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.
This article has been published on 06/13/2007 and updated with the official information on 06/26/2007.
After I install Linux Mint 19 on my a decade old 1521, the a decade old laptop works again although its CPU seems bit slow. I have to install Linux Mint XFCE instead of Cinnamon because the second one requests a newer hardware. It is certainly quite heavy in comparison of the current laptops.
The hardware specs:
AMD Turion(tm) 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-56
1600.000 MHz
512 KB
Memory: 4GB (added another 2GB many years ago)
I’ve had a Dell Inspiron 1520 for 4 years now, and have not had any trouble with it at all. It still runs fine and fast, even with Vista Installed.
Specification:
Core 2 Duo T5250 @ 1.5 GHZ
2GB DDR2 667
160GB Hard Drive
Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB
Windows Vista Business 32-bit
I have the Inspiron 1520,1525 and 1720. all out of the box had the problem with flickering and flashing when coming out of hibernate or closing the lid. Updating the video driver fixed the problem immediately. Hope this helps!
I have had nothing but problems with my 1521 since the start. It arrived scratched, I have had to re-install from the disks countless times due to complete crashes, have had to have a tech come out at least 5 times and 3 of those it had to be sent off. Three years and 3 motherboards later I am finally giving up on this piece of ____ due to a recent short in the motherboard,and getting a new laptop.
Have had a 1520 for about 2 years. Had issues with it from the beginning, but most were minor. Did not do anything about it because software they put on it said it was warranted till 12/10. When the problems began to really bug me (not wake from sleep), I tried to contact them and no luck. Warranty was long ago over. NEVER EVER EVER BUY A DELL.
Ive have a 1521 since mid 2007 and gotta say ive never had a real issue give on vista it ran like a cheap piece of shit but now on Win7 it runs perfectly but ive never had a real problem and its only ever blue screened once which can happen to any laptop. I will however agree that dell are useless for customer support i was told three days fro delivery and waited over a month but still over all i love my lap top :)
After shutting down during use (black screening) and not restarting at all, I just got word that my Dell 1521 has a bad Motherboard that to fix would cost $528.00 with labor & part’s. (yea, right!) That’s after replacing the crappy battery which failed right after the 2 year service contract had ended. (Many others had the same problem) And after dealing with Dell and talking to many other former Customers along with the repair shop, I’ve learned that Dell has Major Quality issues and they really suck with Customer Service, so my advice is to avoid them at all cost as Dell doesn’t care about it’s Customers after the sale.
I’m seeing a lot of misdirected complaints here.
The issues with waking in sleep mode are actually to do with the drivers (unless an actual hardware fault) not the PC itself.
Make sure you have the latest hotfixes from Microsoft, and the latest display drivers from Dell.
If you are a little more technical, and don’t mind trialling various newer drivers, try http://www.laptopvideo2go.com (no this isn’t spam) it’s a really good site for people with laptops who are looking for newer drivers than the manufacturers provide.
My wife has a 1521 with Vista. That computer is a pile of *&(_. I have two very old desk tops with XP that are at least 5x faster and they don’t lock up like the 1521. Sometimes the only way to get it to boot is to remove the battery, remove the power, press the power-on button (to discharge the capacitors inside and force memory reset) and then plug the stuff in again. That is has also been the solution when it claims that the power supply is bad (which it isn’t). Not only is the 1521 poorly built but Dell is poorly managed for generating this piece of )(*&&_.
Every time my Inspiron 1520 laptop will not wake up from sleep mode. I have to cold boot it every time. It concerns me that I have to turn off the computer with programs still open when it is asleep. I have read several post and was hoping someone had found a way to correct this problem
thanks
I fixed the sleep/black screen problem at long last – I got a new display. Not cheap, but it works fine now.
I have had my Dell inspiron 1521 for over a year now. It was extremely slow with Vista so I immeidately removed Vista and put Windows XP Pro SP2 on the machine and It has never given me any trouble. I have notice that since Win ME there is many systems with the not walking up after sleep mode. This seems both software and system related. Since this I never use sleep mode and shut it off but to this date never had any issues once switched back to Windows XP.
Never, EVER, get a laptop with Vista, NEVER!!
My 1520 work great, a little slow perhaps for graphics , but does the job for me. I also want a spare hard dive but cannot find one anywhere.
Any suggestions?
I had a similar probelm on my Dell 1520. Couldn’t access the internet anywhere except my home wireless network. We determined it was a firewall setting probably changed by an antivirus update. After great struggling we went into the “Windows Firewall with Advanced Security” and clicked on “Restore Defaults” on the right. That fixed it.
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.
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!
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.
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
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
How is this a review ??? This more like a specification /article.
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!
I as well. a 1520 bought mid last year. havent spoken to Dell yet just researching now.. any progress for anyone??
Hi…My new Dell inspiron 1720 also has trouble coming out of sleep mode. It has Vista Home Premium as the …
i have the same problem! its so frustrating! are these laptops faulty? or is it designed this way?
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 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.
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
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….!!
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?
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.
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.