My E1505 Review. Also what settings do you all use? Audio Wise, etc?

[Mysticales]

Hey all, Last night my 1505 came. VERY nice laptop!
Specs are:
1.87 GHZ
Audigy Sound
X1400 ATI
1 GB Ram
WSXGA+ Gloss LCD.
Intel Wifi + BT
Windows Media Center 2005

So far.. the laptop is GREAT! Its VERY loud! That was only with the setting at HALF! If i turn up the WAVE and Master volume.. its abit TOO loud for a closed area.. also I "think" it distorts abit too.

The clarity is fine indeed. No issues there.. You can hear left to right on stereo just fine and NOTICE the sound output!

If you enable the EQ settings you WILL notice the difference! GOOD way to test for your ears is, Set it to "Classical" and then drop it to "Chamber" once on chamber.. you will feel a drop in your ears.. like a pressure drop.. its odd! But least you notice a difference!

New Age and Heavy Metal seem to be a nice setting.. however I am leaving it disabled still..

Was wondering from sound card experts.. what setting do you feel is best overall and for games/movies? Just wondering whats the ideal setup for this laptop that you hear is best.

The LCD on 1680.. Wow.. just WOW! Its true.. once you go Widescreen and Gloss.. you can never go back.. Yes the UI is abit smaller.. however didnt bug me really.. however, when I looked back at my 1024 LCD on my desktop.. it was *Blink* *Blink* So YES, you WILL notice a REAL difference in size. Or quality..

I have my desktop set back to "Windows Classic" on "Lilac" skin which yea.. does make the font abit different and maybe "abit" bulkier then the XP "Smooth" UI feel. However.. I like the color scheme more. =p Works for me.

The speed. Yes.. very nice, quick bootup! Also mutlitasking indeed is nice. I was running multiple tasks, installing games and updating games etc, or apps. My processor speed rarely passsed 40% useage with all of it running! WOW!

BIOS settings - Ok you MAY wanna tweak somestuff here! Noticeably the HDD setting! It has a HDD performance setting! Quite mode which will ensure it doesnt run noisy or performance which will set it to run the fastest! (I didnt notice any noise tho..) But YEA You wanna switch this from default (For older drives) Your not gonna benifit from that.. Switch it to Performance.

Thats the main, everything else is up to you to tweak if you feel its needed.
Rem if you set a admin PW. Windows cannot access certain settings like the Wifi controller etc, It will say its been restricted by the bios. So keep that in mind.

I am using Media Center with Remote. VERY smooth and nice! Turns PC to standby if I hit power, turns it back on too! Runs in background if I wanna listen to music etc. Very sleek! Also it still feels like XP Pro! =D

Bloatware - Yes.. too many of them.. sigh.. Netwaiting?! (Call waiting modem users) Needless to say.. takes abit of looking around and getting rid of corel and so.. I was upset when I learned Paint Shop Pro was included.. its just a 60 day trial thing.. like screw that and out it went. Otherwise its a very well setup system.

Pagefile - Dell already set it to a custom use! Nice! Mine was 1.5GB - 3.5 GB custom set. Not bad for a setup.. However Im debating to just set it as a static 2048 min-max You think thats better? I think it was when you didnt have to let windows increase or decrease the pagefile use.

Mcafee.. Unless your a hardcore fan of them, Get rid of it and install your own. I uninstalled mine and it showed the red shield saying that it was turned off.. sigh.. normally it shouldve said no AV program found.. w/e Going back with my standard norton tools. =) (CE versions are nice)

The front buttons! Wow.. nice, Volume control with backlit buttons, or play, stop etc! Nice indeed!

The Side USB ones on mine seem to be harder to push a USB into.. odd.. works but they dont go in as easy as they do on the back of the unit.

The MS reader, seems Windows doesnt reconize the drive untill you put a card in there. Odd..

Lightleakage.. I think I see some.. on the bottom. Only will I see it on a DARK (Black) screen. Its a curved in the middle bottom light leakeage. Nothing major.. since everything I know will put color there and then you dont even notice it. I Do NOT notice any "shimmer" effects! Hell I dont even see a dead pixal! =D (Yes I ran it on a pure white screen)

The LCD lid itself, you will need to use 2 hands to open it.. I tried like normal to use one hand to open the lid.. darn thing wanted to pick itself up with me just opening the lid lol! So that tells me its a VERY good lid!

The main unit itself, feels VERY sturdy! I still wouldnt wanna drop it.. but it feels comfortable.

The keyboard. YES! It feels battle ready! I can type quite quick on it without missing a beat if I write without looking. So thats a very good thing in itself. I hate a keyboard where I mess up and hit more keys because they are too small. Sucks in a way.

GFX - Performs VERY well on FFXI in 1680 mode! Very smooth! A tribute to the laptop performance again! So if you got the X1400 you WILL be happy for your needs. =D FPS also looks great! Even tho.. most online FPS its still better to be at a 800x600 mode.

The Quicksnap, Ill post a picture soon. At 1st I thought they didnt send it. Find out its on the lid already, VERY secure! I mean it feels like it was DESIGNED to be there already! So with that in mind.. it adds extra protection to the top of your lid if you put something on it or just have it in your bag. But yea, its a nice option to have. =) Gives the laptop some color. And doesnt your new best friend deserve something to show off?

The AC adapter! WOOT Finally a good one. I HATED the Dell Latitude series one from the C6xx. Felt like the pins were small, it was a square insert etc.. not a good feel. This one is rounded and fits GREAT and is secure. Doesnt feel like a flimsy plug at all. Will work with 110-240 volts out of the box, provided you have the adapter to plug it in.

Now then.. driver wise.. Wondering. Seems ATI.com drivers for the standard catalyst do not install.. So was wondering. Where is the link to what people are updating the ATI X1400 with? Also saw something else there for some sorta codec or something for the X1000 series.. is that us too?

The touchpad and buttons all feel good and easy movement. Although you may wish to adjust your mouse settings to move faster, Otherwise its alot of moving to get from one side to the other.

The heat. Um... What heat? I didnt notice anything major, gets warm yes.. hot? No. And that was with it running on the bed!

I did notice however you need to tilt the screen farther back then your viewing angle. Otherwise the lower left area seems abit "dull" in looking at it. Otherwise, all looks fine.

All in all. This is a very sturdy and fully functional laptop! Gets a nice 8 outta 10 from me.

I DO have one issue tho.. SOME apps of mine or hell! Even if you go into the Catalyst control panel to test things.. You will notice the text is cut off inside its own window?! HUH!? Anyone know if thats just a res issue and alot of things dont like 1680 screens? I mean found it ODD that its like its squshed in one section but not everywhere.. just certain spots. Also in FFXI config.. the Gamepad calibrate. Its like the mapping is off.. I push up and it shows me pushing up but not in the window designed to place the arrows. Odd.. Not sure if thats a res issue or something else. Otherwise its nothing major.. just odd that sometimes the box or text is not showing right, shows squished, or whatever.

Anyways, questions I have now:
What are some die hard settings or tweaks you KNOW you wanna do with the 1505? What sound profiles would you use? Gfx drivers updates etc. System tweaks? I know the ones I use from my desktop settings, and I still have to apply Windows tweaks, (Disabling services etc), just wondering from other users what they know to perform the best. =)

Anyways, if you have a question or want me to try something, let me know. =) Otherwise hope this mini review helps some people out. =)

[squampton]

Omega drivers for your X1400 should give you a performance increase right off the bat; it upped my 3DMark05 score by nearly 100 points, without overclocking or anything.

[kdub]

LOL this review is pretty exciting to read.

[shof515]

is the Audigy Sound software or hardware?

[Mysticales]

The Audigy is a Sigmatel 9200 according to the Bios, the Audigy itself seems to be EAX software, which... Ill say again.. seems to be NICE. Least in my performance.. thats why I said try Classical and switch to Chamber, and youll notice the difference from the bat when you feel a drop in pressure in your ears. Its hard to explain. Which I am also guessing, with this software games will reconize your system as a advanced ability for sound when your games checks for it.

Comes with a install cd, thats already installed if you do the option.

Also glad you find excitement in the review. =) The real review doesnt talk about the the ATI and all that. Just when the system 1st came out.. so I am hoping this gives a promising comfort to ppl who are waiting on their 1505. =)


Also on Omega Drivers. What link did you use and what can I expect from them?

[rickt]

I got my E1405 and have to say I agree with you. I love it (even though they are different systems). What a great notebook for such a great price!

[squampton]

Taken from www.omegadrivers.net

The purpose of the Omega Drivers is to provide gamers with an alternate set of drivers, ones that have more options and features than the original sets. The drivers contain optimizations, extra features (like OC capabilities), more resolutions and internal tweaks that can give them the edge in a gaming environment over the normal drivers, which are often tailored for synthetic benchmarks. All Omega driver sets are tested (unless noted) by myself in my own PC or in an alternate PC (in the case of the Nvidia drivers) to ensure maximum compatibility and reliability.

[Mysticales]

Yea hope they work better indeed.. Ill have to run 3dmark and compare. =)

[Znender]

Great review.
When did you ordered it and how long did it took to reach your place?

[gridtalker]

Its a great review