17R special edition (7720) - any of the switchlids compatible?

Hi guys,

Just got the 17R special edition I ordered for the wife, and hit a snag. That cool, black hex-patterned lid and palmrest/keyboard area? The custome one that only comes with the special edition models?

The wife really dislikes it, says it reminds her of snakeskin and is 'creepy'.

I said no problem, and immedietely started searching switchlids, and looking for a replacement part for the keyboard area - only to be told by a Dell rep that the 17 special edition wasn't compatible with any of the switchable lids.

So, my questions:

1) Can anyone confirm or deny if you can use the switchlids with the 17R special edition (SE 7720)?
2) Assuming we can get a switchlid, anyone have any advice on how to change out the keyboard area? My first thought was try to get a spare part from another 17R (non-special edition), but now I'm not sure that would work.

Any thoughts?

 

It's my understanding that the R and R SE use the same body shell and lid and as such the lid inlays of the R's should be interchangeable? Not sure what is involved with the palmrest, but in principle that should also be interchangeable?

However, unless there is a specific feature or function that you wan't that is only available on the SE why not send it back and get a 5720, which will have a plastic lid cover and palmrest or go for the new 5721 which will have an anodized aluminium lid cover and palmrest which may be in a colour and texture more to your wife's choosing?

Most if not all of the SE's hardware features and functions are available in either a 5720 or 5721 and a lot cheaper.

 

Thanks much for the suggestion, but what had attracted me initially to the 17R special edition was the i7-3630QM CPU and the 650M GPU, neither of which appear to be offered in any of the 5700 series (that is, that I could see - if I've missed one in there, then by all means give me a yel!)

The 7720 we picked up had some pretty decent hardware - the best I could find in a package that closely matched my wife's aging but beloved Inspiron 1720 (or so I thought!) and so I thought it was the best of all possible worlds.

 

The switch lids seem to be discontinued for our 7720's I found a couple of used blue ones for it for like $30 plus crazy shipping prices, as to the palm-rest, you can't change that. I you really want to you can get some carbon fiber sticky stuff and do a custom job on it if you really want to cover it.