Attentive readers might notice that we already reviewed the Dell Studio 17 last year. However,sony vgp-bpl8 this isn’t the same Studio 17. The system we’re reviewing here is the new Studio 17 (1747) which uses a completely new chassis with 16:9 ratio widescreen display, new speakers, and support for the latest processors.

Dell Studio 17 (1747) Specifications:

• 17.3" HD+ (1600 x 900) TrueLife WLED
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel Core i7 720QM processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L3 cache)
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 1GB
• 4GB DDR3 RAM (2x 2GB)
• 320GB Western Digital Scorpio Black 7200RPM Hard Drive
• Dell Wireless 1397 802.11g
• 8X DVD burner
• Three-year limited warranty
• 9-cell battery (85Wh)
• Weight: Starting weight of 7.87 lbs
• Dimensions: 16.28 x 11.04 x 1.1-1.54"

Build and Design
The Dell Studio 17 fpcbp160 has a sleek wedge-shaped side profile that helps mask its large footprint. The sloped design reduces the thickness of the notebook, and if you don’t count the bulging 9-cell battery, it is basically as tall as my ThinkPad T60 when closed. The red screen cover looks very nice and is also available in other colors if you custom configure the notebook. The painted cover has a great rubbery texture that gives the notebook a soft feel and helps to increase grip for your fingers. The inside of the Studio 17 is glossy plastic and a flush-mount color-matched touchpad. The palmrest trim is painted with a silver metallic finish with the trim directly surrounding the keyboard being glossy painted black plastic. Both finishes appear to resist light scratches, which is a godsend for glossy notebooks that need to be wiped down constantly to look clean and smudge-free.fpcbp182

The one Dell-specific design element that really bugs me is the battery design.lifebook t4215 battery I greatly prefer the method of extended-life batteries that extend out the back of the notebook. The lower-mounted method used with the Studio 17’s battery prevents the notebook from sitting perfectly flush on your desk surface. The only problem with using a battery that extend out the back with this notebook is the hinge design which would interfere with extended batteries.

Build and Design
The Dell Studio 17 has a sleek wedge-shaped side profile that helps mask its large footprint.sony vgp-bps8a The sloped design reduces the thickness of the notebook, and if you don’t count the bulging 9-cell battery, it is basically as tall as my ThinkPad T60 when closed. The red screen cover looks very nice and is also available in other colors if you custom configure the notebook. The painted cover has a great rubbery texture that gives the notebook a soft feel and helps to increase grip for your fingers. The inside of the Studio 17 is glossy plastic and a flush-mount color-matched touchpad. The palmrest trim is painted with a silver metallic finish with the trim directly surrounding the keyboard being glossy painted black plastic. Both finishes appear to resist light scratches,vgp-bps8b which is a godsend for glossy notebooks that need to be wiped down constantly to look clean and smudge-free.

The one Dell-specific design element that really bugs me is the battery design. I greatly prefer the method of extended-life batteries that extend out the back of the notebook.sony vgp-bpl8a The lower-mounted method used with the Studio 17’s battery prevents the notebook from sitting perfectly flush on your desk surface. The only problem with using a battery that extend out the back with this notebook is the hinge design which would interfere with extended batteries.

Screen and Speakers
The 17.3-inch display on the Studio 17 looks above average with good color saturation and excellent contrast.vgp-bps2a Dell picked an in-between resolution of 1600×900 in this model, which is better than WXGA but still less than the 1080P displays that are standard on almost all competing models. With that said Dell does offer RGB-LED display upgrade options for this model where none of the competing models offer similar displays.

The standard display has good vertical viewing angles where colors don’t start to invert significantly until the screen is tilted 15-20 degrees forward or back. Horizontal viewing angles are better with colors staying true to roughly 80 degrees in each direction. Backlight levels are pretty good in terms of even brightness and peak brightness. With the screen displaying an all-black background there is minimal bleed around the edges at normal brightness levels.vgp-bps2b As you increase past 80% the black levels start to appear washed out, but that is normal for bright panels. The backlight is strong enough to comfortable view the display in bright office conditions or outdoors if you find a spot of shade.

The Dell Studio 17 includes JBL stereo speakers with a bottom-firing subwoofer.vgp-bps2c The primary drivers are top-firing through the corners of the palmrest which is much preferred over lap-firing speakers which can sound muffled. In our tests the Studio 17 speakers rated well above average when playing both movies and music. Midrange and high notes came through clearly and the subwoofer added some bass which is usually lacking from many notebooks. Peak volume levels were above average and more than capable for filling a small or medium sized room with sound.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard on the Studio 17 is very nice and very comfortable to type on with such a massive palmrest.dell inspiron 6400 battery hp dv2000 With the notebook sitting on the edge of a desk or on your lap your wrists are fully supported to your forearms. The soft rounded edge of the front of the notebook doesn’t seem to cause any pressure points, which can be a problem with some notebooks. The keyboard layout takes full advantage of the massive surface area of the Studio 17. The keyboard is full-size with no condensed keys and it includes a four-key wide numberpad. The layout is Dell-standard with the function keys being secondary and the access keys being primary. To give you an example you can adjust the brightness directly by pressing F4 and F5, but to refresh a webpage you would need to click FN+F5. You can notice some flex of the keyboard under strong pressure but under normal typing it isn’t that apparent. Individual key action is smooth with a very soft click emitted when each key is fully pressed. The configuration we reviewed doesn’t offer a backlit but it can be included as a $25 option. After using the Studio 17 a few nights in front of my TV I really found myself wishing that the backlight came standard.hp compaq 6510b battery

The touchpad is a very large Synaptics model with some multitouch support.fujitsu t5010 battery Advanced gestures include two-finger scrolling, rotating, pinch zoom, and a three-fingered flick. Sensitivity is excellent with the touchpad picking up even the slightest touch without a problem. This did cause some problems if you barely brush your palm against the touchpad while moving the cursor towards a target. The touchpad would detect the second input and make the cursor freeze until you let off. No amount of adjusting the settings corrected this but with enough practice you learn to move your hand farther away from the touchpad boundaries. Touchpad speed is great with no discernable lag noticed even during quick movements. The surface texture is a light matte finish and very easy to slide your finger across dry or moist. The touchpad buttons are also very nice with a deep throw and a soft click when pressed. laptop battery

Ports and Features
Port selection is very good even with no ports or slots added to the front or rear edge of the notebook. Dell included two USB ports, one eSATA/USB combo port, VGA, HDMI, and Displayport-out, LAN, two headphone jacks, audio-in, LAN, and finally a FireWire-400 port. Expansion slots include an ExpressCard/34 slot and SDHC-card reader. One additional port that wasn’t used in our configuration is the antenna jack that connects to an internal TV-tuner. We did have one problem with the USB port layout; the right side has spacing far enough apart from each other to prevent you from using some dual-pronged cords.sony laptop battery

The Dell Studio 17 includes an accelerometer to protect the hard drive in the event of a physical system crash. If it detects the notebook is dropped it will rapidly park the hard drive to help minimize damage. This is common in many business notebooks, but unlike every other implementation we have seen, this one was the first to cause problems. If you tilt the notebook too far in any direction it will directly alter the direction movement on the screen. We first noticed this during our testing phase when the notebook was resting on an elevated stand. If the Studio 17 is tilted forward dialog box selection will randomly switch back and forth. If you tilt the notebook to one side it will start moving the selection box up and down. To only way to correct this is to uninstall the ST Micro ScreenDection driver. This problem is also reported on the Dell Community forum.dell laptop battery

Performance and Benchmarks

The Dell Studio 17 is no slouch with its Intel Core i7 720QM processor and ATI Mobility Radeon 4650 graphics. While playing Left 4 Dead at 1600×900 resolution with high settings we saw an average framerate of 60FPS, a max of 87FPS, and low of 38FPS. Even with hordes of zombies around the main characters the notebook never dropped below 30FPS. Although this system is more than capable of playing Left 4 Dead at high settings, it still fell behind the ASUS G51J and Acer 8940G which included better graphics cards. Since the Studio 17 is a notebook more focused on all around multimedia performance we didn’t have a huge problem with this. The downside is users need to upgrade to the Alienware M17x or switch to the Studio XPS 16 to get better graphics cards options from Dell. Both alternatives have a much higher starting price – around $1,600- that could be hard to swallow if you are working on a smaller budget. HD video was not a problem for the Studio 17 with the 1.6GHz Core i7. The CPU never broke a sweat playing 720p and 1080p video with plenty of overhead room left for other activities.hp laptop battery

Our Acer Aspire 8940G Specifications:

• Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
• Intel Core i7-720QM (1.6GHzGHz, 1333MHz FSB, 6MB Cache)
• 18.4" WUXGA FHD LCD display at 1920×1080
• NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250M with 1GB GDDR3 memory
• Intel 5100AGN Wireless, Broadcom Gigabit LAN
• 4GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM (2GB x 2)
• 500GB Western Digital 5400RPM Hard Drive
• Blu-ray/DVD SuperMulti
• Webcam, Acer CineSurround speakers, backlit keyboard
• 120W (19V x 6.32A) 100-240V AC Adapter
• 8-cell 71Wh 14.8v 4800mAh Lithium Ion battery
• Dimensions (WxDxH): 17.34 x 11.62 x 1.22-1.73"
• Weight: 9lbs 5.5oz
• 1-year warranty

Build and Design
Acer shares the same overall look and feel throughout many of their notebook lines.sony vgp-bpl8 The Acer Aspire 8940G shows quite a bit of resemblance to the Acer Aspire One … keeping the same hinge shape and position as well as the protruding rear-edge of the main body that you can see when the lid is closed. The side profile of the 8940G doesn’t look much thicker than a smaller 15" or 17" notebook. The sloped front and rear edge do a great job of masking thickness even further while also making it more comfortable to carry. Inside you have a completely flat surface containing the keyboard, touchpad, speakers, and multimedia keys. The keyboard is even recessed just enough so the flat keys lay flush with the outer bezel. Acer did an excellent job of making this laptop look user friendly and organized by keeping so many controls within a finger’s reach.

Notebook fpcbp160 manufacturers face a difficult task when it comes to making large notebooks that feel sturdy but aren’t overweight. Wider panels require more bracing to reduce flex and heavier notebooks require stronger panels so they don’t flex under their own weight. The Aspire 8940G feels very well built with a solid frame and only minimal flex on the screen cover when the notebook is shut. The palrmest feels durable and shows no signs of flex even under strong pressure. The same applies to the keyboard and upper bezel, which show only minimal signs of flex under heavy pressure. The one complaint I have with the build quality of the notebook is the use of glossy plastics which scratch and smudge easily.fpcbp182 If you are a neat freak then those smudge-prone glossy surfaces might get on your nerves over time.

The upgradability factor of this notebook lifebook t4215 battery looks great thanks to a single access panel on the bottom of the chassis. Simply remove the panel and you have access to the dual hard drive bays (one of which is unused in this configuration), two system memory slots, two mini-PCIe slots, and a partial view of the processor socket. I saw no "warranty void if removed" stickers anywhere, including the screws holding the heatsink onto the processor. If you want to add a second hard drive you will need to purchase a spare retention bracket, which mounts to the back of the drive, to prevent it from sliding out of place.sony vgp-bps8a The open mini-PCIe slot appears to be intended for an onboard TV-tuner, and as such doesn’t have WWAN-antennas pre-installed.

Screen and Speakers
The 18.4" screen on the Aspire 8940G is an "all-glass" style with a protective layer covering the actual display panel. This gives the notebook a very clean and polished look, but also increases glare and reflections.vgp-bps8b With the notebook turned off the screen surface resembles a mirror and reflects the entire room around you. These reflections are reduced when the screen is on and displaying bright colors. In terms of overall quality the screen looks very nice with good color reproduction and above average contrast. The screen really draws you in while watching movies or viewing pictures … as if you were viewing that place in person. Black levels look great and the only noticeable areas of light bleed are near the edges of the screen and only visible with the brightness set to 100%. Vertical viewing angles look good until you pivot the screen forward or back roughly 15 to 20 degrees. Horizontal viewing angles look nice right up until reflections off the screen start to overpower the image being displayed. At peak brightness the screen is still easily visible in bright office conditions as well as sitting near a window with the sun casting over the notebook.sony vgp-bpl8a

Acer includes a 5.1 Cinematic Surround system on the Aspire 8940G that seems to sound a step above most notebooks.vgp-bps2a The audio system features five speakers, including a Tuba CineBass Booster to increase low-frequency sound. In practice the speakers produced a great surround experience, but I felt the peak volume levels were lacking. Even with the system volume set to 100%, the speakers were nowhere near being over-driven. This causes some trouble if you expect to use the system to watch a movie in your bedroom with it sitting on a dresser rather than on your lap. This can be avoided though if you use external speakers or a home theater system connected to the notebook.

Keyboard and Touchpad
Even though many notebooks are switching to Chiclet-style keyboards these days,vgp-bps2b Acer still uses a traditional design with thin flat-top keys instead. The design resembles lily patties sitting on a pond with a very thin top and the support structure tucked neatly out of view. The keyboard also offers a backlit which gives you great key visibility in dark settings. The underlying light elements are adequately shielded, preventing "light bleed" unless you view the keyboard at an angle shallower than 45 degrees. The backlight is non-adjustable in brightness, but you can turn it off completely.dell laptop battery

The keyboard is very comfortable for typing thanks to properly sized keys and good spacing.vgp-bps2c The large 18.4" footprint allows Acer to incorporate a full-size keyboard as well as a full number pad. There is almost no "wiggle" or lateral key travel when you move your hand around the keyboard despite the thin looking keys. The keys are easy to trigger with roughly average pressure required and when pressed give off a very small click sound. The broad palmrest works very well for cradling your hands and wrists. Typing for hours at the notebook isn’t a problem unless it is on your lap … in which case your legs might not enjoy the weight.

The touchpad is a very large Synaptics model that rates very high on my list of best touchpads.hp dv2000 It is quick to respond to fast movements, showing no discernable lag at any time. The surface texture is a soft matte finish that makes it easy to slide your finger across whether completely dry or slightly damp from sweat. The only significant complaint I have is the size. This touchpad is so much larger than most of the touchpads that I use that I end up clicking the bottom edge of the touchpad instead of the actual buttons. If you like big touchpads you will love the touchpad on the Aspire 8940G. The touchpad buttons are the same width as the touchpad surface and have a very short throw. Each button gives off a higher pitched clicking sound when you press down. Acer also includes a button to disable the touchpad to prevent accidental movement when using an external mouse. This button is located to the right side of the touchpad and lights up when activated.dell inspiron 6400 battery

Ports and Features
The port selection on the Acer Aspire 8940G is phenomenal. Acer gives you four dedicated USB ports, one eSATA/USB combo port, Firewire 400, VGA, HDMI, DisplayPort, LAN, and audio jacks including digital audio out. To load pictures from a digital camera, there is a flush-mount SDHC-card slot on the front side of the notebook.hp compaq 6510b battery

On the left and right side of the keyboard there are touch-sensitive control keys.fujitsu t5010 battery The left side has three buttons including one for Wi-Fi On/Off, one for Bluetooth On/Off, and another to access the Acer Backup Manager. The right side offers media quick-access keys including a Media Center button, hold button, skip, play/pause, stop, and fast forward controls, and a switch to enable or disable the touch sensitive buttons. The volume control is a metal rotating dial that gives a slightly more precise method to adjust the volume than a touch-sensitive slider.laptop battery

Performance and Benchmarks

The Asipre 8940G performs very well in games as well as playing high-definition video.sony laptop battery The Intel Core i7 processor didn’t even work up a sweat while we pushed 720P and 1080P video its way. While it is pretty sure this system would have no problem playing Blu-ray movies, we were unable to test playback since Acer didn’t include software to decode Blu-ray movies. PowerDVD or another equivalent software package is usually included with systems that offer Blu-ray drives as an option, but we guess Acer wanted to save on the cost of licensing fees and left this up to the customer. The NVIDIA GTS 250M graphics handled Left 4 Dead at 1920×1080 resolution with high detail settings very well. Playing with multiple zombies on the screen framerates still stayed above 30FPS with the average being in the lower 40s. If the detail settings were tweaked slightly or the resolution was lowered to 1280×768, I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t get framerates above 60FPS.hp laptop battery