Got a new Dell Studio 1745, dissapointing skin colors on screen

My old notebook keyboard died, and despite my apprehensions about buy a notebook with a glossy screen, I recently purchased the most recent upgrade of the Dell Studio - a 1745 (according to the number on the bottom of the laptop) from Best Buy for about $800.

While I was worried about the glossy part, it turns out there's another, much larger problem - I intended to use it to edit photos (I'm not professional, just like to play around with them sometimes) and I've found the colors, despite being a "truelife" display (I got the "900p" one, 1600x900) to be kind of crappy when it comes to viewing skin tones. They're just sort of...flattened. My pictures that look good on my regular lcd (21.3" Samsung SyncMaster 213t) and my hd tv look weird and unnatural on my studio laptop. The pictures that look borderline-ok on my other monitors look terrible on my laptop because the skin tones are all messed up.

And I don't mean that like "I'm super picky about skin tones", I mean more like "anyone looking at the picture on the laptop lcd would notice it looks noticeably weird".

Naturally, there are a picture or 2 that actually looks better on the laptop screen - in one of them, there's a yellowish cast in the background when viewed on the camera lcd and my tv (it's also a common issue with pictures taken with my camera), but it's not there on the laptop screen. Unfortunately, since I need to be able to adjust the white balance on my laptop to look good on your average monitor, this is kind of a problem for me.

I really hate to wait a month for a new computer, but I was thinking that maybe the "17.3” Full HD (1080p) B+RG LED Display with TrueLife™ and Camera" would be better with colors? Or is there something wrong with my particular screen? The Studio with the same specs costs $1,139 online (as opposed to the $780 I paid at Best Buy) so it's a lot more money, but I could probably do it. I considered ordering a refurbished Precision m6400, but some of the reviews of the screen seemed kind of down (especially for such an expensive computer), plus it sounded like it's pretty huge to lug around.

Any suggestions?

 

According to the service manual the HD screen is a lot better specs wise. Unfortunately nobody on here has actually received it yet.

As you are the first person that has the 1745 on here can you let me know your impressions of the laptop?

I have one on order and I think from your post I will phone and upgrade the screen the the HD display as I really dont want to be dissapointed by a poor display

 

The laptop has a lot of nice things about it. It seems to have just about every port I can imagine - eSata, hdmi (I assume there's an hdmi to dvi converter?), vga.

I wish it hibernated more quickly - seems to take 5-10 seconds, and there's little feedback about when it's actually finished entering hibernation mode (the screen is blank the entire time, but the lights on the keyboard turn off when it's actually hibernated).

It only has 2 usb ports, and despite having like 5 ports on the left side, they're both on the right side. At least one on the left side would have been nice, so it didn't get in the way of your mouse hand (if you're right handed like I am). The power port is also at the top right, just above one of the usb ports, so you always have a cord there. To be fair I haven't actually used a mouse with it yet, so...it may not turn out to be a problem. I do think that it would be better to put ports on the back where they're always out of the way. 2 ports seems kind of limited as well - you plug a mouse in, and you only have 1 port left. To be fair, I saw a 16" sony vaio with 3 ports, but they were all at the front ride side of the laptop which I thought was absolutely terrible positioning.

I should probably stop nitpicking, though - other than the screen there's nothing else about the laptop that's any sort of show-stopper for me at the moment. I have no problem carrying it around. It seems responsive. It...pretty much just works. The cover over the top is matte, not glossy, it still gets fingerprints but they aren't nearly as obvious.

My biggest other compaint is also with the screen - in addition to the skin-tones problem I mentioned, it's vertical viewing angle seems quite severe. I guess it's better than some I've seen - I can still see what's on the screen as I tilt the screen forward and back, but the colors change *dramatically*. And like within a matter of 5 degrees. I cannot say if it's better or worse than other laptops available, though, but it seems more severe than my old 2ghz Sony laptop where the screen just slowly got more washed out as you tilt the screen. The glossy screen is glossy, as expected. There's glare, but it doesn't wash out in sunlight either, so that's good.

It has the absolute best trackpad I've ever used. I don't know how they do it, but it's noticeable better than anything else I've ever used. It just...works. Usually trackpads feel a bit like biking with the brakes rubbing, but this one...just works. It just feels really nice.

I've heard that dell screens, even with the same model, can vary greatly because different companies manufacture the "same" panel. I think I'm going to take my memory card, go back to Best Buy, and see if the display model and maybe another packaged model (maybe I'll try a different Best Buy location" have the same skin tone thing happening.

Thanks for writing back. If anyone else has any comments/thoughts/suggestions, please post.

 

The hibernate is normal, you can also switch it to just sleep it you want faster shutdown/restart but it uses battery.
The laptop does have three USB, your E-sata is also a USB port. Whats even better is you can buy dual usb/Esata external drives that transfer data via esata and get the power from the usb.

If you are also after better viewing angles you really should look at the full HD screen. I will dig out the spec but its a lot better.

And you are right, Dell are a pain with their panel lottery. I have owned about 10 dells and many a time I have returned a laptop and got another because of a poor screen (the xps 1530 being the worst example)

 

Oh wow, the esata is a usb port? That's pretty cool. Do you have any idea what the copper-ish colored round port next to the eSata port is? (not the hdmi port, the one on the other side).

I'd be interested in spec differences in viewing angles, though I'd be even more interested in personal experience (though obviously that's not available yet). I wonder if the better screen is any better at being antireflective?

Either way I gotta do something - I don't think I want to be without a laptop for a month. I'm still considering buying a refurbished Precision from Dell, I know those screens are matte.

 

I think the Studio 1745 that most of these people are talking about is much more advanced than the one that you bought. If you look in the other posting about the 1745/1747, you'll see a lot of talk about more memory, faster processors, the i7, etc. Look at my comment on page 16.

Here is the link to the Studio 17's at Dell:
http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/notebooks/studio-1747/pd.aspx?refid=studio-1747&s=dhs&cs=19
The second one from the left says it's a 1745. I came across a great deal on the Dell website to get this computer with many upgrades for only $849 (not including $85 for cover design). Go to "Popular Laptop Deals", then select "Large Screen Laptop Deals" to see this great price (it's $899 now, changed today) It has 17.3” HD+ (900p) Bright LED Display with TrueLife™ and Camera (I hope this is better than the screen you are not happy with), Intel Core Duo T6600, Slot Load Blu-ray Disc (BD) Combo , 512 video card, 500GB HD, plus an extra year warranty. See my other post for details.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=420136&page=16

I don't like Dell's website, and all of the different ways to get to the same thing. I customized a Studio 17 exactly the same way using different links, and came up with 3 different prices! For example, on the link above, if you customize the 1745 to the specs I posted, it comes out to be $1244! That's almost $400 more for exactly the same thing from the same website!

Why does Dell make it so confusing by naming different computer the same? That's one good thing with HP, the model numbers tell you exactly what the computer has. A Studio 1745 shouldn't be able to describe a $700 machine and a $1700 machine. If you click on the "Studio 17" at the bottom of Dell's website, it takes you to the computer most of these people are talking about. But if you click on "studios" under "laptops and minis", and then select the 17, it shows you several different machines and options.

I am pretty sure what I am getting is a good deal. Probably a much more basic machine than what most of the experts on this website are talking about, but it will suit my needs and budget.

Any thoughts?

EDIT:
I think I just found what you bought:

http://shopper.cnet.com/notebooks/d...4014-3121_9-33776088.html?tag=rightCol#info-5

Does this look right? Same hard drive, RAM and chip as the one I'm looking into, but it doesn't have a better video card, blue ray or extra year warranty. Also, I hope the screen is different, since you didn't like yours, it's hard for me to tell.
This makes me think that getting all those extras for only $69.00 more than the Best Buy's sale price is a great deal.

 

Just wanted to come back and make an update.

I did take my laptop back to Best Buy to compare to their floor model, along with an sd card from my camera with a bunch of different pictures on it. The outdoor shots were basically the same - they really looked fine on either display.

The shots with a lot of skins colors, however, were definitely different. While on my laptop faces were to red and just sort of blurred together, on the display laptop they looked pretty much normal and like I would expect them to.

So it appears I have either a defective display, or a panel from a bad manufacturer. To be honest, I'm leaning towards "defective" as I hooked it up to my hdtv last night and extended the display, and there were a *lot* of pictures on facebook that horrible on my laptop (flattened and red), but looked fine on my tv.

There were still some oddities on the display model. All my pictures taken with my camera appeared to have way more "noise" in them than on any other monitor. The viewing angle still seemed kind of narrow, though after a while I got used to it so I suspect it's pretty much the same as you might be used to on most laptop. I still felt red tones seemed to be a little overemphasized, but it was now within the range that it might be just be that one monitor is calibrated differently than the other one. I still don't think the screen looked as nice as my $2k tv, LOL.

But the display model's screen wasn't in the category of "anyone looking at the picture on the laptop lcd would notice it looks noticeably weird".

Now I'm debating whether to exchange my laptop for another at Best Buy, or to order one through Dell (with the better screen, and more noteably the ati video card that I thought mine came with, but turns out it's intel integrated video).

Anyways, just wanted to leave an update for anyone reading my complaints.

P.S. The model I purchased was this one:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Dell+-+...538238&skuId=9539154&st=dell studio&cp=1&lp=2

 

well I have changed my order based on your views.
I have now ordered direct from dell:
P7450
4gb
ATI 4650
1080p HD display
2x 320gb 7200hd
Backlit keyboard.

I will give you my views when it arrives. I will also take some pics with my girlfriends DSLR if its any help

 

That's cool, hope my opinion based on a bad screen wasn't to big of a factor. I certainly still think the screen could be better - if Best Buy sold the version with the better screen I'd have exchanged it already.

How long is your order going to take to arrive? I spec'd one up online, and even if I was willing to forgo the blue screen backing (which I prefer) it still estimated the ship date at the very end of the month...my old laptop is broken, and while I have an old desktop machine that suffices for the moment I don't think I can wait a month for a new laptop... :-(

 

Grrr... I have got an updated EDD of 22/12/09! (I guess something I changed on my spec is out of stock)
I chose the blue lid, I wonder if that is what is holding mine up? I will phone them later and try and get it sped up, 6 weeks is unacceptable.

And dont worry, I was having trouble choosing between them as the 1080p screen is an extra £80 ($130) but I know I would end up having buyers remorse if it arrived and the screen was not upto my standards. The screen is one of the most important aspects to me in a laptop