The Round Rock powerhouse has definitely
worked with the lads and ladies at AT&T
before, but never before has the company's bargain-priced
Vostro 1520 been available with
WWAN. Until today, of course. Starting right now, users interested in picking up the 15.4-inch rig can add an AT&T 3G module for $125, though you should know that
Dell forces you to purchase the $109 NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GPU (256MB) upgrade alongside of it. If you're down with a two-year DataConnect 5GB plan, the Vostro 1520 with AT&T 3G can be ordered up for as low as $633, and we're also told that a slew of other Inspiron, Latitude, Precision and XPS devices should be receiving similar treatment in short order.
posted Oct 14th 2009 9:49PM
Right, and it's the iPhone users putting a strain on their 3g network... Sure
Are you defending the iPhone or criticizing AT&T? (My ranking of your comment depends on it.)
As for the Vostro 1250, I think it's a nice-looking machine. Very sleek and refined.
It sure is hideous.
I actually think it's not a bad look. It kind of reminds me of my Lenovo. Nobody appreciates classic notebook styling anymore.
I heard AT&T sucks.
Forced 9300M G purchase at $109? Ridiculous. In addition to being overpriced, how is a faster graphics card necessary to use 3G?
9300? the original vostro 1500's had 8600GTs as options...i know they were the failing ones from nvidia, but 9300?
the 9300 replaces the older 8400 option, and I think its a good idea to force them to get the hardware, because otherwise they aren't smart enough to get it themselves and then they go on complaining about why slow the machine is, ever wonder why the expensive has hell apple computers are still so well received?
$109 seems like chump change compared to the $1,439.76 + taxes and fees you are going to spend on the 5GB capped data plan for 2yrs with the 3G card.
It looks beautiful...could be blacker though. The more it looks like TMA1, the better.
Good douche-nozzle post, iKurt X.
I've got (literally) three of these computers on my desk right now. They're nice with two exceptions:
- the keyboard sucks - it's bouncy, rattles, and is generally loud and mushy to type on
- the lid is a fingerprint magnet
Beyond that, it's pretty well specced, quiet, and if the 1500 is any indication, solid hardware. (I have worked w/ lots of the 1500s, and not a single problem yet.)
Oh, and sorry for the double-post, the Dell SMB version of this has no crapware at all on it (w/ the notable exception of Norton, which made it about 4 seconds before being uninstalled).
I don't understand these bundles. Why not take advantage of the ability to customize the system and then buy a mobile internet stick or something like that later? Are the costs of buying it initially lower? Or does the target audience just not care?
@Will
I love Lenovo machines, and I'm typing this from my T400s. Their styling is awesome. But this machine totally lacks the Lenovo mojo, and it looks more like a plain, flat box. It's hard to express, but there's a bit more style in the Lenovo machines that really rocks.
@ Scabby,
I agree with you except for the noisy keyboard part. Then again, I have the 1510. The keyboard is quite quiet. Quiet enough to take notes rapidly while sitting in the front row taking notes on senior presentations without disturbing anyone. I do agree that it's mushy, but I've never really had a problem with typing on it... My last computer was a Dell D600, and the one before that was a IBM Thinkpad 770E so I'd have to say that this Vostro 1510 is no lesser in quality than either of those two.
I think the Thinkpad and D600 still boot up even, it was just time for an upgrade so they sit in the closet.
@Tom: Understood, and it's not surprising to me. My company has a bunch of Dell 1500s (which I configured and support), and all have awesome keyboards. That's what makes this so weird... all the 1520s keyboards suck. :/ Maybe it's bad luck, but 3 (out of 3) keyboards that are loud, flexible, and mushy to type on doesn't bode well.