Dell Vostro 1520

For Sale | 0 User Reviews | Used Dell Laptops | May 19th, 2010 | 0 positive & 0 negative reviews

Dell Vostro 1520

Consumers who are looking for a notebook computer that is reasonable in price yet packed with great features should consider the Dell Vostro 1520. Take your work on the go with this lightweight laptop computer for small and medium size businesses.

It comes loaded with many features like built-in wireless, Bluetooth connectivity, fingerprint reader, and many other features on which we will get in a second.

Vostro 1520 Performance Components

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T9550 (2.66 GHz, 6 MB L2 cache, 1066 MHz FSB)
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz, 2 DIMM ( upgradable up to 8GB with x64 bit OS )
80 GB hard disk (upgradable up to 320GB)

The performance of a laptop is dictated by the processor, memory and hard drive, and Dell Vostro 1520 does a good job putting this component together to achieve a good user experience with performance.

If you want to run Windows Vista or Windows 7 on this notebook, 2 GB of memory might not be enough, but DR2 memory being so cheap you can easily upgrade it to 3 or 4 GB for 50 dollars.

As far as it regards the hard drive, when purchasing a laptop from Dell this was optional. But when buying a used laptop ensure the hard drive is a 7200 RPM and at the storage you need. Hard drive slower than 7200 RPMs tend to be slow and degrade the performance of other components like memory and processor. when having hard drives slower than 7200 RPMs make sure the laptop has enough memory to minimize paging access to the hard drive ( check the tips sections for what paging is ).

Build & Design

Dell Vostro 1520 comes in many colors and weights about 5 1/2 pounds with a 6 cell battery, which may come up a little bit too heavy for some business travelers, but taking into account the performance you get out of this laptop it might worth carrying the extra pounds. The laptop does not required a docking station as most small dell laptops do, so the CD/DVD RW player is built-in to the side of the laptop with extra USB and FireWire ports as well, and still keeping the laptop looking relatively thin.

Dell Vostro 1520 features a 15.4” widescreen monitor display, and depending from the customization when originally purchased from Dell, the buyer had the option to get the Truelife display technology which makes the screen looks glossy and brighter reaching a 1440x900 display screen resolution. The display is power up with an Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD card with 256 MB built-in memory which make it powerful enough to play some games, and upgradable to Windows 7 on the graphic side.

This notebook computer has 4 USB ports, and 1 FireWire Port. The fingerprint reader and camera are optional. missing from the laptop is any high resolution video output like DVI, S-Video or HDMI. This might be a bummer for users giving out presentations who might not like the low resolution display from the VGA port.

The Vostro 1520 features a full size keyboard which might be a plus for some who hate small keyboards, it also has a touchpad with right and left-hand clicking buttons. It also comes with a headphone and microphone jack port and with two speakers, one on each side of the keyboard. The up and down volume buttons on the upper side of the laptop make easier to switch the volume up and down. It also comes with a 8-in-1 media card reader slot so you can easily move pictures back and forth from a camera using a flash memory card. Using the RJ45 port on the side so you can easily hook up this laptop to a network if wireless is not available.

Conclusion

The Dell Vostro 1520 laptop is a good choice for business people working in and out of the office. being lightweight and rich in portability features many business people will find it very convenient to work with either waiting for a plane flight on a airport or working at the desk of the office, this laptop accommodate to every business situation.