Dell Studio 15 (1555) Review

[Theros123]

Interesting...my sister has the Generation 1 Studio laptop, and it looks like it's much better than the newer refreshes. It's a pretty solid laptop, and I can only get flex on the middle of the back of the screen. The sound isn't great either, but this review makes it sound even worse than before. That certainly isn't a good direction to go in.

Also, just curious, what do you expect the 6-cell battery life to be?

[HI DesertNM]

Interesting that a 15 inch entertainment notebook would have such horrible speakers - definitely a slip on Dell's part.

Dells speakers have always been pathetic. Its the one constant I see with dell.

[Xiphias]

The speakers on the previous gen Studio 15s were pretty bad, until you upgraded the drivers. Then they were just "bad" instead of "pathetic." I just had Vista install my drivers, which didn't use the Dell ones.

[boypogi]

cheapo build quality, meh

[TexasEx7]

You always have to compromise somewhere.

If you want good performance and decent graphics for moderate tasks, 1080p screens with a blu ray player, all the ports you need and perks like backlit keyboards and multitouch touchpads- then the Studio 15 gives you that.

Sure, you can get alot of these features in currently available laptops- like an 8 pound behemoth from Sager. To boot, this notebook gets somewhat decent battery life for so much juice.

The only catch is they need to make it affordable, because technology and parts dont grow on trees. Hence, plastic casing.

If Sony was to make a laptop with these specs, you'd be looking at 2 grand bottom configurations. Don't point to the NW series, screen resolution and graphics dont let it compete with the studio 15.

Bottom line- Dell has made an affordable laptop for consumers who want the most features they can get on a laptop while still having some semblance of portability. Its a step in the right direction. Hopefully in the near future we will start seeing some of the business-class quality designs implemented cost-effectively for the average consumer.

[TexasEx7]

Btw, do you guys think maybe your review unit had defective speakers? Notebookcheck.com has them favorably reviewed in their unit.

"Loudspeakers

We were very pleasantly surprised by the given sound at rendering music of the most various styles. The Studio 1555 delivers a clear and occasional full sound at a good maximum volume. The proportion between the trebles and the basses wasn't quite balanced, but more than expected for a multimedia starter notebook. A subwoofer placed on the bottom side is primarily responsible for the attractive soundscape, which provides the necessary sonority. The Dell Studio 1555 can't keep up with multimedia pros liked the Pavilion HDX range or Toshiba's Qosmio models , but you still have to find a comparable sound in the low-priced starter category"
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-...k.17767.0.html

[MidnightSun]

Btw, do you guys think maybe your review unit had defective speakers? Notebookcheck.com has them favorably reviewed in their unit.

"Loudspeakers

We were very pleasantly surprised by the given sound at rendering music of the most various styles. The Studio 1555 delivers a clear and occasional full sound at a good maximum volume. The proportion between the trebles and the basses wasn't quite balanced, but more than expected for a multimedia starter notebook. A subwoofer placed on the bottom side is primarily responsible for the attractive soundscape, which provides the necessary sonority. The Dell Studio 1555 can't keep up with multimedia pros liked the Pavilion HDX range or Toshiba's Qosmio models , but you still have to find a comparable sound in the low-priced starter category"
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-...k.17767.0.html

Maybe the subwoofer, which probably covered for the main speaker's flaws, is an option that was not added to this particular review machine?

[TexasEx7]

I'm pretty certain the subwoofer is standard though. It just seems odd to have one person say they were pleasantly surprised, and the other to call them pathetic. Thats not a finer point of critique, that sounds like a different system altogether to me

[lottdod_1999]

I have this computer with a 9 cell battery and it's surprisingly light

[ajreynol]

I am still just flabbergasted at what Dell did to this laptop. Those speakers are absolutely inexcusable.

that's a shame. you'd think they would know better.