A Few Studio 1558 Questions

Hey there all,

So I'm laptop hunting, and I've got a fair few questions before I buy anything (sorry, I like to know lots!):

Having shopped around, I'm quite fond of the features on Dell's studio 1558, but there's a few things I'm concerned with and could do with knowing about-

1 - I see a fair few people complaining about build quality/screen casing flexibility - is it THAT bad? I'm not too rough with things, but if it's dangerously flimsy I'd want to avoid it.

2 - The keyboard - I've heard some things about keyboard 'flex', although I'm not sure if it's just older models. Is it much of a problem? Also - backlit keyboard - good or bad?

3 - 5400 vs 7200RPM HDD - is it worth the 'upgrade'? Mainly thinking about speed here (Is there much difference?)

4 - Processors:
i5-540M (2.53Ghz, 4 Thread, turbo boost up to 3.06 GHz)
or
i7-740QM (1.73 Ghz, 8 Thread, turbo boost up to 2.93GHz)
Mainly considering that I tend to have many programs open at once [Mostly simultaneous internet, work, email and other little things - but the occasional beast like Photoshop], but also need it to be able to play back HD video footage. (Current 1.66 Core 2 Duo can't do that, although admittedly it doesn't have turbo boost). Not sure which would best suit my usage?

5 - Screen size - What's the upgraded Full-HD screen like in comparison to the normal screen? I'm wondering if it's TOO high-res for a 15.6" display. I think HD+ would be fine, but there's no option for that. So would Full-HD be overkill? Wouldn't want things to get too small, but I would appreciate a little more screen space.

Any help/information would be much appreciated.

Thanks.


Final thought - supposedly Dell seem to load more and more bloatware/rubbish onto their machines before shipping. Is it at a point where reinstalling a clean copy of windows may be a better/more effective option? My concerns would be whether, when done, everything would still work properly, and if (although I doubt it), it'd effect any warranty?

 

1 - This is a laptop. Treat it like it actually costs as much as you paid, and you'll be fine. Any time something bad like screen flex occurs, it's usually due to rough handling.

2 - It's made of plastic and metal, so yes it flexes a bit, but it's pretty low on the flex scale compared to others I've used.

3 - Only in access time. 5400 rpm will suffice, 7200 if you're impatient and don't like to watch the milliseconds tick by.

4 - i5 will suffice, i7 if you want it. It's stable enough with recent BIOS updates. Your battery life and heat will be better with the i5, and you'll probably only see marginal improvements with the i7.

5 - I'm used to the 768 vert screen now, but higher res would certainly be nice. You can always text zoom out on a high res without quality loss, but a low-res screen can only be zoomed in so far before it looks like crap.

Final thought - There was no crap when I got mine. The only thing I uninstalled was McAfee nonsense that I replaced with MSE and the stupid Dell Dock. Quickset, Support Center, and the Webcam add-on are all useful, and very light than most other manufacturers. A clean install would be fine, but it's really not necessary. Quick note: when you uninstall Dell Dock, it may not uninstall properly. Make sure to disable to Service connected to the Dock as well. Regarding Roxio, eh. It gives a popup when I stick a disc in the drive, but it's not so bad. It's pretty light.
You'll have no issues getting warranty service if you install the same version back, but Tech Support may ask you to revert to factory image if you did a clean install and are now having issues.

 

1. Build quality is ok, it's not getting hot and even if it does it’s not bad especially on laps as the bottom is made of plastic which is easy to cool down in comparison to alloy or magnesium case. It's definitely not dangerously flimsy or flexible. It’s not worst then other plastic case laptops I have seen.
The best thing about the case is the micro satin lid option, absolutely no scratches, fingerprints or dirt.

2. There is some flex in the middle but again it's not worse than most of the laptops i have seen. The backlight helps when writing in low light condition but even at day looks nice.

3. There is almost no difference in performance from 5400 to 7200. Most of the people have the 7200 drive because of free upgrade not because they choose to pay more for it. It's better to wait for cheaper ssd drive.

4. With CPU it depends how often you want to work on battery. If you want to use it as a laptop buy a different computer, lighter, slimmer with low power CPU. Studio 15 is more desktop replacement than laptop so go for power and buy i7. You will never be happy with bulky and heavy system away from home.

5. The screen resolution is very important, if you really need full HD then go for it but if you don’t need it badly then avoid. Don’t listen to people on this forum and the advantage of HD screen. You have only one pair of eyes for whole life and the HD screen is a killer for them. There are so many young people wearing glasses these days because of games, HD screens etc.

6. There is no much bloat ware on the studio but if you know how to do the clean installation it is always the best option, you will also learn something about your new system. All drivers are easy to find and install, windows 7 installations has been designed for Stevie Wonder so 90% of users can do it themselves.

 

Thanks for the answers! Few little thoughts -

- From previous experience, Dell's pre-loaded software has been a pain. Recently set up a friend's Inspiron 15, and for some reason the dell software seemed to interfere more than help - webcam would only work once 'Webcam Central' was removed for some reason.
The inspiron 6400 I've had for years had similar problems with Dell's wireless software. And I don't know about the modern version, but Dell support was been nothing but an annoyance to me.
But if it's not all that bad, I guess removing it is simpler.


Oh, is there a possibility to NOT get these 'free antivirus' options? I've no need for it, and they're more of a pain to get rid of than the inevitable office trial software which can't be excluded from the product in the UK shop.

Considering, I think I'll be avoiding HD anyway - I'm fine with the normal res. However, might I say that, to my knowledge, there's no real evidence for screens causing long term eye-damage. Admittedly, there's no evidence against it, but it's not proven - An unanswered question really.
However, it's unlikely that the resolution of the screen would make any difference to any potential damage to eyesight - unless text was SO small you had to sit on top of the screen.


Thanks!

 

1. No need to worry. The build quality is better than the average laptop out there.

2. Keyboard seems fine. Some buttons (the big ones) seem more prone to being damaged in the future but maybe this is in my mind. I don't have the backlit keyboard, I dont know if it is good but if it was available I'd surely get it. Both for design and for practical reasons.

3. I don't know. In my old 5400 laptop I could feel the hard drive trying to speed up, but again maybe it was my idea. The 7200 seems pretty fast. If you have the money go for 7200.

4. i5. Less problems caused by heat and it'll suffice. For example right now I have Firefox with 3 tabs, Word, Endnote, Live Messenger, a statistics program, Outlook and Winamp working all together and there is no problem.

5. I'm not sure about that. I don't have the HD. However (read the 1558 topic) I'm a bit disappointed by the viewing angles especially in videos and pictures. I don't know if this gets any better with the HD. I also dont know how a high res will be in a 15.4 screen. In my PC with a much larger screen I had problems with high res in getting used to the smaller fonts, icons etc.

6. I don't know what goes in other countries, but in my case I think I only had to uninstall 1 or 2 things. Much much better than Toshiba or Sony.

 

Unlikely? If you can't read because text is too small and you have to focus your eyes, or video on website is the size of post stamp. What is the point then?

 

The Webcam software doesn't interfere, it's just a pop-up on the side. You can easily uninstall it and your applications will work fine - it's not a driver, just a software addon like Creative's X-Fi MB Software (don't get this option!)

There's no intel wireless software required to connect to a wireless network on the 1558. There IS Intel's My WiFi software for sharing your connection via wireless, but I just leave it disabled in case I should ever need it. It's perfectly fine to just use Windows 7's built in wireless networking tools.

Unfortunately, no. Uninstall is quick and painless, although it does require a reboot.

You're assuming everything is left at 100% zoom. Ideally, I could have purchased a screen with a native resolution of 1440x900 and leave everything at 100%, but instead I'm left with either 1366x768 and everything slightly zoomed out so I see imperfections, or the full 1080p HD screen and often zooming things in so I still see imperfections. Sometimes you need bigger than small but smaller than big. I used a 15.4" 1680x1050 screen for years without any noticeable eye-strain. I have more issues with overbright screens causing headaches than lower (sharper!) resolutions.

That said, you get used to the lower res screen pretty quickly. I ended up reducing all my font sizes and zooming out every webpage and document I work on, so I'm at a happy medium.

 

The text size is a matter for your brain to work on, not your eyes. Your eyes are merely focusing the image, which on a HD screen is still the same distance away from your eye as it would be on an SD screen (unless the text is THAT small). Hence there's no extra work involved. When the text is too small, your eyes can't pick up enough detail for your brain to properly work out which character is being displayed. The only solution is to get closer or make the target object larger. *Is a biologist*


Thanks for the information, everyone.