Inspiron 17R vs. XPS 17 2nd Gen

I'm trying to help somebody at work pick out a Dell 17.3" laptop. She likes my XPS 15, but doesn't want to shell out $1200 and she's really stuck on a 17.3" screen. The XPS 15 2nd Gen with upgraded screen is of course my first recommendation to her, but she says she will sacrifice screen quality for a bigger sized screen. I can't seem to make her budge on this, as I cannot imagine having another laptop without a screen like the BH156HW1, which absolutely destroys other laptop panels and even desktop panels.

Are the panels in the 17R and XPS 17 the same? Also are they any good, or horrid like the stock XPS 15 panels?

 

17R is stuck at 1600x900 and it isn't an awful panel but nowhere near the great. Too much blue bias, though it is WLED. Stock 720p XPS panel is bad. Everything, washed out, bad viewing angles terrible color gamut, another atypical WLED screen.

I don't know if the actual part numbers are the same, but XPS has an option for the 1080p panel.

 

You can definitely get the XPS 15 for much cheaper than $1200.

 

the stock xps 17 (l702x) screen is 900p... prob the same screen as used in the 17R tbh... agree the viewing angles are fairly poor (and am buying a 1080p screen to resolve that issue) but it's nowhere near terrible

 

All LCD's are pure luck on which ones you get. I believe the 17R screen we had was an AUO, not great. I can't comment on the L702X 900p screen, never seen it.

 

Does it have to be a Dell?

The HP DV7t Quad Edition has a really nice FHD screen from all the reviews.

$1049:
HP Official Store — Buy and Customize your dv7 and dv7tqe series PC direct from HP
This config has 2 upgrades:
- 1920x1080 display (most important)
- 6770M GPU (only $25 for significantly more GPU power. Downgrade this if she absolutely doesn't need it.)