Pics and specs of Dell's unannounced Inspirons: HHDs, Blu-ray, and RAID?
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Jun 13th 2007 5:39AM
posted Jun 13th 2007 5:39AM
The 1720 and 1721 appear to be just what we heard: Santa Rosa-based Intel and AMD machines, respectively. The 1720 maxes out with a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo T7500, a 17-inch WUXGA TrueLife display, 256MB of GeForce 8600M WP graphics, up to 2x 2.5-inch SATA disk with RAID 0/1 support (!), 802.11n and Gigabit Ethernet, a whole mess of inputs and output and USB-only docking station. The 1520 packs much the same only with a 15.4-inch WSXGA+ TrueLife display and what appears to be a hybrid hard drive option and Blu-ray disc drive which is likely available for the 17-inch as well. the 5.5-pound 1420 offers a 9-cell Lithium Ion battery option and the same HHD option only under a smaller 14.4-inch WXGA+ TrueLife display. Hey, that's what the forum peeps are saying.
[Thanks, James]
Read - specs
Read - pics
Dude, I can't believe Dell keeps making its lineups uglier and UGLIER. I mean atleast the other PC vendors, like Sony and HP are making an effort to make their products aesthetically pleasing, but come on! Dell is just so 2001 right now with that look, it's kinda reminiscent of the old HP pavilions...hahaha
Vivre L'Apple
i agree with you...this looks way worse than their current line and looks like something out of 2004 instead.
Okay, and I suppose showing off your sleek MacBook in public will compensate for your own insecurities?
Oooooooo! Score!
reductant 1, John Smith 0
When open it looks like the Macs, also why have they got the mac desktop image in the pics???
thats not the mac desktop wallpaper........
No no no they look the way that dell laptops look in 2007.
But this one has a new hat!
Can someone please shoot whoever is responsible for designing Dell's laptop range. I used to be an exclusive Dell laptop customer, until they brought out the breeze-blocks with the white trim...and now these monstrosities?! Do we have to go round there and systematically pummel someone in management before they realise these are atrociously ugly?!
Still no DVI?
No Solid State Disk.
No LED-backlit TFT.
No thanks.
man those are terrible. i have to agree with you guys. I think I'd fork over the extra scratch to get that 13" XPS notebook that was on engadget a week or so ago.
The one thing that is the killer is the keyboard, they changed the layout!!! I used to love dells because their keyboards resembled a desktops (insert, delete, home, end pageup and pagedown) used to be at the top right corner. Argg. I also agree that they are getting uglier ('cept for that new XPS 1330, that looks sleek).
Wow. I thought you guys were just being asses. These really are horrid!
I was hoping to upgrade my Inspiron 9300 soon ... If I purchased another Dell, I don't think I could take another 2-3 years of ugliness.
I think these look great!!! I don't want a crapbook clone.
I bought a Dell Inpiron 6400, but had I known in advance that it had
a'crappy' keyboard layout where page up/down are nowhere near
thecursor keys, I would never have bought it! I'd hate to estimate
justhow much time I now loose in productivity and convienience by
havingthese keys so far apart on the keyboard.
And what adds insult
toinjury is that they have two 'blanks' around the cursor keys
wherethey _could_ have put them. Hell, If they would have just put
_any_keys there (even a 'frick' and 'frack' key), I would have
remappedthe keyboard in an instant. But nooo... they couldn't even be
_that_smart (or considerate). :-(
Oops. I just looked at the
gallery... I didn't know they could make the layout even worse than
it already is... but they succeeded. Argh. My only consolation is
that I won't be buying a replacement for another 3 years, so they've
got some time to FIX it!
I don't think they're absolutely horrid like their current linup, but they definately aren't what I would consider nice-looking.
Funny that we are arguing about the looks. They are computers and have a lot of (new) technology inside. Compared to the previous 9300 / 9400 models: The battery is now on the back, the keyboard has numeric keypad, integrated camera, high-resolution screens, DX10 compatible card, more than enough for Aero, possibility of 2 HDD, possibility of Blu-Ray drive...
I'm tired of completly black laptops, and find more dull the Lenovo (ex-IBM) ones.
Yes, XPS M1330 is more good-looking, but these are 15.4" and 17" a whole different idea. And no one is making 17" screens with LED backlight. SSD is more interesting on small or ultraportable notebooks. On the 17 inchers would be interesting if you could have a SSD and a HDD (not in RAID).
9300 / 9400 models had DVI output, but these have changed that to HDMI. Well, it makes sense, if I want to use a bigger screen, it's not going to be a 20" TFT.
Seems like Dell is suffering from the same problem with their laptops that Nokia had a generation or two ago with their cellphones - component modularity over overall design. Why can't engineers and designers just get along???
Arf! Is that a HDMI port or a SD card slot on the right side? Picture not clear enough and specifications on the french site do not say anything.
Let me get this straight, when a notebook OEM blatantly mirrors an apple design, everybody cries foul, but when the same notebook OEM blatantly unveils a bunch of notebooks that aren't, everybody still cries foul? /smacks forehead
Does anybody else just find that hilariously ironic?
What people fail to remember is that now there will be 5 lines of Notebooks from Dell. Inspiron - the very basic line for home users. The XPS - advanced home users. The Vostro line for Small Business. The Latitude for Medium to Large businesses and then the Precision line for for professional users - like, for graphic artists and etc. So the basic line isn't made to be super flashy. That's XPS. Take it for what it is. A basic notebook line for basic users. It will have more 'options' on it as thats the idea for Dell anyway - you can customize your notebook as much as you want.
I think they look cool.
oh.. sorry for taking so long to type this msg, but i just finish cleaning up my barf. such a mess in my room now, i can't look at dell laptop anymore. it might give me a head drama/nightmare tonight. i need to live. i thought dell layoff lot of their employees, i didn't know the design department is gone, too. did they hire those designer from india? or mexico? oh.. god.... oh.. i better get off this page or i'll throw up again.
Ewww! Dell has definitely lost their minds! I just love what khang said. Ditto, ditto, ditto.
yeah i pretty much wanna go ahead and mention most of you are stupid..first of all i think its kind of cool how theyre putting out a different color layout thats not found anywhere else...its nice and simple..second i agree without ever made the point about this being a basic line..and as for the keyboard..quit b!tch!n..
The pictures dont give you a clear idea of what these look like.. They look really nice in person . Check them out in person when it comes out the end of the month. Check your local Dell Direct Stores.
The pictures from the gallery don't look good, but I like the colors. I like stuff to have a bit of panache, so that Ruby Red laptop is looking pretty good to me, much better than the usual drab-grey plastic.