Dell revs up laptop family with Inspiron 15R

David Flynn
30 April 2010, 5:53 PM

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Slim stylish notebooks pack Core i3 and Core i5 engines into brushed aluminium chassis starting at $949.

Dell has added another skew to its popular Inspiron consumer notebook range, with the slim, stylish and slightly curvaceous 15R and 17R joining the ‘thin and light’ Inspiron 11Z and 13Z.

(Some overseas markets also carry the 13R and 14R, which really hit the sweet spot with their 13 inch and 14 inch screen sizes – but alas, Australia misses out on those.)

The Inspiron 15R begins at $949 with the Core i3-330M, a 2.13GHz chip which like its i3 siblings lacks the needle-pushing ‘Turbo Boost’ mode.

The whole spec set isn’t too shabby for a brand-name machine at the sub-thousand mark: 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, ATI’s Mobility Radeon HD 5470 1GB graphics card, HD displays and Windows 7 Home Premium instead of the the lack-lustre Home Basic edition.

The Core i5-430M powerplant – which starts at 2.16GHz and turbo-boosts to 2.53GHz – takes the ticket up to $1,099.

The 15R also squeezes in a numeric keypad, for the delight of spreadsheet jockeys and shortcut-loving gamers alike.

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Pauly (New user):

Or you could get an Acer i5, 4g ram, 640g hard drive, 512mb graphics for $944 at Officeworks

30 April 2010, 6:24 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Raindog (User):

Quoting Pauly:
Or you could get an Acer i5,

Or even a bag of magic beans, but I know what I'd prefer for the money.

01 May 2010, 1:31 AM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

agami (New user):

I hate, that's right HATE, how a lot of the 15 and 17 inch notebooks/laptops have included the numeric keypad. This means that either my hands are slightly to the left (F and J) or the portable is slightly to the right.

I can't imagine that this move has come from user complaints. Gamers schmamers, I keep my ear to the ground and I can't remember ever hearing someone wishing their laptop had a numeric keypad, but then again I generally don't associate with accountants, they're kind of lame.

Sub kilogram weight, 2+ GHz multicore performance, and 12+ hours battery life. When you've done those, then play around with adding frivolous things like numeric keypads or slide-out 10 inch screens.

30 April 2010, 7:10 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

todd_h86 (User):

Quoting agami:
When you've done those, then play around with adding frivolous things like numeric keypads or slide-out 10 inch screens.

Numeric keypads aren't frivolous! The number one complaint I (did) get about laptops is the lack of the numpad!! I sell thousands of laptops so my sample size is quite large, yes a few are an accountant (I myself am certified) but I use an external keyboard anyway! I dont see how the numpad is a gamer thing, Im a gamer and I have never used the numpad in game since early Windows 95/98 split screen gaming!!!

But, each to their own! I am glad they come with them now, especially with the 15.6' inch and higher.

03 May 2010, 9:15 AM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

yoman11 (New user):

Another great thing about Dell I found is that they'll match a lower price anywhere else! Find a better deal? They’ll match it and then some. Check it out: http://bit.ly/avgkaG

12 June 2010, 9:14 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

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