#Dell inspiron 1564 review windows

#Dell inspiron 1564 review windows

We also had no problem switching from IE and other windows open on the desktop, including Dell DataSafe (more on that later), the Control Panel, and a dialog box for downloading Skype. For example, we had no problem switching among tabs in Internet Explorer as we perused two blogs and our Twitter feed, read the front page of, and streamed content from Hulu and Slacker. The good news is that the Inspiron 15 juggled our daily chores well. This gap suggests that while the Inspiron 15 can complete multimedia tasks at a reasonable rate, you'll be better off upgrading to a Core 2 Duo processor if you need more multitasking muscle. The Inspiron 15 took much longer-31:35-to complete the same test under stress (that is, while zipping our 4.97GB mixed-media folder in the background) the average mainstream notebook takes 10:00 to complete the same task. The Inspiron 15 took 9 minutes and 8 seconds to transcode a 5:05 MPEG-4 clip to AVI, which is about four minutes slower than the average mainstream notebook, but still much faster than the netbook average (29:10). The Dell's 250GB, 5,400 rpm drive transferred a 4.97GB mixed-media folder at a rate of 18.8 MBps, which is average for a notebook this size (the L505 bested it again, however, with an impressive rate of 23.6 MBps). Though the Inspiron 15 wasn't far behind the $549 Toshiba Satellite L505-S5966, which managed to score 2,791 on the same test. These components produced a PCMark Vantage score of 2,627, which is 768 points below average for a mainstream notebook. However, it has a generous 3GB of RAM, which booted Windows Vista in a speedy 47 seconds. As for quality, Michael Jackson's 'Smooth Criminal' and Santana's 'Maria, Maria' sounded somewhat tinny while not unpleasant, these songs backbeats' sounded more metallic than when we played them on our plastic Apple MacBook.ДЄlthough the Inspiron 15 is available with current Intel Core 2 Duo processors, this configuration comes with a modest 2.0-GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core T4200 CPU. Whereas many budget notebooks' speakers are so weak that we usually leave the volume at or close to its maximum, the Inspiron 15's speaker was so loud we didn't feel the need to crank it past its median setting. When watching a Saturday Night Live clip on Hulu, we had slightly better luck when trying to view it from the sides.Д¬lick to enlargeWhen we watched an episode of Heroes on DVD, the show played smoothly, although when we pressed fast forward a few times to jump chapters, the optical drive took a few seconds to catch up, and the playback stuttered. Although very bright, the screen's glossy finish limited our viewing angles: As soon as we pushed the lid forward, the picture began to wash out. The display's 1366 x 768 resolution is standard for this screen size. As bright as our display was, our unit did not come with the LED-backlit option (a $25 upgrade). Like many consumer notebooks we've reviewed in the past 12 months, the Inspiron 15 has a wide, 16:9 display, whose extra pixels make it ideal for multitasking, as well as for watching movies (for the record: a 16:10 display would have been fine, too). The lack of a webcam is also disappointing, especially because you'll find this feature on most lower-cost netbooks you can add one for $25 when configuring your system online. Although the 15.6-inch display will be large enough for many users, we wish the Inspiron 15 had an HDMI port.