Dell Studio 17: When Gaming Isn't Enough
by Dustin Sklavos on August 26, 2010 12:10 AM ESTDell Studio 17: A Halfway Decent Screen
This might be a good time to note that Dell offers three different screen types for the Studio 17, and that the one we're reviewing is the low man on the totem pole. You can upgrade to a touchscreen or a 1080p "B+GR" LED backlit screen.
I've had a chance to review standard notebooks with built-in touchscreens before and I've been utterly unimpressed each time. The form factor doesn't seem to lend itself to any kind of useful touch-based interaction, and so the touchscreen that puts a $400 premium on the Best Buy unit available is probably not worth it. Those of you itching for a 1080p screen, however, will probably do well to go with the Dell "B+GR" upgrade.
One major drag in the industry is the fact that you pretty much have to buy a 17" notebook to get a screen with a higher resolution than 1360x768 for a reasonable price. That low resolution wasn't even the result of customer feedback, it was just foisted on us because it was cheaper and easier to produce 768p screens than the older 1280x800 ones. In the process, they made the screens that much less useful for doing media work, where vertical real estate can often be even more important than horizontal (timelines don't exactly run vertically).
Oh yeah, we were reviewing the screen on the Studio 17.
So the "halfway decent" part of the display is that it's reasonbly bright and isn't saddled with a low 768p resolution, but then most 17.3" LCDs are at least 900p. The color accuracy is about par for the course, and color gamut is okay as well. The contrast and black ratio are, as is so often the case, where the LCD falls flat. 200:1 contrast ratios aren't even remotely acceptable on high-end laptops, though with a price south of $1000 we can't complain too much here. The 1080p upgrade should be quite a bit better, and if that's what you're after we certainly recommend spending the $150 to move to the B+RG panel. Note that there's a $25 upgrade 1080p panel available as well, but we suspect contrast will take a dive there just like the 900p default display.
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JarredWalton - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
We list the gaming results mostly for people that *are* interested in those areas. We've decided to settle on testing "midrange" GPUs at Low, Medium, and High settings. We could put all the results on one page, but then it would be a really long page. Anyway, if you go by word count, the article is 3600 words long, and the gaming and graphics pages comprise a total of 800 words over four pages.Dustin Sklavos - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
I did when I first got the Studio 17, but the most recent BIOS update largely alleviated that issue. The thing runs a little toasty, but it's a huge notebook and the extended battery makes it abundantly clear it's not supposed to be used on your lap.I did my research before picking this one up, and haven't run into that BIOS issue or the AC adaptor issue.
synaesthetic - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
Why does this not have a Mobility Radeon 5850? Or at least a 5830? There's more than enough room, if a 5830 can be shoved into an Envy 15...What a waste.
Dustin Sklavos - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
Price, heat, and battery life.The Studio 17 is fairly large, but compared to some gaming notebooks it's actually not as bulky. And I can tell you the cooling system is on the "eh" side...going to a high-end GPU like that would tax it too much.
Also, 5830/50/70 all play hell on the battery, as the G73 results demonstrate.
JarredWalton - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
Now if he made the argument for HD 5650 or *maybe* 5730, that would be reasonable. Those aren't as fast as the 5800 series, but they're faster than old 4650. Of course, Dustin bought this as a bargain at Best Buy, which is probably why he has the older 4650... not that 560v is any different.seapeople - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
Yay, some love for 17 inchers! I'm glad you didn't go down the "Any laptop over 14 inches is a behemoth tank that you need a fork lift to carry around" road. Even if you did claim that battery life doesn't matter on a big laptop.... which is fairly silly. A long battery life on this laptop means the same as any other laptop -- that when you take it with you somewhere, you don't need to get out (or bring) the charger, which is even bigger on something like this.Also, I can fit my 17" Dell in a backpack which is small enough to count as your "personal bag" on an airplane (i.e., fits under the seat). Battery life is somewhat important in airports considering the lack of outlets.
Lingyis - Friday, August 27, 2010 - link
well, that's not cool. i just bought a studio 17 a couple days ago based on anandtech. really shouldn't do that too often to maintain anandtech's good reputation.fortunately, my specs are completely different. i5-520, no discrete graphics card, RGB 1080. the truth is that i bought it pretty much 99% for the RGB 1080 screen, which if it's anything like the XPS 16, should be awesome (XPS 16 no longer offers RGB screen as an option). another reason for the 17' is so that i don't need to lug around a numpad with me.
i won't do any gaming (well, nothing graphics intensive anyway) on the machine, pretty much using it either to remotely log on to work machines or run some local calculation jobs (mostly single-threaded) so hopefully battery life would be quite a bit better than what's tested here.
so fingers crossed. i don't think i'll like the keyboard (tried it out at best buy) but hopefully i'll get used to it and i'll end up loving the screen and, as a result, the laptop. i guess worst case i'll just get a keyboard when i'm not on the road.
that's the thing--studio 17's have so many configurations. i probably have buyer's bias at this point, but to go back on your rec based on just one config is just... not worth the humble pie.
ps. XPS 16 only has the "WLED" option these days, which i don't know how it's different from regular LED. any idea how it stacks up to the "RGB LED"?
Dustin Sklavos - Friday, August 27, 2010 - link
I'm not sure I understand how I'm reneging on my rec, especially since I'm actually using it myself and kept it. I love mine.How am I reneging?
Lingyis - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 - link
okay i guess you're not. i misread one of the lines.i have a question though: do you have a fan issue? i just got mine yesterday and the fan goes on and off every 10 seconds or so and it's driving me absolutely nuts. i'm not running anything intensive, just browsing the web or something.
Lingyis - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 - link
well okay i contacted dell customer support they said they'll send somebody to replace the fan unit. hopefully the resolves the issue.the guy was really pushy trying to sell me the complete warranty plan. but i'm thinking of replacing the hard drive with a SSD at some point in the future so i don't think it's worth the money.