Dell Inspiron 1520/1521 Available

Dell has released the new Intel-based Dell Inspiron 1520 and AMD-powered Inspiron 1521 15.4-inch consumer laptops.

Dell Inspiron 1520 is built on Intel “Santa Rosa” notebook platform and is offered with Core 2 Duo T5250, T5450, T7100, T7300, and T7500 processors. These CPUs have clock speeds ranging from 1.5GHz to 2.2GHz and 800MHz front side bus. The 1520 models with GM965 chipset feature the integrated Intel X3100 graphics, while those based on PM965 chipset come with dedicated NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS 128MB or NVIDIA GeForce 8600M WP 256MB card.

The Inspiron 1521 is based on AMD ATI M690T chipset paired with one of the dual core AMD Turion 64 X2 processors, providing speeds from 1.8GHz to 2.2GHz. Later, there will be also an option of dual core AMD Athlon 64 X2 CPU at 1.7GHz reportedly. The Dell 1521 has the integrated ATI Mobility Radeon X1270 video solution.

According to official product pages, 1520 and 1521 notebooks have 15.4-inch widescreen displays and enable choice of 1280×800 or 1440×900 screen resolutions. These laptops support SATA hard drives (up to 160GB offered) and initially come with up to 4GB of system memory, while the 8GB memory and hybrid hard drive options will be available later, according to earlier reports. The notebooks ship with DVD burners. When configured with a dedicated graphics card, Dell Inspiron 1520 models have a Blu-Ray optical drive option.

Regarding networking and communications, the new Inspirons provide wireless LAN, including the latest 802.11n draft standard, as well as Ethernet LAN, a 56k modem, an optional Bluetooth, and an optional EVDO and HSDPA wireless broadband connections.

Each 1520/1521 notebook has four USB ports, ExpressCard slot, Firewire, an optional Infrared, S-Video out, VGA out, and an optional 2 megapixel web camera.

With 6-cell batteries, these notebooks weigh approximately 6.4lbs and feature refreshed chassis design providing the eight color choices.

Dell Inspiron 1520 and 1521 start at and $899 and $769 respectively, and come with Windows Vista operating system.

Dell

This article has been published on 06/13/2007 and updated with the official information on 06/26/2007.

This is the first review I have read that talked about potential future upgrade options for the Inspiron 1520/21. I currently own an Inspiron 5160 which I maxed out with 2GB of RAM and a 64MB video card which was the most that was offered at the time. For 2 years I made regular calls to Dell asking if Upgrades to the video card and RAM were offered so that I could keep up with the ever growing needs of modern games and programs.

The newest line of Inspirons does appear to be fielded with future upgrades in mind that can take advantage of the CPU’s 800 MHz FSB. What is the best way that I can find out about these upgrades when they become available.

In case you didn’t guess already, I just purchased an Inspiron 1520 yesterday and eagerly await it’s arrival in the mail.

I just received my 1520 this week & I upgraded it to Vista Ultimate from Home Premium. Now the laptop won’t wake up from sleep mode. I confirmed with Dell that I have the most recent driver for the video card (8600M GT) so I’m not sure what to do now except shut down. It very annoying, but doesn’t seem to be a widespread complaint yet.

I need a spare SATA drive for an Inspiron 1520 but it seems there are none to be found. Dell avoids the question and I have found none compatible anywhere on the net.

Can you help?

it is a wide spread complain !!… my inpiron 1520 also wont wake up 50 % of the times that i put it to sleep and dell wont take responsability for this….!!

[…] This Vostro model features the same hardware specifications and a chassis as Dell Inspiron 1520 notebook, aimed at consumers. The difference is that the Vostro 1500 is black, while the Inspiron 1520 comes in eight different colors. […]

Hi i have recently purchased a dell inspiron 1521 . the only problems i have are that the wireless card which shipped with it was a broadcom chip which isnt compatible with linuc natively and i cant seem to get any upgrade options for the video card

[…] The Dell Inspiron 1525 and 1526 will replace the Inspiron 1520 and 1521 models. […]

I purchased my Inspiron 1520 for Christmas and I am having issues with the laptop not waking up from sleep mode. I have to cold boot it just about every time.

I have the same exact problem. Everytime it goes into sleep mode, I end up have to rebot it…anyone get answers from dell?

i have the same problem! its so frustrating! are these laptops faulty? or is it designed this way?

Hi…My new Dell inspiron 1720 also has trouble coming out of sleep mode. It has Vista Home Premium as the …

I as well. a 1520 bought mid last year. havent spoken to Dell yet just researching now.. any progress for anyone??

My Dell Inspiron 1521 is less than 6 months old & they have alread had to replace the mother board & now the USB ports are not working half the time & they say they will have to send it off for another couple of weeks for repairs……I think I have a lemon, but they will not replace it!

How is this a review ??? This more like a specification /article.

I purchased the top of the line 1521 back in late fall after a ton of research. A week later I started having issues with it. It eventually got to the point where they wanted to replace it but I was in the middle of finals/papers so I couldnt immediately. I called back when I was done with enough time that I could receive it before going home for Winter break. They told me that they were going to replace my 1800 computer with a re-ferbushed one. I wasn’t happy with that and said I wanted it replaced or my money back since I had countless issues with it since the week after I bought it and it was all documented. After a few minutes the guy got back on the phone and told me that a new one was being sent to me.

1521 Computer 2: A couple weeks after purchasing it I started having problems with this computer as well. I took off Vista and put XP back onto it which solved a lot of the problems, but then the random shut offs, black screens and such started becoming an issue again so I called Dell back. After 2 different computer guys and 3 days of working on my computer they basically replaced the motherboard and everything else inside my computer.

6 month update, my computer randomly crashes in the middle of me doing stuff fairly frequently. Restart it everythings fine just missing most of the stuff I had going (typically research stuff). After reading the complains on this I can’t get mine out of sleep mode and have never been able to. I went to use a CD the other day and the drive started making really werid noises, I figured I would try it again early this week and if I cant figure it out call them. Tonight I was surfing only one web page and had a messenger open and my computer started making a weird sound. I thought it was werid cause I couldnt figure out where it was coming from. Muted my speakers it stopped went to get my phone to call a friend to see what he would suggest unmuted it when on the phone with him and it was making AWFUL sound I can’t even explain.

I am convinced that this model is a lemon. When the guys came to work on my computer in spring I couldnt find this model for sale on their web page anymore.

What I would suggest: Use hibernate instead of sleep
-call dell and keep calling dell until someone will actually help you and get you what you want (someone to come fix it and whatnot)
-Be patient half the time the person has to talk to someone else to even know what to tell you it seems
-Document everything, and the persons name you’re talking to
-even if they say they will email you the conversation or whatever, half the time it wont arrive

Bought my wife an Inspiron 1521-she wanted the red one -so we waited and waited- finally arrived. Same problems all of you are having I’m convinced its the Vista OS Its a memory hog!!
Be sure you have the full 4 GIGS of memory before doing anything else. My wife’s arrived with 800 MB- that will hardly even boot up Vista.

My old Inspiron 700m with 2000 runs rings around hers. Unfortunately Microsoft stops supporting it soon!!
My next??? A MAC!!!!!!!
good luck

Hey guys,
I’ve come to realize that these dell inspirons are actually not very good at all. I spent six months with tech support on and off trying to fix my computer. I had motherboard failure and hard drive failure. They finally replaced it after hours upon hours of work and sent me a refurbished one. Comes to find out, it crashes once again. It was explained to me from tech support on campus that vista tends to kill these computers for some odd reason. It’s really not a great laptop at all. I wish luck to all that have one.

I have the 1520 model which seemed to work fine until the other day after a antivirus update, it quit transmitting signal. I can view available networks all day, but it simply will not talk to them… Anyone else have hardware issue like this? Help!

kristin your problem maybe that when you updated your security it setup a firewall that blocks your internet connections. For everyone else sleep mode also doesnt work for me i try to wake it up and it shuts off. i just purchased 4gigs of ram to max it out wish me luck lol.