Dell Studio 14z First Look

[Red_Dragon]

IM really impressed by this notebook i was expecting something cheap but this looks really solid for the money.

[Jayayess1190]

As far as the lack of optical drive... I say it's about time. Now if only software vendors would start selling their software on a USB flash drive or SD card instead of CD/DVD...
...Well, I guess you can download most software... but MS still doesn't officially support installing Windows from a USB drive... and neither does Ubuntu... although there are workarounds for both, I'd still like to see them make it easier and offer official support for that.

Ubuntu does support installing from USB, they even have a program to do make a bootable usb drive built in!

[Red_Dragon]

i recently was going to install the latest ubuntu and they showed that you can install from a usb drive.

[siLc]

Screen matte or glossy?

It would be rather peculiar if it wasn't. Most, if not all, consumer laptop screens are glossy.

As for 14" 1600x900, it would be (kind of) a step forward compared to current 14,1" 1440x900.

[cdcooker]

A lot of the other makers cheat by tapering the lid, making it look thinner than it actually is in practice. The studio line doesnt do the tapering on the side anyways. Also, in this case, the lower base part is already thin to begin with.. making the lid look thicker than it is.

Why Dell designer couldn't make the lid tapered in shape? If this is a cheat, I would rather they cheat me by tapering the lid's edges. The side profile is just too thick in my opinion. The whole Studio line is just too thick.

For a 14", I would like to have a built-in optical drive. XPS 13" has it.

[yuio]

I have a friend that may like this... looking good Dell!!!

[PlatinuM195]

Definitely buying this, been waiting for a thin and light 13-14" laptop with mainstream consumer level pricing.

Was contemplating a macbook but I'd prefer something cheaper as I abuse my tech quite a bit.

[pcll4678]

So since there's no DVD drive, how well would DVDs play from a USB external drive? I've never used an external cd/dvd drive so what would I have to look for in terms of specs to get seemless, bufferless(?), non-blocky playback?

How good is the one recommended by Dell?
http://accessories.dell.com/sna/Popu...70927&price=90

[Skyshade]

It's not as thin as I'd like it to be, particularly since Dell removed the built-in optical drive, but it is pretty thin and light compared to the old Inspiron 1420.

I look forward to see a head-to-head comparison of this and MSI X410. It seems to me that X410 is a step ahead in almost everyway.

[MidnightSun]

If you think about it, a tapered body makes sense as that allows the front of the laptop to be closest to the desk, and slant slightly upward at the optimum angle for typing (which is why so many keyboards have rear legs to prop it up at an angle).

Glad Dell finally decided to release a 14" model of their Studio line.