---> OFFICIAL: Dell STUDIO 14z Owner's Lounge <---

Although those pictures are a better representation than the pictures on dell's website, the chainlink atleast looks different in person. On the outer cover it is very subtle and i think it looks very nice. On the inside it is a bit more noticeable because of the silver backing, but its ok and it grows on you.

I've had this laptop for one and a half weeks now and there is nothing to complain about. I absolutely love it. Just one thing, I guess its not really the laptops fault, but i expected it to be a bit ligher for its size. It is still light compared to a normal 15.4" laptop but not not nearly as light as a macbook. It does feel like it was built well and feels very solid, there is only a tiny bit of keyboard flex and a tiny bit of wiggle to the battery but that is only if you intentionally shake it.
The screen is friggin gorgeous and damn bright too, I suggest everyone to go with the 900P.
Oh btw I ordered a backlit keyboard a couple days after I received my laptop and should be getting it on monday, I only had to pay the upgrade price, and will be told how to replace it over the phone. This option is also available for the colour choices(covers). They mail it to you and tell you how to replace it over the phone. I decided i liked the chainlink and didnt go trough with changeing my cover to ruby red.

 

What did they want to charge you for the lid and/or palm rest replacement? Were you given the option to get both for the upgrade price similar to when you configure it? I think last time I checked, They wanted to charge me about 53 dollars just for the red lid to be sent out to me! They said that they couldnt give me the "promotional upgrade price".
To be fair, I was talking to someone halfway around the world and it seems to me that anyone I talk to over there is very rude... probably because americans are so rude to them too.
When I decided that I wanted to cancel the order (because I didnt want the chainlink and I wanted some other stuff too), and configure it with the colored lid, this guy in india was so strict with me saying that dell has a policy that is clearly stated in their terms of agreement that once I place an order, I cannot cancel it, not even reconfigure or even cancel to make a new order. When I asked to talk to his supervisor, he said no! I told him again I wanted to talk to his supervisor and he hung up on me!
Oddly enough, I talked with someone directly at dell, he went and found the status of my order, cancelled it, reconfigured it and gave me a new order with what I wanted! I guess you just need to talk to the right people and dont accept no until you talk to someone who is kind enough to be curtious, preferrably someone here in the US.

 

So after much debate, I've decided to get the 14z! Anyways, I ordered earlier today and picked up:

P8600
500GB HD
720P Screen
3GB Ram
Wireless N
Bluetooth
8Cell
2 Year complete care

Total: 1030.44 after shipping. Not too bad I'd say.

Hopefully the ship date of the 27th sticks as I need it before I go back to school in mid aug.

 

Hey all:

I've been lurking the boards(and the rest of the net) since the 14z was anounced trying to find out if this baby is well reviewed......

I still have no idea if this thing is any good! Unless I've overlooked someone's post, to my knowledge there is still no full review out there. I need a new lappy in time for grad school in about a month, so I decided to take the plunge, place the order, and get in line. the specs just make too much sence for me to ignore...

Here's what I got:

Black
P8600
900P
500GB 5400
3GB
8Cell
(Est Ship date is July 21)

subtotal was 859.32 with free shipping
NJ 7% brought me to $928.07 grand

I'm crossing my fingers that I'm going to like it. I'm worried about heat issues, I basically went to the 25W P8600 just for the heat reduction.

These are the burning questions that I'm worried about:

1. The power Brick: Does anyone have a pic of the AC adapter. Do we know its weight?
2. What is the wieght of the 6 cell vs the 8 cell
3. accurate Battery life benchmarking (not "vista estimates")

 

I know there have been posts of pictures from both the 720p and the 900p screens, but its hard for me to notice too much difference based on the screen shots. Which screen should I go with when I order my 14z? Are they both awesome, or is the 900p vastly better? Do the 900p advantages go beyond simply some more real estate on the screen?

 

Thank you.

 

I had a similar situation to yours. I wanted to change the colour of my laptop aswell as adding a backlight option after i placed my order. The rep said that I had three different options. One, was to cancel my order and place a new order with the specs i wanted but this would delay the order. Another option was that after i received the laptop i could send it back to them and they would have a dell technician make the changes. The last option was that they mail the part to me and i make the changes. I made sure that there was no extra cost in mailing me the part with the representitive and he assured me that there wasnt. SO i phoned in and told them i wanted to change to the backlight option and also told them about the conversation i had with the previous rep. They agreed and now my backlight keyboard is on its way for $40 CAD plus taxes.
I decided that I am going to keep the chainlink as it doenst look horrible. lol

 

A few questions..
1. Does the back-lit keyboard reduce battery life? If so, by how much? Is there an option to switch it on and off?
2. Is wireless card upgrade from 1397 to 1515 worth it? It only adds support for N signals right? Or are the other signal strengths boosted as well.
3. On the NBR first look, it says "Gesture-based touchpad controls to help improve productivity". Does this mean that the touchpad is multitouch?
4. How much does the laptop weigh with the 8 cell battery? And can I expect at least 4hrs with normal usage?

Kind of noobish questions, but I'm strongly considering purchasing this laptop for school and answers to these questions would be greatly appreciated.

 

So, want to let me know how you got that price?? Haha, seems like you got a better deal then I did. Did you go through the regular home website?

 

You are welcome! Answers inline.

 

i'd wager the touchpad is multitouch. almost all are nowadays. the thing is that there aren't a lot of drivers and os implemenation to support them. i've been using a touchpad in multitouch mode from the same manufacturer in a 5 yr old acer in linux for a while now.

 

Hello everyone,

Joined just so I can say thank you to everyone who had provided information on this laptop. Reading this thread made me decide to buy a 14z (instead of xps 1330 and latitude 1420) to replace my HP TX1420, the worst laptop I have ever owned.

I bought my 14z on July 3rd from a rather rude sales rep. Due to the EPP's step discount scheme, I ended up buying quite a few things that I would otherwise not get. My configuration is:
- Black (finger prints don't bother me much)
- 900p
- P8600
- 8 cell battery
- backlit keyboard
- memory card reader
- bluetooth
- that sound program (which I only got because it was essentially free for me)
- 1515 wireless card
- 320G 7200 RPM
- 3 years warranty with complete care + Lojack service (not sure how many people here actually got this option seeing it's pretty excessive seeing it even promises to recover my stolen laptop within a month)

The estimated delivery date is July 20th. I hope dearly it sticks because I the motherboard of my old laptop is on the blink of death.

I have a question. Does anyone know the highest temperature the front and the back of the laptop can reach? I know that heat should not be a major problem for this laptop, but I am still curious.

 

Can someone test the heat/battery length/flex?

I'm deciding between this laptop and the Lenovo ThinkPad T400 ><.

 

no. I get a 7% discount through work. I also did not get some of the stuff you got like the N wireless, bluetooth, and the better warrentee.

 

Information copied from the setup manual:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/studio1440/en/setgde/C547MA00MR.pdf

AC Adapter:

Height 16 mm (0.6 inches)
Width 66 mm (2.6 inches)
Depth 127 mm (5.0 inches)
Weight (with
cables)
0.29 kg (0.64 lb)

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...=19&sku=330-3614&mfgpid=202794&chassisid=8827

Battery:

0.35 kg (0.77 lb) (6-cell)
0.432 kg (0.95 lb) (8-cell)

 

Thanks! So it should be around 4.5lbs with the 8-cell battery. Not bad at all.

I just came back from Best Buy and the 14z looked great. I'm thinking about going back tomorrow and picking it up.

Edit: Although it's not required, I would like to have a back-lit keyboard. Would I somehow be able to order one from Dell and install it myself?

 

I would think Yes, but you must call Dell and ask. Or wait until aftermarket keyboards for 14z appear on eBay, etc.

 

The setup guide says 4.7 pounds with the 6-cell battery, so the 8 cell should be 4.9 pounds

 

any owners figure out how to two-finger scroll (multi-touch scroll) on the new 14z? I'm moving back to windows after having a mac for a few years, and i've gotten really used to being able to scroll pages using two fingers, rather than having to go to the bottom of the touchpad.

there's this open source software that's supposed to work with synaptics touchpads and let you scroll with two fingers. http://code.google.com/p/two-finger-scroll/

for a writeup:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/...-to-replace-virtualing-on-synaptics-touchpad/

I'm going to try this two finger scroll thing as soon as I get my 14z on monday. let me know if it works for you.

 

I have a question to the canadians who have gotten their computers. What is the layout of the keyboard? Does it have a tall and narrow Enter-key like in these pictures? http://www.goodtyping.com/teclatCAN.htm

I live in Sweden and we still don't know when or if the 14z will come here, so I'm thinking of maybe ordering from canada if the key layout is the same.

 

No it does not have that style of enter key.

 

I've been trying to run that battery test that someone posted here, but I think the test is fubared. I consistently get a program error that stops the test but the laptop is still running, OS is still running, everything else is fine. Here is an example from the log:

Log started: 7/11/2009 7:26:39 PM
===============================================================================
[7:26:55 PM] 76800 0
[7:26:59 PM] 76680 0
[7:27:09 PM] 76590 0
[7:27:11 PM] 76590 0
[7:27:20 PM] 76510 0
[7:27:31 PM] 76390 0
[7:27:39 PM] 76300 0
[7:27:40 PM] 76300 0
[7:27:51 PM] 76220 0
[7:28:00 PM] 76110 0
[7:28:12 PM] 76020 0
[7:28:12 PM] 76020 0
[7:28:22 PM] 75910 0
[7:28:35 PM] 75820 0
[7:28:41 PM] 75740 0
[7:28:42 PM] 75710 0
[7:28:52 PM] 75630 0
[7:29:02 PM] 75510 0
[7:29:10 PM] 75450 0
[7:29:15 PM] 75430 0
[7:29:22 PM] 75340 0
[7:29:32 PM] 75260 0

---blah blah blah---

[8:26:27 PM] 46790 0
[8:26:38 PM] 46720 0
[8:26:45 PM] 46690 0
[8:26:47 PM] 46650 0
[8:26:57 PM] 46580 0
[8:27:08 PM] 46510 0
[8:27:12 PM] 46460 0
[8:27:17 PM] 46420 0
[8:27:29 PM] 46350 0
[8:27:37 PM] 46230 0
[8:27:48 PM] 46230 0
[8:27:49 PM] 46230 0
[8:27:58 PM] 46100 0
===============================================================================
Log ended: 7/12/2009 1:34:34 AM
[1:34:34 AM] Error:[Graph] Cannot create Discharge.beg
[1:34:35 AM] 46050 0

 

Systems ordered on the English dell.ca site have the same keyboard layout as American systems. Systems ordered on the French site will have a French keyboard. The shape of the keys, as far as I know, is the same.

French systems will also, of course, have a French copy of Windows and other bundled software. Finally, the Dell site does not have an option to ship outside of Canada.

However, since the manuals have been translated into Swedish (and many other languages) http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/studio1440/sw/index.htm, I can only assume the plan is for the 14z to be released internationally. Probably when production is up to speed.

 

Darn.. that's unfortunate! I was hoping it would weigh more towards the lower-mid 4lb range. Can anyone else confirm the actual weight with the 8-cell battery?

The 14z still looks amazing none-the-less, but this got me looking into other 5lb alternatives. I have a What Notebook Should I Buy thread here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=395482 if anybody cares to help me decide.. Researching this forum can only take me so far, the knowledge of you guys would be really helpful.

 

from post #270, 4lb 11oz

 

In case anyone cares, I bought a 14z at BestBuy and disassembled it and stuck my T9900 (3.06ghz) processor in it and it works fine. Runs cooler than the HP dv3t with the T9900 in it. I like the 14z better than the dv3t, which I'll be selling soon.

Just wanted to let folks know the 14z can take the T9900

N

 

can you post a real photo of 900P laptop's screen working ?

i need to know how little is font

thanks ...

 

Hey Quaid, I'm the one that asked about the battery testing program. Thats unfortunate that it doesn't work as that was the program I think a few websites used to test minimum battery life. Once I get my laptop, I'll try running the program myself.

Actually, I'm going to try running the program on one of my old laptops and see if it works.

 

I just received my 14z on Friday. I must say, I can't put this thing down.

So far here are the things I have noticed:

There is a tiny indention on my screen casing, a dimple about half the size of a BB... not terribly noticeable, and I am not too worried about it.

It does not sit 100% flush, if I am on a perfectly flat surface (not my lap), and really try to notice it, I can tell the front left rubber foot is not perfectly level. Again, its hardly noticeable, and I don't for see it annoying me.

The battery is slightly loose, but it still feels like it is secure.

The only other issue is that there is an issue with my wifi jamming up my router and modem every 10 or so minutes... still working on that one.


Having said that, the 1600x900 resolution is damn near perfect for what I want. The speakers have also amazed me, I've never owned a laptop that I could actually listen to movies or music on without head phones.

 

post some pics of the machine please! And tell us what's good about it (since you already listed the negatives)

Thanks!

 

I am uploading some quick shots right now. I know I initially came off as very negative, but I am just really OCD about a few things. Having said that, I really do love this laptop. The am typically very particular about the feel of my keyboards, and I just love this one. The keys have a spring rate that I really like, and they don't feel too stiff or too loose.

I have the 6-cell battery, and the weight feels just right... not too heavy, but not cheap feeling. Despite being all plastic, the laptop has a very sturdy feel to it. The keyboard, nor the palm rest have noticeable flex. The screen hinges feel pretty robust, and the screen does not rotate too loosely.

I am not huge on computer games, as I never have time and suck really bad, but I have tried CSS and TrackMania. Both of these games ran fine on the average settings. I tried CSS at full 1600x900 resolution, with everything on max except for the AA and AF, and I felt like the FPS was very nice... I forgot how to enable the stats on the screen that tells you though.

I haven't gotten my SolidWorks copy re-installed yet, but I was briefly loading some older models in Ansys 11.0 (Classic and Workbench). I didn't have a lot of time to tinker with this, but I felt it would handle these applications quite well.

I have the Core 2 Duo 2.0ghz model, and so far I am quite pleased with the performance.

(Sorry for the crappy review, if I get some more time later I may try to add more)

 

Also, unlike the HP laptops I have tried, the keyboard and palm rest area does not get too hot. As gross as it sounds, I found that on the HP laptops my hands got excessively sweaty from the heat....very annoying.

 

^^Nice Uploads

It seems a little weird how far forward the hdmi out is. And if the gpu is placed there, I'd be worried about it heating up the left palmrest under stress, but i'm glad to hear you haven't had a problem with that yet.

Looks like this is going to be my new computer:
P8600, 500gb hdd (5400rpm), 900p, 1515 wireless-N, Backlit Keyboard, 8 cell battery, Midnight Blue
=$1174-$160 instant rebate= $1014-$70.98 education program discount=$943.02+tax= $999.61

Can't find a better fit for the specs for under $1000. Just when I was beginning to think (fear) that the 13inch macbook pro with the free ipod touch was the best value in this range . I only wish they'd soldered 2gb to the motherboard so we could get 4gb with a 2gb stick, but i'll take that.

 

great uploads. the screen looks amazing. can't wait to get mine in a few hours...

As for nameless1, i think you're right on the value of the 14z vs. the macbook pro 13''. I used a PC for all my life, then had a powerbook g4 the last 4 years, but am switching back to PC, because mac's are just too damn expensive.

 

It just keeps getting better and better! I think I'm sold, the 14z is probably the one..

 

The price dropped again, and with epp you get 7% and if you checkout with paypal you get another 5% off right now. If you call in, you might be able to get a better deal. He said I got something called a "manager's discount" but he didn't say how much it was and the invoice doesn't show individual prices.

 

delayed again- ordered 6/24/09 estimated delivery date 7/28

 

I don't see any price drop. It's the same price as last week.

 

I ordered mine the same day, and also got a delay. When it first went to delayed, I called dell and they got me in touch with a special rep that deals with these issues. Within two days it was back to the normal delivery date, and I got it on the 10th.

 

I just wanted to say again how much I am loving this thing!

 

LOL its a computer not a girlfriend or boyfriend.. Anyway on another note. I noticed that the Windows 7 upgarde coupon offer expired. anyone know if there will be anohter offer... I missed the deadline..

 

I got it right before they offered that, but I did get in on the days-of-deals thing.

 

Can you give me the name and number of this rep?

 

I believe I started out with calling the default dell number, then told them I had questions about why my order was being delayed and that I would like to speak with a representative on the matter. The individual I spoke with then made a 3-way call with a dell resolution rep. I wish I remembered more, I hope it helps.

 

Thanks so much I just spoke to dell after 3 hang up and 15 minutes on hold i got a customer service maager he said that the reason they delayed it was because the ship date was today and its not going to ship until tomorrow or the next day im crossing my fingers- i rlly dont now what goin on with del this is really crazy

 

Are you talking about dell windows 7 upgrade? If yes, then there is no deadline (jan 2010). If you missed just general MS upgrade program that expired on 11th then I doubt that there will be another one.

 

Mine arrived today!

And despite being originally ordered on May 28th, and re-ordered on the 19th, Dell accepted the Service Tag for the Windows 7 upgrade.

I've wiped the OS and installed Windows 7 32-bit (I need it for compatibility with a work app, but we'll be upgrading at work to Windows 7 64-bit next year.

I'm pretty impressed. Sound is good (much better than my Studio 17). It plays 720p HD video using about 30% of the CPU, and has been running for almost 4 hours (mainly doing set up of Windows and other housekeeping, and reports that it has an hour of battery life left.

The area above the keyboard (glossy black plastic) seems designed for attracting fingerprints.

The weight, of course, is a bit more than I'd like (it's replacing a netbook), but seems tolerable. Clearly though, I won't be holding it in one hand and typing with the other while standing or walking, as I sometimes did with the netbook.

 

I wish I got the windows 7 upgrade, I am hoping that it will be offered through MSDN at my university...crossing fingers.

 

Weird, at least on Dell.ca the Studio 14z is still "eligible for Windows 7 upgrade", hmm...