Dell 17r N7720 SE - user review

I thought at a time Dell could send your a Windows backup CD instead of making your own CD but not for free. I think it might be like $15-$20 for it.

 

Here in sweden they take only €4 for a win cd

 

Do the inspiron use an standard 12.7mm optical drive? I want bluray player, but dell only offers bluray on the 3d model which is way overpriced. So thinking about replacing it myself. If any standard drive fits it should be np.

 

Well I got mine yesterday, very happy with it. Coming from a decent but ageing Studio 1555.

Very happy to get the 3D glasses which I thought weren't included. Also got a backlit keyboard which now seem to have removed as an option.

The bloatware is pretty bad. Worse thing is the Nero SyncUp which associates itself with practically every file type going.

Going to run it for a week or two and see what all the programs do. The cyber dvd seems useful as it lets you watch side by side 3D movies. Do I need any of the intel crap? Is there a guide on here and what to remove? I am mostly worried about messing up that SSD.

 

For comparison purposes... here's my benchmarks...

 

Hello again guys, mine arrived yesterday and I tried my best to make a decent unboxing vid; so be nice, it's my first try and I know I've missed some spots to record (like the hdd area lol)

Dell Inspiron 17r N7720 SE Unboxing - YouTube


Running with W7 Ultimate, works like a pro Hope you all enjoy yours as I do mine, cheers!

 

Could you guys post battery times? Use BatteryBar so we can all se and cmpare data. Discharge rate is important in relation to what activities you have.

 

Quick and subjective mini review with screen calibration impressions

Yesterday I went to a local computer showroom in Bucharest where they have various 17 SE configurations on displays to test and feel the new Inspirons. The good part was I got to play for about 20 minutes with a 17R SE fully speced (Core I7 3610, 16 GB RAM, 750 GB 7200 rpm HDD, backlit keyboard, matte non-3D screen). This particular model had Win 7 installed and is the exact configuration I plan to buy in the coming days. Lucky me, I guess, as the other configurations had Ubuntu preinstalled and that would have made for a less relevant testing.

Hardware
I'm writing this preview on my good old trusty Inspiron 1720 which has been a trusty companion for close to 5 years. By comparison I was very impressed by the build quality of the 17 R SE. The materials seemed to have a higher end feel, they seemed to be better put together. I like the new metallic hinges, the honeycomb finish, the rounded form. Overall, I would rate it at 4,5 out 5 stars. The only niggle is the keyboard flex although it's not bad by any means.

Screen
For some the deal-breaker in a laptop is the keyboard screen, for others the gaming performance. For me the deal-breaker is the screen quality. The only thing I strongly dislike about my Inspiron 1720 is the screen. Sure, it's Full HD but it's as glossy as it can get. Since I mainly use my laptop for photo editing I lost count of the times I swore at and cursed the reflections and glare of my glossy screen. I promised myself I would never buy another laptop with a glossy screen.

The good part was that I could bring along my hardware screen calibrator and test the screen of the 17R SE. I used my X-Rite i1Display 2 Colorimeter and did a full calibration. The result were encouraging: although the display is not IPS it calibrated well. The end result was more accurate colors, properly adjusted brightness and contrast.

The before and after differences are striking. So much I would STRONGLY advise all future and present Inspiron 17R SE owners to calibrate their displays.

Overall, i rate the screen quality a 4 of 5 stars. Had it been an IPS panel it would have gotten a perfect 5.

Sound
Another pleasant surprise was the sound quality. The speakers gave a fuller, richer and distortion free sound.

Other considerations
The laptop lacked a MSATA card but despite this omission it was decently quick to boot and shut down. Overall program launch was decent. The laptop felt speedy and stable, software wise.

I will come back with a full review a few days after I purchase it.

 

I still have to wait 13 days until mine gets delivered. I'm really going crazy without a computer

 

Does anyone know a quick way of turning the 3D on and off? At the moment I am going to the notification area, clicking the Nvidia icon, and doing it there.

I seem to be doing this several times a day as I am switching between 3D and non 3D games. Is it possible to set that spare hot key on the top right of the keyboard to do it?

If any one has got any questions about the 17R SE I am happy to answer them, I got the top spec with 3D and BluRay.

 

very sleek review...nice job

i wait exactly as your (3D, bluray, etc) in some days....did you get glasses ??

how is the screen (without 3D enabled) i saw an Alienware M17x with same True life screen...i thought it was awesome.

 

Yep got glasses.

Screen looks amazing. I'm comparing it to an old Studio 1555 but I can't see how it can be improved - no reflection, great viewing angles, very bright.

 

He he. Tomorow i have my new 7720 (3D screen). It came nearly one week earlier

so i just got my 7720 with 3D screen.

the only thing who is a bit mediocre is the keyboard.....it flex a bit in the middle...........

otherwise awesome speed.......awesome screen quality

some game spec;

Crysis 2 ; 1920x1080, Advanced settings.....FPS; 30-35 (which is absolute awesome)

MW3.......1920x1080, every settings on High/enabled image quality; EXTRA, 2xAA.....FPS 30-35 (which is absolute awesome)

 

Anyone with a non-3D 1720 able to give some battery numbers?

Screen ~80%, WiFi on, browsing
", WiFi of, video watching

Many thanks in advance!

 

These are just to have an idea.

High load - 1h;
Low load* - 4h.

*Screen set towards min, wireless on, speakers in energy saving, low volume.

 

Adele - Rolling in the deep (Live Royal Albert Hall) - YouTube
Adele - Someone Like You (Live at The Royal Albert Hall) - YouTube

1. enable "Music" (MAXX-settings)
2. turn up the volyme to 80-90%
3. listen

4.................................ENJOY THE AWESOME SOUND FROM SKULLCANDY

this CPU/Ram is so fast not even latest Everest have this Performance in their log.........+17000 MB/s.....he he

 

You need AIDA64. I think Everest is not updated anymore.

 

What do you think of the 3D KSMB?

 

So has it been confirmed 100% that these don't have gigabit ethernet and it's not a missprint? I have a 250 megabit home internet connection so i that pretty much cuts this completely out of contention for me unless there's some kind of work around that's been found

 

Why don't you just get a dual band (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) USB wireless N adapter? At 5 GHz you can get internet speeds that should be close to what you have. Honestly not many places will have Gigabit Ethernet so its kinda useless.

Or if you want it integrated into your laptop, you can replace the Intel 2230 wireless N + bluetooth mini card and purchase the Intel 6235 dual band wireless N + bluetooth mini card. You can follow the instructions in the owners manual to figure out how to open the laptop to replace the wireless card.

 

+1. It's the best you can do.

 

good mine today and guess what? there is a loose screw jumping around my cooler

 

Don't worry. In my Asus I have something metallic that vibrates like in Transformers. My best guess is that the heatsink has something loose. This is how good they are build these days.

 

i already took care of it. 1st day and i had to open my notebook

 

i just tried the glasses (+ 3D) with Nvidias preview videos who came along..


about the screen.....i give it 9/10..........my RGBLED was 10/10.
................the 3D screen is very good.

 

ksmb did you already a clean install of win7?

I have problems with it, drivers aren´t being recognized during the install...

 

i did like this..........

1. install Everest and copy all drivers to a word doc (just the name of the drivers...then you know which to use)

2. make a back up partition on a usb flash (or a CD)

3. reinstall windows

4. use DELL driver CD (and check that all necessary drivers are installed)
if not see word doc and download this

 

Most software can be found very easy, based on this:



The link is this one Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States]

TAG is on the back of your laptop.

If some hardware still needs a driver, identify what that is and get it from all drivers pool for N7720. Most likely it will be the one for Wireless and USB as I had seen other N7720 with this problem.

You can get the Wireless from Intel. USB 3 is only one driver, easy to find in Dell's pool.

 

thank you guys. i tried both solutions, but without any success
everytime i try to load the drivers, an error occurs with the message no valid drivers with signature found.

i´m using a bootable usb stick with a windows7 .iso from the web, could this be the reason?

 

why do you not use the real windows who came the computer?

 

Dell didn't include a copy.
I'll ask the support tomorrow if they could send me one.
Should fix my problem right?

 

You are suppose to use the Dell Local Backup tool to create a recovery disk of your Windows 7 system image. I would have thought the owners manual should have said that. If you ever need to reinstall Windows you would use this recovery disk.

 

Wait a minute. Were you able to install Windows from the USB stick?

If you get that warning about the driver during first steps of the install, it's not about Dell's drivers. I had a hard time installing W7 from USB on N7720.

A easy solution to this problem is to burn the OS image on a DVD and install from there. Should work like a charm.

 

Anyone have any teardown pics of the internals? I'm curious what the cooling solution looks like. I'm guessing just one heat pipe for the CPU and GPU and that's why it turns the 650M turbo off if the CPU starts to get hot, but I'd like to know for sure...

 

I am glad you brought this up. I am curious about this as well on whether it is one heatsink for the CPU and GPU OR are the heatsinks separate, one for the CPU and one for the GPU. The owners manual does not do justice as to what is really inside the 17R SE.

Could someone do a teardown of their laptop and take detail pictures if they plan to do something like replacing the stock thermal compound which is always a good idea because the stock thermal compound sucks.

 

I know someone got a screw out of it's Dell so he might know more.

 

i didn´t tear it down. i just opened the backside (1st try). afterwards i took the keyboard out.

i used the online manual, which u can find here: Dell Manuals

 

So you can't see the heatpipes or anything? Do you really have to take it apart?

 

i didn´t go so far, but the guide includes how to´s like removing cpu, cooling system and so on.


ah before i forget it, thanks for your tips regarding my problem. is the recovery image of dell´s local backup a clean version of wind7 or is it bloated (10 gb is huge compared to the .iso version of microsoft with just 3gb)

 

I only had bad experience with all factory OS so far. That is way I buy without OS (if possible) or I do a fresh install everytime

 

somehow it isn´t working here.i can´t load the drivers during the partition window.

guess i´ll stick with the pre-installed os for a while.

 

listen guys. ITS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE WINDOWS 7 64.BIT DELL SEND YOU.



its a real windows 7 like all other windows 7..............the problem lays in your drivers & might some bloatware.

by the way....i spoke to DELL today and ask them to inform DELL that they have to fix next BIOS so gt650M can run in a proper 835Mhz boost.

hope they do it.

 

Just ordered mine. Non-3D config. Expecting it to get here sometime next week, probably Wednesday. Will post a full review (with comparisons to a maxed out XPS 17) when I've had a chance to play with it.

 

Thanks for reporting the problem. I hope they also fix the GPU boost loss when you connect and disconnect the laptop from AC power to battery in the next BIOS update.

 

I'm pretty sure it's the same problem and that they messed up the bit of bios code that removes the throttle once conditions return to 'normal'.

 

I don't really care as long as it is fixed in a BIOS update.

 

So, has anyone managed to get one at a discounted price. Over at the Alienware forum there's an entire thread about how to get a discount. How have people been doing (price wise) here?

The 17r SE is currently the leader in what I'm going to get this fall.

 

You won't get any price reductions. The reason Alienwares (and many other Dells) get reductions, is because they get upgrades at reduced cost. The 15 and 17R SE both basically come with one or two configurations of which there is little or nothing to be customised. As such, the only real deals you can get are on extended warranties and accessories.

 

Aren't there coupons? I used for example a 10% discount coupon and a free delivery (29