There's no ExpressCard port,Bluetooth or 802.11n wireless, which means you won't get the fastest speeds. The 1564 has most of the ports and features you might expect at this price, although we'd expect more than three USB ports on a 15in laptop and a larger hard disk than the 320GB model. Luckily there's an HDMI port for digital output so you can connect to an AV amplifier or sound system.

The internal speakers are loud but lack bass, and SRS technology helps to widen the sound stage. A blue cast to whites makes images feel cold, and although colours are reasonably accurate, they aren't as vibrant as we've seen on some rival laptops. You might find some older games will work, but new games are unlikely to work smoothly.Ī glossy screen coating on the 15.6in, 1,366x768 widescreen display and tight vertical viewing angles make it hard to get a good picture, and we found the backlight a bit dull. Even with anti-aliasing turned off and the resolution turned down to 1,024x768, it only managed 11.5fps.

Intel's integrated GMA HD graphics chip can handle HD movies well but it struggles with games and failed our Call of Duty 4 benchmark. The touchpad is large enough and very responsive, with two large buttons that have an extremely light action - so light that there is hardly any feedback when you press them. The keys have flat tops but enough spacing between them, and their action is light with fairly crisp feedback. The rest of the keyboard is fairly standard.

If this is a little confusing, you can reverse this behaviour back to 'normal' in the BIOS. Once again, Dell has swapped the Function keys default behaviour - for example the F2 key is now the 'Toggle Wireless' key, and you have to press the Fn key to get F2. There aren't any flashy LED controls or indicators, which is no bad thing. It was only recently that we'd only see a score this high from a laptop costing around £700.Ī fast processor is all very well, but what about the rest of the laptop? The Inspiron design remains basically the same, with a fairly minimalist case and sturdy lid hinges that allow you to push the lid back almost to a horizontal position. With 4GB of RAM and a 2.13GHz Core i3-330M processor, the Inspiron 1564 made light work of our benchmarks, producing an overall score of 74. Dell's new Inspiron line has the same custom-coloured lids and sleek design as its forebears, but underneath the hood you'll find one of Intel's new Core i3 chips, which includes a built-in graphics processor.

Dell inspiron 1564 bluetooth driver