Dell Studio 14z First Look

Link

 

Would love a review about build quality, battery life, picture/performance tests...


When can we expect something like this?

 

Someone said they ordered one and the estimated shipping date was in about 20 days. So we'll probably get a review within a month..

I'm psyched! I'm looking to buy a new laptop in 2-3 months, so if nothing better is released I think this is the one I'm getting.

 

Well most magazines and reviewers have a unit on hand early... thats how they got their 'first look'... write faster!!!

 

in the gallery picture showing the interior of the laptop.. it says..
"Open the Studio 14z and discover a Chainlink palm rest on the inside of the Chainlink system or a silver palm rest inside all solid color systems."

where is the chainlink system?

 

If you look closely at the interior there is a thin black chainlink design.


If thats your deal breaker, then what else are you looking at?

 

The Chainlink system is the black one. It's not a solid matte black.

 

i orginally thought it was a deal breaker until i realized that you can get a studio without that design. (phew thanks kkl1014 for the headsup)
texasex7, im looking at this studio or the asus u80
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=359763

 

Boy that u80 is nice...wish it had a higher resolution. If it's around the same price as the 14z it'll be a tough choice.

 

I am liking the specs and design on the U80 and the Acer Timelines... they might give the light/thin/good price that this is offering but throw in an optical drive to boot...

 

The U80 is a pretty generic computer though. I'm not all about aesthetics but the 14z beats U80. The 720p screen, decent looks (aside from being thicker than expected), and backlit keyboard are what sold me on the 14z. The U80 is an ultraportable sized laptop, but has a very lackluster battery life and a high end price tag that would make me want to just go pick up a 15.4" or bigger laptop for the same price. Considering that the hardware involved in the system is oriented towards gamers. I still think its a good computer though, it does have an optical drive.

 

If any one has ordered and received the 14Z, please give us feedback on its video performance !! I would like to order it but afraid that the Videos will not play smoothly especially on the 900 P HD screen !!

Yes thats right, but it has only a SOLO processor, with 14z you can get up to 2.66 Dual Core, 6 MB cash !!

Great Laptop, everything is great except the RAM !! I beleive Dell put 1 GB soldered on the Motherboard and left one slot to be used for upgrades and thats why the RAM is 3 GB for this Laptop (1 GB Soldered, 2 GB DDR3 installed on the memory slot) ! If you want to upgrade you have to install 4GB DDR3 which is very expensive (around $400) !! but I think the Laptop will work fine with 3GB DDR3 for the time being and you can upgrade in the future once the 4GB DDR3 price goes down (lets say within a year) !

 

Yeah the RAM is pretty annoying. I dont see why they even felt the need to solder it in there in the first place. Just stick in 1GB and let us pay 60 bucks to upgrade with 2GBx2 for 4GB. I guess its their way of making up for how cheap this machine is... if you want your magic number of 4GB then you have to pay up...

But I also want to know how smooth the playback is... the processors are great and the graphics should be decent, I just want to know if the build is good quality, and how the HD screen looks.

 

I'm also very interested in this laptop and I am a little bit overdue in upgrading my current Compaq Presario v2000 since I need to do a lot more engineering work for school that require more space and processing power.

What attracts me the most about this laptop is the High res screen, Long battery life, and light weight.

I don't think there is anything out there that can beat this!

I really hope the reviews don't disappoint.

 

One thing that comes close is Samsung X460. 14" 1.9kg with build-in DVD drive and Nvidia 9300. With discounts it was going for very sharp prices.

Dell has 1600*900 though, Samsung only 1280*800.

 

Not Only that ! With the Dell you can go up to 2.66 Ghz processor while you can't do it with Samsung !

 

And, Samsung doesn't sell it in Canada, that's if you are Canadian.

 

Isnt the 9400 a bit weak for a 14 incher? i mean, the GX403, N81, X83, those have very powerful gpus...

 

for the price, no it isn't weak.

 

Well at some point this needs to stop. Whats preventing the LCD OEMS from switchig over to 16:7 panels or 16:5 panels etc.

 

16:9 is a disaster. 16:10 is better

 

Is it really a noticeable difference with such a close ratio?

 

It's weird but it really is.

My new 1555 looks SO skinny (looking from the top of course, from the side it's thick as a big woman's thick) or slender.. but really wide

 

It is low end yes. Not really suited for gamers.

Studio 14 is a different price range though, especially with some discounts.

 

Some posts on this thread have suggested that this Studio's chassis is sturdier than the other Studios. Does it use some magnesium alloy? When I've handled the Studio 15 at Best Buy and Staples, it seems like it's all plastic, and flexes a lot (to me at least). Is the 14z supposed to be stiffer, with magnesium alloy?

 

"The notebook chassis is constructed from a combination of plastics and magnesium alloy for a balance of light weight and durability, and I have no doubt the Studio 14z can survive several years of use and abuse by college students based on the pre-production sample I spent time with."

Source: Page 1 of this thread, under the paragraph titled "Build and Design"

Reading comprehension ftw

 

Not everyone needs the most powerful graphics card out there on the market. ANY GPU sold on today's market is capable of handling any desktop applications out there.

 

Dell seems to have learned their lesson from the Studio 15/17. Motherboard failures (due to flex) have occured in a substantial number of those units. My Studio 15 (1535) only lasted four months before requiring a new motherboard.

 

Well I had already heard that the Studio 1555 was a lot more sturdy than the Studio 1537 so I suppose Dell is making improvements.

 

I wonder if this system will play Diablo III or Starcraft II.....

 

I was wondering the same thing.

 

With a 2.4 or higher processor, 3GB of RAM, and its GPU I think it will handle DIII fine.

 

That's what I was thinking, but I wonder if it'll run fine on the native resolution of the higher res screen. I think SC2 with possibly hundreds or even thousands of units on screen could have problems.

 

The 9400M G IGP is not a gaming solution I warn you. It is the most powerful IGP out there, even outperforming marginally (according to notebookcheck.com) the GPU 9300M GS and 9200M GS...but still, not a gamign solution.

I highly suggest for a gaming GPU something with a 128bit bandwidth, such as nVIDIA 9600M GT and up and ATI 36xxHD and up or 46xxHD and up.

 

I wonder about that though.
My current system is a first gen macbook pro. 2.0ghz core duo with the ATi x1600m with 256mb of ram. With that system I've played through Fallout 3, Bioshock, Mass Effect. I don't have the time to be considered a hardcore gamer. I just want to play on occassion, and the only 2 gams I'm really looking forward to are the blizzard titles. I've seen videos of the Macbooks with similar hardware playing Fallou 3 and other games. I suspect this system could be a good casual gaming with hardcore games.

 

Any idea on when we can expect the full review? Do you guys even have the review unit from Dell yet?

 

I'm not a hardcore gamer either, but I would like to be able to play some games (like SC2, D3, CS:S, TF2, TS3).

My current laptop right now has an x1150, will the 9400m be marginally better? If so, what % of a performance increase am I expecting? I might be better off purchasing a laptop with a better card..

 

I was excited until I saw the 16:9 screen. Im assuming this is to compete with the astronomical sales of t400 thinkpads.

 

The 9400m would certainly be better then the x1150. Looking over notebookcheck, it appears that the 9400m is just barely better then my x1600 in some games. Mostly i use my computer for school and movies. The better screen would be excellent for movies. Still though, I'm looking at other 15inch laptops with 9800m GPUs. I wish studio 13 was a little cheaper, or had a slightly better graphics card. As is, I'm not sure if the extra cost of the studio 13 is worth it. I wonder if the 1330 is better then this one...either way, neither has a high res screen, which I really like.

EDIT:
I just ran 3dmark 06 on my laptop to see what I would get and my score was 1451.
For comparison, this is a first gen macbook pro running windows 7 32bit. Core Duo 2.0ghz, 2GB ram, ati x1600m with 256mb of memory. According to notebook check, a similar system with Core 2 Duo and the 9400m scores a little more then 2000. Maybe the XPS 13 is worth the money, it'll score nearly 3500 or more according to some guys here.

 

The T400 will score very well in 3dmark06.

 

Any number in particular? Any source?
Thansk!

 

Hmm, so does my sister need one of these or the Lenovo Y430 for college?

 

y450 is the way to go

 

Id say the 14z is better, its is newer, while the Y430 is already replaced by the faster and newer Y450.

 

Yes but the Y350 isn't available at the Lenovo outlet yet.

I presume the 14z will be at the Dell outlet in a week or two.

She'll never know the difference (brand new vs refurbished)

 

It will probably be more like 3 - 4 months before the 14z shows up at outlet as they are still not shipping new (nobody has received one http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4963272) and from past experience the lag time between shipping and finding a refurb via Dell Outlet is around 4 months and sometimes more.

 

Hi Andrew, is the full review due out soon?

 

Wanted to let everyone on this forum I ordered my 14z and come July 2nd it should be here. Also, must thank the others for dishing out some much needed advice for buying this laptop.

Any questions I'll be sure to answer them.

 

Let us know the specs and when you get, do some game testing for us.

 

Besides the Dell site, has anyone found any reviews (as opposed to "first looks"/announcements) on this system anywhere? Dell has it featured on their "10 Days of Deals" today.