Vostro 1720 Mini-Review

Build Quality and Finish
My first impression as I unpacked the laptop was how light it felt for a 17” notebook. By comparison, my older Dell 9400 (E1705) seems much heavier. I don’t hear any creaking/groaning of plastics when I hold the laptop from one corner and, overall, the chassis appears rigid and well constructed. Aesthetically, this machine will not be a compliment generator. It’s industrial design is simple (read: bland), straightforward (read: uninspired), and utilitarian. A business laptop through and through.



The display hinges (one of the first things I check on new laptops) are excellent. There is absolutely no screen wobble when opening the display and hinges have a nice strong feeling. Of course, hinges often start to wear many months into ownership but my initial impression is very positive.




The display bezel has some rather unsightly hooks for the screen latch but I still appreciate the ability to lock the panel down before transport. The media key console above the keyboard is, in a word, ugly. The buttons are simple squares with boring symbols printed inside. The blue LED indicator lights are nice and, in a rare example of engineering forethought, are not blindingly bright.



The palm rest flexes when pressure is applied and has a slightly hollow sound when tapped. One small feature that I really appreciate is Dell softened and curved the forward edge of the palm rest to ensure your hands don’t sit on a sharp edge.



When closed, the display does not sit perfectly flush with the palm rest and has a 2-3 millimetre gap (however the right and left gaps are equal - so the rubber bumpers may be just a little too short). For a budget laptop, I consider this acceptable.

Fan(s) are very quiet when idle but do ramp up under high CPU/GPU loads (gaming) but have a low pitch and are not distracting. The exhaust is located on the left side of the computer.

***UPDATE: After further use, I have found that the fan(s) can become quite loud and distracting when gaming for 20-30 minutes. Under load (Crysis, Fallout 3, etc.), the 9600 GS video card does heat up considerably over time. Examining the bottom of the laptop, a very small air intake is provided for the video card and appears insufficiently sized for good airflow. If you value a quiet gaming experience, this could be a deal-breaker***


Display
I opted for the 1440x900 LED-backlight matte panel. Brightness uniformity is good but colours are somewhat muted compared to Dell’s TrueLife panels. Contrast is also significantly lower than the glossy displays. If you’ve ever used one of Dell’s business-class matte monitors you can expect an almost identical image quality with this panel. At it’s highest setting, panel brightness is more than adequate and, in a darker work environment, I would knock the brightness down 3-4 steps (of 7 total brightness levels). Despite the trade-offs (muted colours and lower contrast), the absence of annoying reflections that plague glossy displays is a nice benefit. I would rate the viewing angles (both horizontal and vertical) as average.

***UPDATE: I have discovered excessive image tearing (absence of v-sync) in 2D applications. Even slight panning in youtube/quicktime videos creates distracting tears in the video. This is not present (thankfully) in 3D applications. Unfortunately, the "force v-sync" option in the Nvidia control panel only affects 3D processing so I am still looking for a solution***




Keyboard
Overall, the keyboard layout is of the standard Dell variety with full-sized right/left shift keys. The one oddity was the placement of the Page Up, Page Down, Home, and End keys below the numeric pad. Keys have good response, make a faint “click” noise when pushed, and have average travel. Unfortunately, the keyboard flexes considerably on the far left-hand and right-hand (numeric pad) sections. Overall, the keyboard is below-average in construction.



Touchpad
The touchpad is slightly recessed and I’ve had no issues with its responsiveness or accuracy. The touchpad buttons are some of the best I’ve used with a nice, soft button action that is responsive and provides feedback with a soft click.

Wireless
Excellent range. Compared to the Acer 8730 and Dell 9400, the Vostro was able to pick up various wireless signals (at adequate levels of signal quality) that the other laptops did not. And for WIFI signals that all three laptops identified, the Vostro had the best signal strength.

Ports
5 USBs (3 on the left, 2 on the right), firewire, SD card reader, mic/headphone ports, Ethernet, and VGA. Oddly, I found the USB ports required an unusually high amount of force to insert connectors. And, regretably, Dell did not include an HDMI port. I appreciate that the Ethernet port is located on the back of the laptop and out of the way/sight.

Performance
Despite the bland and boring design of the Vostro 1720, the bang-to-buck performance ratio is excellent. It’s clear that Dell is counting on consumers to judge this computer by it’s internal configuration, not the overall aesthetic.

Out-of-the box without any tweaking/service shutdowns/etc. the Nvidia 9600M GS scored a very reasonable 10,221 points in 3DMark05. Using GPU-Z, I discovered that the video card uses 512MB of the faster GDDR3 memory (vs. GDDR2).


Fallout 3 at maximum resolution (1440x900) with 4x AA and 8x AF and details set at “High” played very smoothly and did not exhibit and lag/slowdown during outdoor combat. More to come.

HDTune:


3DMark05:


WPrime 32:


Gaming Performance
Coming soon.

Value
While Dell "sales" often leave much to be desired (i.e., 20% coupons for systems that are jacked up 20%), the company is usually quite generous with it’s “introduction” prices and made deep discounts to the Vostro models when they unveiled the refresh of the model line in April.

To that end, I configured the 1720 with an Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 (2.4Ghz), 4GB DD2 RAM, 250GB 7200RPM HD, and Nvidia GeForce 9600M GS for $999 CDN. At the time of purchase, I could not find another dealer/retailer selling a similarly configured 17” for anything less that $1300.

Another bonus afforded to consumers purchasing a business-class laptop is Dell’s XP/Vista downgrade option (which was included in my configuration). I received the computer with Windows XP (SP3) installed and Dell included reinstallation media for both Windows XP and a copy of Vista Business 32-bit for me to install when I wish to upgrade to the newer OS. Granted, with the pending release of Windows 7 the Vista install may never happen but I have to commend Dell for being one of the few companies that includes full reinstallation media for the OS you purchase. It’s a big advantage for those who like to wipe the drive and make a fresh install (which wasn't immediately necessary as this Vostro shipped with a shocking absence of bloatware...kudos Dell).

Conclusion
+ Excellent performance and value
+ Above-average gaming performance
+ Good touchpad
+ Excellent wireless reception
+ XP/Vista combo option
+ Very little bloatware

- Loud fans when gaming.
- Screen tearing (v-sync issues) in 2D mode (watching videos for instance). Not present in 3D applications/games.
- Somewhat washed-out colours and low contrast screen (on the base display)
- Excessive keyboard flex
- Boring design
- No HDMI
- Cheaper plastic chassis and finish

If you don't mind a laptop that takes its styling from the 1980s and incorporates a relatively low quality keyboard/display (a Truelife screen is available for $150 more), Dell will reward you with some excellent internals and performance for a great price.

 

35% off Select Dell Vostro & Latitude Laptops $949+ Coupon Code: 9TLZ6FC3V8WP90 May 27, 2009
Includes Vostro: 1320, 1510, 1520, 2510, 1710 & 1720 and Latitude:E5400, E5500 and D630

there are coupons for US buyers.

 

Great mini-review, nice work! This looks like a pretty good budget 17" laptop.

 

Thanks for the mini-review. Patiently waiting for our new 1720 to arrive.

Used the above 35% off coupon when ordering. There was also and addional $30 off for ordering online added at checkout (in the US at least).

 

Thanks for the review. A couple of questions: when idle, does the fan(s) run at all? Have you checked CPU temps? When do the fans kick in? Can you use the 3rd party dell fan utility on this laptop?

http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/

It would be nice if you could try this and do some testing on the laptop temperature control.

I recently returned a studio 1737 because the fan was running all the time, even in idle when CPU temp was below 40 degree C and the fan utility didn't work on this model

I also see you are running XP. No problems finding drivers?

 

mbibt, I've had my 1720 since Monday and when idle temps run well under 40C with no fan activity at all. Fans seem to come on at or near 50C, which if you are not under volting you'll hit quickly in any CPU intensive app.

One note, however: I have integrated graphics so the fan may be more of an issue with those running the 9X00 GPU.

I've had a good experience undervolting thus fan. Stable at 0.950v at 6X-9X multi (forced). Temps dropped off over 10C on the top end at both Max multi and Min Multi. (P8600)

 

have you used hwmonitor to see your max temp? i own a vostro 1710 which have the same chasis, so i guess the heat sink assembly should be similar or identical. my laptop get's quite hot as well.

 

Max temps before undervolting ran in the mid-low 60s under Orthos.

About 10C lower undervolting. Idle temps are greatly reduced using RMclock's SLFM setting.

BTW, installed Vista SP2 with no issues over the weekend (after Ghosting just in case ). No change in boot times, no odd things happening, works just peachy.

 

Nice review. Could you tell me what type of wifi card you have in your Vostro? I was wondering if it is worth it to pay extra for an Intel card or is the Dell card good enough? Thanks

 

The Dell card should be good enough however, if you plan on installing linux you should shell out the extra cash for the intel card.

What were you undervolting the cpu with? I tried notebook hardware control, but it doesnt work on my vostro 1720, maybe this is because of my newer chpset processor? (i dont know the model number, but it is a 2.4ghz 10066mhz fsb)