Dell Studio 15 – Laptop Computer Review

I already own a Dell desktop PC with 24" monitor, a Dell black toner laser printer an a Dell colour laser printer and use them for personal and business use.

I’ve always found the build quality first class and have had not trouble with any of them to date.

So, after reading reviews about the new Windows 7 version of Dell Studio 15, I had to look deeper and see if I could purchase something that was small enough to carry around with me and also powerful enough to make the unit worthwhile having.

So the laptop running Windows 7 that was getting all the four and five star ratings both in offline magazines and around the Internet was Dell’s Studio 15, mainly because of it’s low price.

I knew that I would need to add to the basic specifications (I always do when I purchase PCs, I always want the latest gizmo fitted) and therefore the price would be higher, but I don’t mind paying for something if I know that I’m going to use it and it will ‘earn me money’ with it’s usefulness.

Most things that I purchase for the office or my Working Hours Publications business need to pay for themselves; that’s how I make my buying decisions nowadays, not just because it’s the latest, shiniest gadget.

I did have a disappointment when it arrived as I thought that the backlit keyboard was a standard feature as all the reviews mentioned it, however, mine was the plain old fashioned type L

Secondly, on inserting a DVD, it swallowed it in the slot fed device and wouldn’t play it or let me have it back.

Nor did the trackpad work … I had to use a USB mouse.

I did, eventually manage to get the disk out but then it wouldn’t play DVD movies without a jerky picture.

After looking all over Dell’s website for support where none of the troubleshooting tips resolved my issues, I decided to telephone them on the UK number.

I felt that the trackpad itself was faulty as I’d reinstalled the software and drivers but, still, the cursor was flashing around the screen or simply froze.

Technical support were very calm and helpful. I had to reinstall the WHOLE system from scratch.

Interestingly, they kept me on the telephone during the whole process (they called me back for the re-installation) ensuring that everything ran smoothly.

The woman on the end of the line explained each step and, eventually, took over my computer with a remote connection to install all the latest drivers and BIOS upgrade (loads of updates for a day-old computer?) along with a testing procedure.

The DVD playing problem was resolved by the reinstallation of everything but the trackpad needed replacing. For an extra payment, I could upgrade to have an engineer call to my business and fix the part without the need for me to send it away for repair. If it was a shop, I’d have probably asked for a refund but, the tech support lady was so patient and friendly, I agreed to the upgrade.

In the meantime, the Windows 7 laptop is very useable with a mouse and I must say, Windows 7 is worth moving over to. I’d already installed it onto another of my laptop PCs the day it was released and everything worked perfectly and so much faster. I highly recommend upgrading to Windows 7 as soon as you can, it’s a wonderful experience after a slow Vista or out of date XP.

My Dell Studio 15 is the 1555 version with a 15.6 inch screen, full high definition with a Blu-ray player recorder. The screen is an LCD type producing really life like images.

I decided to go for 4Gb RAM with a 320Gb hard drive, Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit (this doubles the processing speed over conventional 32bit) with all the connections that would be handy in today’s computing world. Those being things like USB, HDMI, eSata (back up to an eSata hard drive and it’s so fast that you’ll smile while it’s backing up, wonderful!), firewire (I still have old firewire devices to plug in), Ethernet, modem, Kensington lock, card reader, web cam, Bluetooth, express card, external monitor etc., in fact just about all I should currently need.

The first thing noticeable is the speed of start-up. I know a new PC always runs faster at first but I found the same thing when I installed Windows 7 onto an older laptop with tons of programs already installed on it, and the same thing happened so, I can only put this down to the Operating System being more efficient.

Secondly, the quality of the full, high definition, LCD screen is incredible, so clear and crisp that it shows up all my other laptop screen’s quality as inferior.

Programs load faster, the new features that you gain in Windows 7 and the simpler and more useful interface makes the Dell Studio 15 a joy to use. The keyboard is comfortable to use.

When purchasing, you can opt to have a bigger hard drive, more memory, a different color and designed casing and so on. All this will increase the price, of course.

However, in it’s basic state, the Dell Studio 15 is just £499.00 ($830.00 although $599.00 is the price on the US website, it seems US always get computers cheaper than we in the UK for some reason) which is why it’s winning all the awards at the moment. For what you get, it’s an incredibly low price. No other manufacturer seems to come close.

Yes, I had ‘running in’ problems but it’s the way that your problems are handled which makes your decision whether to send back or not. Dell were very helpful and gave me all the time it took in order to sort out my issues so, I recommend them for that, too. Just a telephone call to Dell technical support was able to sort things to get them put right.

Currently, you’ll not beat this laptop for price / features / build quality, it’s the best on the market and, therefore, highly recommended by this reviewer.

www.dell.com