Dell Inspiron E1505

The Dell Inspiron E1505 is probably one of the fastest budget notebooks available thanks to the new Intel Core Duo processor, but the system does sacrifice other features in order to be priced under a thousand dollars.

4/18/06 – Intel offers two new mobile processors based upon the Core architecture, the Solo and Duo. Most budget notebooks would likely use the Solo single core processor in order to save costs. Dell is one of the few companies offering a Core Duo T2300 processor with its Inspiron E1505 in a budget configuration. This processor significantly boosts performance while still allowing long battery life. It is matched up with 512MB of PC2-4200 DDR2 memory.

In order to include the processor, Dell needed to reduce other costs and much of that came from the systems storage. The system only features a 40GB hard drive that is fairly small for today's notebooks. Thankfully it is a faster 5400rpm model. The system also forgoes a DVD burner for a 24x CD-RW/DVD combo drive allowing users to create music or data CDs or watch DVD movies.

The Inspiron E1505 uses the standard size 15.4” wide screen LCD panel found in many notebooks. It is powered by the Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics that shares 128MB of the system memory. This is a step up from older Intel graphics solutions but it still lacks the power for many 3D gaming applications.

Software is a big issue for the Inspiron E1505 system. Dell only offers the Word Perfect 12 word processor program and no other productivity software. Those needed this will add to the cost of the system. It also uses the Media Center OS but lacks any hardware such as the remote or TV tuner with the system to take advantage of the features.