Should I get a Studio?

Well I used to own an Inspiron 1525 but due to the crappy touch pad and due to the fan always turning on and making an annoying sound, I decided to sell it and get something else.

I was at Best Buy and noticed the Studio. It had a lot of keyboard flex, but then I went to another best buy and the keyboard was awesome.

Now i'm confused if I should get the Studio or something else? I know it has a few problems like the keyboard, the touch panel and crappy sound but am still debating whether I should get it or not?

Anyone?

 

studio is the best quality and price ratio wise of all dell laptops.
its much cheaper from outlet.

 

Yeah if I were to get one, it would be from the outlet.

Also, are there any heating issues? The insprion 1525's also got hot easily which pissed me off...I don't wanna have to deal with that again...

 

What are your primary uses for the laptop?

I would suggest buying a Dell Latitude from the Dell Outlet, as those business-grade machines have better quality keyboard and general build quality. However, the Studio is also a good laptop, and will be a step up from the Inspiron.

 

I will be using it for a lot of things, more for multimedia purposes as well as typing papers and stuff.

I am also thinking about getting a latitude but I will have to wait until a outlet coupon comes out.

 

no heat issue with studio 15, the chassis and motherboard design is completely diferent from inspiron 1525 & 1545.

get one with wxga+ led 1440x900 screen, and you wont regret it.
there is 15% off coupon for home outlet.

 

Lol, if you thought Inspiron 1525s got hot easily then you'd hate HP laptops. Anyway, the touch panel is only an issue with older Studios. You can call dell and they'll give you a new one if that's the case. Also, for the crappy sound, it's average, but a little low. However, if you uninstall the sound drivers from device manager in Vista and just install the drivers through device manager (the default microsoft drivers), then it'll be much louder. As for the keyboard, I don't see how anyone ever complains about keyboard flex on ANY keyboards, as you wouldn't even notice keyboard flex on most keyboards unless you pushed harder than you would have to to type on them, which is just plain retarded. Lol. Also, the Studio has no heat issues, and neither does Inspiron 1525 or 1545. You're just sensitive to your heat. If you're this sensitive, maybe you're better off with a desktop. Dell laptops are the coolest running laptops I've handled out of Asus, HP, Sony, and Apple. This of course excludes the new Studio XPS series, which I've heard has some heating issues.

 

Yeah I think the keyboard flex varies from each system. At one of the Best Buy's the Studio had too much keyboard flex, and at another bestbuy, the studio had no keyboard flex at all and was very comfortable to type on...

 

I read the thead about the eject button being lit....has this been fixed or not? If it hasn't been fixed...it's kinda a deal breaker for me

 

Mine has worked just fine since I got a replacement media cover. And even when mine had the issue, it was a very simple fix.

 

If you plan on Multimedia, and anything to do with sound then I would skip the Dell and move to something else that has no sound issues. I have a Studio 17, and the sound has popped, skipped, like a box of rice krispies, and I unistalled the drivers, and re installed them, the sound issues are still there. Also cannot use this laptop in a chat room where you talk on mic and play tunes, you either talk or play the tune, Dell doesnt let you do both at the same time, and I discussed this with tech support. I even spend $120 on the Soundblaster Xfi external sound card and has the same problem. I believe it's got to be a BIOS fix but Dell doesnt see it they say the sound is fine.

As far as an eject button the Studio series doesnt use an eject button there is a row or touch activated icons that you run your finger over to use the multimedia keys. You can also eject the cd's by holding down the Function button and press F 10 so thats not a biggie.

My keyboard has NO flex in it. You have to really press hard with your hand to flex mine, so maybe the keyboard issues were taken care of.

But like I say sound on these things is horrible to say the least. I plan on selling mine soon, and buying one that does good multimedia work as I do a lot with sound and this Studio just doesnt cut it.

I have added an extra hard drive and installed a blue tooth card, and working on the Studio is a piece of cake its layed out nicely inside, so thats a plus if you work on your own.

 

I don't the speakers will be too important for me. Most of the time, I will be using head phones so I don't think it's a deal-breaker. I am waiting for a good deal to pop up in the outlet and most likely will end up buying it.

 

So right now, I am debating whether to get a Studio or a Lenovo Ideapad Y530...hmm...

 

FYI...I spec'd out a Y530 and was getting a great deal on it. However after dealing with their HORRIBLE customer service after configuring and ordering I ended up canceling and ordering a Dell Studio 17 which was delivered today. I highly recommend NOT buying a Lenovo.

Lenovo experience: Bought one on 3/23 from their site..a Y530. Site says 1 business day to confirm (authorize) credit card. After 1 day still no change on status. Call, get call center in India. They tell me 1-2 business days to authorize.

Check back following day...still no update. Call again, get the same 1-2 business days MORE. Call bank...they had approved purchase the day I ordered. Next day...still no update in status (order still being processed). Call customer service (again in India). He tells me that I need to wait 1-2 days more that sometimes the bank takes awhile to approve. He says it often takes a WEEK to process a credit card...WHAT? Now my estimated ship date has moved from March 27 to APRIL 23rd! I call bank again, again they tell me the purchase was approved on 3/23 when I ordered.

I simply got sick of their games. It's as if they script every one of these calls to say 1-2 business days. The following day I canceled my order. This Monday, I ordered a Studio 17...it has arrived and I can't wait to get home and play with it

FYI, Lenovo's laptop boards are filled with similar stories like mine. There are several people that had to wait more than a month (up to 2-3 months) to receive their product. Unless you are buying a Lenovo that a store has in stock already, I would highly advise avoiding them at all costs.

 

Yeah but the Ideapad's don't seem to have much problems. Everyone seems satisfied with them. I believe it also has better build quality compared to the Studio.

 

They are nice and have a great keyboard (although not as nice as the Thinkpads) but to deal with their customer service and huge fluctuations in ship dates left me with a very bad taste in my mouth. IMO the Y530 is nice but does look a little cheesy with the bright orange volume controls. The new Y650 is an awesome looking machine...but a bit on the pricey side. I think they are soon releasing the Y550 and Y750 if I remember correctly.

If you decide to order one, I sure hope you have a much better experience than me. FYI, I hear that ordering with the paypal option is MUCH quicker than ordering with a credit card. I found this out after all the delays I ran into with them.

 

The orange buttons are for recovery partitions or something like that lol

It has touch sensitive controls for volume, like the studio, and it doesn't have problems

 

Not to be argumentative but there are 3 orange buttons on the upper right hand side of the keyboard. Volume up/down and then a 3rd one that switches between audio controls and equalizer.

Just a personal thing but they remind me a bit of the old lime green windshield wipers that everyone was putting on their cars back in the 80's

 

Haha, alright so we'll see what I can get a good deal on.