budget machine and when you have the Intel 910GML chipset and motherboard (as the 1300 does) you're going to be limited to a bus speed of 400MHz between the processor and memory. Even though my system indicated a 533MHz FSB on the Pentium M 740 processor I configured and the memory I have can theoretically run at 533MHz, it does not, it runs at 400MHz. So esentially Dell put together a machine in which the chipset is the weakest link, and since components work together as a team, the system can only be as fast as that weakest link is willing to work (400MHz).

Battery Life

I decided to pay $20 more and get the 6-cell battery option. I suggest that, if you have the money, you get it. It's a small price to pay for 1.5 times the normal battery power.

The 6-cell is a 5045mAh battery, which isn’t bad for a 1.5GHz notebook. I got about 3 hours of use with mainly Skype over WiFi, and about 3 hours with no WiFi playing mp3s. Overall, I think the battery is acceptable. If you need WiFi, full screen brightness, and full CPU speed, then you may only get a few hours out of it, but otherwise its a pretty impressive battery. The standard battery is a 4 cell, 29 WHr Lithium Ion battery that Dell estimates lasting 2 hours.

dell inspiron e1505 laptop review

Dell laptops are often the go-to machines for those aiming at affordability. Of course, that doesn't imply that buying one means that you're cheap or cash-strapped. If anything, it's a sign that you're a savvy shopper who's sensible with money. If you're a fan of the Dell Inspiron 6000 (dell inspiron 6000 battery )or the Dell Inspiron E1505 ((dell inspiron e1505 battery), you'll love the Dell Inspiron E1505 (Core 2 Duo). Considering what you get, it's a great purchase: The E1505 (Core 2 Duo) is the only $999 (E-Value code: DNCMEA1) laptop on the market that comes with discrete graphics, a Core 2 Duo processor, and 1GB of RAM. Indeed, there's no other system like it, and for that reason, it earns the Editors' Choice title (for the third time) in the budget space.

Dell's newest budget entertainment notebook falls somewhere between the company's high-end Inspiron E1705 (8.2 pounds; 17-inch screen) and its travel notebook, the Inspiron 710m (4.2 pounds; 12.1-inch wide-aspect screen dell inspiron 710m battery ). A nice compromise, the Inspiron E1505 ( dell inspiron 6400 battery )weighs 6.5 pounds and has a 15.4-inch wide screen; its keyboard is larger than the 710m's, as well. It's also a fairly good multimedia notebook for nongamers on a budget.

With the release of Windows Vista in late January, PC manufacturers have been quick to update their laptop models--those that can handle the upgrade, that is--with various flavors of the new operating system. For the midsize Inspiron E1505(hp pavilion dv1000 battery ), Dell now offers a choice of Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Home Basic. We got our hands on an updated E1505 with the Premium version and an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Despite its high-end components, the laptop's performance on our benchmarks didn't wow us, most likely due to the new demands of Windows Vista. We expect to encounter similar lags on most of the first-generation Vista systems, though, and because we still like the Inspiron E1505's design and feature set, we think it remains a solid choice for home users who want a basic media-friendly laptop.

Aside from some component upgrades, this Inspiron E1505 (dell xps m1210 battery)is identical to the XP version we reviewed last year; please read that review for complete details about the laptop's design, features, and warranty.

Our Windows Vista-based Inspiron E1505 review unit costs $1,789 for a competitive mix of the latest components, including a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 processor, 2GB of fast 667MHz RAM, a discrete ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 graphics card with 256MB of dedicated memory, and a 100GB hard drive spinning at a fast 7,200rpm. That's a pretty strong setup that we'd expect to perform really well, but it appears that the new operating system dragged the Inspiron E1505 down on several of CNET Labs' performance benchmarks. On all but one test, the Inspiron E1505 lagged behind a Dell Latitude ATG D620 (dell latitude d610 battery )running Windows XP on an arguably lesser configuration (the same processor but less RAM, a slower hard drive, and integrated graphics). The Inspiron E1505 did come out on top on our Photoshop test, most likely because of its ample allotment of RAM. Benchmarks aside, the laptop did not feel at all sluggish during our anecdotal use, when we performed basic tasks, such as checking e-mail, listening to music, and performing a quick system scan with Windows Defender. We think most home users will find the Vista-based Inspiron E1505 to have enough oomph for their everyday computing needs, provided they aren't heavy multitaskers.

The Vista-based Inspiron E1505's (dell latitude x300 battery )battery ran out of juice at the 2-hour, 34-minute mark of our DVD battery-drain test. That's not bad for a laptop that isn't particularly portable, although the smaller battery on the 15.4-inch MacBook Pro (which includes a slower hard drive) lasted almost half an hour longer. The Dell Latitude ATG D620, with a smaller screen and less-power-hungry components, outlasted the Inspiron E1505 by 1 hour, 21 minutes.

Dell's revamped Inspiron E1505, an entertainment notebook, now includes an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Though still a poor choice for gaming, the E1505 is plenty zippy for any other applications, including music and photo editing, and movie viewing. The 6.9-pound E1505 also throws in pretty good speakers, dedicated media buttons, and a cushy keyboard with stylish white trim, giving you a great all-around choice for consumers who don't want to spend an arm and a leg on a desktop replacement.

Generously equipped for the price, our $1186 (as of 11/6/06) E1505 ( hp pavilion zd8000 battery )came with the Windows XP Media Center Edition operating system, a double-layer DVD burner, four USB ports, a FireWire port, an ExpressCard slot, and a three-in-one memory card reader. The laptop's 15.4-inch WXGA screen is great for mainstream work, but if you need to see more on your screen at once, a WSXGA+ resolution is an option.

Equipped with a 2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7200 processor and 1GB of RAM, our machine earned a WorldBench 5 score of 102, which ranks within the top 20 percent of notebooks we've tested. The first E1505 we reviewed--equipped with a 1.66-GHz Core Duo T2300 processor (apple powrbook g4 battery )and 1GB of RAM--did not play games smoothly and ran noticeably slower than other notebooks when we worked in multiple windows. With the faster chip, the notebook is now a much better multitasker, on a par with competitors, but game play is still poor: The laptop managed just 19 frames per second when displaying Doom and 36 fps in Far Cry. The 64MB of dedicated video memory allowed by a 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon X130 HyperMemory card just isn't enough to get most games off the ground. (We didn't test with the optional 256MB video card.)

Expandability is somewhat limited. The E1505 is user upgradable, with both the hard drive and memory chips in accessible bottom compartments. However, docking is nothing fancy, with only a couple of options--the better one being a screen stand port replicator, a $103 extra. (You must provide the wireless keyboard and mouse.)

All in all, Dell has another winner in the souped-up E1505. Though not for gamers, the E1505 is a strong contender for your consumer dollar.