Dell Inspiron 1545 review specs, price

In these financially troubled times, the budget sector is more important than ever. Considering it’s a notebook from the world’s third-largest PC manufacturer, Dell’s Inspiron 1545 (also known as the Inspiron 15) has a lot to live up to, especially since the last Inspiron we had through our labs, the Inspiron 1525, walked away with our coveted Recommended Award. Let’s find out if the 1545 is worthy of similar praise.

Today’s hot topic is Dell Inspiron 1545, which is a 15.6” laptop with Core 2 Duo, T6400 2.0GHz Processor, 4GB RAM, 320GB Hard drive, DVD±RW, Vista Home Premium w/Webcam. It has some very cool new features, so now more and more people begin to love it.

Dell Inspiron 1545 specification

Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo T5800
Memory : 3GB DDR2 RAM
Chipset : Intel GMA45 Express
VGA : Intel GMA4500
Screen : Glossy 15.6 "widescreen XGA (1366x768)
Hard Dis : 250GB SATA Hard Disk
Optical Drive : Dual layer DVD Super Multi Writer
Port : VGA, headphone, mic, USB, RJ45, card reader
Webcam : None
Wireless : Dell Wireless 1397 802.11g Mini-Card
Dimensions : 343.5 x 244 25.9 ~ 37.8mm

Dell Inspiron 1545 Review

The build quality does not scream budget at all it has to be said. Where the cut back have been made to get this on budget are the connectivity options. While there is a 34mm ExpressCard slot, there is not the 54mm version, imiting upgrade options. But there is headphone and microphone jacks, an Ethernet port, three USB ports and a VGA-out. Some netbooks (such as the Asus N10J) even manage to fit in an HDMI port, whereas this Dell didn't).



Thankfully, Dell hasn't done much to alter the keyboard and it's pretty much identical to the excellent one found on the Inspiron 1525. Keys have a pleasant matte surface and are shaped well. Though feedback is a little light, it's quite deep for a notebook and has a nice positive 'click' to it. Layout is also excellent, the only quirk being that the special functions (such as volume up/down, wireless on/off, etc) on the F1-F12 keys are now the default action, with the F1-F12 functions themselves being relegated to secondary status and requiring the Fn key to be pressed. This probably makes life easier for computer novices, but will doubtless cause anyone who uses F-key combinations regularly no end of frustration.



Dell's Inspiron has joined the 16:9 aspect ratio crowd, as the 1545 sports a glossy 15.6in 1,366 x 768 screen. It's a somewhat below-average display overall; though it doesn't suffer from banding or excessive backlight bleed, text isn't quite as sharp as we're used to and terrible viewing angles means its contrast performance is often pretty poor too. In terms of entertainment, however, if you can get past the reflections in a lit environment and are looking at the screen from the 'ideal' angle, it certainly does an adequate job even with dark material.

Sound is ok but not particularly great to our ears, it lacks depth and bass and indeed some punch. They are more like the sound you'd get from a business laptop from several years ago. Workable, that's about it.

Inside, the laptop features Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 running at 2.0GHz with an 800MHz front-side bus, 3GB of DDR2 memory and Vista Home Premium. With the inclusion of Intel integrated GMA4500 graphics card, gaming is pretty much out of the window.

The notebook comes with a 250GB 5,400rpm hard disk. It doesn't feature Bluetooth and wireless is limited to 802.11g.

Battery life is definitely not one of its strong points. We had to leave the thing connected to the mains as it would run out of juice fairly quickly compared to other laptops we have tested of late.

So what kind of internals does the 1545 hide under its plain but glossy shell for its bargain price? Well, they're actually a little better than you might expect. The cast is led by an Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 running at 2.0GHz with an 800MHz front-side bus. This is fast enough to easily handle any software you'd want to use on a notebook like this. As to memory, 3GB of DDR2 RAM is as much as the installed 32-bit version of Windows Vista Premium can handle.

Sleek, sophisticated and powerful, this Dell Inspiron 1545 notebook delivers top of the line performance and reliability for a fraction of the cost! It is very affordable, people say Inspiron 1545 is a budget laptop, that’s quite true. The price is as low as $519, this is a very cheap price for such a quality laptop.

Posted by Rocky on 12:01 PM. Filed under Dell, Netbook - Notebook . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Feel free to leave a response