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

I'd get me one.

 

Alright....WHO stole my 5GB module lol

Dang delays!!!!

 

Well, laptops have broken the 24 hour barrier now, so maybe not so much . Those come with 1 or 2 extra bays to hold 2-3 batteries.

 

That'd be a heavy laptop

 

Hey guys, new member here.

I ordered my 14z on July 29 and now the status is "shipped" on Dell's website. Can somebody enlighten me to as how long it'll take before it arrives on my doorstep?

I live quite close to Toronto by the way.

 

does dell canada give a tracking number? If so, I'd follow that.

 

Hey, sorry I forgot to post the pictures I said I would...I'll get around to it eventually. As for my laptop, I love it! I've had it for about 4 days and I haven't had any issues with heat, hardware, or crashes (minus my missing backlit keyboard). I did have to call to get my Windows 7 upgrade registration to work, but that's pretty common. I can't stress how great this screen is, I keep it on about half brightness and its still brighter than my old screen. HD movies load with zero waiting time thanks to the Nvidia card and look great on the high res screen. The black chainlink is cool looking, but it REALLY picks up fingerprints. This doesnt really bother me as I rarely see the back of the laptop, but if you don't like fingerprints, get the colored lids. I'm a big fan of the keyboard too. It looks really cool and it's really quiet and comfortable to type on. Anyway...I'm going to contact Dell and try to get some free stuff/warranty for the missing backlit keyboard.

I was also dreading the switch to Vista, but it's surpisingly not bad. I think I'll keep it until I get the updrage CD from Dell.

 

After having used win7, Vista just felt wrong.

 

So i spoke to a dell rep on the phone and he said he could give me free 2 day shipping, he just couldn't guarantee that it would arrive in two days since it was probably boxed up with all the other 3-5 day shippings. Hopefully this means ill get it on friday though.

 

have 2 14zs coming in the mail today! too bad I'm going on vacation this morning for a few days. well i mean, it's not THAT bad of a thing

 

I wouldn't be able to enjoy my vacation right if i knew that this was coming the day of, don't know about you.

 

I thought I would make my first post:

It is possible to get this laptop substantially marked down. I order all of the computers/networking equipment for my company, and so have a gold team business CSR who is easy to contact. This is the first time I have asked him to try to mark down anything for me, personally, substantially, but we have paid full retail on enough systems so that may have helped persuade his helping hand.

@Dell.com, speccing out a 14z to the max without adding any accessories brings you to $1559.00 (barring 3G). My Blue, 2.66Ghz, 5GB RAM, 500GB 7200RPM, 900p, bluetooth and wireless-n enabled, backlit kb beast will be arriving in a couple of weeks for a mere $1287.84. Pics if they're requested

 

They do, through Purolator.

My guesstimate is that it will show up in Purolator's Toronto Distribution Centre tomorrow night or Thursday night, and be delivered the next day.

There won't be any meangingful information on the Purolator site until it's in Toronto. Until then it will just say in transit in U.S.

 

Pics are always welcome - don't think anyone who got it in midnight blue has uploaded much yet.

 

oh believe me, I want to delay the trip a day

 

The first time I had to format a "big" hard drive I was worried how long it would take since the last time I'd done it they were still being measured in megabytes. But it's really one of the shortest parts of the whole install.

I can remember when they brought out the 1.2 megabyte floppies thinking "Wow! that's over 1/10th of a hard drive!"

 

IT'S HERE!!!! Our mail room just delivered the lovely Dell box to my office!!!

And now I have to go to a 2 hour meeting. #&%^$!

I'll report back once I've had a chance to open it.

 

I don't know anyone (myself included) who after trying Windows 7 (beta or RC1) would return to Vista. That's how good it is. IMHO, the best OS currently on the market.

 

For those keeping track of order timelines, I ordered a 14z on July 28, got a delivery estimate of Aug 12 (with 3-5 day shipping) and it was shipped today with a delivery estimate of Aug 6 (2 days!). Earlier this morning it showed as still being in production, but now it says shipped.

Here's my config:

Black Chainlink
P8600 (2.4GHz)
3GB RAM
320GB Hard Drive (7200RPM)
Back-lit Keyboard
900p Display
6 cell Battery
Wireless N
Bluetooth

Given all the issues people have been having with receiving incorrect configs, I'll report back once I've taken delivery.

As an aside, anyone have a list handy of all the drivers that need to be installed after a W7 install?

 

Nice!

Anybody tried using Adobe products (Photoshot, Lightroom, Illustrator, InDesign) on Windows 7? If so, any issues?

 

I'm really impressed with the T6500! I was able to undervolt all of the multipliers to their lowest values (0.9250V). Now both CPU cores run about 10C cooler and I get about 30 minutes more battery life. I haven't done a full on run-down of the battery, but I was getting around 6hrs on a full charge.

Darn meetings have to ruin everything. Congratulations on receiving your 14z, though!

 

By the way, earlier today I posted on how they had changed my Est. Delivery date to 8/14/09...just checked right now and it is now 8/11/09.

This sounds very familiar with what several people were reporting prior to receiving theirs; conflicting information but next thing they know, it was delivered close to the original delivery date....

...i'm hoping that is the case with me!!!

EDIT: Of those who say they received conflicting information too, did you receive it by email or were you just checking the order status online/by calling? I haven't received ONE email from Dell stating they have changed my date, yet on the online order status page the est. delivery date has changed twice today.

 

A friend had photoshop running without issues, though i don't know if his was 64 bit or 32 bit.

 

Thanks karan

I think I will have to try it...at least once and see how it goes. Just this hype about W7 being extremely good has me wanting to switch as soon as I get my 14z.

 

Got a call from Purolator just now, telling me it will be here tomorrow! Yay!

 

CONGRATS!

 

Thanks! I plan to do a YouTube video, probably this weekend.

 

For anyone wondering about the boxing stage at Dell, here's how it looks like: (tsss, it's confidential)

 

Will be looking forward to it. Send me a shoutout in the video hoping I get my 14z soon!!!! haha

 

hahaha now THAT is what I think it really is! I wonder how many rounds they do before it gets shipped! They're probably on round 500+ by now!!!!

 

I lol'ed

 

My name is Domonick and I approve of this message. Word for word, we're in the same boat.

What did you do about your backlit keyboard though?

 

I did too! Until I remembered I'm the one stuck in that situation

 

just recieved my 14z this afternoon, and im am nothing short of amazed aha. i love my baby. though, the black chainlink IS an epic fingerprint magnet, i don't mind.. when do I ever look at the top? haha. hope you all get yours soon!

 

I hear that the driver cd will work. Can someone verify?

 

Considering that our 'tops don't have optical drives, the drivers downloaded from the internet for Vista 64 Bit work for the most part. Since these are the exact drivers on the CD, I would say yes, the driver cd will work.

 

Just got my midnight blue today. Let me know if there's some pics you'd like to see.

Setup as so:

P8600
3GB RAM
900P
No backlit keyboard (will probably install one myself later)
1515 N Wireless
Bluetooth
Expresscard reader
8-cell

I'm simply amazed by this laptop so far. First off, it's absolutely beautiful. I looked at the one at Best Buy prior to purchasing, but it does no justice to my config. The 900P screen is just ridiculous.

Some impressions and facts that might not have been covered:

1) The 900P screen is amazing. While I do like it better than the 720P I saw at BB, the text is very small. If this might bother you, I would really try to check out another laptop with the same screen size and resolution.

2) I've heard across the net, many people were curious about the expresscard multimedia card reader. Most were concerned about whether the card reader protruded from the laptop, or basically if it had any kind of footprint while being used. I can say that it sits flush in the slot, and I had to actually check to make sure it was there. It shows up as removable media just like a USB attached device, strangely sometimes even when the reader is empty. It isn't intruding to the user, you'll simply notice the "safely remove hardware" icon in the taskbar.

3) I built my config mostly with battery life in mind. The laptop was attempted delivery once on 8/1 and left the warehouse on 7/30. So basically the battery sat for almost a week during transit. I fired the laptop up and was quoted 3 hours and 31 minutes remaining under normal power settings. It's been fairly accurate. After running Win update for Vista and downloading some essentials like AVG Free, it still says 1 hour 48 minutes after about an hour's worth of downloads and updates, including 3 restarts. I haven't changed any settings yet, including brightness and power management.

4) Wireless seems very good for the 1515 card. I only have B/G at home on an older Linksys WRT54GS, but signal strength has never dropped below full. I live in a 900'ish sq. ft apartment, but even at the furthest reaches, connection is very good and speedy.

5) I plan on eventually wiping the drive and cleaning the Dell bloatware off of the laptop, but for now, it's very responsive and even very quick to boot despite the crap-ton of stuff Dell has running at startup. Definitely don't regret staying with the 5400rpm drive, it's more than fast enough.


I plan on running a small battery of tests on the laptop after I get my essentials loaded. Probably tomorrow afternoon. Some tests I wanted to run include graphics performance, memory performance, some kind of battery life test (personally made or else), and wireless performance so I can get a feel for the performance of my specific build. If there's any tests other than those mentioned that may interest anyone, let me know, I'll try to run them and report back.

And for those that are concerned about Dell's estimated dates, they're pretty much unreliable. My date was pushed back 4 times in total, and was still delivered 1 day after the initial date I received. Just check regularly for shipment notification (on the my account page, not in email) because I was given no notification of shipment until the day before it was to arrive. I also only received one delay email despite being delayed 4 times.

And for some humor, I was taken back by the box when I opened it. The plastic in the box strangely smells like marijuana. I'm not saying it semi smells like it. It smells like somebody dropped their stash in the box, lol. Reminded me of the "Dude! You've got a Dell!" guy. Maybe that explains the lone soul here with the "boxing" status issue, LOL.

 

There's a setting somewhere that allows you to increase text size, if needed.

 

just called the order status number and it said it shipped =), dont have tracking information yet but i should soon enough. called this morning to get 2 day shipping, wonder if it took or not.. =p.

 

If DVD playback volume is not loud enough in Media Player, there's a fix:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/944436

This is applicable to ANY laptop, not 14z in particular, so I thought I'd share.

 

Well I called once but the guy was taking forever and I had to go, so he said he'd call back. I haven't spoken with them in detail about it since. I think I will tonight and see what I can squeeze out of them. I'm definitely not sending it back, but if they offer a good way to get the backlit keyboard I might take it. I don't really need it and I'd rather get a good warranty for the 25$ I paid as I'm going to school soon.

 

There is, it's called DPI. Unfortunately it doesn't work well with all applications (even some of the windows applications), you can end up with text being unreadable due to it being bigger than the space on the screen or even going off the screen completely.

 

LOL! Yeah, I remember those days, as well.

So, I haven't had enough time for a substantive review as of yet, but I can report that they seem (emphasis on seem to have worked out the kinks by the time they built mine. It is exactly as ordered; sits perfectly flat on the table; no looseness at all in the battery; backlit keyboard works like a charm; love the SIZE of the keys, and the travel/action seems good to me; haven't noticed any problem with the touchpad or mouse buttons (yet); and it's extremely quiet so far (though I certainly haven't had it under any kind of load yet.)

And everyone who comes by my office stops and comes in to ask about it. The red is very popular.

More later.

 

I posted this a while back, but they're sending me a brand new laptop. I get to keep this one until the new one comes. I'm hoping they somehow mess up the replacement, which will cause me to send that one back; then they forget about the original that I was supposed to return.

 

Wow.. I'm still blown away at the graphical power of this machine.

I've been playing FEAR at native resolution with medium-max settings and AF 4x at 60FPS. I'm also able to run CS: S at max settings with AF 8x at 50+ FPS. My old computer (AMD 3700+, 7600gt) can barely pull this off.

Not bad for a notebook at this price range. Given its light weight, long battery life, and small form factor, it's even more amazing! I didn't expect the 9400M G to perform this well. I'm beginning to like this laptop more every day..

If anybody wants to how it runs any game/demo, feel free to ask!

 

I just want to see how someone fares with 900p.

 

Well I just got off the phone with a Dell technical support and customer service and this is my new situation with my backlit keybaord...The tech rep asked me to do some stuff to see if the keyboard was just broken, but nothing worked so he offered me a plan when they send you a new computer and you keep yours until it arrives...I told him the backlit keyboard wasn't that crucial for me and I asked if I could get credit or anything so he transferred me to a customer service rep. He said they usually offer 50$ for purchases over 1000$ but I told him I found some Office software for around 75$ on their site and asked if he could do anything about that. He told me that he needs some special clearance to give that much money and that he'd call me back and tell me if I can get the 75$ credit. Hopefully I can, 'cause I'd be making about 50 bucks off of a missing backlit keyboard

 

Finally bought one after eyeing the 14z for over a week. Decided that I wouldn't find anything better for the price.
T6500/900p/320GB 7.2K/Dell Wireless-n/Backlit KB
Awful, AWFUL customer service experience though. Had a rep completely disconnect me from chat.

 

Crossed fingers! You never know, sometimes they do go that extra mile. It might be harder to do with Office though, as they might not have much margin with it.

 

I'd assume that they'd go through with it, as (although it's sometimes hard to communicate) they do try to help you. I've had a pretty good experience with dell customer support, and I'd give them a 7-8/10.

I'll get some pics up in a few mins (I decided that 1280x800ish would be the best resolution, but I couldn't get the screen very well because of the gloss/glare, and when i tried to get the backlight, on my camera, the no flash setting gives it a huge iso, and I'm a little shaky. brb