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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Dustin Sklavos - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 - link
It's my understanding the most recent BIOS should've fixed the fan issue. I don't really have that problem with mine.Lingyis - Thursday, September 2, 2010 - link
well, the technician came but wasn't able to fix it so dell is sending me a replacement machine in 10 days or so.i hope the one i currently have just happens to be a lemon.
that aside, the screen is incredible. i'm seeing purple colors i've never seen before on a computer screen. deep blues are also nice.
battery life is definitely short... will see if the replacement machine does better.
Lingyis - Wednesday, September 15, 2010 - link
Well, i got my replacement. It has the exact same issue.Are you sure you don't have a fan problem?
My test case is actually your website. Using Internet Explorer, go to anandtech.com, and cycle through the "latest post" graphics. Does you fan come on every time you click on the "Next" triangle?
Because on mine, and both of mine that I got in the mail, the fan goes on reproducibly. You click, the picutre cycles, the fan goes on for 2 seconds, goes off. You click again, same thing happened again.
I tried it on a bunch of other computers and laptops none seem to have that issue.
Even if it's an IE issue, the fan still comes on way too much. Like as it goes through setup, the fan would come on quite a bit, but again, only a few seconds at a time.
On this newest Studio 17 I just received, I imagine the BIOS is up-to-date, just as my last Studio 17. So I haven't checked, or maybe I'm too upset to bother, so maybe I'll eat my words tomorrow when I contact customer support and a BIOS update fixes things.
If not, I'll try my best to get my money back from Dell, which is unfortunately because I am really liking the screen and I've gotten used to the keyboard. I spent $1500 on this (maxing out most specs) and I'm not going to be happy with the annoying fan.
Lingyis - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
Okay, so the replacement machine has the exact same issue and couldn't be fixed. So I'm returning for a refund. Which is too bad because I'm really starting to like the machine, but the fan is too annoying to bear.bijeshn - Saturday, August 28, 2010 - link
Quote:"Thankfully, you can toggle them back to being proper function keys in the BIOS. ..."
You don't have to take the trouble of going to BIOS to change it. You can toggle them in the Mobility Center itself.
AnnonymousCoward - Saturday, August 28, 2010 - link
It is an atrocity for Dell to only put 1360x768 in Inspiron 15.6" models. They might as well include 256MB RAM and call it a day. I still love my D610 screen, a 14.1" 1400x1050.When a $255 netbook has a 10.1" 1024x600, midrange Dells with crappy resolution are pointless.
The cheapest Dell 17" has 1600x900 for $530. 1920x1080 brings it up to $850!
Another "WTF" is, didn't Dell get the memo about SSDs? Give an X25-M 80GB option for +$150.
seapeople - Saturday, August 28, 2010 - link
Yes, it's amazing that Dell, alone out of all the manufacturers of computers, uses a 1360x768 screen on 15" laptops. You'd think that since nobody else uses such a screen, Dell wouldn't dare think about using it. This is fully Dell's fault, a blame attributable to no other. Considering that they don't even make LCD panels, I'm sure they had to look far and wide to find these ultra rare, uncommon, not very often used 1360x768 panels. You'd think they'd take the easy way out and just put on the same resolution panels as everyone else. But no, not Dell.tvdang7 - Sunday, August 29, 2010 - link
my studio xps 16 only gets about 2-2.5 hours of internet usage or about 2 hours with video play back. with a 9 cell. i do not get how the studio 17 gets about an hour + more than it with equal specs.JarredWalton - Sunday, August 29, 2010 - link
That's about in line with what I tested on the Studio XPS 16 back in the day:http://www.anandtech.com/show/2746/10
My guess is that the RGB LED backlighting (even at 100nits) uses more power than white LEDs. It's also likely that in the past 18 months Dell has managed to tune power requirements such that the latest laptops use less power than their older counterparts.
tvdang7 - Monday, August 30, 2010 - link
mine is wled not rgb. so we have about equal specs except that i have the 5730 video card which draws less power than the 4650. So its blowing my mind.