The Inspiron 1525, apart from the colored, rubberized finish on the lid, is a rather plain 15.4 in laptop, with a matt silver finish and rounded edges.
It looks smaller and lighter than it actually is, and at 2.7 kg it’s bordering on the comfort limit for portability.
It has an excellent keyboard, with large keys that have a good balance between travel and feedback. The screen is bright, and colors are accurate if not vibrant. The default resolution of 1440x900 is higher than usual for a 15.4 inches screen, which means there’s more room for applications.
The Inspiron 1525 is the laptop here with an integrated graphics chip, and its 2GHz Core 2 Duo T5800 processor isn’t particularly powerful either. The Dell is best with 2D games. A light-use battery test result of just over two hours isn’t great either.
It’s good to see four USB ports, an S-video output and a Media Center remote control that can be stowed away in the ExpressCard/54 slot.