Dell Studio 17 - Expert Reviews

Review summary: The Dell Studio 17 is an HD-ready laptop with a hi-res 17-inch widescreen and Blu-ray/CD/DVD combo drive. With optional dual hard drives (2x 320GB), and a 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 graphics card, it also has support for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, ...

Pros: This is a serious piece of kit if your looking to ditch your desktop PC. The 17-inch screen does the business and you also get a Blu-ray drive, so HD heaven awaits. It's certainly no slouch in the performance stakes either, as Intel's latest Core 2 ...

Cons: There's no denying this is a well-built laptop, but it's based on a smaller 13.3-inch design. Dell has simply made it larger to fit the stonking screen. Kind of like an awkward child, it means the shape and size looks odd in places. The keyboard looks ...

Verdict: Big and tough enough to look after itself, it will easily stand up to the demands of a full family battering it day in day out. What's more, it's superhero powerful, making it easier to consign your old desktop PC to the recycler.

Review summary: Dell has added yet another family line to its already comprehensive line-up of notebooks; the Studio. Currently available in 15-inch or 17-inch models, the Studio line-up sits between the Inspiron range and the higher end, more ...

Verdict: The Studio series neatly dovetails in between two well liked product lines and certainly lives up to its name in the choice of colours and styles for the lid, but it could do with a boost in the gaming department.

Review summary: The Studio 17 has flair, but it lacks a few key features it needs to keep up with the competition.

Pros: WUXGA display. Stylish. Good battery life in this weight class. Abundant wireless options. Backlit keyboard. Color and IMD options bring flavor to the design.

Cons: Trails the competition in expansion features. Lack of processor options for now. Graphics card is not very impressive.

Verdict: The Studio 17 gets major style points over its predecessors, but it lacks a few key features it needs to keep up with the competition.

Review summary: Well built with a speedy processor, but not a laptop for gamers

Pros: Good build quality ; decent processor performance

Cons: Heavy ; not suited to gaming

Verdict: Gaming performance isn't great, but otherwise this is a well-designed and solidly built notebook

Review summary: Well built with a speedy processor, but not a laptop for gamers