Dell E1501 reviewed, first AMD-based laptop

by Cyrus Farivar, posted Dec 1st 2006 at 4:41AM

Well folks, it's a new month, and we've got the first of new laptop reviews comin' down the pike. Dell's latest low-budget laptop ($500), which debuted about a month ago, has finally been put through its paces for a complete test by Laptop magazine. The reviewer found that the younger sibling of the E1505 doesn't quite live up to the family name -- "what you gain in savings you lose in functionality." This lappie packs a 1.79GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core TL-56 (what a mouthful) chip in there, along with an 80GB hard drive, and a half gig of RAM. Laptop found that while the E1501 has comparable benchmarks to the E1505, and slightly better wireless connectivity, it's missing a lot of features, such as Bluetooth, S-Video, FireWire and a 5-in-1 card reader, which we could see as being major downers. Still, we can't help but being a little frightened by the piece's ominous closing phrase: "you get exactly what you pay for."

Filed under: Laptops

Tags: amd, budget, dell, e1501, laptop, laptops

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Josh @ Dec 2nd 2006 2:13PM

I fail to see the problem. Its got pretty decent specs for the price and another 512 in there would run me around $45 from newegg.com

And as for Bluetooth, S-Video, FireWire and a 5-in-1 card reader, I have no use for any of them, and a blutooth dongle costs around $15 anyways.

This is a damn good deal, the way I see it.

Neutral

Jeffery Sitz @ Dec 3rd 2006 2:57PM

I wouldn't mind the lack of frills for a budget machine. I am curious whether it could pull the load for light duty gaming.

Neutral

GERALD VAN LARE @ Dec 18th 2006 11:36AM

I just purchased the E1501 with the 1.79 ghz and 1 gig of ram and it runs DFBHD,Battlefield1942, Tigerwoods 2006 and Command and Conquer Generals just fine. The only fault I have with it is that I don't thing it will run my smart TV card with the 3 in one reader. I beleive it is suppose too run PC Cards but I can't get it to recognize them. Can anyone help out there. By the way I only have dial up so I can't vouch for online play, But it does play all the games above and The Media Center DVD player has a great picture. So far I am real happy with the unit. I also have the vista upgrade coming for 10 bucks. I probably will add more memory before I install it though. Even if does say it will handle it as it stands

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