Dell Studio 14: Defining Solid
by Dustin Sklavos on August 19, 2010 2:49 AM ESTStudio 14 Battery Life
So far, our review unit has shown us solid performance in applications and about the best performance we could ask for in gaming (given the lousy options presented), but an increasingly important metric these days is battery life. We expect good things out of the Studio 14: the high capacity 6-cell, 56Wh battery should be able to get us at least four hours of useful life out of the notebook.
Getting close to three hours of movie playback time is pretty reasonable; in fact it starts scraping under machines with integrated graphics and bigger batteries. Under internet usage it gets even better, with the Studio 14 pulling nearly five hours of useful life at a comfortable brightness. Dell's done their homework here: the battery life on our Studio 14 is miles ahead of their last generation. The exception to that statement is x264 playback, where the old 9400M IGP of the 14z surpasses the new 14, though it had a larger battery. Note that on a per Wh metric, the 14z scored 2.92 compared to 2.86 on the 14, so it's pretty close even in that case. The dedicated graphics may be extremely low-powered but the chip still draws more power than the integrated graphics would have, and there's no indication that the Studio 14 is switching between the two.
Given the excellent running time from the stock 6-cell battery, we feel comfortable recommending users who need more than five hours of life opting for the 9-cell. Dell's site suggests that extended battery can last for up to eight hours and thirty-five minutes (how delightfully specific), and it's reasonable to assume they aren't far off the mark.
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Friendly0Fire - Thursday, August 19, 2010 - link
Uninformed much, wow. The styling is a matter of taste and if you dislike it, go grab your favorite cheap plastic fest, or do you prefer the elitist Macbook?The GPU, wow big deal I couldn't see more than a 1 or 2 FPS difference. Still plays all games really well.
Trackpad, get some program to customize it.
Dustin Sklavos - Thursday, August 19, 2010 - link
...nearly five hours on a six-cell with a dedicated GPU is unexceptional?What's it gonna take to impress you people?
It's true, the machine's a bit heavy, but it's well-built, too, has excellent expandability, and performs very well. I've played with a few 14" notebooks, this is probably one of my favorites.
OCDude - Thursday, August 19, 2010 - link
Why do all laptops under $1000 have to be 1366x768? That is a crappy resolution if you actually want to get any work done on the thing... *sigh*zoxo - Thursday, August 19, 2010 - link
It's not just the resolution, but the gloss. I really wish they'd stop shoving these craps down our throats.bhima - Saturday, August 21, 2010 - link
AMEN BROTHER! The only reason I will probably get an ENVY 15 instead of say, a Sager or ASUS is because it actually offers a FHD matte screen. Seriously, I don't understand why people like glossy monitors. It isn't because of picture quality, because if that were true, the majority of IPS panels would be glossy but they are not.tipoo - Thursday, August 19, 2010 - link
My Studio 15 has a 1920x1080 screen...Its awesome, I hate going to lower resolution ones now.ESetter - Thursday, August 19, 2010 - link
I don't get the critcism related to the GPU. Some computers are just not meant for videogames and the Radeon 5470 is perfectly fine for other usage scenarios. I believe the majority of the notebook market isn't interesting in gaming at all.rootheday - Thursday, August 19, 2010 - link
I think the point is: What value does the 5470 add here over the Intel HD graphics that are included in the processor? For the market that doesn't care aobut gaming, the Intel graphics offers great battery life, good video playback, etc - and you could save $100+ off the price.Dell isn't the only one to do this - if you look at laptops online, you will find lots that advertise as "1GB ATI discrete graphics" or "512MB NVidia discrete graphics" - but are equipped with the NV310 or the ATI5470 like this one. It looks like the only one who benefits here is the OEM who applies a big markup to the card... in a world of very thin margins for OEMs and ODMs, this is one area where they have found they can still milk the customer out of more money with relatively little benefit.
mino - Thursday, August 19, 2010 - link
Give me Radeon 9600M over HD anyday!One word: DRIVERS !!!!
(posting this from G45M and regretting saving $100 back then)
ESetter - Thursday, August 19, 2010 - link
Three main reasons:1) No memory & memory bandwidth stolen from the CPU. Memory used by an integrated GPU can be siginficant. Moreover, I run some CPU-memory intensive code and I want to be sure the memory bus isn't loaded by the GPU.
2) Better drivers and compatibility with graphics APIs (especially OpenGL). I remember writing a simply 2D OpenGL application which had trouble rendering on Intel GPUs.
3) Better UI performance. I've got a Mobility Radeon HD 5470 myself and Aero performance is noticeably smoother than on my previous notebook with a GeForce 8400M. My desktop with a GeForce GT 220 and double of the video RAM is also significantly smoother than my current notebook. I'm not sure how current Intel GPUs compare to the 8400M but I expect them to be in the same league if not inferior.
I'm not sure, but maybe video playback is also better on dedicated GPUs.
Overall, I think there are good reasons for choosing a low-end discrete GPU even if you don't play videogames.