User Reviews for Dell Vostro 2520 Laptop (Pentium 2nd Gen/2 GB/320 GB/Linux) Laptop

Hi Folks. Just received this piece of beauty from Flipkart yesterday(13/4/13) I couldnt believe Flipkart delivered it so fast since i placed the order on 11/4/13!! I had spent quite some time on the internet before i chose to buy this laptop. A few pointers for online buyers :- This piece isnt available in malls, you gotta order it online. Dont buy it from oem directly, they give you a quote, which makes you wanna settle for something much much cheaper. Flipkart is the right place to buy this product. This did not come bundled with any driver dvd. So now I have to download my own drivers. I wish flipkart could have bundled the driver dvd and the Ubuntu dvd. It sure wouldnt have increased their cost. Pros about this product :- * It looks super cool * Doesnt get heated up too much like most laptops (not for now atleast) * Smooth Customization of Ubuntu. It detected the wireless network immediately. * I have never used linux before, but this version is simply sweet * The Camera and the voice are perfect. (Still need to run a few songs and movies to crosscheck) * Super comfy keyboard and mouse touchpad Cons :- * No driver Cd/Dvd. * No ubuntu Cd/Dvd * Comes with Dell Recommended Bagpack * Dell Utility on Ubuntu is COMPLEX. Dont know how to operate that thingy or what its for!!

Pros: 1. Unbeatable price for this configuration 2. Excellent look & feel, build quality. Loved the scratch-resistant surface 3. One free RAM slot for expansion 4. Heat generated is very low, no need for a cooler 5. HDMI output 6. Non-glossy screen and chasis Cons: 1. No separate external keys for volume and brightness control (Fn keys provided though) 2. Laptop was loaded with outdated and unsupported Ubuntu 11.10. Must upgrade to at least 12.04 LTS. Also factory-shipped Ubuntu had mount problems during booting. Less one star for this. 3. Requires to open the entire back cover for HDD upgrade. For RAM upgrade, keyboard needs to be removed. Most modern day laptops provide easy access to HDD/RAM. 4. WLAN is giving me 52 mbps only. Not able to fix the issue so far. 5. Performance is slow as it is a low power machine. RAM upgrade to 4GB recommended for 64-bit OS (Windows 7 Experience Index is 4.5) 6. Battery provides 2.5 hrs backup. 7. No OEM driver CD provided. Had to download 800 mb driver packages from Dell Support. 8. In Windows 7, one USB device is showing 'unrecognized device' even after all drivers are installed. Could not fix this. I have formatted the hard disk and made it dual boot with Windows 7 64-bit and Ubuntu 12.04 32-bit. In my experience, Ubuntu 32-bit is performing better than Win 7 64-bit.

I've had the Dell 2520 for about a month and a half now, and have been using it pretty regularly. The Pentium B960 powering it is powerful enough for most tasks. I use the computer mainly for surfing the net, doing a bit of word processing, listening to music and watching movies. The CPU is more than capable of handling all these without breaking a sweat. I thought the 2GB of RAM would be insufficient to run Windows7 64 bit, but I was wrong. The included 2GB is enough to provide a good computing experience. More RAM would be welcome, and I plan to install some in the future. However, there are no easy access panels on the underside, which means I'll have to take it to the service center to upgrade the RAM. The laptop seems to be fairly solidly built. It's got a rubberised textured finish, which looks and feels nice, and aids in giving a good grip while lugging it around. The cooling systems efficient. My laptop always runs cool, and has always been silent. The keyboard is really nice. The keys are well laid out, and have great tactile feedback. Using it is a pleasure. However, they aren't back-lit, so one needs to get used to the layout before it can be used comfortably in the dark. The screen is fantastic. It's a standard LCD 1368x768 pixel screen, and the panel is top-notch. The display is uniformly lit, there's no backlight bleeding, and the colours are bright and vivid. It's a pleasure to look at. The speakers are a bit tinny, but that's to be expected from any budget laptop. There is a really nice utility to configure the audio properties, which largely exacerbates the problem, and music can be made to sound pleasant, if not great. There's a nice blue-tooth utility that lets you stream audio from your phone to the laptops speakers, or any speakers connected to it. It also lets you lock the computer if you move your phone a few meters away. Very cool! The battery lasts for about 3.5-4 hours, and toning down the display brightness can extend that by about an hour. Which is pretty good for a laptop in it's class. It takes about 1.5-2 hours to recharge. There are 3 USB ports, 2 on 1 side and 1 on the other. They're well laid out, and don't interfere with each other. There are HDMi and VGA ports as well. I hook it up to an external LCD monitor, and use that as an extended display. The laptops covered by Dells Complete Cover warranty that covers accidental damage, which is pretty neat. So..the positives... 1) Great display 2) Good battery life 3) Powerful enough for most computing tasks 4) Good build quality 5) Fantastic keyboard 6) Runs cool 7) The webcam works well even in a dark room 8) Some of the software has some pretty neat functionality 9) Comes with Ubuntu preconfigured, which looks really pretty, has good performance, stability and security. 10) The price! and the negatives... 1) Dells extended warranty is expensive - 1 year @ about Rs.4500(next business day) - Rs.6500 (complete cover) and 2 years @ about Rs.7500(NBD) -11500 (CC). 2) The hard drive and RAM can only be accessed by removing the keyboard which makes installing upgrades difficult, and probably expensive as you might have to take it to the service center. 3) There are no driver and OS CD's. The laptop comes with Ubuntu, which is nice, but if want to use another OS, you've got to download all the drivers from the Dell website. If you want to re-install Ubuntu, then you've got to either rely on a rescue CD (that you've got to make yourself when first powering the laptop on) or downloading the image from Dell.

Its the best one can get for 21000! I have installed Windows 7 Professional on it and it works like a charm. I am using it for .Net programming, stock market analysis software, charting, and MS Office tasks. And I have just one word to say - PERFECT! I own a Sony Vaio EA series laptop that I bought 2 years back for 36,000, and it has Core i3 with 3GB RAM and let me tell you one thing - VAIO SUCKS!! This Dell laptop, even though has somewhat of a lower configuration, beats my Vaio hands down! DELL just smoked VAIO!! I am more than happy with my purchase from Flipkart. Got A1 service from them.

I bought this laptop in JUN13 and since NOV13, the batter backup is gone to zero and it only functions with the powerlead connected. The Lajpat Ngar-2 service centre number as given on the bill is not existing. Just working with powerlead connected - no batter back up.