Inspiron 1720 impressions

I researched this forum for information before purchasing a laptop and found quite a bit that was extremely useful; however, there seemed to be a dearth of information about the Inspiron 1720 (and inspirons in general), especially compared to the number of threads dedicated to the XPS line. I would like to share my thoughts on the 1720 in the hopes that future buyers will find them useful insofar as they address issues not readily found elsewhere.

The system I bought and am discussing is configured as follows:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T8300 (2.4GHz/800Mhz FSB/3MB cache)
Jet Black Color with Matte Finish
3GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (1GB x 2GB)
Anti-glare, widescreen 17.0 inch display (1440 x 900)
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT
250G 5400RPM SATA HDD
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition, English
Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
Integrated Stereo High Definition Audio
Intel Next -Gen Wireless -N Mini -card
Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam
56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Dell Travel Remote Control, IR

For any pictures, please see the official review thread.

I am Canadian. The laptop arrived nine working days after it was ordered online (13 days in total - it was Easter weekend), delivered by Purolator after crossing the border. In the box were:

• the notebook
• AC adaptor/power cord
• battery
• 6 CDs/DVDs: MediaDirect, Drivers, webcam manager, roxio cd creator, OS (vista), MS works 9
• 2 user manuals
• IR remote and its battery

As you’re probably aware, it’s quite large. Measuring approx. 15”x11” and weighing 8lb., it is best used as a desktop replacement. That being said, I have on numerous occasions moved it around the house and brought it to work without undue strain, although I am an adult male (a woman or child might find it cumbersome).

I’ll deal with this like fancy cutlery: start at the outside and work my way in. The black finish is very polished and professional looking. The paint work is, as far as I can tell, flawless (no blistering as was mentioned in the official review). Being matte, however, it easily picks up fingerprints, thereby losing a bit of its lustre. The latch to open the lid slides effortlessly and the hinges are quite sturdy. The screen never moves during use, nor does it refuse to stick exactly where you want it by settling downwards.

The machine runs extremely quiet and cool. There is a cold air intake on the bottom of the notebook and several hot air vents on the left-hand side. In my experience, the fan never turns on unless the machine is running a game. According to rivatuner, while using 174.31 drivers at factory clocks, its idling temperature is consistently 49 degrees C, while the hottest it has gotten (running high-intensity games such as Crysis or Oblivion) is 60 degrees C. Once a game is unloaded, it takes less than 2 minutes for the 1720 to resume its idle temperature. Neither the processor nor the HD clicks except in two circumstances: a defragment or the transfer of a large file from an external HD or flash drive to the main drive. This is not a defect – these are normal drive sounds and are entirely too quiet to hear from even 7-8 feet away with no other sounds present.

Some considerations about the exterior: I plug a set of external speakers into the headphone jack, which is on the right-hand side near the front. While a propitious place for using actual headphones, the speaker cables are unfortunately somewhat obtrusive there. On the subject of speakers, those built into the laptop are not half bad. The lack of a subwoofer obviously means that cinematic-quality music and sound is impossible to achieve, but friends and I have often gathered around to watch episodes of South Park and both the volume and the range of sound were more than adequate. The 6-cell battery does not stick out the back of the machine, keeping a flush edge with the rest of the notebook. I find its power more than adequate for my uses: a full charge will run for 2.5 hours at max brightness running windows apps (firefox, word, etc.).

Opening the laptop, the brushed aluminum finish of the keyboard immediately draws the eye. It is very sharp-looking and the full-size keyboard will be a welcome feature for anyone transitioning from a desktop for the first time. The numpad can also be useful for accounting or (in my case), writing foreign-language characters using ALT-*** codes. The finish is so smooth, however, that fingers sometimes slip off the keys while typing quickly, a problem I still have after using the laptop for 2 weeks. The palmrests are cool, and even during gaming the left one does not warm up to an uncomfortable temperature. The trackpad is smooth and responsive and is placed such that I almost never inadvertently touch it. All buttons, from mouse clickers to power buttons to keyboard keys are very responsive and have just the right amount of give.

As you can see, I opted for the WXGA+ 1440x900 anti-glare screen. True to its word, the matte LCD does a very good job of soaking up ambient light. I can hardly see the reflection from the bulb burning almost directly behind me, and I have used the 1720 in a brightly-lit office without any problems. There is almost no backlight bleed (a tiny bit near the bottom visible only on a black screen) and the brightness settings give me a very satisfactory range of options depending on where I am. The screen is not dim by any means. The image is crisp, there is no graininess and colour is true. That being said, the viewing angle is terrible. As I sit here typing, the display looks great. Once I move horizontally about 30 degrees in either direction, though, the image starts to distort. Vertical angles are even tighter and require me to really position the laptop strategically in order to be able to watch movies or TV from a distance. After some research, I discovered that this is not a fault of the monitor, but a characteristic inherent to the 1440x900 WXGA+ screen. From the manual:

Viewing angles:
Horizontal - ±40° (WXGA+) typical
±65° (WUXGA)

Vertical - +15°/–30° (WXGA+)
+45°/-55° (WUXGA)

As you can see, had I opted to spend the extra $150 for a higher resolution screen, I wouldn't have this problem. Unfortunately, the 1920x1200 does not have a matte option. You`ll have to decide what works best for you.

The computer itself is lightning quick. After uninstalling a ton of bloatware and configuring Vista the way I liked it (to a point where it became tolerable to use), I found it to be quite an enjoyable OS. WIE scores are as follows:

Processor: 5.3
RAM: 5.4
Graphics (aero performance): 4.7
Gaming graphics: 5.3
Primary HD: 5.2

The computer can easily run photoshop, a number of MS office suites, multiple firefox windows with multiple tabs open in each, as well as various background programs like calendar, utorrent, kaspersky and so on without any slow-down. The 5400rpm HD has never been a bottleneck for performance in any areas that I can determine; I couldn’t say what the advantages of a 7200rpm drive would be.

The rig is so far impressive in its ability to run the latest games. My 3DMarks score at factory clocks running in 1280x800 resolution is 3728. The following games run smoothly at 1280x800 (detailed info for some, not all):

• Crysis – medium – 18-24fps
• Assassin's Creed – high – avg. 18.5fps
• Hitman Blood Money – 1680x1050 high – avg. 24.5fps
• Oblivion – high – avg. 40fps
• Sins of a Solar Empire – high – avg. 41fps
• The Witcher – max – avg. 30fps
• Bioshock – high – Did not calculate but ran extremely smoothly the entire game with maybe 1-2 patches of lag

The wireless card is great – the range far surpasses anything I’ve used before and signal strength is always maxed out. With a N-router I imagine it would be even more impressive. The remote control (free when I bought, now unfortunately $20 extra) is a delight. It works perfectly from at least 10 feet away (never tried any further) and controls winmedia player/winmedia classic perfectly. That it fits into the expresscard slot for easy transport is icing on the cake.

I'm sure I’ve missed a few things, but those are the ones that stood out most in my mind when I was combing over this laptop for both pros and cons. Hopefully this helps someone out there. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.