Dell Inspiron 1525 Laptop

The Dell Inspiron 1525 represents Dell’s 15” widescreen offering for a middle of the road laptop. Without a lot of glitz and glamour (although it does come in different color choices), it appeals to your sensible side with its strong performance-per-dollar value. It offers a few nice features and provides an excellent choice for basic portable computing. A myriad of configuration options on the Dell website allow you to customize the hardware to your specific needs and budget.

Today we take a look at a budget priced configuration of the Inspiron 1525, and we’ll put it through the paces to highlight its strengths and weaknesses. Read on for our full review.

Design

As with the stated purpose of a mainstream laptop that will appeal to the masses, the Inspiron 1525 has a basic fit and finish that does not stand out in a crowd. The widescreen display gives the laptop a rectangular shape and the black / silver casing gives this laptop a clean, minimalist appearance.

Aside from an exterior which seems to attract fingerprints, the build quality on the 1525 is average with plus points given to the sturdy screen hinges and scratch resistant exterior around the laptop. Minus points are given for a very inflexible set of screen hinges that require two hands to open the notebook, and a loose connection for the AC power jack. I found that moving the laptop from a desk to my lap or vice-versa, while plugged into the AC power, would often cause the AC power plug to fall out.

Look and Feel

The keyboard is a full-sized, standard 87 key that is also typical to nearly all full-sized laptops on the market today. The tactile feel of the keys is average, with less resistance that a typical desktop keyboard. This takes a bit of getting used to, as the lesser resistance of the keypad won’t satisfy most speed typers.

The touchpad controls are not a strong point of the laptop, as the touchpad buttons require a forceful “click” in order to register. On multiple occasions I had to re-click the buttons to get the click to register. The touchpad itself is responsive and easy to use, but the buttons do not hold up to the competition from other laptop models.

A series of touch-sensitive media buttons with blue LED backlights are located above the keyboard. One nice feature about the media buttons is that the blue LEDs only stay lit for a fraction of a second after being pressed, so they won't distract you by staying lit all the time. Another "interesting" feature of the media buttons is that the blue LEDs "pulse" back and forth for a few seconds during Windows startup.

The 6 lb. weight (with 6-cell battery) is evenly distributed and the laptop is easy to carry. The Inspiron 1525 certainly falls into the middle of the pack in terms of size and weight, but at this price point you cannot expect to have both power and light weight (5 lbs. or less). The overall dimensions of the unit are 14.1 in. W x 10.1 in. D x 1.5 in H.

Features

The Inspiron 1525, as configured, features the following:

• Intel Celeron M 550 (2.00GHz, 1MB Cache, 533MHz FSB)
• Windows Vista Home Basic
• 15.4" WXGA (1280x800) Widescreen Display
• 2GB RAM DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz
• Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
• 160GB SATA 5400rpm Hard Drive
• Internal 56K Modem and Integrated Ethernet 10/100 Network Card
• 8X Dual-layer DVD+/-RW Optical Drive
• Dell Wireless 1390 (802.11b/g 54 Mbps)
• Media card 8 in 1 card reader
• Input and Output Ports: 4 USB 2.0, HDMI, VGA, IEEE 1394a, RJ11, RJ45, 2 headphone, 1 microphone, 1 ExpressCard 54mm slot, 3 mini-card slots, consumer IR, S-Video
• 6-cell Lithium Ion Battery

Out of the Box Setup

The out of the box experience was very good, with the laptop and all of the accessories packaged securely. Also included is a large foldout poster detailing step-by-step instructions on how to set up the laptop for the first time. This is very helpful for first-time laptop owners and serves as a handy reference for getting the laptop up and running. Total time to get the laptop up and running, including the introductory screens for Vista, was about 20 minutes.