Dell Inspiron M501R – A laptop, but not much of it!
The Inspiron M501 is a desktop replacement laptop priced at Rs 40K. It offers good performance but the battery life is very poor. Dell has launched the Inspiron Brand in competition with the HP Gseries and Acer Laptops. Priced at under Rs. 40,000 these are Dell’s lower priced laptops.
Look and Feel: Too shiny, and then some
Dell Inspiron laptop have a shiny body and Dell offers a variety of colors for the lid.
The keyboard has a silver finish which looks very stylish but we are not sure it will sustain the shiny look for long with sweaty fingers.
It supports a 15.6 inch screen is good will vivid colors and images are sharp. This Dell Laptop is equipped with a dedicated number pad on the keyboard. The keys feel good and the keyboard is easy to use. You also hear a soft sound while using the keys which can be a pleasure for some.
It supports a good touchpad and the keys are also good. The left and right click buttons are easy to use are they not integrated in the touchpad. There is a USB port, audio jacks, HDMI Out and Cooling vent on the left hand panel, on the right hand panel we have an optical drive, e-sata ports and memory card reader. 2 of the USB Ports are on the back panel which is frustrating to use.
The one thing we found missing were dedicated access buttons. No Dedicated buttons have been given for Wi-Fi on/off, touch pad, Bluetooth or media playback.
Performance: Lots of potential; only let down by the bad battery
The Inspiron Laptops are powered by the AMD Phenom II N930 2 GHz processor and 4GB RAM. In the PC Mark Vantage test this dell laptop scored 4695 points which shows that it is a powerful machine.
The Dell Inspiron M501R scored 5993 in the 3D Mark test so this laptop is good for gamers as well. This Dell Laptop has ATI Mobility Radeon HD550v Graphics solution with 1GB Dedicated DDR3 Graphics memory.
This Laptop supports a big screen with integrated speakers and is good for multimedia viewing. The speakers are not placed near the keyboard and offer good audio clarity and hardly any disturbance even at high volume.
The battery life is a disappointment with just 1Hr of battery life. This laptop will be difficult to be used outdoors with just 1 Hr Battery life.
Verdict: Power, with no battery backup
This Dell Inspiron Laptop needs to be plugged in at all times and can be used as a desktop replacement. It offers good performance but if you want a portable laptop the HP G series will be a better option. If you are willing to shell out a little more you can look at the HP DV-6 or the Gateway ID59C. You can buy this machine for home or office if you are not looking for a portable laptop but a powerful desktop replacement.
Specifications
AMD Phenom II Quad Core N930 processor @ 2.00GHz; 4GB RAM; 15.6 inch screen; 1366x768 HD screen resolution; ATI Mobility Radeon HD 550c graphics; 1GB dedicated graphics memory; 500GB hard drive; 3 USB ports; 1 E-Sata port; HDMI out, Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Pros:
Superb performance
Comfortable keyboard
Cons:
Very poor battery life
Extremely shiny body
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Portability
4/5
