Dell Studio 17 Laptop Review

Dell has finally stepped up their game – finally. Their entry level Inspiron series and the XPS range, well just the names of those models puts people off. But Dell has finally learnt that they need to change the game, crank it up a notch, and give the people what they want. What the people want, well what Dell think the people want, are 15 to 17 inch models that are designed to be affordable, well-equipped and stylish. Well I think the third one they didn’t really meet.

Okay it isn’t a beauty queen but it isn’t exactly the ugly duckling and for sure it is miles better then the Inspiron series, this laptop sits in between the Inspiron and XPS series. Not is it just an improvement but there are also a number of options. It is available in seven colours and four different trims. The power button is on the right side of the hinge and on the left there is a Wi-Fi catcher, which once pressed will launch a screen showing any available wireless networks – now isn’t that just a handy dandy.

Yes there seems to have been an improvement from the Inspiron series but there seems to be a loss. It seems Dell have forgotten their sexy XPS series and have decided to give this laptop a chunky keyboard, a spongy lid that feels cheap and doesn’t come with the aluminium wrist rest that the XPS series has.

Maybe its design is lacking style but it does come packed with quiet a lot. Dell just might have been to busy packing everything into the computer to finish off the design but unfortunately we’ll never know. It has a DVD drive, D-sub and HDMI video output, five USB ports and a fingerprint reader, which saves you time having to write in your password every time you want to log in.

The most basic specification system isn’t half bad but remember this laptop can be customised as much as you want. A memory of 2GB and a hard drive of 160GB isn’t bad but this can be boosted to a memory of 3GB and a hard drive of almost 250GB. To be honest just about everything and anything can be changed, upgraded and down graded to what you want, from the memory to the graphics card. It is a playground for grown children.

Well overall. Hmmm, performance wise it isn’t all that. It says it’s a desktop replacement but it struggles to run multiple programmes at once. Yet it is extremely quiet and cool. It doesn’t over heat as most laptops do and it is so quiet that you can use it at night without waking the neighbours. Battery life is only about two and a half hours but that doesn’t really matter as you won’t really be taking a laptop this size on the train and if you are you’ve got the wrong laptop. But it is not half bad. It isn’t exactly attractive but it does achieve its objective. Simply to be cheaper then a XPS without being to ugly, and quite frankly it has done that, just look at it’s good value, its ease to personalise, its HDMI output and its 5 USB ports and then tell me Dell haven’t achieved what they set out to do.

Due to all the above Laptops.co.uk gives this laptop 3 out of 5 stars.

Dell Studio 17 Laptop

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