DELL Studio 15 Review (pics inside)

The Dell Studio 15 was invented to be the "middle class laptop" of Dell. It was created if you wanted a laptop greater in power and nicer looking than the Inspiron, but didn't want to spend the extra dough on a majority metal laptop with higher performance numbers. Dell hit the mark right on the head(although I don't see why the FP reader and back-lit keyboard are no longer standard).

I ordered the Dell Studio 15 on July 26th. One month later, on August 26th, after 3 delays, it arrived.

My Studio 15 specifications:

* Studio 1535, Intel Core 2 Duo T8100, 2.1GHz, 800Mhz, 3M L2 Cache
* Hi Resolution/Bright, glossy widescreen 15.4 inch WLED display (1440x900)
* ATI MOBILITY RADEON HD 3450
* 4GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm
* 320G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
* Dell Wireless 1510 802.11n Half Mini Card
* Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit
* 56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
* Dell Travel Remote Control, IR
* Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module (2.0)
* Back-lit keyboard(standard)
* Fingerprint Reader(standard)

I paid $1495 which includes tax. I received 2-day shipping for no charge. This includes 3-year hardware warranty + 3-year accidental warranty.

Build, Quality, Design

The build of the Studio 15 is simple and sweet. I chose the Tangerine color option and I am extremely happy with it. It is a beautiful shade and it goes well with the black siding and bottom. The simpleness of the design gives it a modern feel.

The hinge in no way detracts from the build of the laptop. It gives it a more solid feel in my opinion. The power and wifi locator button on each side of the hinges is a nice touch.

When I am using the laptop or walking around with or using the laptop the overall slant to the laptop is unnoticeable.

When I shake it the monitor wiggles just the slightest - not a loose wiggle, but a firm one, as would any laptop.

Dell did a phenomenal job with the matte coating of the laptop cover. It is flawless.

The Studio series also comes in a "graphite gray" cover with a choice of 3 side colors(red/blue/pink).

The Studio 15 weighs slightly more than 6 pounds.



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Right side of Studio 15:

(from right to left)Power button, power input jack, slot-loading optical drive, two USB ports, firewire port



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Left side of Studio 15:

(from right to left)Expresscard/IR battery input, 8-1 memory card reader, two headphone jacks, microphone jack, ethernet input, two USB ports, VGA, HDMI, WiFi catcher, security lock slot, WiFi on/off slider



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Front of the laptop:

Port for IR remote control.



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Back of the laptop:

Contains no ports/inputs/jacks



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Studio 15 back-lit keyboard

The Studio 15 keyboard is good, but has it's flaws. The keys are well sized and spaced. I rarely if ever touch two keys near each other by accident. There is low-medium flex in the center of the keyboard and on the far left of the keyboard.

Some users may not like the click noise when hitting each key. I don't mind it at all, maybe even prefer it.

There are three status lights in the top right of the keyboard on the media control bar that light up when two features are enabled - the WiFi and bluetooth - and one that signifies when the hard drive is active(it is constantly lighting on and off).

Now the back-lit keyboard. First off, there are two settings which I consider "high" and "low". I find the low too low so a majority of the time I am using the high brightness. This is among my favorite features on the Studio 15. Even if it is not pitch black around you, this is a helpful and visually appealing add-on(especially if you aren't a great typer) which now costs $50(it was standard when I purchased my laptop). It may seem like just a "whatever" feature, but after seeing it, I would definitely shell out the extra dough for it.

One of the major negatives about the laptop are the media controls. You can be sitting in an average lit room and have to move your face an inch away from the laptop to see the one you want to touch. I am hoping for a bios update so that we can have the media buttons light up the same brightness as the keyboard when we turn the back-light function on.



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Studio 15 touchpad and finger-print reader

Dell did a fine job with the touchpad. It is responsive, has an up-and-down and left-to-right slider. It feels like the plastic used on the palmrest, just slightly rougher which is perfect. I prefer it to the silver, very smooth HP Pavilion dv5t touchpad which is uncomfortable to use when your hands are naturally sweaty.

The finger-print reader is decent. It is obviously not something that is completely necessary just a nice add-on(which came standard on my laptop, it is now a $25 extra. Surprisingly, I find myself using it a lot to log into Windows. It is completely unnecessary to use on a personal laptop browser since my passwords are saved. It is also not compatible with Firefox 3.0.

It reads my fingerprint correctly on one of the first three tries. It never takes more than that.



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Bottom of the laptop

The battery is towards the back left side of the laptop. This laptop, unlike many, contains just one cover for the internal pieces. Some may enjoy this feature, others not so much as it may be a project just to do minor changes.



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Studio 15 screen

The Studio 15 LED-lit widescreen is easily, without a doubt, my favorite part of this laptop. It is a 1440x900 resolution. One thing I can say about this screen: The pictures do not do it justice.

Movies play flawlessly, great frame rates on action movies(Fight Club shown below), vibrant colors.



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Dell Media Remote Control

This remote control is a cute add-on at $15. I mainly bought this because I did not want a worthless piece of plastic filling a large hole in the laptop. I find myself using it while lying in bed watching a movie. It is handy. The remote control input is on the far top right of laptop shown in the 2nd picture.



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Wireless:

Dell offers the 1397 wireless-g card and the 1510 wireless-n card. I chose the 1510. I have had no problems with it. I have had no range issues. I have been as far as 20 yards away from my router and it works perfectly fine. I don't know why the card gets so much hate.

Webcam:

The 2.0MP webcam is excellent for communicating with others across the web. The quality is surprisingly good. While using it on Yahoo live, it was very smooth, no choppiness whatsoever.

Sound:

The worst part about the laptop, without question. It is tinny, unclear, and in simpler terms, just not as good as it could be. The sound is noticeably low while watching YouTube videos, movies, etc even when on 100 setting. I would definitely recommend buying a nice pair of headphones are speakers if you plan on watching many movies or if you are a music buff.

Battery & Power Adapter:

There are two battery choices, the 6 cell and the 9 cell - the latter being blatantly overpriced at $169.

Using the Power Saver power plan and the screen brightness at around 40% I can push 3 hours of battery life, give or take 15 minutes. During this time I am browsing the web, chatting on AIM, nothing unusual.

If the screen brightness is around 60-70%, expect a battery life of 2 and a half hours or less.

Go for the integrated graphics card if you want to push 3.5 hours+ and you don't play many video games.



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The power adapter gets very hot after a few hours of use while plugged in to the laptop on High Performance mode.

Heat and Noise

Don't expect the Studio 15 to catch on fire. The laptop may get hot after a few hours of use, but nothing out of the ordinary. The area of the laptop I notice heating up the most is the area directly left of the keypad. I rest my left hand on that area while using my laptop and it is a slight annoyance, but I really don't mind. It is not so hot that I can not keep my hand there, it is just hotter than "warm".

WOW! This laptop is quiet. I mainly keep the back of the laptop elevated while working on it, and the fan noise is barely audible unless you are focusing on it.

Operating System & Software

The Studio 15 came standard with Vista 32-bit Home Premium, although I recently noticed Dell is offering 64 bit due to the fact that getting 4gb of ram is a waste 0f money since 32-bit Vista is not capable of using all 4gb. I have 4gb of ram and plan on upgrading to 64-bit in the future. I am in no rush.

It is well known that Dells come loaded with bloatware. I did my best to manually remove it. I will do a clean install in the future when I find the time and I feel the need.


Performance and Benchmarks



wPrime 32m Speedtest


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Windows Experience Index


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PCMark05


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3DMark06


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HD Tune


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Conclusion

I bought the Studio 15 because I am entering my first year of college. It fits my needs perfectly. It is a great all-around laptop. It will be able to play mid level games decently, it is perfect for programs like Photoshop and Microsoft Office, or just browsing the web. The screen is absolutely flawless, the design is modern and sleek, and it contains a good range of inputs. I reccomend this laptop to those who are looking for a well-rounded, semi-portable laptop.


Pros

• Excellent screen
• great battery life
• extremely quiet
• wide range of colors
• back-lit keyboard a rare commodity
• fast!

Cons

• Speakers/sound
• Prices varying/less standard features
• low-medium keyboard flex in center and far right
• ATI Radeon 3450 best graphics card
• No Montevina processor
• media control bar

 

Love the orange! Great, informative review!

+rep!

 

Great review lotta, ive been waiting somethin like this this is great, this only makes me wish i had mine..

 

Looks great, glad you're happy. SO are some pads better than others. Because the tracking can be inconsistent. My suspicion is something to do with an inertia sensor over compensating, hopefully drivers can fix that.

What are some good cheap bluetooth headphones?

 

thanks so much dude.....it makes the long weekend wait just that much more unbearable ....

have fun with your baby

 

Pretty weak benchmarks. Looks good though.

 

I only view the 3DMarks has being visibly weak, and it wasn't exactly made for gaming on. The other benchmarks seem normal for this type of budget/mid-range laptop.

 

wow, orange is awesome! now, its only the flamingo pink studio pics i havent seen yet in this forum, or was there any? btw, excellent review you've got there! kinda leaning towards buying a studio right now, if only somebody's got a flamingo pink studio pics to make me change my mind from buying a vaio CR.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBaAYDcwYHQ

There's a video of a girl unboxing her pink Studio 15. It looks really nice, surprisingly

 

Haha yea the girl makes it look even better...

 

yup, i saw that already. i think im gonna buy the pink s15 and be the first one to post some pics here. *yah right, if the delivery woudnt take for ages.*

 

WOWSA! This surely was no *mini-review* This was simply awesome...the review, the pics, and everything!

You really helped those looking at the S15 for purchase, and ongoing Dell owners!

Love that Tangerine Orange! Love it..that would be my color choice if I was getting a S15....would also be a great color for the Mini I!

+1 for yah!

Kudo's!!!!


Cin

 

Thanks for this great review!

 

Perfect review.....agree with almost everything....even though I have the normal Screen.

I would surely add keyboard flex in cons though....I am a IBM T series user for 5 years and the sheer flex in Studio is astounding to say the least. Not sure if its Studio's problem or the fact that IBM T-Series has unusually sturdy keyboards !!

I am also struggling with Dell 1397 card and its effect on sound playback when played out of CD/ DVD.

Can you put in a CD and set it on repeat, then just let run overnight while the wi-fi remain on and connected to yr router (mute it of course while u sleep ). See if the CD is still working fine next morning....mine gets stuck at some random point after 30-40 mins of playback.

 

Thanks, I forgot to add keyboard flex to the cons.

I'm not sure about the CD issue(I rarely if ever use CDs), I have the 1510 card, I'll see if the same thing happens to me. Do you know if the same thing happens with DVDs, and are you using external speakers or the studio 15 speakers?

 

I personally have no problem with keyboard flex. Maybe I'm just a very light typist, but I would have never noticed anything wrong if I hadn't of came to these boards first.

Absolutely wonderful review. Very well thought out and informative. Thank you for sharing your experience and the lovely pic.

I had an issue with the palm rests tending to get very hot. Last night I was testing out my AverTV expresscard (I'd recommend buying WinTV, it has much better record quality) and I left my computer on for about 4 hours last night and today oddly enough it doesn't seem like the palm rests are heating up as much. Weird.

 

Yeah, I personally don't even notice the keyboard flex. I need to push in harder than I ever would when I'm typing normally to even feel it. But I know experienced laptop users are picky about this.

Thanks for the comments.

 

nice review nailed it on the head as I have the same specs except mine is black.
I love the fingerprint reader its great for parental control and nice just to scan your finger to login to almost any site and windows. the webcam is pretty fun has some cool effects. I have used it alot because my sister and her boyfriend both bought a Studio 15 so we video chat quite a bit. backlit keyboard is nice because I am using it right now as my wife is asleep next to me but one big flaw in this feature is that the media keys dont light up until you touch them. This is also my first ever Vista PC and so far its pretty nice I like the Aero feature but dont use it that often. I dont know about anyone else but my touch pad freezes up some time am I the only one with this problem? but thats what I have to add to lottas review

 

Touchpads are generally a bit moody.

Every so often they may get confused(due to various reasons, maybe touching the pad with two hands by accident) and freeze up and you just need to slightly brush your finger over a few times it to get it back to normal.

If it's happening a lot like once or twice an hour than it's possibly a problem.

 

These are my pics for your review.


Dell Studio 1535 Jet Black (1440x900 LG Led panel):

 

Awesome pics, I like the black a lot.

 

I opened the laptop.
I'll post other pics











As you can see, the Dell 1510 half mini wireless card uses just two antenna cables...
But there is a third antenna cable (grey) we can use to enhance the power/quality of the signal...



I have just order an Intel 4965 card we can install in one of the two slots...

 

WHAT HAPPENED?

 

I think it's the angle I was holding the laptop at that made it seem that the cover was uneven.

If that is what you are referring to...It isn't like that when the laptop is flat and shut.