Dell Inspiron 510m Notebook Review

Dell Inspiron 510m Notebook

If you're looking for a notebook that's powerful, light and stylish, the Dell Inspiron 510m is the ideal solution at a very attractive price. The Inspiron 510m offers the very best of mobile computing including the latest Intel® Centrino Mobile technology, a range of wireless solutions, a choice of 14.1" or 15.0" LCD Displays, and a variety of ports and connectors in a thin and light design. True to the Dell way of doing business, you naturally have the option of configuring the Inspiron 510m to meet your performance requirements.

The power to perform

For business or for pleasure, the Inspiron 510m offers uncompromising performance, whether you're working with the latest office productivity software, running multimedia applications or watching DVD movies. Powerful Intel CentrinoTM mobile technology, combining 802.11b Wi-Fi technology with the Pentium M processor, is designed specifically to provide processing efficiency and extend notebook battery life so you stay productive for longer.

Connectivity Solutions for All of Your Communications needs

All Inspiron 510m systems are equipped for network connectivity whether you're at home or on the road with a 10/100 integrated network card for Ethernet an integrated wireless LAN card or a fax modem for dial-up access when you're travelling. Attaching peripheral devices, such as cameras and printers, is a breeze using the integrated IEEE 1394 (Firewire) and USB 2.0 ports. For convenient wireless connection to printers, fax machines, keyboards, handhelds, or any number of other BluetoothTM -enabled devices, select the integrated BluetoothTM option and create your own personal area network.

Not the laptop for games players

Functionally, Dell's Inspiron 510m does everything we asked of it. The inspiron range have many good points: the 802.11a/b/g Dell TrueMobile 1400 wireless LAN module, which is based on Broadcom's BCM4039 chip, has been reported to work under several flavours of Linux; also, the 1,400 by 1,050 SVGA+ resolution 15in. TFT display is fine in most office and lighting conditions. The choice of Intel's 855GM integrated graphics system will be a disappointment for games players.

Have notebook - won't travel.

Dell's Inspiron 510m is a good allround performer, if a little heavy for extreme portability. And it is solid rather than flashy, it will fit into a wide variety of roles in the business and at home and makes an excellent general purpose laptop for anyone not concerned about portability.

Your Comments/Opinions

Actually, as u said this laptop is amazing, it's all about catching technological things from all its sides, for all purposes even for 3D gamers. actually, I'm using it for playing NBA 2005 and FIFA 2005 and there's no problem at all in the contrary it reflects a great peformance. so in general I liked this laptop, all-purposes laptop.

Anas Kanaan

I agree with you, except weight. For me it is light and I hve travel with no problem.

Mahmood

I have owned 2 Dell Inspirons now, an 8000, and a 510m, both have had problems with CD-ROM/DVD failing. I don't know why. Anyone else know anything about this? I would also say that Dell are pretty sneaky when it comes to power supplies, the 510m psu looks destined for early cable failure, and of course it's not a standard jack plug.

Andrew Blakey

I have one, fine laptop, works with Windows, Linux (ubuntu and debian that I've used), aswell as OpenBSD. Battery life is short, and it's HEAVY, not exactly a portable computer.

ivan

I feel like I've been fooled . Battery life short , and I see no mobility in that . CD ROM and it's part are very loosy and seems will not last another day, so do the key board. case is not that strong , it fallen from me and it was inside hi bag Now Ihave a brocken corner and a non-functioning Display-close switch. the fisrt problem is the silver coloured case , you can scratch it with a paper !!!! , I'm seriously thinking of painting it black with metal paint . close the display and have a look from the sides , you will see the display and the rest of the case have a bad alignment , like it's brocken. I don't see why people saying good things about it ??!!! another thing ,it's mouse sometimes hase no response for clicking . last: sound controls freeze with windows , and many times I have to shut it down to stop a sudden sound. (I think I'm going to add a switch to the speakers and make a hole for it in the case)

Anas Madani

Its great, I am using it for over a year and no problems, I'm performing some serious MATLAB codes on this machine, watching DVD movies, Listening music, playing Counter strike and Battle field 1942 and call of duty with no problem better than waio and toshiba. your my best friend inspiron. (And guys, treat your laptop like your girl friend, then u wont be breaking so many things)

Reza

I am totally satisfied but there is something wrong in running with ADSL-T3 Service.Does not support!!!??? no sufficient after sales service are given.

BAHMAN

Very Satisfied! It is not the flashy laptop a young gamer might like, but except from it's video performance it is a fully equipped and very reliable machine. It can do the job you want it to do, always and everywhere. Student life can be really demanding for a laptop, and after one year of use it is still performing perfectly. Standard battery life is rather short, but the additional battary for the media-bay is the perfect solution! It provides me up to 9 hours of battery life, using the standard screen brightness and wireless connectivity.

Johan Peters

Had the 510m just over a year now and to be honest it has performed fairly well in all areas. Although, the keyboards are fragile having had two replacements fitted under warranty. The modem port replaced after just 7 days use. The battery has just failed to accept a charge. This 510m is ideally suited to the occasional user who requires it say for leisure purposes 2 or 3 times a week but I use it everyday for work and I can see it falling to bits in its now second year of life. Im a techie engineer and I can see that Dell really have cut corners with its design and frankly it will be the last Dell machine I ever buy based on what they have offered. The keyboard is a known failure with this unit and any sensible ISO quality registered company would have a second reliable and higher quality supplier in the event of a high degree of replacements required. However, not in this case I fear. Dell have been great in the past with quality made machines for me over the years of 1988 to 2000 but since then they have gone downhill like so many other manufacturers errr I mean assemblers... Ahhh well.....

robbo

Easy to set up in Ubuntu linux, love the design, weight and 1400x1050-screen. Have recommended it to several friends, so I have experiences from several 510m. My bad experiences: - Hard drive has dropped dead twice on one computer! (on warranty...but they have and will not check if the failure is elsewhere, like the hard drive controller) - Lid buttons hangs occationally on two of the computers (has been replaced on warranty) - Motherboard dropped dead on one computer (has been sent abroad for replace of this.) So... I have a bad feeling of that Dell has made some shortcuts in the making of these machines... I'll never trust the information on a drive in a dell computer anymore... especially since they never have checked if there is more to the failure ... anyway. the machine is nice, as long as it works...

Trond

It took me awhile to find tjhe right laptop for myself and i beleive the inspiron 510m is a gem....however not all things are perfect and mention that the keyboard is totally weak......a key broke while i was cleanin it and now is costing me £150 to repair it. Another flaw would be the mouse tracker....it does sometimes tend not to respond and need a a slight tap to 're-activate' it...on the up side i find it portable and reliable and for those who like simplicity then this is the laptop for you although i have bluetooth and many extras in mine to make it a great machine....id rate it 7/10

hamza

I use my 510 all the time instead of a desktop. I carry it in a specally padded rucksack and I haven't had any problems with the keyboard. It handles all I need it to, but I was disappointed about the lack of portability. It also takes ages to boot up. Still, it's a great machine - so far!