Dell Inspiron 1525 user reviews

Preacher 12 September 2011

Comment: I had this laptop on a contract with Rentsmart while I was a contract engineer . During that time the motherboard and the CD player failed and was replaced as part of the contract. When the contract finished I purchased the laptop from Rentsmart who made an a fair offer.
It is used every day at work and at home and has been reliable to date apart from cd cover plastic trim has broken away, (it does get rammed into a work bag every day).
Only annoyance I find is the optical mouse which can just stop working for no apparent reason. Hardware restarting the mouse by temporily unplugging it cures the problem.
This is the only laptop I have ever had so I can make no comparison. I am just giving my experience of this model.

Joe Michael Graves 30 July 2011

Bad: Everything. Faulty hinges. webcam cable breaks. Battery only holds 10 minutes of charge now. Hard drive has broken twice since I've had it. nothing much good about it

Comment: Avoid this (and all dell) laptops like the plague. They are physically rubbish and they've brought nothing but expensive repair bills.

Connor A Bruce 5 March 2011

Good: Excellent value mid-range laptop

Bad: Battery life is appalling

Comment: I'm coming up to three years now with this laptop and I have to say it is a great product for the price - just £299, which is cheaper than many of the netbooks then, and now.

It looks good, but it isn't going to win any design prizes. Mine has the sleek black finish, and is fairly easy to keep clean. The touchpad is good, responsive and the scroll buttons are a great touch. The hinge is not fantastic, but despite using it every day, I've not had any problems thus far. My only real complaint design wise is the vent at the back which is easy to accidentally block.

The glossy effect screen makes the screen appear better than it is and does a great job, everything looks crisp and clear, again much better than many laptops of the same price, especially netbooks.

HDMI port is a great idea, I use it frequently at work on an external monitor and it makes configuring the monitor much simpler than it used to be, just plug in and use.

It's not the fastest laptop, but for everyday tasks such as surfing, email, word processing, it is more than adequate. Besides, mine was an N-Series, Ubuntu laptop and so it probably runs much better than it would have with Windows Vista anyway.

Mine came with just 1GB of RAM as I went for the cheapest option, but even so less than £300 for a 15in+ laptop with DVD drive, 4 USB ports and a HDMI port is great value. I added 4GB of RAM soon after purchase, from Crucial as it was far cheaper than Dell, and turned it into a decent mid-range laptop for only an extra £60.

It isn't all good though. The battery was appalling, quickly deteriorating and lasting less than 1 year when it should have lasted almost three.

I switched to using it plugged in for just over a year before going for Dell's 9-cell battery at £120 it gave me 4.5 hours battery life at first, a year on down to about 3.5 hours.

As others have mentioned, it does get hot, but you have to be careful about the vent at the back and make sure it doesn't get blocked. For me it only seems to get hot when the bottom vents are blocked; elsewhere on my lap and on a desk it is fine. So you just have to be careful and think about propping it up a little. Also blowing compressed air into the vents and clearing them every now and then helps too.

Overall this is a great laptop and brilliant value, three years on and not only is it still up to the job, but I have no plans to replace it.

DDrink 24 February 2011

Good: everything that isnt bad (see below)

Bad: battery, call centre, hinge

Comment: Had this laptop nearly 3 years now. Was really good at first. Have a couple of problems though.

Battery - will not charge, lasts 10 seconds maximum without lead. Dell batteries ridiculously expensive, so just keep lead in all the time.

Hinge - mine has had to be replaced once. My brothers laptop (exactly the same as mine) is on its 4th hinge so far! (again, only nearly 3 years old)(according to dell engineer, unusual for it to need replacing more than once)

Hibernating - If power lead in, doesnt always hibernate, but restarts instead.

Can also get hot, as mentioned in previous reviews. Dell phone centre not very good - in India. try to claim as ''wear and tear''. Engineers are good though.

Most of these problems are common with this laptop it appears, so not my fault.

Overall a mixed laptop. Problems mentioned are mostly minor, so easy to live with. Apart from those, good laptop. Unsure about buying Dell again, although the new inspiron duo looks really nice.

Stephen Bronsky 14 September 2010

Good: its good for about a year or so...

Bad: Battery

Comment: This laptop was good for the first year that had it but after that it slows down alot ,wares out and the battery runs out quicker and quicker. Could do with a larger memory capacity also but if your looking for a laptop that isnt crucial in your life and your not depending on it too much then this laptop could be the one for you. Dont rely on it too much and probably dont get it if you are looking for a laptop that you hope will last you a lengthy period.

camilo1uk 23 May 2010

Good: nothing

Bad: dell inspiron 1525 and the charger are rubbish

Comment: rubbish item

Mrs B-T 14 April 2010

Good: Honestly... absolutely not a thing

Bad: Everything!

Comment: This laptop was absolutely beautiful when I first removed it from the packaging, i'd added huge amounts of RAM etc etc and this should have been my perfect mid range (ish) laptop.

However, as soon as i'd added all the wonderful things that you do to personalise a laptop I discovered that the DVD player was faulty, it jumped at most scene changes and i'd lose a second or two of playback.

After many emails to Dell I was told I would need to return the laptop at my own expense... I chose not to bother, I simply couldn't be arsed, it was something I could put up with.

After about two months the silver finish on the left mouse button started to wear away... two months of use? After a little longer than two months to show wear and tear? Surely?

I thought that that would be it 'teething troubles' over.... until Dell moved on to shiny new products and abandoned this model to a place where no updates could be found... eek! I don't understand this part of the story my husband informs me that this is bad, I just smile and nod.

Then almost the second my warranty expires my laptop starts to get super hot and the mouse pad works when it wants to... often sending the little arrow spiralling around the screen (my cat loves this, I on the other hand find it irritating when trying to write university assignments!)

The moral of this little tale? DO NOT BOTHER WITH DELL!!! The IT lads where I work lovingly refer to Dell as 'Hell', if only i'd known this a year ago.

THE END

Smurfil 14 April 2009

Good: It's an awesome laptop for its price.

Bad: Some of the pre-loaded content.

Comment: I've had this Laptop for around a month now and I have enjoyed it from day one. I bought it for doing coursework, IM'ing and internet browsing.
Mine has 2GB memory, which is definately enough for my programs. It seems so much faster to me due to my desktop having under 1GB memory, so some may disagree with me about it being enough.
The Laptop is very sleek and is not too heavy to be carrying around. The keyboard is just amazing. It's very easy to type with and feels very comfortable. The mouse also has a nice feel to it and I love the scrolling edges. The screen is very clear and I was surprised at how good my DVD's looked on it. The media buttons are very handy, even though most of them only work for windows media player. But I tend to use the mute all button a lot which does work all-round. I love the different colour choices for this laptop, unfortunately the colour I would have liked was sold out and the offer I bought mine on would have ended before it was back in stock. But nonetheless mine is a midnight blue and it looks fantastic. It does not get fingerprints all over the place and marks are easily cleaned off. The 4 USB ports come in handy when multitasking and having them all at the sides is very handy.
I would give my laptop a 10, but nothing is perfect and therefore there are some small things about it which could bug some people. First of all, For the first couple of weeks I had my laptop, the fan seemed noticibly loud sometimes. However, this is now become much quieter. Another small problem which could bug someone would be the preloaded content. It comes with setups such as for BT internet, of which I do not have a need for. Although, it did come with a setup for windows live messenger, which was pretty handy. One last problem I came across with my laptop, which wasn't really the laptops fault rather then Vistas fault, was that I found the space used by system restore was set far too high. I was worried that I had some kind of virus at first that was eating away at my HD, but I did some research and it was easily fixed.
Overall I really love my laptop and I am pleased that I bought it. It does everything I need it to and turned out to be better then I thought it would be.
If you're thinking of buying one i'd say do it, unless you're looking for a gaming laptop.

mentalme 17 August 2008

Good: Makes a good doorstop

Bad: The fact that its more useful as a doorstop than a laptop

Comment: Had this for 1 month and already on my 3rd replacement.

1st one had a faulty screen
2nd one had a faulty keyboard
3rd one never worked
and this one has a mind of its own it works when it wants and switches on and off at will. It's due to go back to dell with a formal letter asking for my money back.

In all the time i have had this i have probably had about 3 days when i've been in possession of a usable laptop.

The build quality is rubbish (i didn't want a DELL but mother knew best).

The moral of this is only buy a Dell if you live with a computer repair person or have 24/7 support available without cost as you'll spend fortunes repairing it.

Dell computers = Hell Computers

Customer service is crap yes they have telephone support but they seem to be dead from the neck up. When told the keyboard wasn't working they suggested i try pressing esc as if that would work!!!!!!!

Never Ever buy a Dell