In terms of storage, the ThinkPad T520 is configurable with either an HDD or SSD as the primary drive and it supports the Ultrabay for use with an optional data drive. As noted, the mSATA port provides a third storage option, and is bootable with a special SSD like the Intel SSD 310, replacing the WWAN module. In our full review we’ll run the T520 through a our gammut of HDDs and SSDs to test, but for now look at performance using the suite of new Intel SSDs including the SSD 310, 320, and high performance 510.

Lenovo ThinkPad T520 Specifications

15.6-inch Widescreen 1366×768 WXGA LED-Backlit Display (Matte finish)
Intel Core i5-2540M Processor (3M Cache, 2.66 GHz)
Intel GMA HD 3000 Graphics
Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-Bit
8.0GB DDR3 System Memory
Intel 82579LM Gigabit LAN, Intel Centrino 6205 802.11AGN
6-cell 57Wh Extended Laptop Battery

Aesthetics

At first glance it doesn’t look like much has changed in terms of the design of the ThinkPad T520. Lenovo has the same black rubbery paint covering the boxy shell of a body, with large stainless steel hinges displayed on both sides. The only thing displayed on the screen cover is the ThinkPad brand logo and the Lenovo name, keeping the rest matte black.

The bottom of the notebook does have one significant change. Unlike previous generations, the bottom is made entirely of plastic now which you can tell from the moment you scratch your fingernail across it. I am undecided on if this weakens the durability of the notebook though, since the system still features the strong alloy unibody chassis. It also doesn’t appear to increase flex at first glance, which is a very good sign.

Ease of access to system components like the RAM and hard drive are still included on the T520 through two covers on the bottom of the chassis. One houses the lower memory slot, while the other gives access to the primary 2.5-inch drive bay. The rest of the components are accessible through the top, directly underneath the keyboard. This includes the upper memory slot, CPU, Wi-Fi card, WWAN/mSATA slot, and SIM-card slot.

Storage Upgrades

I think its safe to say the mSATA standard is probably one of the best things that’s happened to notebooks in a long time. With some additional circuitry, mobile platforms can now have up to 80GB of storage space included on a card roughly the size of a house key. What this means for consumers is now systems can be built smaller and still retain a user-replaceable storage drive, or on large systems the legacy 2.5-inch bay can be used for media storage. In the past you might have to make the compomise between storage capacity and the high cost of an SSD. Now you can stick a high capacity platter drive in the primary bay and still have a fast SSD as the boot drive.

The ThinkPad T520 also supports the same secondary hard drive UltraBay adapter as the T410 we reviewed earlier this year, meaning users can have a total of three drives in their 14 or 15-inch notebooks. How cool is that?

System Performance

In terms of storage performance, one area did concern us greatly. When most people think of the Sandy Bridge platform, one of the first things that pops up intheir their heads is faster processors, less power consumption, and SATA 6.0Gbps speeds. In our review system with the latest Intel drives installed, the fastest negotiated speed from the primary storage bay was 3.0Gbps. This brings back some memories of older systems that were held back to 1.5Gbps speeds when 3.0 was the new standard. We are investigating right now to find out if this was intended and if so, how many new ThinkPad models it applies to.

Update: After further testing and many benchmark runs, we are now seeing full SATA 6.0Gbps negotiation speeds through the primary drive bay. We either ran into a strange driver quirk after drive cloning, but from what we can tell right now is things are back to where they should be. Crisis averted! Stay tuned for our full review where we test the ThinkPad T520 with the Intel SSD 510, Micron m4, and the OCZ Vertex 3 showing their full potential on a mobile platform.

Even with reduced potential from the SATA bus, we still saw very strong performance from the ThinkPad T520. For a system with “only” integrated graphics, it still easily beat the overall system performance of the ThinkPad T410 we reviewed by a factor of two. PCMark Vantage scores doubled, coming in at 12,329 PCMarks, even with the base mSATA 80GB SSD. The latest generation of Intel integrated graphics also handily beat the NVIDIA NVS 3100M at 3DMark06 scoring over 5,000 3DMarks.

Power Consumption

To get as close to a baseline power consumption rate as possible, we decided to test the Lenovo ThinkPad T520 using the 80GB Intel mSATA SSD 310 as the only drive installed. In the full review we will show runtimes including two drives, to show how that would affect battery life. Our initial test was setup to our road-warrior standards, which includes the screen brightness reduced to 50%, the CPU set to power saving mode, wireless on and refreshing a webpage without Flash-based ads, and Bluetooth disabled. In this profile the system used as little as 5.6 watts of power and showed an expected runtime of 11.5 hours halfway through. Not too shabby for a 15.6-inch notebook with a 6-cell battery. Just imagine the amount of time you could get on the 9-cell battery plus slice.

Stay Tuned

We expect to wrap up our full review of the Lenovo ThinkPad T520 in the next couple of weeks. We will be following the same review style as our previous review, which included benchmarking the notebook using a set group of drives. Since the selection of drives has changed drastically in the past month, our test group has changed to now include the Crucial m4, Intel SSD 320, Intel SSD 310, and OCZ Vertex 3. If you have any questions or requests during the review process, feel free to shoot a question our way in our Test Lab forum. If your request is reasonable we will do whatever we can to get you an answer.

Battery and Power Consumption

Our Lenovo ThinkPad T520 included the standard six-cell battery option, offering a 57Wh capacity. A larger nine-cell battery with a capacity of 94Wh is also offered, which would add about 60% onto your overall battery life. The biggest difference between each of these batteries is their respective sizes, with the smaller six-cell mounting flush to the back of the notebook, and the larger nine-cell battery sticking under an inch.

An optional “slice” battery is also offered as an option for the ThinkPad T520, which when combined with a 9-cell lenovo t520 battery boasts an impressive 24-hours of runtime. Sadly, we were unable to get a slice-battery with our review unit, so we are unable to provide measured runtimes of that configuration.

To test the lenovo battery life we used the Windows 7 Power Saver profile, with the display backlight reduced to about 50% (9/15 brightness), Bluetooth disabled, Wi-Fi on and refreshing a webpage without animated or Flash-based ads, and the system set to hibernate at 5% power remaining. Our goal with this test setup is to try and mimic the road-warrior situation, where you are trying to squeeze as much time as possible in-between charges.

Using the above conditions, the ThinkPad T520 stayed on for 6 hours and 59 minutes, with an average power consumption of 6.2-7 watts. Compared to our original estimate of over 11 hours, it appears the battery gauge wasn’t as accurate as a stopwatch.

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Via: http://www.storagereview.com/lenovo_thinkpad_t520_review_first_thoughts

Fujitsu’s LifeBook T580 convertible notebook caters to a niche market segment looking for the functionality of a standard ultraportable notebook with the slick interface of a tablet PC. The unit’s rotating 10-inch display folds flat over the nearly full-size keyboard, providing users with a dual digitizer display that can be used with an active stylus and up to four fingers. But does this $1,399 device live up to its goal of providing two distinct functions at a decent price? Read on to find out.

Design and Durability

The LifeBook T580′s design is best described as utilitarian. The matte-black lid prominently displays the Fujitsu logo, and the bezel and keyboard follow the same color scheme. The off-white wrist rest slightly offsets the drab design aesthetic. Weighing in at 3 pounds with a standard three-cell battery installed, the T580 is light; however, its weight does nothing to disguise its chunky 1.6-inch profile. By comparison, Gigabyte’s 11.6-inch T1125N convertible is a paltry 1.1 inches thick, although it weighs a heavier 3.8 pounds.

The T580 is well constructed, with the keyboard, wrist rest, and display bezel showing little to no give when pressed. The convertible’s single hinge rotates the screen 180 degrees for use as a tablet. It is thick, sturdy, and offers no unwanted movement. The T580 was thoughtfully designed with flat, rounded surfaces and no protrusions that could poke you as you carry it around. Still, it’s no iPad; holding this convertible in tablet mode for long periods of time can get tiresome.

To the left of the hinge sit the T580′s Ctl+Alt+Del, Screen Rotation, and Fujitsu Menu tablet buttons. Meant for use when the convertible is in tablet mode, the buttons provide users with easy access to a series of system options. The Ctl+Altl+Del button, as its name implies, brings up the task manager screen, while the Screen Rotation button alters the screen’s orientation between portrait and landscape mode. (We’d prefer an accelerometer-powered option.) The Fujitsu Menu button opens the system’s Touch Launcher, which is used to access some of the unit’s touchscreen and system settings.

A sliding power switch on the right side of the T580 allows users to power on the unit while it’s in tablet mode.

Heat

While streaming a Hulu video at full screen for 15 minutes, the LifeBook T580 stayed fairly cool. The touchpad measured 81 degrees Fahrenheit, the space between the G and H keys was 94 degrees, and the underside was 93 degrees. The hottest area, by the air vent, reached 98; that’s approaching what we consider too hot–100 degrees and above. In general, though, the T580 stayed cooler than the Gigabyte, which hit 98 degrees on the middle of the bottom.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The LifeBook T580′s keyboard provided satisfying tactile feedback, but the keys’ small size, combined with their relative closeness, may cause some initial frustration for touch typists. It’s not a severe problem, and we acclimated to the layout in no time.

The T580′s 2.25 x 1.25-inch touchpad has a ridged surface that provides accurate movement, but the right and left click buttons are small, making navigating through multiple menus slightly difficult. Unlike the Gigabyte T1125N, the T580′s touchpad does not support multitouch gestures.

Display and Sound

With a 1366 x 768-pixel resolution, the T580′s 10.1-inch display delivers exceptionally clear images for such a small screen. When we watched the trailer for Thor, images were very crisp, but when the display was tilted back to a roughly 130-degree angle, the video became unwatchable. Conversely, horizontal viewing angles were very wide; images only became distorted at about an 80-degree angle. However, the screen’s glossy finish creates a mirror effect that, in bright sunlight, makes the screen especially hard to see. A sensor will automatically dim or brighten the display depending on ambient light, but users have to first enable this feature in the system’s Control Panel.

Sound output from the T580′s mono speaker won’t blow anyone away. When we were watching videos or playing music, audio sounded flat at times, while some songs were hard to hear even with the volume turned all the way up. In the same room with a television set at a moderate volume level, the sound from the speaker was barely audible.

Touchscreen and Touch Software

The Fujitsu LifeBook T580 is the first notebook to use version 3.5 of N-Trig’s DuoSense touchscreen technology, which uses a single digitizer to allow both four-finger touch and active pen input. By providing an active, battery-powered stylus, the T580 supports different levels of pressure and fine movements, things that a passive pen cannot achieve. You can see the kind of graphics DuoSense enables by watching this video of an artist in action.

The T580′s touchscreen was highly accurate when we used the included stylus, but it was less so when we used a finger to select menu items. This is, of course, understandable for a 10.1-inch machine running Windows 7.

The active stylus is stored beneath the keyboard in its own compartment, The pen’s left click is activated by pressing its tip down on the screen. The right-click button is located on the side of the stylus, which can lead to some inadvertent clicking if you grip it too hard when using it for handwritten notes.

The Fujitsu Utility Menu button lets users switch between Launcher Mode and Internet Mode, which are essentially touch-friendly skins. Internet Mode makes surfing the web easier by providing large navigation buttons, including Back, Reload, and Stop. The Launcher Mode provides users with large customizable radio buttons that launch the T580′s software keyboard, Internet Explorer, and touch notepad among other options. The digital keyboard is the most useful feature here, and it can be increased or decreased in size depending on whether or not the stylus pen is being used as the primary input device.

In addition to the Fujitsu Menu, the T580 also includes Microsoft’s Touch Pack for Windows 7. The notebook was able to recognize and record our handwriting fairly well, and we like that it can be customized for users’ individual writing styles.

Ports and Webcam

Fujitsu loaded the T580 with lots of ports, especially given its small size. On the right side of the unit are a USB 2.0 port, SmartCard slot, SD Card slot, and a wireless LAN/ Bluetooth On/Off toggle switch. On the left side are a second USB 2.0 port, an Ethernet jack, and VGA. The rear of the T580 includes an HDMI port and a lock slot. A biometric fingerprint sensor located on the right of the display bezel allows registered users to log into the system. By comparison, the Gigabyte T1125N has a USB 3.0 port and an eSATA/USB port.

The notebook’s 1.3-megapixel webcam produced a grainy image in low lighting, but when in a well-lit room, videos were clear with vibrant colors. The camera’s Cyberlink YouCam software includes special effects, a video surveillance recorder, and reconfigurable settings to tweak images to your liking.

Performance

Packed with a 1.33-GHz Intel Core i5 U560 processor and 2GB of RAM, the T580 provides suitable performance for business users on the go. In PCMark Vantage, which rates the system’s overall speed, the T580 notched a 4,124, on a par with the ultraportable category average of 4,145. The Gigabyte T1125N, which has a 1.3-GHz Intel Core i3 U380 CPU, managed a slightly lower score of 3,889.

Where the T580 stumbles is with its 160GB, 5,400-rpm hard drive. It took the T580 4 minutes and 23 seconds to copy 4.97 GB of media files, which equals a rate of 19.4 MBps. That’s more than a minute slower than the category average of 3:20 (32.5 MBps). The Gigabyte managed the same operation in 3:41, a rate of 23 MBps.

On the Oxelon transcoding test, the T580 converted a 114MB MPEG-4 video to AVI format in 1 minute 12 seconds–a full 39 seconds below the category average.

Graphics Performance

The T580 relies on its integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator for heavy lifting in the media department, and it shows. The convertible scored 1,116 on the 3DMark06 test, while the average ultraportable tablet registers 1,873. By comparison, the T1125, which has discrete Nvidia GeForce 310M graphics, scored 3,667. Not surprisingly, the T580 could barely run World of Warcraft, managing a sluggish 14 frames per second with the graphics set at default.

Battery Life and Wireless

For an ultraportable, the T580′s endurance is abysmal. On the LAPTOP Battery Test (web surfing via Wi-Fi), its three-cell, 2900 mAh battery lasted 2 hours and 17 minutes, nearly 4 hours short of the ultraportable average. That runtime is also about 2 hours less than the Gigabyte T1125N (4:10). If you’re considering this laptop, opt for the six-cell 5800 mAh battery (a $50 option, fujitsu lifebook t580 tablet battery).

The T580 provided a wireless transfer rate of 49.3 Mbps at a range of 15 feet; the average ultraportable gets 32.8 Mbps. Its rate dropped to 22.2 Mbps when the range was extended to 50 feet, slightly higher than the category average of 19.6 Mbps.

Consumers can also select one of three broadband options: AT&T DataConnect Ready (3G, HSUPA), Sprint Mobile Broadband (3G, CDMA), or Verizon Wireless Mobile Broadband (3G, EVDO-Rev A).

Configuration Options

Fujitsu offers two variants of the LifeBook T580. Our $1,399 review model came with a 1.33-GHz Core i5-560UM processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 160GB hard drive. The base model costs $999 and features a 1.33-GHz Intel Core i3-380Um CPU and the same RAM and hard drive. However, the lower-priced model also comes with a six-cell battery, which will make a world of difference.

Business and Security Features, Software

For road warriors, the T580 features both a fingerprint reader and Smart Card reader to protect the system from data theft. Other security features include TPM, Computrace, and a Kensington Lock slot. Fujitsu’s Shock Sensor utility will park the hard drive head in case it detects sudden movement, and the spill-resistant keyboard can withstand a little liquid.

The T580 comes pre-loaded with Adobe Reader, the CyberLink YouCam software, a Fujitsu Driver Update utility, Google Toolbar, Microsoft Office Starter 2010 32-bit edition, a 60-day free trial of Norton Internet Security, the Pass Fingerprint application, Roxio Creator, and Windows Live Essentials.

The T580 comes with a one-year international limited warranty and 24/7 technical support. Check out our Tech Support Showdown to see how effective Fujitsu’s customer service stacks up.

Verdict

For users seeking a feature-packed ultraportable convertible with pen input, the LifeBook T580 is a pretty good option. However, the short battery life makes this $1,399 configuration difficult to recommend. Fujitsu should have included the larger battery at this price. For $300 less, the Gigabyte T1125N performs better and lasts longer on a charge, though it doesn’t feature a pen. If you do decide to splurge on this laptop-tablet combo, be sure to get the larger six-cell battery. Or, if you don’t need Core i5 power, get the $999 configuration of the T580 with a Core i3 processor and six-cell battery.

Pros
Light, sturdy build
Good performance
Responsive touchscreen with pen input
Fast Wi-Fi throughput

Cons
Short battery life with three-cell battery
Slow hard drive
Drab design
Weak audio

Product Features and Specifications

Apple’s Thinnest Design Yet – This is what I’m most excited about.
13.3-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display with a 1440 x 900-pixel resolution
Up to 7 hours of wireless productivity plus up to 30 days of standby time
1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 6 MB on-chip shared L2 cache and 1066 MHz frontside bus.
256 GB flash memory storage
2 GB installed RAM (1066 MHz DDR3; supports up to 4 GB)
NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor (with 256 MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory) for an outstanding everyday graphics experience.
Built-in FaceTime camera for video chatting
Wi-Fi wireless networking (based on 802.11n specification; 802.11a/b/g compatible)
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) for connecting with peripherals such as keyboards, mice and cell phones
Two USB 2.0 ports with networking using optional Apple USB Ethernet adapter
SD card slot
Mini DisplayPort output port with support for DVI, VGA, dual-link DVI, and HDMI (requires adapters, sold separately)
Built-in stereo speakers along with omnidirectional microphone, headphone minijack
Full-size keyboard
Multi-Touch trackpad for precise cursor control; supports inertial scrolling, pinch, rotate, swipe, three-finger swipe, four-finger swipe, tap, double-tap, and drag capabilities
Dimensions: 12.8 x 8.94 x 0.68 inches (WxDxH)
Weight: 2.9 pounds
Processor, Memory, and Motherboard
RAM: 2 GB
Hard Drive
Size: 256 GB
Cases and Expandability
Weight: 8 pounds

The good: The new 11-inch Apple MacBook Air is dramatically faster than last year’s version, has a backlit keyboard, apple battery, and comes with a high-speed Thunderbolt I/O port.

The bad: The entry-level Air still has the same limited fixed flash storage and RAM as last year’s version, which most people will want to upgrade from–and there’s still no SD card slot, Ethernet port, or 3G wireless option.

The bottom line: This year’s 11-inch MacBook Air improves on last year’s model in several significant ways and is by far the fastest ultraportable you’re likely to find, though some users will consider the limited flash storage space to be a hindrance.

Last October, Apple’s 11-inch MacBook Air debuted. The tiny, slim ultraportable was the smallest laptop Apple had ever made. Its combination of size and power earned it a four-star review, with caveats: it had a last-generation Core 2 Duo processor, lacked a backlit keyboard, and omitted an SD card slot. We’re glad to find the newly released, back-to-school-timed 2011 MacBook Air(laptop battery) update fixes two of our three complaints.

Both 11- and 13-inch MacBook Airs have been updated with new, faster second-gen Core i5 processors. The new Air also, finally, has a backlit keyboard. There are more bonuses, too: Mac OS X Lion, Apple’s brand-new operating system update, comes preinstalled. A Thunderbolt I/O port for high-speed data transfer and HD audio/video has been added.

Unfortunately, there’s still no SD card slot, and memory and storage configurations remain both fixed and limited: the configuration still only has 2GB of RAM and 64GB of flash storage, which many will consider inadequate. We recommend the configuration, which has 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

Perhaps the biggest change to the MacBook Air is how it’s being sold. Now that the white MacBook no longer exists, Apple has made the MacBook Air the entry-level laptop for everybody (everybody with a grand to drop on a laptop, at least). The 11-inch MacBook Air is the most affordable MacBook in Apple’s stable.

The 2011 11-inch Air is, undeniably, an improvement over the fall 2010 version. Is it a MacBook for everyone, though? Not yet, unless you can live with the Air’s still comparatively limited storage space. For a more full-size laptop with even better Apple 13″ Macbook Air battery life, many might be tempted to get the 13-inch MacBook Air or even the more full-featured 13-inch MacBook Pro. But, for sheer portability and performance, nothing can beat the 11-inch Air.

The netbook is dead, long live the netbook!

Or at least something like that, as far as AMD is concerned. Sony’s Vaio YB is the vanguard of the chip designer’s attempt to wrest control of the cheap and cheerful market from Intel, keeping things affordable while giving us higher resolution, larger screens, and more comfortable keyboards and screens.

The 11.6-inch, 1366×768 screen of the Vaio YB certainly gives us this. While the chassis looks and feels much cheaper than we’re used to with Sony(sony laptop battery), and the mouse buttons clack noisily. There’s little room to complain.

It’s generously featured for the price too, with VGA and HDMI out, three USB ports, gigabit Ethernet, 2.4GHz 802.11n, headphone and microphone jacks, and SD and Memory Stick readers.

Internally, it features the core of AMD’s strike back plan – the AMD E-350 1.6GHz processor. This is what AMD has taken to calling an APU, or Accelerated Processing Unit. For us normal folk, this means a central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) have been bunged on the one die, allowing a faster interconnect and lower power consumption. There’s plenty of APUs already around, such as Intel’s Core i3 and i5 products, but this is AMD’s take.

The graphics part of the equation is identified as a Radeon HD6310, and in combination with AMD’s CPU, it effectively lays to waste Intel’s Atom in the performance stakes, even when paired with Nvidia’s Ion chipset.

Sony’s opted to include a 320GB hard drive, but only 2GB RAM – and as a consequence, has only included Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit. If it had opted for 4GB RAM and 64-bit Windows, we’d have been thoroughly impressed.

Pushing it through the requisite 3DMark06 and PCMark05 benchmarks, the Vaio YB netted 2057 and 2754 respectively, indicating that it is capable of some low-level gaming and should be decent at day-to-day office tasks and web browsing.

Where AMD’s solution lags Intel’s Atom, perhaps unsurprisingly, is battery life. Turning off all power-saving features, setting screen brightness and volume to maximum and playing back an XviD file, the YB lasted three hours and 28 minutes. While it doesn’t match some of the crazier times some Intel graphics-based netbooks have posted, it does better than recent Ion netbooks while giving greater performance. Bravo, AMD.

With the likes of the MacBook Air 11 and the Vaio YB entering the market, and tablets coming in from the side, we believe 2011 will be the year when the netbook loses importance.

Sony’s Vaio YB(VGP-BPS21) is an excellent portable laptop that allows you to do so much more than a netbook ever did, with a price premium we believe is entirely worth it. If you’ve got modest needs (portability but still able to get things done), the Vaio YB will fit your life perfectly.

We shall be reviewing the Dell Inspiron 15R (N5050) laptop today – this is not to be confused with another model which also bears the same classification of ‘Dell Inspiron 15R’, but comes under the subcategory of N5100, and which features a switchable back-lid.

Design

The review model we received came in an Obsidian Black colouring which covers the backlid and the palmrest – the rest of the laptop has a regular black plastic finish. The overall design of this laptop is nothing much to write home about – it has an overall regular look except for the bulge at its rear, which provides space for the removable battery.

The backlid is glossy and features the Dell logo that is positioned at its centre – by virtue of its glossy nature, the backlid attracts more than its fair share of fingerprints, smudges and scratches. The plamrest, on the other hand, has a matte finish – so you don’t have to worry about fingerprints and the sort leaving their mark on it. The screen bezel also has a matte finish. In a design choice that we saw previously on the Dell Vostro 3450 as well, the keyboard’s background area has a glossy finish – the same goes for its border. While the glossy background surface does provide a contrast to an extent to the matte finish of the rest of the laptop, given that the entire laptop has a darkish colouring, talking of this contrast is a rather moot point – the black glossy background area should contrast better with the Apple Red colour option.

The screen is held in place by a two hinges – the wide centrally located connector also hold the monitor – there is a Dell logo positioned centrally at the lower section of the screen bezel – in place. Both the hinges extend outward to cause a bulge, which is the most distinctive feature of this laptop. The power socket is located on the right side of this bulge.

Features

The overall build quality of this laptop is good. The edges are curved and the entire laptop, when closed, resembles a rectangular slab – there are no angular sides, save for the slight curvature that extends from the base to the front side of the laptop. There is a 0.3 MP camera placed at the top central section of the screen’s bezel.?
The power button is located at the top left corner. There are two very slim speaker outlets located at either end of the top part of the chassis – placed below the screen. There are four LED indicators positioned along the front of the laptop, for indicating whether the laptop is powered on, for hard drive access, whether the laptop battery is charging or not and for wireless connectivity respectively.

Monitor

The 15.6-inch glossy screen does a good job of displaying text and video. The viewing angles are decent – two people, sitting within comfortable distance of each other, should be able to watch the screen without having to see the darkish hue appear over the particular picture/video. The screen can be titled backwards to an angle of approx 120 degrees.

Keyboard Usability

The keyboard features chiclet keys, but comes without a dedicated numpad. Given that this is a 15.6 screen laptop, Dell could have easily incorporated a numpad, given how there is a lot of free space around the keyboard border area. Typing on this keyboard was not too pleasant an experience given the springy tactile feedback from the keys. Interestingly Dell has added a function button for disabling the touchpad – which is a very handy feature to have, especially when typing a document, and when you don’t want your cursor to keep moving just because your palms came in to contact with the touchpad. Acer was the only manufacturer I had seen who implemented this feature, and its a welcome addition by Dell. I hope they continue having this feature in their other laptops as well.

The smooth textured touchpad is very responsive, and features two mouse buttons. I did find that the mouse buttons tended to depress too much when pressed – the buttons would depress to the extent that your fingers would be touching the border of the touchpad. This was quite an irritant – Dell could have really done with steadier mouse buttons.

Hardware

The Dell Inspiron 15R features a Second Generation Intel Core i3 2310 processor (2.1GHz), 4GB DDR3 RAM, a 500 GB (5400 RPM) HDD, and Intel HD graphics.

The left side of the laptop chassis features, one Ethernet port, one VGA port, an HDMI port, one USB 2.0 port and headphone and microphone jacks. On the right hand side you would find an optical drive and 2 USB 2.0 ports. At the front of the chassis, you would find a multi-card reader – positioned to its left, you would find the four LED indicators. It also features Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/ n and Bluetooth 3.0 wireless connectivity.

More details can be seen on this review’s "Specifications" page.

Software

The laptop comes pre-installed with Windows 7 Home Premium service pack 1. Among the Dell software included on this unit are the Dell DataSafe local backup, Dell DataSafe online, Dell Stage – includes MusicStage, PhotoStage and VideoStage, Dell Support Centre and PC Checkup and Dell webcam Central which allows you to add some interesting effects to your photos.

Among the other pre-installed software are McAfee Security Centre trial edition, Roxio Creator Starter Edition, and Skype.

Performance

The Inspiron15R laptop received a score of 99 on the Worldbench 6 benchmark – for comparisons sake, that would be 2 points more than what the Lenovo IdeaPad Z570 scored. This Dell laptop should be able to cope with carrying out your daily tasks and performing most multiple processor and memory intensive tasks without any issues – save for gaming. During synthetic testing, the laptop’s hard disk recorded an average read speed of 72.5 MB/s and recorded a PC Mark Vantage score of 5547.

Given that the laptop has the integrated Intel HD graphics, playing contemporary games shouldn’t really be considered as a viable option on this laptop. This is not a downside in any way as the laptop was never intended for such a purpose, and if you were indeed looking for a more moderately priced machine to play games on, you would be better off looking at other options – such as the Lenovo IdeaPad Z570. Having said that, you just might be able to get away with playing some of the retro games, run at appropriate settings, on this Inspiron 15R laptop.
Watching both 720p and 1080p HD videos was a comfortable experience. The sound output from the built in speakers, is appropriately loud for a small to medium sized room, although higher frequency sounds do tend to sound quite screechy. Listening through headphones would be the best option.

Throughout our testing, the Inspiron laptop did a good job of keeping itself cool, which is a positive aspect for any laptop. However when used for an extended period of time or when running some intensive tasks, you do notice that the mid-to-top left section of the laptop’s base, that is next to the exhaust, heats up slightly and becomes quite warm to the touch. Moreover, the laptop was barely audible during operation, which is another positive to take from this laptop.
The laptop’s six-cell dell inspiron 15r battery lasted for 1 hour 32 minutes through one of our battery tests, at high performance mode, and having the wireless internet mode enabled – this result is pretty much the norm we have come to expect of mainstream laptops. Having said that, you should be able to extract around 4 plus hours out of the laptop’s dell battery for doing lighter every-day work such as browsing the web and listening to music.

Upgradability

The entire base is a single cover slot, and the entire base will have to taken off – we tried to remove it, but to no avail – to look at the Inspiron laptop’s innards. Consequently, in case you are thinking of upgrading this unit, that task is better left to Dell, and is not an activity that I would encourage regular users to engage in.