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

Dell.ca

4.3lbs with 6-cell

 

Well, I finally gave in and switched to the dark side. Kind of anyway....

After months of saving up cash and waiting for the right PC laptop to come out, which never happened, and after my roommate purchased a mac, I started looking into the 15" MBP. Turns out that tons of people are selling them on Craigslist since the new models arrived a couple days ago and I got the sweetest deal ever on the "old" model that was released mid-March 2009. I donated 80gb of the drive to Vista Ultimate while I re-learn the ways of the mac, but I could not be happier with my purchase.

I would like to throw in my two cents and suggest that if anyone has the opportunity to get one of these used at a good price, DO IT. I have always been VERY anti-mac because of the ******* attitude of their owners, I see lots of cars driving around with the stupid Apple logo on them and it makes me want to ram into them and beat the crap out of them with my "Windows" bat. Yeah, as****e ,your computer makes you better than me.

But owning one now, I cannot see myself ever going back. It literally took just a couple clicks to get Vista to install, so now I have a 100% fully functional PC running Vista Ultimate 64, and oh yeah, a fully functional mac all in the same 5lb .95" laptop. It runs silent, cool, and has the best screen ever made for a laptop. Also, the glass multi-touch trackpad would sell anyone if they used it. There is nothing out there that is even the slightest bit remotely close to it on a PC. It's something you just have to use to appreciate.

I know mac is the not the perfect solution for all of humanity but I have looked at every single laptop I could get my hands on from every retailer in all of Southern California, and that covers everything currently on the market available, but nothing compared to the price+performance of what I bought today.

That being said, If the Studio 14z had a normal dual-channel ram configuration, I would have ordered it and saved you all from my diatribe.

Good luck to all....

 

I've used Macbooks on plenty of occasions. They're pretty and have some neat features (the multitouch touchpad is pretty cool, although the Studio XPS series support multitouch as well), but they're just not for me. For one, I can't stand OSX, so there's no reason for me to pay $500 extra for a Macbook when I would only be using Vista anyway.

 

I could just as easily turn my mac into a 100% PC Vista laptop with just a couple clicks. Poof, no more mac, just pure PC with only the Apple the logo.

There is nothing on the market that comes close to the mac trackpad. NOTHING NADA, ZIP. If there was, I would have bought it already, end of story. Acer, Dell, and a couple others that I forget are now just starting to use more than a single finger for clicking, but nobody, and I mean NOBODY has anything remotely in the same catagory as the mac touchpad (which works just the same in Vista), and its a fact whether you like it or not.

I'm a lifelong PC guy, just sayin'.

 

Ahahaha, that's pretty awesome. That's very similar to what my brother went through last year, where he snatched up a loaded Macbook Pro off craigslist before the 2008 model came out (lol @ Nvidia 8600M defect, he got the ATI X1600 one), and fell in love with it. As did you, he made no excuses for his disdain for the minority of Mac users who tout their Apples as status symbols without little technical appreciation of what they've spent their money on.

Gratz on the purchase, I'm glad that it's working for you. I'm suspecting that I myself haven't pulled the trigger yet since perhaps I relish the hunt more than the kill?

 

First off, I swear before all PC users that I will never put an Apple sticker on my car, so help me God..

Secondly, call me dumb, but I had no idea that mac's were specifically designed to run windows, I only found that out after my roommate told me so, and that is what started my inquiry into a mac, otherwise, I would have continued my search.

Third, I operate a print brokering business, and the few mac files I receive are sent to an outside source for revisions etc. but now I will be able to keep the work in-house, which is always a plus $$$

I bought used and paid $1700 for a setup that would have cost $3000, but thanks to A) the recent Apple price drops, and B) A small business owner who, like many, did not know he could run Windows, so sold it with tons of software and accessories just to "get rid of it". His loss=my gain. I'm not caughing up $100 bills myself so I did not have the heart to tell him he could easily turn his laptop into a PC. It's a popular misconception that Apple hides, and it's obvious why.

Intel 2.66 T9550 6mb L2 cache 1066FSB
4gb DDR3 1066mhz
15.4 1440x900 Backlit LCD with glass screen. (The screen dpi on a Mac Book Pro is the highest of ANY laptop available in the world)
320gb 5400 SataII HDD (5400rpm drives are the best until SSD prices come down) 7200rpm drives use MUCH more power and vibrate.
Nvidia 9400M+ Nvidia 9600M GT 512mb (windows uses them in hybrid SLI) Yeah, it comes with TWO video cards.
Wifi A/B/G/N
Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR
Backlit keyboard
5 hour battery
2.0 MP camera
Ambient light sensor for screen and keyboard ligthing.
All reviews state that Mac Book Pro speakers are the best you will ever hear on a laptop and rival desktop speakers.
4.3" Glass multi-touch trackpad. With multiple and fully progammable 1,2,3,and 4 finger functions. (Nothing else like it in the world)
And it's all .95" thick. DRAMATICALLY thinner and lighter than any full featured PC that has ever been produced ever!!.

These specs are not even available as a Vista PC but assumng they were, ask yourself how much it would cost?
You can already spend $2000 and not get near the equivalent for a "slim" or "portable" PC. As much as I despise the culture Of "MAC", they are on to something.

The Mac Book Pro is an Intel laptop, 100%. The guts are just like every other laptop on the market, no differene at all, it just has a different OS that can be deleted in seconds, and poof, you have a 100% PC laptop. If you comparison shop based on features, you will find that for what you get, a mac is worth the extra couple hundred dollars. I did my homework, spent months searching, and this is the best laptop for the money.

Still have plenty of love for the PC though, as this was written using Vista 64 on a MBP.

 

Not to invalidate your point; indeed, I'm learning interesting stuff myself here, but:

The Dell Studio XPS 13 does this with the 9400M and 9200M.

For that matter, I guess any high-performance Alienware, ASUS, or Sager has two GPU's as well.

The Dell Latitude series has this as well...honestly, I find it more annoying than useful.

To be honest, I've heard them before, and they're good for notebook speakers, but not that good.

The XPS M1330 with LED display is .97", and certainly isn't underpowered.

You do make excellent points, though, particularly about the 5,400RPM hard drive; I wouldn't trade mine for anything. I was lucky enough to get a WD drive in my Studio 15, when they seem to be using the noisier Hitachi drives in most cases now.

 

One other thing you can consider...

I installed Vista 64 sans SP1, so with all the installing of updates and Kaspersky etc. the laptop was running full speed while plugged in at full power for about three hours or so. Never reached a temp above mildy "luke warm" and never heard any fans or any sounds from the CD or HDD. The birds chirping outside were the loudest sounds I heard.This thing is silent.

And, the DDR3 RAM that comes standard in a mac is timed at 7-7-7-20 instead of the much slower speed that comes with other laptops.

Proven fact: the fastest Vista Laptop ever tested is a Mac Book Pro. Go figure.

 

Suffering from fanboyism thread hijack. I won't be as polite as the others have been. The mac you bought is fine. I'm happy for you. However, you have been struck with a first degree case of fanboy. You are even spreading lies! 15.4" screen with 1440x900 has the highest dpi of any laptop screen, and also is the best laptop screen available?? Lies. Simply not true on either account. The multitouch is not exclusive to mac either as previously pointed out. More to the point though, this is a dell studio 14z thread. The topic has been derailed and needs to be set back on track.

 

Yeah but on the main page it says 5.28 lbs.

 

I think the 5.28 lbs is an error. By that logic, it's almost the same weight as the Studio 15, despite having no optical drive and having an overall size almost 2 inches smaller.

 

First, congratulations on finding a laptop that you enjoy.

I do like to point out that, in most cases, a Mac is generally MORE expensive than a PC. Manufacturers like Dell and HP offer a very wide range of price points. You can go for the premium Studio XPS or you can buy a Compaq CQ60 for USD$400. Apple only offers a single price point for a given product category, if you want a 17" Mac laptop, you have to spend at least USD$2000.

Ever since Apple has transitioned to Intel CPU, it's getting even easier to compare Apple and PC. The Studio 14z is a great example. It offers very similar configuration compared to the MacBook Air in terms of CPU, LCD screen, graphics and HDD, yet the MacBook Air is about twice the price (granted, it is lighter and thinner, but the Studio 14z offers more connection ports).

You can appreciate the price differences even better if you look at the upgrade options. You can go from 4GB of RAM to 8GB for only USD$315 with Dell Studio 15, but it will cost you USD$1000 with the 15" MBP. The 256GB SSD is only USD$375 with Dell Studio XPS 16, but it's a USD$750 upgrade with the 15" MBP.

And speaking of installing Windows on a Mac, I would like to point out that you can install OSX on a PC as well. Just Google OSX86.

I am happy to hear that you find a nice Mac for $1700 off craigslist, but remember you are getting a USED computer, not a brand-new Mac. And a deal like that does not come by very often.

I use a Mac at work and I like Mac, but I will never pay for a Mac myself because it is, and will always be, more expensive than a PC.

 

I would compare the air with the adamo.

 

I just realized the 14z doesn't come with an optical drive and I think that it is a good idea. I knew it would only be a matter of time before you could get a powerful notebook without one. If only they offered the 9500M, it would be perfect. I am toying with the idea of replacing my Mini 9 and XPS M1530 with a 14z. It would be nice to have one laptop that is perfect for what I need instead of having 2 machines.

 

Ummm why is anyone saying that like it's a good thing?
Like others said, there are thinner laptops with a dvd drive.

It's a pain in the butt not to have one

 

It's good because for many people, the optical drive is completely unnecessary, in which case it simply adds dead weight. Plenty of people would prefer to have a lighter notebook without a DVD drive over the same notebook, with a DVD drive and slightly heavier.

 

I think there's a decent sized market for people who don't absolutely need a DVD drive. I can't even remember the last time I desperately had to have an optical drive on the go.

While there are other laptops that might be smaller and lighter with an optical drive, I've yet to find a slim and light 13-14" laptop with core2 duo, DDR3 and standard Geforce 9400M for such a low price.

 

Well an option would work best then

 

They do give you an option; they offer an external USB optical drive for when you really need one.

 

Thus said pain in the .

No no I mean an option for a dvd drive. If you don't want one and want it to be lighter, then you can choose not to buy it. Or if you want one and don't mind the weight, you can choose to buy one.
I'll wait until something like that comes along

 

Then they would have to have two separate frames/chassis for the same laptop.

 

Agreed. Option for internal optical is totally impractical as the increased overhead would result in a direct increase in cost of the laptop. One design is the way to go. If you Need an internal optical drive then this isn't the laptop for you. I, however, use an optical drive so infrequently that external is more than sufficient. Infact, I may not even use an external one. I'll just use a USB key and run *.iso's with a virtual drive like Daemon tools. So thank you Dell for making a laptop that meets my needs (while still offering other laptops with optical drives, to meet the needs of others).

[edit] thinking about it now, the 'option' you are asking for already exists. The problem is comprehension that it requires a separate chassis, otherwise known as a different model. It's symantics.

 

the only reason i see myself wanting a DVD drive is when I play games, they usually need us to have the CD in the drive. Though I guess it's legal to install a no cd crack when you own the game + I'm not sure what this 9400M can handle

 

Ok then just keep the optical drive, it's too important. Obviously it's not the laptop for me but I wish it was.

 

Can't wait to see some reviews

 

yea its taking forever

 

Yeah, can't wait for reviews and pics. I think the 14z's a scaled down version of the SXPS 13, which also uses the same GPU. But I'm a little bit worried since it carries somewhat the same parts as with the SXPS 13. Hopefully, it won't have the audio latency problems. It's odd though to see only 3GB of DDR3 RAM offered on it since it uses 64-bit Vista. And the upgrade is only for 5GB and +$400?

 

As discussed previously in this thread, there seems to be 1GB soldered into channel 1. Channel 2 is upgradable. It comes with a 2GB stick standard, but 4GB sticks are available. $500 is not out of line for a 4GB stick.

That being said, it's really a silly thing to do. Why solder channel 1??? You already nixed the optical drive. Is there not enough room?? Of course there is enough room. There has to be some reason for doing this, but I do not know what it is.

 

My guess it's a marketing decision rather than a technical one. If they make Studio 14z too perfect, then no one will buy the stupid Adamo.

 

Nobody's buying the Adamo to begin with.

 

Ya really wierd. I mean w/ 64bit u want 4 gigs... but i'm not going to pay that much to upgrade to 5 gb...lol

 

I am someone who will need to use an optical drive quite a bit (still have 100+ CD's from Complete Bach Edition to rip...and Mozart's next) but not necessarily on the go. People here have said that it is not a good choice for people who need to use an optical drive, but may I ask why? Is there any inherent disadvantage to having an external optical drive (besides the obvious portability/connetivity issues)? I agree that it is not such a bad thing for Dell to leave out, assuming there are no major problems with using an external, and that the omission can, in fact, be advantageous.

Are there still external optical drives that can be powered through USB? Are they any good?

Thanks

 

Everyone who is complaining about the lack of an optical drive is making a mountain out of an ant hill.

The 1GB soldering is definitely the biggest drawback to this laptop. It pretty much means that you can get a good laptop for a cheap price, but if you want a great one you're going to end up paying for it.

 

That's real smart, with Dell soldering 1GB of potentially upgradeable memory. I don't get the logic of installing 64-bit vista with it. If 3GB would be standard, they should have at least given the option for a 32-bit.

As for the optical drive in a lappie, I'll have to say I don't use it much. Except for some occasional burning and transferring movies to my hard drive. It makes sense the 14z is without it to save weight.

 

Most users will never leverage more than 4GB of ram as demonstrated by a recent article on tomshardware.com. Let me propose that due to the graphical limitations of the 9400m and the small 14" screen, most users will be more than satisfied with 3GB. It is unlikely that someone will purchase this laptop for extreme gaming, extreme photoediting, or extreme anything else. Undoubtedly the 4GB sticks will come down in price to something more reasonable like $100, probably before most users require that extra capacity.

Regarding the choice of OS, I would rather have the forward-looking 64bit OS, with the negligible performance hit, just because 64bit is the way things are going. Just because it can handle 4GB doesn't mean I want or need that much. I like 64bit OS's just because they are the way things are going and I am sometimes an early adopter.

Not that I'm arguing it was a silly thing to do...just saying it might not matter. And let me be the first to admit that if the price was right I would hve upgraded to 5GB on my order...just because.

 

I ordered the 14z on June 8th. Anyone else find it frustrating that its not mentioned ANYWHERE that this dang laptop isn't actually shipping? Shouldn't it say something like "Available July 1st"? Or "pre-order"??? I have ordered dozens of laptops from Dell and the "estimated ship date" is always some crazy 1mo away date but then it ships within a week. I thought this was the case here too until I read this thread I find it very troubling that I have to come to a laptop forum to discover what is going on with it.

WOW!!! I was wondering what the 3GB (crap) ram configuration was all about. Has anyone confirmed its soldered on? I really don't like the idea of 2gb being fast dual channel and the other 1gb being slower. I make use of virtual machines and this would prob give me a big performance hit. I configured my laptop to cost $1k. I think it laughable to have a stick soldered in a $1k laptop.

The 14z is what I have been searching around for years. Optical drives are a complete waste of space and weight. Anyone have a $10 8GB USB flash drive? And as mentioned, USB drive is available. Funny thing is I will use my XBOX HD-DVD drive.

I agree with everyone bashing the size of this thing. .7"-1.2" can fit an optical drive. also can fit a discrete graphics, also can fit 2 sticks of ram. Sad to see Dell once again creating a product is the average in all regards.

I have to admit, i'm sad now. I might have to get the overweight Studio 15.

 

Whatever memory fills the two slots in the 14z would run at dual channel rates. All recent dell notebooks (other than the minis) have chipsets capable of running the in asymmetric dual channel, or flex mode, so the performance hit because of having 1GB soldered into the board is negligible. As others have said before. the price of 4GB chips will fall in the next few months, making the upgrade to 5GB very affordable.

I can't wait till someone gets a hands on review of this notebook. I've been looking to replace my m1330 but want something with better than 1200x800 resolution and more than 2 usb ports.

 

There's really no good reason to get 32-bit over 64-bit, even with less than 4GB of memory. 64-bit Vista does not perform any worse than 32-bit with 3GB.

 

Who was the person that started the rumor saying you MUST have 4GB of RAM to use a 64-bit OS? I'm using Windows 7 x64 with 3GB of RAM and it is working just fine thank you very much.

 

I'm definitely going to buy this laptop - I'm just waiting to see if they drop the price in one of their 10 days of summer sales.

 

Ok, so having read through 15 pages of this thread, I had to register just to correct one thing for everyone. I called in to Dell today to ask some questions. It took a while, but eventually the guy came back with answers about the 14z ram setup for me. Here's the deal. There IS 1 gig of ddr3 ram integrated to the mobo. HOWEVER, there are still two slots open for upgradeable ram.

The 3 gig version ships with two 1-gig sticks, while the 5 gig version ships with two 2-gig sticks. You can get 2 dual channel 2-gig sticks online for 60 bucks.

The guy was vague on what the max ram supported by the mobo was. He said it was 5 gigs, but seemed to indicate that this was the max that the system could ship with. Therefore, I do not quite believe that two gigs per slot (for a max of 5 gigs overall) is the actual maximum. I haven't seen a motherboard that supports less than 8 gigs of ddr3 memory yet. I'm no expert though, so others here may chime in with more info on max ram.

I'm still trying to figure out if there will be any way to use vga display devices with this system. I saw someone mention displayport but the 14z does not appear to come with one. Is there actually a way to get from hdmi to vga? Link to back it up?

 

In reply to myself, I think I found the manual. It appears that it is at odds with what I was told on the phone. And i see where it has a displayport. So I guess we shall see once official reviews start to show up online as to whether it has one or two user accessible memory slots.

 

I'm sorry I don't exactly trust anyone you speak to at dell.
Having 3 separate ram locations doesn't make much sense for this type of computer and paying so much $$ for 5 gb wouldn't make sense if it was just 2x2gb

 

Agreed. The upgrade price is too close to retail of a 4GB stick and too far from 2x2GB. But wouldn't it be nice if that was the case???

 

I would love to believe that, but I just dont see why the price markup would be that high if it was true.

If it was 100 or 200 for the 5GB upgrade, I would believe it. 400, heck no.

 

I would take anything Dell tells you over the phone with a grain of salt. One GB soldered and one empty slot makes way more sense than two empty slots.

 

Dell sales reps are NOT a reliable source of technical information! I can guarantee you that there is just a single memory slot on the 14z.

I thought Dell would have learned their lesson about integrated memory after the Mini 12 (and Mini 10) backlash. They have 1GB soldered in, can't be removed or upgraded. I've seen countless complaints about it on here and even in Dell's own forums.

 

FYI...

i was at best buy today and they put one on display!!

seems to be a base model...$749...it had 3gb of ram and base LCD...didn't get the rest of the specs...i will stop by tomorrow again and take pictures...

it was red and the lady said they just got them in today. i have to say...it is a very THIN laptop for a 14"...its about close to the dell mini 12!

the weird part is...it does look kinda funny...like length wise lol...

overall...this will be my next laptop!

 

I just finished reading through this entire thread twice and it has been really helpful. I'm now considering the Y450 too. I just do not see how the Dell would really be worth my money now that I've seen that. Thanks to all who have been posting so far!

I also do not readily believe sales people over the phone. That goes for every single large company I have ever had contact with. I think that everyone's doubts are well-founded, especially considering the info in the manual that's posted on the dell website. The manual eluded me for a while, hence my calling in in the first place.

All that said, I think that many of us are sitting back to see what new laptops the major players might release between now and when win7 drops.