Inspiron 1520/1521
Processor type 1520
Intel Core(tm) 2 Duo
1521
AMD Turion(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2

1520
Intel Core 2 Duo
2.2 GHz, 800 MHz, 4M L2 hides (T7500)
2.0 GHz, 800 MHz, 4M L2 hides (T7300)
1.8 GHz, 800 MHz, 2M L2 hides (T7100)
1.66 GHz, 667 MHz, 2M L2 hides (T5450)
1.5 GHz, 667 MHz, 2M L2 hides (T5250)
1521
AMD Turion 64 X2:
TL-64 (2.2 GHz/1 MB)
TL-60 (2.0 GHz/1 MB)
TL-58 (1.9 GHz/1 MB)
TL-56 (1.8 GHz/1 MB)
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2:
TK-53 (1.7 GHz/512 KB)

1520
Intel Crestline G965/P965
1521
ATI M690T and SB600

1024 MB/4096 MB (8192 MB max post RTS)
Flash Hides Module (via Minis-Card) 512 MB
1024 MB None
Standard LCD 15.4-inch WXGA
15.4-inch WXGA with TrueLife(tm)
15.4-inch WXGA+ with TrueLife
15.4-inch WSXGA+ with TrueLife

1520
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
128 MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) 8400M GS
256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M WP

1521
ATI Radeon X1270 ATI Mobility(tm)

Video memory 1520
Integrated solution
Up to 384 MB shared
Discrete solution
8400M: 128 MB dedicated memory with variable TurboCache(tm)
8600M: 256 MB of dedicated memory with variable TurboCache

1521
64 MB SidePort, up to 256 UMA system memory, more variable HyperMemory(tm)

SigmaTel(R) STAC9205 (Azalia codec)

SATA
Drive Hybrid hardware (post RTS)
Media bay options 24x CD-RW/DVD
8x DVD+/-RW DL
2x Blu-ray Disc(tm) (1520 discrete only) happy

WLAN
Dell(tm) Wireless 1390 802.11g Minis-Card
Dell Wireless 1490 802.11a/g Minis-Card
Dell Wireless 1505 a/b/g/n Minis-Card
Intel 3945 WLAN (802.11a/g) Minis-Card (1520 only)
Intel 4965 Next-Gen Wireless-N Minis-card (1520 only)
WWAN
Dell Wireless 5720 Mobile Broadband Minis-Card with GPS
Dell Wireless 5520 Mobile Broadband Minis-Card with GPS
Dell Wireless 5510 HSDPA ExpressCard34

Dell 355 Bluetooth v2.0 + Enhanced Dated Spleen (EDR)
Broadcom(R) BCM57xx Integrated Ethernet Gigabit
Conexant(R) HDA D330 MDC with Azalia codec
To consume IR (receive only)
Furnace USB 2.0
Video (VGA)
RJ-45
RJ-11
Microphonous Headphone and
IEEE 1394a
S-video with S/PDIF support via dongle
webcam opitional

9-cell lithium-ion 85 WHr
6-cell lithium-ion 56 WHr

With 6-cell battery: 3.0 kg (6.6 lb)

Design

The Inspiron 1520 is available in various colors, which is great to see from Dell as they have a reputation for stodgy and boring design in the past. Gone are the ugly white bumpers we have become so used to seeing on the Inspiron series. You can get the lid color of the 1520 in black, white, red, blue, green, yellow, espresso (my personal favorite) or even pink for the juicy couture crowd out there. The lid is nice in that it's not glossy and will not attract finger prints, which is a problem with the glossy style HP notebook finishes. I went with the espresso finish selection and love it.

Build Quality

The Inspiron 1520 lid is very sturdy, it seems to be made of some type of magnesium alloy. The keyboard area has no flex and the keyboard feels great overall. I have no concerns with this notebook cracking or coming to pieces after only a year. Something that happened to my last cheap plastic Averatec notebook did.

Processor and Performance

The new Intel Santa Rosa platform is very nice in terms of faster overall speed and performance, plus you get better integrated graphics performance with the X3100. You can also opt for dedicated graphics in the form of the NVIDIA 8400M or 8600M graphics cards. The 8600M card will give you good enough graphics performance for playing games. The X3100 integrated graphics is better for those who just want to use their notebook for Office related tasks, surfing the web and checking email. I don't play games, so I just went with the X3100 options.

Wireless

The 1520 offers up to 802.11n speed wireless and of course comes standard with 802.11 a/b/g wireless for those "older routers". To be honest, although I got 802.11n wireless and have an 802.11n router I didn't see a whole lot faster performance with wireless. Still, it worked well and I had no problems with dropped connections. A nice bonus is the fact that you can now get an integrated broadband cellular modem. So if you want Verizon EVDO built-in to your 1520, you can do that. Just be ready to pay for those Verizon charges! Bluetooth is of course an options as well.

Screen

The 15.4″ screen on this notebook is lovely. I went with the glossy TrueLife option as it offers better contrast ratio on the screen. TrueLife is great for viewing movies, sure you get a bit of reflection in office like settings, but overall the viewing experience is better. Dell offers up to a 15.4″ WUXGA screen for those High Definition nuts out there, I went with a WXGA+ display resolution - which is also slightly cheaper.

Web Cam

Yes, you get an integrated web cam option with the Inspiron 1520, which is great. I love to use this for video chat with some friends of mine in California 1,000 miles away. It's also handy for taking a quick picture to add to your favorite dating website if you're into that. Or if you're older, married and have a new baby to keep track of it's a handy way to communicate with Grandma and Grandpa and show them how Jr. is growing each week.

Ports

An all important aspect of a notebook is of course what ports that it offers. With the Inspiron 1520 you get a good selection. You have 4 USB 2.0 ports, which is ample. You also get a FireWire (IEEE 1394), S-Video, 7-in-1 Media Card Reader, monitor out, headphone out, microphone in, modem, Ethernet and modem, and an ExpressCard slot. There's no DVI or HDMI port which might dissapoint some people, but for basic users such as myself everything is there that you need.

Battery

I went with the 9-cell battery because I just like longer battery life and don't mind a little extra weight which comes with having a larger battery. Under normal usage I get up to 4 hours of battery life, that's with screen at near to full brightness and wireless on. I'm pleased with this.

Other Cool Features

You get a built-in remote for controlling the Inspiron 1520 across the room, I thought that was a nice touch. The multimedia buttons on the notebook are nice for controlling movies and such as well.

Another great thing is that you can customize the amount of bloatware that comes with the notebook! Yes, you can tell Dell to leave the crap software off of your hard drive that you don't want and won't use. Kudos to Dell for this.

Conclusion

Overall a thumbs up on the Inspiron 1520. The price is pretty reasonable, starting at under $1,000 for a basic configuration. There's an extra cost to customize the color of around $20, but I think that's worth it and a cool option. The build quality is good, my customer service experience has been good and the notebook performance is exactly where it needs to be. Maybe making Michael Dell CEO once again is already paying its dividends for the company.

http://dellreview.net/2007/06/11/dell-inspiron-1520-review/

Someone took a peak of his friend email working for dell that the email disclose on new product for dell laptop.

The mail said we are introducing 6 new products as a part of Dell rebranding:

Inspiron NT
Inspiron DT

Vortoso NB
Vortoso DT

XPS NB
XPS DT


So anyone can confirm this ? anyone working for dell know about this?