CNET Asia Review

The Dell Inspiron 510m is an affordable mainstream notebook with its entry unit retailing for S$1,899 (US$1,349.20) for a Processor 710 1.4GHz model. In terms of customization, Dell allows you to change almost every component in the notebook. ThereÂ’s a decent range of ports to connect to other devices although a flash card reader is lacking. For home users who want a value-for-money laptop, this is a fairly good choice.

	The sturdy Inspiron 510m

The touchpad is located beneath the keyboard and, while the lack of a pointing stick is forgivable, there is no two-directional scroll button to navigate up/down Web pages. The speakers are located at the front edge of the notebook and it must be said that even though there's no subwoofer, the speakers surprisingly deliver a sound quality that has clarity with a reasonable amount of bass. The keyboard delivers good tactile feedback compared with BenQ and Fujitsu notebooks. However, points are deducted for the lack of quick launch buttons, the inconvenient location of the right-click button which is on the top of the keyboard and no dedicated switch to turn off wireless LAN.

	The ports on the rear. Spot the serial and parallel yet?

Features
This Inspiron comes loaded with the top-end Pentium M Processor 755 2.0GHz, 512MB RAM and 40GB hard disk space. Disappointingly, there's no dedicated graphics card, and thus, Intel Extreme Graphics is used. The test unit came with a DVD/CD-RW hot-swappable optical drive, but users also have a choice of DVD-ROM or DVD+RW when customizing the unit. In the package, Dell even gives an extra screw to fix the modular bay to the laptop.

Connectivity-wise, you get two USB 2.0 ports, FireWire, S-video out, VGA-out and, incredibly, the practically antique parallel and serial ports. If you want some sort of flash card reader, you can look elsewhere as no support is provided. For networking, you get a wide range of choices in the form of 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN, Bluetooth and 10/100 LAN.

	You can change RAM, the mini PCI card, hard drive and battery.

Performance And Battery Life
We were not able to perform the MobileMark 2002 benchmark test on performance due to technical errors. Based on the speed used to open/close folders and transfer information from PC to MD using Sony's SonicStage software, it is comparable with the Twinhead efio! 15B with a Processor 745 (1.8GHz). However, we could not give the Dell a rating of 9 for performance as we were unable to obtain a quantitative result.

As for battery life, tests ran smoothly and a rating of 162 minutes was clocked from the 4-cell 32Whr Lithium-ion battery. When customizing the Dell, you can opt for a 6-cell 53Whr for an additional S$27.30 (US$19.40). As other mainstream notebooks in our lineup had 1.5GHz chips, we chose to compare the 510m to others with similar processors as the Processor 745/755 tends to drain power faster than Processor 705/715 (1.5GHz).

Service And Support
The default option on Dell's Web site is a one-year onsite limited warranty which covers parts and labor including phone support and battery coverage. A great array of extended warranty options is offered, such as three years of service, accidental damage protection and onsite repair.

Its self-help program, Dell Solution Center, is an excellent program loaded with a general user guide as well as specific guides to system components such as the wireless card. You can also access Dell's online support site to find additional help such as FAQs and downloads for your notebook. The user manual itself is quite comprehensive with useful sections on how to add or replace parts like the RAM or mini PCI card.

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Dell Inspiron 510m (Pentium M Processor 755 2.0GHz, 512MB RAM)

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