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by Andrew Baxter

Inspiron Item model number Service Tag: JGTT2C1 Hardware Platform PC Operating System Windows Vista Home Premium Item Weight 6.18 pounds Product Dimensions 10 x 14 x 1.5 inches Item Dimensions LxWxH 10 x 14 x 1.5 inches Color Silver Processor Brand AMD Processor Count 2 Computer Memory Type DDR2 SDRAM Hard Drive Interface Serial ATA. Inspiron 1501 will not boot By mocnota 12 years ago Dell Inspiron 1501 will not boot to Vista. 2 options: 1.startup repair-scrolling box then blank screen; 2.start windows normally - infinite.

The Dell Inspiron 1501 is a 15.4' widescreen notebook now available with the AMD Sempron, Turion or Turion X2 processor. The Inspiron 1501 has a subset of the Intel based Inspiron e1505 features and carries the same basic design and build as that popular laptop. Unfortunately, Dell cut features on the Inspiron 1501 but didn’t cut its price a whole lot relative to the e1505. Unless you really want an AMD processor, it’s hard to recommend this machine over the only slightly more expensive and better e1505.

Yes, that’s an AMD logo on a Dell box that you see

The Inspiron 1501 reviewed here is configured as follows:

• AMD Sempron 3500+ (1.8GHz/512Kb)
• 15.4' Ultrasharp WXGA display
• 512GB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz (1 DIMM)
• ATI Xpress 1150 256MB HyperMemory (Integrated graphics)
• 60GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• 24x CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
• 6-cell 53 WHr lithium-ion battery
• Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition
• Dell 1390 802.11g Mini Wireless Card

Build and Design

The Inspiron 1501 matches much of the Dell lineup clad in painted silver with white trim on top and a black underside. The color scheme is simple and there’s nothing to rave or rant about honestly, I’m not a huge fan of the white trim 'bumpers' though. Also, as time goes by the current Inspiron design is becoming stale, Dell needs to update their consumer laptop look, and soon. The Inspiron 1501 is in fact precisely the same look and build as the Inspiron e1505 — except several media buttons are missing from the 1501, more on that later.

Size comparison of Inspiron 1501 to 12.1' screen Lenovo X60 Tablet PC(view large image)

The notebook is sturdy enough to feel comfortable lifting it by one corner. It’s not rugged or as well built as many business laptops, such as a ThinkPad or Dell’s own Latitude line — the screen latch is plastic as opposed to metal on a Latitude for instance. But the Inspiron 1501 is not flimsy by any means, the only real flex I could find on the casing was at the top just above the keyboard.

Dell Inspiron 1501 front view (view large image)

The back of the screen is plastic, but very sturdy and a hard push won’t make ripples appear. The hinges are sturdy and well damped. As mentioned before, the screen latch is plastic, but I’d rather have a plastic latch than the magnetic opening mechanism that some manufacturers are using — they’re so invariably hard to open.

Top view of Inspiron 1501 (view large image)

One knock against the build is that Dell uses a plastic dummy to fill in the slot for the ExpressCard opening when it’s not in use. It looks cheap, feels cheap and awkward not to mention the plastic piece is begging to be lost if you remove it. Unfortunately, many manufacturers use this approach instead of integrated flaps to protect the notebook from dust when the slot isn’t in use.

Bottom side view of Inspiron 1501 (view large image)

Screen

The screen on this Inspiron 1501 is the WXGA (1280×800) matte screen. Overall the screen is fairly sharp with nice saturated colors and high contrast. Brightness is good, next to my everyday ThinkPad T43 it certainly stands out as being much better. The lamp for backlighting is at the bottom of the screen, you can feel the bottom of the screen being slightly warm as an indicator of this, but light leakage is minimal so by looking you couldn’t really tell where the light is coming from — in other words the screen is evenly lit.

Inspiron 1501 WXGA screen (view large image)

One very positive thing I find with this screen is that there’s no 'sparkle' or graininess sometimes complained about with other Dell screens. When you’re viewing a white screen it is indeed all white, you can’t detect any unwanted artifacts. This is the first matte screen from Dell I’ve had in some time, usually I go for glossy, which is better for things like DVD viewing but annoying for working long hours with in office environments due to screen reflection.

As forementioned, brightness is good. When on battery you could bump the brightness down (using Fn + Arrow Down) to level three or four out of seven and still have very comfortable viewing.

The vertical viewing angles are quite poor, meaning that if you look at this screen at an angle other than perpendicular (head on) then colors will look odd, usually darker than intended and contrast will be whacky. So long as you’re viewing head on this isn’t a problem.

Speakers

The speaker performance of the 1501 is fine. In the world of notebooks, they are quite good even. Of course there is no bass but they seem to play low enough to make voices sound natural. They also play loud, for a notebook, without distortion. They point forward, and project the sound into a room so several people could easily watch a movie.

AMD Sempron Processor and Performance / Benchmarks

I’ve been spoiled of late reviewing a bunch of Intel Core 2 Duo laptops. Boy is the AMD Sempron ever a reality check as I merge into the information technology equivalent of the slow lane.

So why did I choose the Sempron knowing it would be slow? Basically, I wanted to buy this AMD based laptop for cheap, the price I got before taxes was $559. I think the whole selling point for the Inspiron 1501 is that it’s kind of on par with the Inspiron e1505 but cheaper — at least you would think. We’ll investigate whether that holds later.

Anyway, I digress.

From a perceived performance standpoint, the Sempron 3500+ laptop with 512MB of RAM 'feels' slow. MS Word doesn’t open immediately, it takes a couple of seconds. Web page rendering feels sluggish at times. If you get hyperactive moving the cursor around Start menu programs then you’ll notice icon graphics taking a while to render. If you go to the Add or Remove Programs Control Panel feature in Windows it takes a long time to populate the program list (you look at 'please wait while the list is populated' for at least 15 seconds upon entering that for the first time). And multi-tasking can be a bit of a slog, while ripping a CD and opening thePCMark05 benchmark program I clicked on the 'show desktop' icon and nothing registered for quite some time as the system tried to keep up with all the tasks being demanded of it.

However, in all fairness, if you’re more a 'one thing at a time' person and don’t juggle between programs or try and do 10 things at once, the Sempron will get you through what you need. Of course any Office application works fine and surfing the web is quite seamless, although web page rendering can sometimes be noticeably slower on this laptop.

Let’s look at some benchmarks to get a feel for how the 1501 configured with a Sempron stacks up.

PCMark05 gives a good rating for overall system performance, as you can see below, the 1501 with a Sempron is quite a bit slower than Core Duo and faster AMD machines.

Comparison table for PCMark05.

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3DMark05 is a test of pure graphic performance of a system, comparing the Inspiron 1501 to two notebooks with dedicated graphics shows it doesn’t stack up terribly well, but isn’t too far behind the Pentium M ATI X300 powered ThinkPad T43 (a 2 year old notebook):

3DMark05 Overall CPU Results

Cinebench CPU Results

(view large image)

Cinebench is a good rendering benchmark tool based on the powerful 3D software, CINEMA 4D. Its rendering tasks can stress up to sixteen multiprocessors on the same computer. It is a free benchmarking tool, and can be found here: http://www.cinebench.com. The basic CPU test provided the following results, you can see the Inspiron 1501 was able outperform the older ThinkPad T43 notebook — but couldn’t compare to a dual core Dell e1505:

Super Pi Results

And we won’t forget our perennial favorite benchmark, calculating Pi to a few million digits of accuracy. This is a pure test of processor performance, the AMD Sempron is close to the Pentium M 2.0GHz processor in terms of performance:

HDTune Benchmark Results:

Dell Inspiron 1501 Software

HDTune gives a measure of hard drive performance, the included 60GB 5400RPM Fujitsu drive performs well:

(view large image)

Noise:

The Dell 1501 is commendably quiet. Even while watching a DVD, the fan remained off. The hard drive makes a subdued, but noticeable hum. Only under heavier tasks does the fan come on. It has three speeds and generates more of a low pitched hum than any type of annoying whine that some fans produce.

Heat:

The keyboard and area under the screen generated more heat. The underside of the notebook was also slightly warm at the front and warmer, but not hot at the rear. As with all notebooks, heat is more of an issue when used on an insulating/air-restricting lap. Overall the 1501 can be commended for keeping its cool.

Battery:

With the 6-cell battery I was able to get 3 hours 25 minutes of battery life. This was with screen brightness at half and wi-fi off. During the 3.5 hours I let it idle for about half of the time and then the other half of the time I did things like rip a CD, run some benchmarks and tested various programs. Overall I was pretty impressed to get such battery life. Being a 15.4' screen laptop you probably won’t be carting it around a ton and won’t want 4+ hours of battery life. However, there is an option to upgrade to a 9-cell battery that should achieve 4+ hours of battery life if you so choose, it’s a $49 upgrade. The 9-cell battery is flushed with the back of the notebook and does not stick out.

Keyboard and Touchpad:

Keyboard and touchpad view (view large image)

The keyboard has good tactile feel and is firm — there’s no mushiness to it. The touch is light which allows for fast typing — but contrarily provides easy chance to mistype if you’re not accurate. There is almost no flex, except at the very rear where the whole notebook casing flexes in when pushed hard.

The touchpad is slightly recessed so it’s hard to accidentally touch. There is a vertical and horizontal scroll area. The two mouse buttons respond well. I miss having a pointing stick like I do on a ThinkPad, but such an input device is the realm of business notebooks and not consumer.

Most notably on the 1501 we find that the Media Direct button is missing from the top that the Inspiron e1505 has. This is quite obviously because the 1501 does not have the quick boot to Media Direct feature that allows you to access multimedia files without booting to Windows. A shame.

In addition, the media shortcut buttons we get on the front of the e1505 are missing on the 1501. I really miss having dedicated volume control buttons, holding down on Fn + PgUp to increase volume is pretty lame.

Ports:

The Inspiron 1501 has four USB 2.0 ports that are split between the rear and right side of the notebook, which is much better than all in one place. There is no old parallel printer port or serial ports. Sadly, the 1501 lacks the DVI port of the bigger Inspiron e1705, although the external VGA connection is capable of driving a big 24' LCD with 1920×1200 resolution. Even more dissapointing is that we’re missing S-Video and FireWire on the 1501 that you get on the Inspiron e1505. To further add to the woe of watering down the 1501 from the e1505, we get just a 3-in-1 media card reader instead of the 5-in-1 reader you get with the e1505. The Sony Memory Stick flash card is not supported by the 1501. Maybe Dell is annoyed with the whole Sony exploding battery situation still and striking back at them by not supporting their flash cards now? It makes you wonder.

Dell Inspiron 1501 left side view with optical drive (view large image)

Right side view of 1501: ExpressCard slot, 3-in-1 card reader, microphone jack, headphone jack, 2 USB 2.0 ports (view large image)

Dell Inspiron 1501 back side view: Power jack, modem jack, ethernet jack, 2 USB 2.0 ports, VGA monitor out (view large image)

Wireless:

The Dell 1501 under review came with an 802.11b/g Dell 1390 wireless card. The card works well in conjunction with my 802.11g Belkin router, all I really ask of wireless on a notebook is that it works without me thinking or worrying about it, and mission accomplished there. Unfortunately, no 802.11n option is available on the 1501 like it is on the Inspiron e series notebooks.

Dell Inspiron 1501 Drivers

Operating System and Software:

Windows 10 Iso

Dell does not include the 'Media Direct' software that can be accessed without booting into Windows. This is a feature of its 'e' series laptops. That’s too bad for Inspiron 1501 owners.

In terms of operating system, I got the Windows XP Media Center Edition configured with the 1501 — your choice of operating system is between Windows XP Pro or Windows XP Media Center Edition.

On the desktop and system tray there is a fair amount of bloatware — junk that many people won’t use. You will be harassed to purchase several programs. I particularly dislike the fact all image files are associated to open in some Corel trial program that will remind you in 60-days your trial will expire unless you purchase the software. Some trial games from Wild Tangent are unappreciated. McAfee Virus and Spam Control will drive you buggy, the best part is that it reports when the bloatware already installed is trying to do stuff behind your back:

The ever present McAfee pops up to warn you some included Bloatware from Dell is attempting to access the internet without you knowing, ahh the irony (view large image)

Dell did install Google Desktop, which can be useful. It finds files on your computer far faster than a Windows search does, and includes other useful features. One day, Google will rule the world. The Office 2003 trial software is in my opinion better than no Office at all, even if is just a feature limited edition. Overall though, I’d prefer to do without 90% of the preinstalled stuff. Oh well, it indirectly keeps costs down for Dell to include this software so we can’t have our cheap laptop and eat cake too I guess.

Inspiron 1501 Versus Inspiron e1505 / Inspiron 6400

Here’s a rundown of what you don’t get in the Inspiron 1501 that comes standard with any Inspiron e1505:

• No dedicated media buttons on the front
• No Dell Media Direct software feature
• No FireWire port
• No S-Video port
• 3-in-1 card reader instead of 5-in-1
• No internal Bluetooth option
• Fewer screen options
• No dedicated graphics card options

Not everybody needs or wants all of these options, so maybe they’ll be willing to pay less to get a subset of the Inspiron e1505 features. But further investigation shows that pricing difference between the e1505 and 1501 isn’t that great. I configured an Inspiron 1501 and e1505 with all of the same hardware features, except of course for the processor. For the e1505 I selected a 1.60GHz Intel Core Duo and for the Inspiron 1505 I selected the AMD Sempron 3500+. The cost difference — $30. Are you kidding me? I know Dell has a reputation for changing their pricing with the weather, but pricing has of late been pretty steady on both of these models. Below are links to PDF files for the configurations I made:

• Dell Inspiron e1505 (Core Duo 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM, 80GB HD, 24x CD Burner combo, 1390 Wireless) $699
• Dell Inspiron 1501 (AMD Sempron 1.8GHz, 1GB RAM, 80GB HD, 24x CD Burner combo, 1390 Wireless) $669

Anyone that opts for the 1501 in this above scenario is rather silly, to say the least.

The dual core Intel Core Duo is a far superior processor to the AMD Sempron, and then you get all of the extra features on the e1505 missing in the 1501. Why would any shopper that spends 10-minutes doing their research opt for the 1501 in this situation? The pricing is pretty whacky here, if I’m buying an AMD machine because I think it’s going to be cheaper, then I’m wrong. Dell just isn’t pricing things correctly it seems.

Even if you want the 1501 because you prefer the high performance AMD Turion X2 TL-56 over the competing Intel Core 2 Duo, you can’t get a dedicated graphics card and are short on a bunch of features from the e1505. One important thing to note, the e1505 is available with an ATI X1400 graphics card, and it’s only about a $99 upgrade. A dedicated graphics card offers much better graphics performance than integrated — the only option the 1501 has.

Taking a more positive view, you can get an Inspiron 1501 with the AMD Turion X2 TL-56 for $699 with all other specs at their lowest (i.e. 60GB HD, 512MB RAM, 24x CD Burner, Integrated Graphics). That’s a good price for a dual core 64-bit capable notebook. But who wants to buy a great processor with a configuration that features a bunch of other performance bottle-neck components?

Can Dell Inspiron 1501 Run Windows 10

In the end, the 1501 is sort of like a neutered e1505. It’s a shame, if you’re an AMD fan it kind of makes it hard to go with the AMD Dell option here. If pricing were significantly lower for the 1501 than the e1505 I could see the selling point, but when you configure things spec-for-spec similarly between the machines outside of the processor, pricing isn’t as different as it should be.

(Important Note: the Inspiron 6400 sold via Dell Business is exactly the same as the Inspiron e1505)

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Conclusion:

The Inspiron 1501 is a fine basic mainstream notebook: the build is good, the screen is nice, and the price is pretty decent. But it’s hardly an exciting notebook, looks or feature wise. It’s a shame Dell took the e1505 offering, watered it down feature wise, and then offered the AMD processor selection for it. Without dedicated graphics, a lack of media buttons, no FireWire and no S-Video Dell has done it’s job to seperate this from the 'e' (for entertainment) series. It’s clearly not their premium offering. But strangely, the price of the 1501 isn’t much cheaper than the e1505 Intel powered notebook. I can only say anyone considering the Inspiron 1501 should make sure to check out the Inspiron e1505 as well, it’s probably going to give you more bang for the buck and be only slightly more expensive.

Pros:

• Very respectable battery life
• Quiet under normal use
• Cool running
• Good keyboard
• Overall very good build, sturdy in its feel

Cons:

• Not much of a looker in terms of design
• Price compared to higher end e1505 doesn’t make sense — this should be cheaper
• Lots of annoying pre-installed software (AOL, NetZero, MusicMatch etc.)
• No DVI port, no S-Video, no FireWire — a serious lack of media ports in other words
• No media shortcut buttons at all

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