Dell Inspiron 1520 – The best gaming laptop in India
For almost three months I was on a hunt to find a good gaming laptop in India. After searching on the internet and visiting the showrooms for most brands, I knew there was only 1 model which had no competition… The Dell Inspiron 1520 !!!
So, what made me choose this laptop over the hundred other models available ? Well it has the Nvidia 8600 M GT graphics card and a 15″ screen which no other model has. For quite some time there has been a hype about the Asus G1S gaming laptop which is priced above 1 lakh but the specs are still lower than the Dell Inspiron 1520 which cost me about Rs. 60k
The laptop can only be ordered on the Dell website and there is a waiting period of about 2 weeks to receive it. Since Dell allows you to customise the laptop according to your needs, it is custom made in Malaysia and shipped to India.
I plan to use the laptop for video chatting, the 2.0 megapixel camera and the dual microphone does a very good job. There is a slot for a SIM card below the battery which can allow you to make calls but I haven’t tried it out yet. It also has an S-video output port that I have been using to play games and movies on the TV. Two speakers below the laptop provide Dolby Sound which I must say is pretty loud.
The laptop comes with a remote in the ExpressCard slot and features a full set of media buttons on the front side. The battery lasts about three hours while gaming which is really good.
As I said earlier, I bought the laptop for gaming when I leave for my studies. I have tested all the latest games like Crysis, Timeshift, Dirt, Fear, C.O.D 4, Bioshock, etc and all of them run smoothly with the highest graphic settings.
Specifications
- Processor – Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor T7250 (2.0GHz, 2MB Cache, 800 MHz FSB)
- Screen – 15.4″ Widescreen WXGA (1280×800) Display with TrueLife (TM)
- Memory – 2GB (2 X 1024MB) 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
- Hard disk – 160GB SATA Hard Drive
- Graphics – NVIDIA(R) GeForce(TM) 8600M GT with 256MB GDDR2 dedicated graphic memory
- Operating System – Windows Vista Home Premium
- Optical Drive – -Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Combination Drive with dual layer write capability
I opened two email support tickets with Dell, and the tech support agents called me back and helped resolve the issues promptly. I have 4 laptops (2 Acer, 1 HCL) with the Dell being my fourth and I’m sure that my next will be a Dell too…
Read reviews – Asus G1S and Dell Inspiron 1520
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49 Comments
Comments are closed.
September 20, 2012 at 3:25 am
sid
hey bro..
This’s a very old story right..back in 2007..
Bro, can u suggest me a good laptop.. Within 50000 ..
My wishlist includes a lappy with
good sound,
that has a good graphics for games(best within my budget :) ),
a reasonable hard drive for my huge collection of music and videos(500gb), and
a good battery life..
.
Plz help..
Thanks.. :D
sid N.
February 21, 2012 at 2:50 pm
Electronic Bazaar
I want to thank you for the efforts you have contributed in composing this blog post! I feel strongly about it and enjoy learning more on this topic.
October 7, 2011 at 9:21 pm
aman
worst laptop
May 1, 2011 at 10:03 pm
Suntechville
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January 4, 2011 at 11:25 pm
Alfred
Also note that the gaming laptops of 2010 are no longer all that great with the new set of G-force cards coming out…
If you have the time wait some time so that you can buy the GT4XX series. Please avoid the GT420 as that is a very underpowered card.
January 4, 2011 at 11:23 pm
Alfred
Hey Rahul,
sorry for replying so late, your comment accidentally went into spam automatically.
I would recommend the Asus model,the G51 and G 73 are very good models especially when it comes to cooling.
December 12, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Rahul
Hey alfred, I was looking for a gaming laptop from my brother … i was considering the ASUS G51VX-RX05 15.6-Inch Laptop,Alienware AM11x-826CSB and Acer AS7552G-6061 17.3-Inch Laptop …. need a little extra assistance with making the next step … so, your views :- 1) pick one, 2) is it worth it? 3) Anything else i should consider? … hope you read this soon enough … thanks!
cheers!
August 10, 2010 at 8:50 am
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July 10, 2010 at 7:31 am
Subhajit Sarkar
Hi,
Its good to see that so many people likes Dell Inspiron 1520, I think it has hopefully turned out to be good for Indian Gamers.
I am a Core Gamer myself & have also worked with Dell in The Technical Support Team for Inspiron as well as XPS support.
I would rate Inspiron as just another average gaming system, with lots of flaws, whereas XPS, for example XPS M1730 or Studio XPS 16, the above average gaming, with minimum flaws. But, if you are a core gamer like me, please go for Dell Alienware M17X, though the price is high, still it is worth it.
Overall, if you want to purchase gaming system, purchase Dell Studio XPS range laptops or Dell Alienware range laptops.
May 22, 2010 at 1:30 am
Alfred
sorry for the late reply. Gamin laptops dont come anywhere below Rs 60000. They focus more on cooling and better graphic cards as well. With a budget of 40k I’m not really sure what gaming laptop you can get.. If you just want to play games any new laptop will do the job. I recommend you look at HP’s dv6000 range. There are lots of models so choose one that fits your budget.
May 16, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Jyotisman
Hie, i am a student n hav just got a seat in an engineering college n wud like to know which laptops wud be best for me, as i am a student so i have a budget of Rs 40k… Please recommend me some laptops( prefferably dell, lenovo) which have high performance n gud for gaming n my engineering college related works! As i am from a remote part of india its very difficult for me to keep upto date with the lastest and best… Plz help:-)
March 11, 2010 at 2:15 am
Peter
Pliz suggest best laptops under 40k til date.
March 1, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Alfred
This post was made in 2007 as I’ve said a number of times in the comments on this post. There are much better gaming laptops in India right now.
The best being the Alienware ones which cost around 1.20 lakhs
March 1, 2010 at 9:45 am
Peter
So whatz on xps16 and inspiron17
December 21, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Alfred
another one who didnt bother to read the date of this post. 2 and a half year back, plz link me another laptop that had the 8600 card….
If you can’t, sorry ur just another random @$%&$#^@.
December 21, 2009 at 11:37 am
rahul
Piece of shit laptop, dont know how you could pick up that crap for 60k
December 17, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Alfred
@Anil
From what I have heard from people in the hardware industry is that, if you work on your laptop with the power pludged in all the time, your battery will loose its life.
Either keep unplugginf the power once in a while to use the battery or completely remove the battert when using on Ac power for extended periods of time.
December 17, 2009 at 12:44 am
Anil
It time for me to change my laptops battery, just one year and its life is getting over.
The 1520 also tends to heat up too much later, i have read about this, it is due to the fan getting blocked. Guess I need to get mine serviced soon.
same here…today my battery is dead..its after almost 2 year.
December 5, 2009 at 12:45 am
Alfred
@Sarin Iyer, Thats really good to hear, didn’t know about the multi touch laptop. Though I wonder how useful touch screen is going to be.
December 3, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Sarin Iyer
Hey nice blog…I really liked the way you articulated it. Recently, I heard Acer is going to launch Acer 5738 PzG – a Multi-touch laptop in India. They have redefined the touch experience and all the controls are at the helm of your fingertips. With a 15.6\ HD display with integrated multi-touch screen supporting finger touch and Cinematic 16:9 wide screen with 3rd Generation Dolby® audio it’s surely going to revolutionize the whole experience and all with affordable price of 45K INR. With it’s passion for simplifying user experience Acer has gained new heights in innovation.
October 19, 2009 at 3:48 am
Brian
My Dell Inspiron 1520 laptop is the best laptop that I have owned to date. I’ve had my 1520 for just over 2 years now, and it still looks and works as though it was brand new and just came out of the box. The first thing that I noticed about my 1520 is how well it was built. This thing’s build is solid. It is built so sturdy that it could be considered a minor step away from toughbook status. The display is sharp and crystal clear. The connection and speed of my 1520 is to die for. The webcam, dual mics, and Bluetooth are awesome, especially the cam. It puts out the best picture I have seen from a cam. The keyboard is awesome too, and the size of the keys is just right. The wireless card inside works flawless. Everything about this computer is just wonderful. Now it is a tad heavier than others its style, but that doesn’t really bother me at all. I just chalk the extra heaviness up to its quality and solidly build. Even now, even though it’s not manufactured by Dell anymore, I still recommend this laptop to anyone. Mine was built with NVIDIA’s outstanding 512MB DDR2 8600 GT graphics card, which makes this laptop untouchable when compared to others. I am actually unclear on the card, because when looking up the card’s model number, everything said that it was a 512MB DDR2 card; but someone told me that this 8600GT card was actually a 256MB one. It is a moot point though, because no matter which one it is, it still makes this laptop one outstanding piece of computing equipment. Thanks for reading!
October 10, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Jay Jonah Jameson
Hello
I bought my Dell Inspiron 1520 laptop just after it was first released back in July, 2007, and although this laptop is a couple of years old, it still works, looks, and performs amazingly wonderful, as though it is brand new. This laptop is awesome, and the way that it was/ is configured, it can do it all; from basic computing and email, to playing high-end games and watching movies via the dvd player/ burner that came installed on it.
I have never used, owned, or reviewed a laptop of this stature. I opted for the built-in webcam, which works awesomely, and the built-in dual array mics, which pick up voices in a crystal clear way that is unmatched. And the audio is of high quality too. When you first handle this laptoip for the very first time, you can tell right away that it is built with the highest of quality in mind. It’s a little heavier and a little chunkier than other laptops of today, but that does not matter to me, because I know that the reason it’s this way is because it was definitely not built to be a cheap-feeling, flimsy laptop. When I first went to Dell’s site to build my laptop, I had built one that, with just one difference, resembled the one that I ended up getting.
Well, by the time that I had finished building it, the laptop was going to run me around $2500.00 new, and plus I was going to have to wait for about a month and a half before I got it. I backed out of it and had just felt that i wouldn’t be getting a good laptop, if I got any laptop. But I decided to go to the Dell Outlet Online store. I searched for the 1520 that was at least kind of like the one I wanted. I was on the last page, about to give up, and there it was. I read the specs that the prebuilt one was coming with, and except for one minor thing, it was exactly like the one that I wanted to have built. And the price of it was a stunning $1150.00, less than half of what the built one was going to cost me. I called the store and spoke to the rep about the laptop I was about to choose. He said that I was really lucky because the 1520 I was interested in had just been built for a customer, but right after it was built, the customer had changed their minds, He said the laptop had no dents or scratches on it or anything. He also said that it was Not refurbished, and that it was brand newly built. But he said in order for them to sell it for that price, they had to put a refurbished sticker on it. I didn’t quite understand that, but I was more than ok with it. I was so excited, and so I ordered it right away, and it came within 2 days, got here just before I went on my big vacation trip from Wisconsin to Alabama and Louisiana. It came with 2gb DDR2 533mhz RAM, but I have sinced upgraded it to a full 4gb DDR2 667mhz RAM. It also came with a 160GB 5400 RPM drive, and I have since updated that to a Hitachi 200GB 7200 RPM drive. And pretty soon I will be getting an even bigger 7200 rpm one for it. I have also installed an AT&T internal wireless card for mobile broadband. And I have one awesome fine machine in my Dell Inspiron 1520. I really love this laptop, and I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone, even today. And don’t worry about the little extra weight or bulkiness, it really isn’t that bad. Besides, just do what I do, and view its reason for those as just being made with the highest of quality parts, which is actually true! If President Obama can be very satisfied with a Dell Inspiron 1520, then I figure most of the rest of us can as well. Thanks!!————–Jay Jonah Jameson
July 30, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Rajinder Kumar
Dear from
Chandigarh, if possible tell vendor name my cell is 9216370222
Not geting from wholsaler, i i can bear courier costss…
July 30, 2009 at 5:45 am
Alfred
hmmm where are you from, I have the same prblm. My battery is outta juice too.
Dell said they didnt have stocks, recently they had 9 cell batteries that cost 6500.
You can easily get the batteries on ebay or the computer wholesale areas in your city. For Bangalore just head over to SP road, and ask for you battery with the model number
July 29, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Rajinder Kumar
Hi All
Pls note guys I bought Dell 1520 about One & half years back
Now battery needs replacement.
I am runing here & there I not able to get it, suggest.
I am thinking not to recommend other guys/gal not to go for Dell Laptops.
OOps what to do with my dell now….
Rajinder
July 5, 2009 at 5:01 am
Alfred
I’ve got my eye on Dell Studio XPS 16 and the Dell Studio 17. Beware gaming laptops are never cheap :P
Wait a year or two and the price will become 35k. Always the same chain, the latest ones at 80-85k after 2 years come at 35
July 5, 2009 at 1:21 am
aaditya Gambhir
Can u suggest a good gaming laptop under 60 k….
available in India or Singapore
July 4, 2009 at 1:06 am
Alfred
in case you havent noticed this is an old post. It was made 2 years ago when I first got my laptop. At that point of time at 8600gt m with 256 was awesome for a laptop :P
So ofcourse there are much better models in the market now.
July 3, 2009 at 11:52 pm
aaditya Gambhir
guys,,, i’m not exactly a tech wiz….
but i’ve heard that 256mb is very less graphic value…….
laptops for lesser money have 500mb……..
r u sure the games will work…..
May 12, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Alfred
Thanks man, that a huge detailed comment.
It time for me to change my laptops battery, just one year and its life is getting over.
The 1520 also tends to heat up too much later, i have read about this, it is due to the fan getting blocked. Guess I need to get mine serviced soon.
May 7, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Brian
Ooh I am glad that I found this page! I love talking about laptops, especially my laptops; and I just happen to have been a lucky guy like you people, and I bought me a Dell Inspiron 1520 about a year and half ago, so your page is probably old now. But in any event, I can still talk about my Dell. I have had and owned a Dell Xps desktop( still have it) and 3 Dell laptops, and I have been extremely happy with every one of them. But my machine, my Dell 1520, is tweaked out to the max. I have the lovely Core 2 Duo Processor, a T7100, and NVIDIA’s awesome 256 mb graphics card inside. I have a rockin’ 200gb 7200 rpm hard drive that I installed brand new right after I got my laptop. And it has 4gb DD2 667 Mhz RAM, DVD burner, uilt-in mobile broadband, webcam, dual mics, and wireless n card. This laptop is built solid. You can tell that it is when you first handle it. It might be a tad heavier than others its size, but that’s because it is built solid and with the highest grade of components. To me, things like this that weigh a little bit, doesn’t bother me at all because of the weight, I know that this thing is built right. I have had my 1520 for a year and a half now, and it still rocks, looking and working as if it were just built yesterday. This laptops runs extremely quiet and smooth. I highly recommend this laptop to anyone, even today. If you are lucky enough to land yourself one of these, don’t pass it up. The 1520, when configured right, can do anything; play extreme games, movies, music,,, anything you want, this laptop has the puncking power to do and play. I am even thinking about getting me even a second Dell Inspiron 1520. I love, love, love my 1520!—-Thanks for reading!!
April 12, 2009 at 10:58 pm
Alfred
Honestly I have no idea, after I bought my laptop its been a good 1 year since, i checked the laptop scene.
Try laptopvideo2go.com, they have pretty good reviews and drivers
April 12, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Mohit
i noticed that on the dell site they now have only ati cards… been out of touch with gadgets but wanted to know the comparison between ati 4570 and nvidia 8600? is it better or not?
thanks
April 1, 2009 at 12:06 am
tejashwi
dell inspiron is waste it get errors for each login one or the other problem occurs.although it is best in gaming but only in india
March 29, 2009 at 7:35 am
ravi
did u search for amd processor laptos they are much cheaper than intel and performance is almost similar to that of intel
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/365/1/
i m lookng for laptop wih 512 mb graphics card.256 mb is the minimum requirement for game like Asassins Creed and Empire Total War
October 15, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Laptop Tutor
Dell inspiron 1525 has customisable lid and slim design, the notebook looks good in a variety of environments. It is also good for CAD 3D graphics.
See More Dell Laptop Tips at
Dell Laptop faqs, questions & answers
March 17, 2008 at 6:12 am
Alfred
Yes, i saw this change on the Dell site. I think its due to the fact that the 1520 was almost equal to the XPS system but still 6-7k cheaper before.
Maybe Dell changed the processor option to get more customers over to the XPS…
Please call a Dell representative regarding the config you need. Right now I havent researched on other models and dont have the time for the same..
March 16, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Sagar
Hi, on Dell site while customizing the Inspiron 1520, they seem to have removed the T7250 2.0 GHz processor option. There’s only T5450 (1.66 GHz) option now. Does it mean they really no longer give T7250 processor with it? I need the exact configuration u have specified. Is they any other laptop with this config in the same range? XPS is available with the same config but its too costly.
February 23, 2008 at 4:28 am
Gaurav
Thanks for answera. But i did’nt got my all the answers of my questions. please help me out. I want to know about SIM card slot in Inspiron 1525. and also how i can use it.
Also I want to know how to install red hat in my laptop as it shows an error “There is no hard disk attached in your system”
Please email me.
January 24, 2008 at 2:02 am
Alfred
Thanks for the link, I did check it out. Dont have the time to change stuff, but will definately check it out on my other blog soon.
January 23, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Devendra
Hi! The top stripe ads plugin sucks with that link, why dont you go for free one here:
http://www.techtreak.com/products/?topads
December 27, 2007 at 9:49 pm
Alfred
Dell sells systems with Win Vista, dont think XP is an option.
It is not a good idea to get the 64 bit cause there will be a lot fo problems with software that dont support it. According to testing, it does not provide that much a boost to be worth it. You might want to search google for it.
If you really want it to be awesome, get 4GB RAM. That would make the biggest difference while gaming.
December 27, 2007 at 11:08 am
Ally
thanks for the info man. have a gander at my final config. I m sorry but cant help feeling smug :twisted:
core 2 duo T7250 ( 2 ghz , 2mb cache, 800 FSB)
2 gigs ram 667.
nvidia 8600 gt 256 mb dedicated
and finally , the best part :
(win XP home ) i mean, is that overkill or what !!!!
the ramboost is a good idea . is it available for XP as well ? btw should i switch to xp 64 bit or not. i ll mostly be using it for office work n gaming
December 25, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Alfred
Yes there will be a noticeable difference if you opt for the slower performance. I friend of mine has the exact same laptop with a slower processor and the games like crysis frame.
No idea about price drops for new year but bargaining with the sales rep can definitely reduce prices a lot. Just tell them you called another agent and he was ready to give it for cheaper…
If you want to play Crysis smoothly, I recommend either 4GB ram or a 2GB USB drive to use as Readyboost. Search for Readyboost on this site and you will know what it is ;)
December 25, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Ally
love the config.
just a few q’s though
will there be a noticeable difference btw the T7250 and the next lower processor
T5450 ( 1.6 ghz, 2 mb cache, 667 fsb) when playing games like crysis etc.
and does dell drop prices come new year ?
finally, does haggling with salesppl work :mrgreen:
December 1, 2007 at 12:15 am
Alfred
zzZZZ
No, this is not the Dell store, this is a blog where I reviewed my laptop….
November 30, 2007 at 7:50 pm
aditya
:sad: why r nt u providing discount as an scholarschip to d student
November 28, 2007 at 11:13 pm
Alfred
I am sure Dell will not sell the laptop without Genuine Microsoft OS. Have a few friends working at Dell and they confirmed the same.
Emm you said your budget was 60k… then you can get the same config as mine. There is a new discount available, they are offering a few RAM upgrade from 1GB to 2GB.
Also you can talk to the sales guy for more discounts…
November 28, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Kalyan
hi, im planning to buy this. i selected ammgst options: processor intel7250, 9cell battery, highest available screen, no paid softwares, no geforce card(im not keen on gaming),1yr warranty. i wanted to know if i can get it without operating system to accomodate geforce card 8600gt(might as well take if fits budget). i can get vista ultimate pirated at my place. i dont want to cross 60k budget. will guys at dell agree?
plz advise. Kalyan