Review Dell Inspiron 15R (N5110) Notebook

Colorful. Dell is upgrading its Inspiron range. Sony VGP-BPS9/S batteryBesides the latest processor from the Sandy Bridge family, the notebook's look can be modified to suit personal preferences with help from a switch concept. Dell again provides a vast amount of different color combination and designs.Sony VGP-BPS9 battery

When you open the notebook, you'll see that something has changed after all.Sony VGP-BPS9A/B battery The wrist-rest and other surfaces are now no longer comprised of light-colored plastic, but now have a dark color. A few new controls have been added in the upper right edge and the touchpad has also been revised. The same horizontal stripes have now been incorporated into the wrist-rest's design, as were used on the display lid. Sony VGP-BPS9A/S battery

The hardware refresh bestows the notebook with two of the new USB 3.0 ports,Sony VGP-BPS13A/B battery among other interfaces. The Inspiron 15R additionally has a combined USB 2.0/eSATA port. Thus, any external hard disk can be connected to the laptop via a fast interface. Although eSATA doesn't reach the speeds of USB 3.0, you will likely be pleased about this port if you have an external eSATA hard disk. The Inspiron 15R's other connection more or less comply with the current standard.Sony VGP-BPS13 battery

There is a USB 2.0 port, the HDMI socket,Sony VGP-BPS13A/Q battery the combined USB 2.0/eSATA port and the 8in1 cardreader on the laptop's left. The cardreader supports the card formats SD, SDXC, SDHC, MMC, MMC+, MS, MS PRO and xD. Sony VGP-BPS13/B battery

The optical drive, both audio sockets for headphone and microphone and a USB 3.0 port are found on the right.Sony VGP-BPS13B/B battery

The front doesn't have any interfaces whatever. Merely the status LEDs are located here.Sony VGP-BPS13B/Q battery The other ports are found on the case's rear. This could be accomplished with a shorter battery that doesn't exploit the notebook's entire length. The Kensington lock, the RJ45 (LAN) socket, another USB 3.0 port, the VGA out and the power adapter's socket is placed on the rear.Sony VGP-BPS13A/S battery

All in all, Dell has positioned the interfaces favorably. Sony VGP-BPS13/Q battery The majority have been placed rather more on the lateral rear areas. This diminishes the cable mess on the desk. Moving a few ports to the rear also contributes to this. As to the single ports, there's no danger of, for example, large USB sticks covering another port since they are all far enough apart.Sony VGP-BPS8 battery

The Dell Inspiron 15R can fall back on LAN, WLAN and Bluetooth as communication options. For LAN,Sony VGP-BPS8A battery the laptop uses a Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller which allows speeds of 10Mbit, respectively 100MBit. The Inspiron 15R isn't quite up to date in this case. 1000MBit should be warranted in any event.Sony VGP-BPS10 battery

The Intel Centrino Wireless N 1030 takes you wirelessly into the Net. It has the latest standard thanks to 802.11 b/g/n. Sony VGP-BPS2 battery The installed Bluetooth card, version 3.0 +HS, takes care of communication with peripheral devices.Sony VGP-BPS2A battery

You'll find the usual printed installation instructions and a driver DVD besides the notebook,Sony VGP-BPS2B battery the battery and the power adapter in the scope of delivery. There's no recovery DVD for Windows 7, but it can be optionally acquired in the Dell configurator. Dell demands a surcharge of 5.00 euros for it.Sony VGP-BPS2C battery

Dell offers a basic warranty of 1 year for the Inspiron 15R. It includes a repair period of 10 days.Sony VGP-BPS22 batteryThe laptop has to be sent in for that. Dell has numerous supplementary bundles in its configurator with which the service can be extended. Aside a warranty period extension of up to 4 years, there is also an onsite service and a service for evenings and Saturdays can be activated. Dell charges quite a bit for all this. Thus, the "4 year hardware support" service for the next business day costs an additional 280.00 euros.Sony VGP-BPS22A battery

The keyboard overall makes a very spongy impression, although the typing feel on the keyboard is acceptable.Sony VGP-BPS13AS battery However, it's annoyingly noticed that the keyboard yields with every keystroke while typing. Moreover, we ask ourselves what the glossy crosspieces between the single keys are good for. Only fingerprints remain when a key isn't hit precisely and cleaning the gaps is a quite a hard piece of work.Sony VGP-BPS13S battery

Three quick access keys are located above the keyboard's right.Sony VGP-BPS13/S batteryThey open the Mobility Center and Dell's Support Center. The third key can be mapped with a program of choice or website link by the user.Sony VGP-BPS13B/S battery

The touchpad completely convinced us with its diagonal of 115 millimeters.Sony VGP-BPS10/B batteryIt is incorporated into the laptop's wrist-rest. Consequently, there is a noticeable edge which indicates the touchpad boundaries, yet there is no gap that collects dirt particles. Navigating with the touchpad worked very well in the test and the mouse cursor responded very precisely to inputs via touchpad. Multi-touch is also a part of the touchpad's functionality, and there's no reason for complaint here, either.Sony VGP-BPS10A battery

Both mouse keys below the touchpad have a slightly spongy feel in our opinion. Sony VGP-BPS10A/B battery The pressure point could be a bit crisper and the key drop also seems very long. Basically, you first have to get used to the keys. In addition, the keys don't emit an audible click and you don't receive an acoustic feedback. To what extent this will be considered to be annoying is a personal matter.Sony VGP-BPS10/S battery

Dell uses a 15.6 inch sized display with LED backlight in the Inspiron 15R.Sony VGP-BPS21A/B battery The display has a resolution of 1366x768 pixels and includes a glossy surface. Regrettably, there aren't any other options in Dell's configurator and thus, the entire Inspiron 15R range is limited to this display. The display is very suitable for rendering movies due to the 16:9 format.Sony VGP-BPS21 battery

OutdoorsThe Dell Inspiron 15R is only useable to an extent outside in the fresh air.Sony VGP-BPS21A battery You should look for a shady place to be able to work reasonably on the laptop. Not only the reflective display, but the low contrast and the not very bright display also decisively contribute to illegibility in the sun. The glossy display bezel is also sooner deterrent outdoors. Sony VGP-BPS21/S battery

The Inspiron 15R's display does quite well in terms of viewing angles. Sony VGP-BPS21/B battery Dimming and color deviations turn up quite late horizontally. Therefore, even several people can look at the screen at the same time without difficulty. However, the picture quickly loses its contrast until ultimately nothing can be seen on the screen vertically. dell vostro 1710 battery

Thanks to the new architecture, the latest processors have received a performance plus in comparison to their predecessors. dell vostro 1720 battery Thus the Intel Core i3-2310M is comparable with the somewhat older Core i5-430M (2.3 – 2.5 GHz). With a TDP of 35 watts, the Core i3 processor is most suitable for laptops with a size of 14" or more. The Core i3-2310M will be very sufficient for most applications that everyday has to offer.Dell Vostro 1310 battery

4.7Windows 7 Experience IndexProcessorCalculations per second6.4Memory (RAM)Memory operations per second5.9GraphicsDesktop performance for Windows Aero4.7Gaming graphics3D business and gaming graphics6.1Primary hard diskDisk data transfer rate5.8 CB10 Rendering Single 32Bit 2744 pointsDell Vostro 1510 battery<