Dell Vostro 1015 is a budget laptop that is designed for people who are not particularly demanding, rather even business ones. It is unlikely to play it, except in some games of the early 2000s. Nevertheless, at one time (2009), it was a pretty good laptop with a set of all the necessary functions for comfortable work anywhere.
Appearance
The appearance of the laptop Dell Vostro 1015 does not stand out anything special. This is the most common laptop, which can easily be confused with many others, especially if you close the company logo located on the cover. Anyway.
The total width of the laptop is 376 mm. The depth is 247, and the thickness in the closed state is almost 37 mm. In thickness, of course, this is not a record holder, but in terms of other dimensions, everything is standard.
The body materials are made of ordinary plastic without a matte finish or some soft touch. The top cover is glossy and has a "mirror" reflection. The prints on it are visible very well.
The back face is devoid of any connectors, and it is unlikely that they would do anything there, since when you open the top cover completely covers everything.
On the right is the ventilation grill, vga connector for connecting an external monitor, a port for connecting a fax, an Express Card slot and 2 USB 2.0 connectors. 0.
On the left there are 2 USB ports 2.0, a firewire or 1394 connector, a LAN port and a power cable jack. If you look at the front end, then you can find various indicators, 3.5 mm jacks for connecting headphones and a microphone, as well as a card reader.
If you lift the lid of the laptop, you can see the keyboard and a simple touchpad, small in size with two mechanical keys. Also above the keyboard you can see a glossy strip, which, judging by the design decision, was supposed to emphasize the appearance of the laptop. In fact, it turns out differently. Gloss clings prints and does not look so pretty anymore.
Specifications
As for the technical characteristics of the laptop Dell Vostro 1015, they are very modest. Here is a small table for better visualization:
| CPU | Intel Celeron / Celeron M / Core 2 Duo |
| RAM | DDR2 800 MHz (2-4 GB) |
| HDD | 160 to 500 GB |
| Chipset | Intel 45 Express |
| Video card | Intel GMA 4500MHD / ATI Radeon HD 4530 512 MB |
| Display | 15.6 "1366x768 |
| Interfaces | LAN port, FireWire, VGA port, USB 2.0 - 4 pcs., 2 3.5 mm headphone and microphone jacks, Card Reader, ExpressCard slot
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| Multimedia | 1 speaker, 2.0 Mpx camera |
| Battery | Six or four-element Li-ion 4200 mAh |
In fairness, it is worth noting that the specifications of the Dell Vostro 1015 may vary depending on the version. Thus, the buyer could get the most “top-end” bundle, which would include an external video card from Radeon, a dual-core Intel Core 2 Duo T6670 processor with a frequency of 2.2 GHz, 4 GB of RAM and a 500 GB hard drive. Pretty good kit for 2009.
Screen
Dell Vostro 1015 has a display with a diagonal of 15.6 inches. Its resolution is 1366x768 pixels. A key feature is the LED backlight and anti-glare coating. In top-end trim levels, the anti-reflective coating was replaced with the proprietary TrueLife.
The display really deserves praise. The viewing angles here are excellent, the image does not change color and does not distort, and thanks to the anti-reflective coating, you can comfortably read information from the screen even in direct sunlight.
With color reproduction, sharpness and contrast, also a complete order. You can safely watch videos or movies with dynamic scenes.
Keyboard and touchpad
Since the laptop was originally planned for business people who often print, constantly enter some information into documents and conduct business correspondence, we decided to make the keyboard really high-quality. The keys are large enough with a pleasant soft stroke. There is no extra noise when typing, only weak clicks.
Due to the fact that the manufacturer decided to remove the right block with the digital part, the buttons turned out to be large, with a good distance from each other. The layout is also made with high quality, it’s easy to get to the right keys and you don’t have to reach anywhere. Another advantage of the keyboard is the ready-made Russian layout, however, there is also a slight minus - it is indicated in the same color as the English one. As a result, you can’t quickly find the right key, you need some time to adapt.
As for the touchpad, it is small, slightly recessed into the laptop case and painted in silver. The touch field is not very large, but it is enough for comfortable work. Also for greater convenience, there are two arrows on the surface of the touchpad - one vertical and one horizontal. They are made specifically for fast scrolling and it is quite convenient to use them.
In addition, the touchpad has 2 mechanical buttons with a slightly tight ride. They are not distinguished by anything remarkable, except for the characteristic click when pressed.
Ports
The set of interfaces on the laptop is standard: 4 USB ports of class 2. 0, 1 vga connector, port for connecting a network cable, card reader, connector for ExpressCard, FireWire and port for connecting a fax (a laptop for business people, after all).
There are also 2 3.5mm jacks for connecting headphones, a headset or an external microphone.
Sound
If we talk about the speakers and the sound that is reproduced through them, then again there is nothing interesting. The speaker is only 1 and the quality of its sound cannot surprise anyone. At low or medium volume, audibility is good, the sound is clear and clean, no extraneous noise or crackling is observed.
At maximum volume, individual high frequencies begin to unpleasantly "cut" the ear. A slight crackle from sound resonance also appears. In general, everything is typical for budget laptops.
Autonomy
The battery on the Dell Vostro 1015 has a capacity of 4200 mAh, which is pretty good overall. Depending on the configuration, the laptop could have either four or a six-cell lithium-ion battery.
According to the test results, the laptop’s operating time from a fully charged battery is a little more than four hours. Of course, this indicator cannot be called a record, but for 2009 it is a very good indicator. Not every laptop at that time could produce similar results.
As for the time required to fully charge the battery, it is about 5.5-6 hours, and for a six-cell battery, all 7.
Equipment
The delivery set is not too rich, but useful. So, the package includes:
- A laptop.
- Power supply (charger).
- Accumulator battery.
- Documentation.
- A disk with a set of drivers.
- A disk with a set of software for managing a webcam.
- Disk with image for recovery Dell Vostro 1015.
In principle, the delivery kit is pretty standard for laptops of this class, however, a definite plus is worth putting for the drivers for the Dell Vostro 1015, which are recorded on a separate special drive, as well as for the image for restoring the operating system. So you don’t need to look for anything on the Internet, everything is already at hand.
By the way, not every third-party laptop had a recovery image, so Dell made a generous gift in this regard.
Operating Systems
Works Dell Vostro 1015 on Windows 7 Home Basic 32 x or Windows 7 Ultimate. In addition to these operating systems, there were also models running on Linux, Windows Vista or MS-DOS. Separately, for those who had a licensed disk with an operating system or simply for those who wanted to save a little, models without any pre-installed OS were sold.
Laptops without an “OS” had only one serious drawback - they did not have a disk with a recovery image in the kit. You could get it, but only from a Dell official representative and only for a fee.
Reviews
As reviews of the Dell Vostro 1015 show, most people are happy with their purchase, however, there are some negative points.
The first is associated with an unsuccessful choice of materials, namely glossy plastic, which constantly needs to be wiped from fingerprints. This is a matter of seconds, but only after some time the procedure will have to be repeated again.
The second minus is the heating, especially in the touchpad area. With what it is connected, it is difficult to say, but the fact remains.
The third drawback is poor performance. Even at the time of the release of the Dell Vostro 1015, it was impossible to play modern games comfortably on a laptop. But on the other hand - this is a non-gaming laptop.
And the last minus is the short battery life. Users complain that the battery lasts for a maximum of 2 years, after which it must be changed.
Finally
The Dell Vostro 1015 is certainly an interesting laptop for businessmen or just business people. For his time he was very good, as evidenced by numerous positive reviews. The main disadvantages of the laptop can be safely attributed a discreet and simple design, glossy elements, as well as memory modules of DDR2 format. In 2009, DDR3 modules were already available, but for some reason the manufacturer decided to abandon them.
Nevertheless, the Dell Vostro 1015 did an excellent job with all its tasks, except that the performance for the games was not enough, but it was not required for such a laptop.