The Inspiron 5150 featured an unassuming blue-and-silver colour scheme, but the new Inspiron 5160 comes in a sleeker silver-grey, which we prefer. Otherwise, the case design is nearly identical. The Inspiron 5160 forgoes bells and whistles in favour of unpretentious functionality. Weighing 3.77kg and measuring 335mm wide, 275mm deep, and 46.5mm thick, it's slightly thicker than the 5150 but still a manageable size for a desktop replacement.
The Inspiron 5160's case retains an especially firm keyboard with quiet keys, along with a standard-size touch pad and mouse buttons that are plenty big enough for large hands to manipulate comfortably. Among its many configurable options, the Inspiron 5160 offers a 15-inch display with your choice of either a 1,024x768 or a 1,400x1,050 native resolution. Also onboard are a handful of useful multimedia and connectivity features -- FireWire, S-Video out, Ethernet, and 802.11a, b, and/or g wireless -- though we were a little distressed to find only two USB 2.0 ports. One nice new addition is the multiformat double-layer DVD drive. Dell ships the Inspiron 5160 with Microsoft Windows XP Home and the Microsoft Works 7.0
The Inspiron 5160 features the Intel mobile Pentium 4 processor, configurable from 2.8GHz to 3.2GHz. The company also ousted the 5150's ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 graphics chip in favor of the slower Nvidia GeForce FX Go5200 chip, which was likely responsible for the laptop's sluggish performance in CNET Labs' benchmarks. Our test unit featured the speediest processor, as well as a fast 5,400rpm, 60GB hard drive (100GB is the maximum available) and 512MB of 333MHz memory (2GB is the maximum). Still, the system delivered merely average scores in CNET Labs' benchmarks, falling behind competing desktop-replacement laptops, such as the Gateway M520X Plus and the eMachines M6811. Although CNET no longer runs benchmark tests on notebook battery life, the Inspiron 5160's average-size, 14.8V, 4,300mAh battery lasted just 60 minutes in our informal testing of a DVD movie run.
Dell's basic service-and-support policy for the Inspiron 5160 falls in line with that of most other vendors: a one-year warranty on parts and labor, and you must mail your system back to Dell for service. You'll get toll-free, 24/7 telephone support for the duration of the warranty, and you can always extend these terms by purchasing one of Dell's additional warranty options; packages range from night and weekend service, onsite repairs, and more for up to $398. Dell's support Web site provides the typical FAQ information and downloads, along with a handy community forum so that you can bounce questions off of other users.
NOTE: Products in this test are for comparative purposes only and are not necessarily available in the Australian market.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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BAPCo SysMark 2004 rating | |
SysMark 2004 Internet content creation | |
SysMark 2004 office productivity |
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Atari Games/Epic Game's Unreal Tournament 2004 |
System configurations:
Dell Inspiron 5160
Windows XP Home; 3.2GHz Intel Pentium 4; 512MB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; Nvidia GeForce Go5200 64MB; Hitachi Travelstar 5K80 60GB 5,400rpm
Windows XP Home; Mobile Athlon 64 3400+2.2GHz; 512MB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 64MB; IBM Travelstar 80GN 80GB 4,200rpm
Gateway M520X Plus
Windows XP Professional; 3.06GHz Intel Mobile Pentium 4; 1GB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 64MB; Hitachi Travelstar 80GN 80GB 4,200rpm
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daddyo123
21/10/2007, 03:21 AM
rating
6/10
i want to figure out how to find the jumper on the motherboard for this model.
Cons: i cant find the jumper
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CHRISTIA EJELONU
19/07/2007, 07:54 PM
rating
6/10
my DELL INSPIRON 5160,refuse to come.Whenever i plug in the AC Adapter plug into the jack it blinks as if it will come on but not.Pls help me am fed up.Can i have the information of what the functions of the chip IC's are so as to help my troubleshooting.
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Ali Shrih
27/02/2007, 01:37 PM
rating
3/10
3.2 GHz CPU, 60 GB HD, 512 MB RAM, 32 MB Graphics.
-----------------------------------------
There is a problem with the power supply or it seems that the excess heat will damage your mother board with time. And you'll pay around 500$ to repair it (almost 50% of the original price).
BAD, BAD, BAD graphics memory and the best upgrade is up to 64 MB.
Pros: 3.2 GHz processor. Very tempting!
Cons: Overall performance is mediocre.
"Too Hot" for my private parts.
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Tim
14/11/2006, 07:38 AM
rating
8/10
Excellent Laptop. Working flawlessly for 2 years now.
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J Kanakaris
27/10/2006, 06:36 AM
rating
2/10
The last Dell I will ever own
Back end service stinks if you can get them in a reasonable time. no longer reliable and it's out of warranty, about $700 to fix, machine is 1 1/2 years old. Oh yes I am writing this from my new MACBOOK!
Pros: Had potential and we were happy when it worked
Cons: Finish worn on face where hands rest. overheats, battery overheats and the ower recepticle on mother board loose.
5150 has class action for same problems, this on doesn't ---YET!
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bill
21/10/2006, 01:08 AM
rating
3/10
Perfectly fine>Perfectly Dead
This computer was taken care of extremely well and just didn't power up one day to find out that the motherboard shorted out for no good reason. Piece of crap!!
Pros: Picture quality
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03/10/2006, 02:39 PM
rating
10/10
Exellent conputer
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duckola53
17/08/2006, 06:56 PM
rating
3/10
Frustrating to the core
Pros: Works considerably fine in the first 12months
Cons: Once the warranty expires, you start experiencing power and battery problems (which could get you crazy if you are a heavy user), hangs on hibernation, series of blue screens, screen resolution and flickering problems and can be really slow at times.
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13/08/2006, 03:16 PM
rating
2/10
Simply Miserable
Let's be honest - the comedy value is all this paperweight has.
Pros: Well, it thinks it has two processors and that's cute. No, really.
Cons: Poor heat management, horrible speed, buggy hibernation, buggy standby, abysmal battery life, poor startup time, miserable multitasking, unreliable hardware components.
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bhebs13
10/08/2006, 04:42 AM
rating
2/10
Horrible computer
Pros: Good and fast when you can get it to work.
Cons: Overheats and shutdowns sporadically. I've been reduced to sticking it in the freezer to get it to work, which is about 50% of the time. Some days it doesn't work at all.
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