Owners with Inspiron 17R, how would YOU rate the quality of your laptop?

Hi guys, I'm a fellow Dell owner, and while it's been a rocky road, some of the fellow dell reps here have made life A LOT easier in the past :thumbsup:.

I've previously had very bad experiences with my XPS 17 (giving me ~3 month downtime before Dell finally compensated for my $1.2k frustration).

So now that new school semester has hit. My little sister in Elementary school needs a laptop. The requirements were a BIG screen, FAIRLY speedy, DECENT web surfing (for her school class), and decent HDD space (I plan to put on children's movies for her to watch on the go).

I'm here to ask you guys how you feel about your Dell Inspiron 17R? I was cruising the outlet, and I feel like the grab would be an awesome deal!

Specs are as follows:

Intel Core 3rd Generation i5-3337U Processor (3M Cache, up to 2.7 GHz)
Windows 8
1 TB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
8 GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz (2x 4GB)
17.3 inch HD+ (1600 x 900) WLED Display
8X DVD +/- RW Drive
Intel HD Graphics
Inspiron 17R - 5721 Laptop

Price tag is $454 and some change before tax and shipping.

Once again, definitely let me know your experiences folks! I've more than enjoyed my year or two-year ownership of my current Alienware M17x R4, would love to add another Dell to the family!

Thanks!

 

Not one feedback? I'm sure there are some Inspiron 17R owners around here!

 

My older sister has an Inspiron 17R (5720) and generally it feels very solid all round, the performance is good assuming you don't play modern games on it. The Inspiron 17R handles office work and movie playback with ease and our machine has a Third Gen Core i3, so I would imagine the Core i5 option to be better. The machine itself runs fairly quietly, though it does idle a bit too hot for my liking (~50c) with stock paste, given that it was a brand new machine I didn't want to open it and repaste so soon but it's something to be aware about.

I found it surprising that a machine of this budget can be expandable with a mSATA SSD if you wish to boost your storage options. Currently we have a Crucial M4 mSATA SSD in ours and it just flies alongside our 1TB HDD. Obviously you would need to reinstall the OS to the SSD to reap the benefits, if your sister prefers Windows 7 to 8 then you would be pleased to know that it's fairly straighforward downgrading with drivers freely available unlike some HP consumer systems out there.

Even though it's equipped with the 17.3" HD+ panel I found the screen to be decent with crisp colours and good viewing angles to be watched in a group. Speakers are OK though bass feels flat, if you want good sound quality then you would need to hook up to a good set headphones or external speakers to get the most from it.

The input devices (touchpad/keyboard) should generally satisfy most people, the touchpad is big and has physical buttons (not some cheap clickpads you see nowadays ugh) so its decent to use and can be disabled with a shortcut which is handy for typing the long essays. The chiclet keyboard does feel a bit "squishy" and lacks tactile feedback, but maybe that's just me coming from a ThinkPad.

But overall it's a very good machine for the money and I say it would meet your sister's requirements quite nicely.

 

Thank you for your feedback, will definitely order this laptop pretty soon, with Mourin and a few of the Dell OG's leaving and switching out with others.... I am gonna give Dell a last jump/chance before I jump ship onto another brand (quite possibly Toshiba next for office work).

Once again, thank you so much for your feedback!

You literally hit the nail when you said great viewing angle, as my mom is helping her while she's doing her homework.

I honestly don't care for music, video usage, etc. on the laptop... That's not a big concern as I buy this laptop for enough computing power for her schooling .

For the record, how is battery life on this monstrous 17in laptop?

On my fiancé's laptop, her HP lasts 6 hours on a 6-cell battery.... It amazes me how long it lasts as she has an (I believe) 2nd gen i7 w/ non-LED display.