Dell Studio 15 Screen - 720p or better?

Hey,

I'm in the process of buying a Studio 15. I have the options of 720p, 900p or 1080p. I know the difference and what it means, but my question is: is it worth it to upgrade from 720p when it involves a 15in screen?

The utility of this laptop will be school + internet basically and past-time amateur photo editing (because I usually use my desktop PC for that). I'll probably install a game or two, like Sins of a Solar Empire, but that's about it. Of course I'll probably watch a movie sometime on it, but I'll prefer to output the display from the HDMI output to my Viera 1080p. And no I won't take the Blu-Ray option on the laptop.

So... that being said, I was really wondering if I would see the difference between 720p, 900p and 1080p. I searched on some forums and obviously, everywhere people say "go for the 1080p, it's worth it", but nowhere I saw what was the intented use of the laptop.

Let me know what you all think and I thank you for that!
Best regards.

 

I would upgrade to at least the 900p. 720p leaves everything too large, without enough usable screen space, even on a 15.6" notebook. Also, according to reviews, the 720p display is of poorer quality than the 900p and 1080p models.

Basically, I would get 1080p no matter what. You can fit way more stuff onto the screen at once. You can comfortably view two pages of a document side-by-side with that.

 

Yeah, that's a pretty good point you have here, I didn't think about it. Thanks for the advice. More are welcome also

Oh, while I'm at it... does the sound upgrade worth it? It's 20$ I think to go to the SoundBlaster XFi something... I read some critics talking about the poor quality of the sound on the studio 15, but I was wondering it was the speakers or the card, so I figured out the the upgrade could help... Any thoughts on this? The thing is my budget is really limited, so I'm trying to cut everywhere I can...

 

The sound upgrade, I would not get. The onboard sound card is more than enough if you're not hooking up to $10,000 of audiophile equipment. The supposedly poor quality is simply due to the small onboard speakers themselves, not the audio source.

I have my old Studio 15 (1535 model) with the standard sound card, no fancy software or anything, paired with $130 Logitech Z-2300 speakers and subwoofer, and it sounds great.

 

The screen... get the 900p. I've heard the 720p isn't the best screen. 900p will give you decent amount of desktop room, without risking things being "too small".
The sound.... don't bother getting the upgrade. Just get some nice speakers you can plug into the 3.5mm jack... like Mastershroom said. His Z-2300's are great. I have a big Sony mini-stereo hooked up.

 

ok thanks again !

and probably my final question... Vista 32b or 64b... I'm not a fan of Vista (still really happy with XP at home and office)... So, I really don't know if there are problems with the 64bits version. Any insight on this?

 

Well I'm just getting a replacement for my inspiron 6400. Dell gave me 3gb of ram, and the 32 bit version. Apparently it doesn't really make a difference. 64bit if you plan on having over 4gb of ram. Other than that... I dont think it makes any difference.

 

If the 1080p leaves things too small for your liking, you can always increase the DPI and effectively make everything larger, but still giving you the space when you need it.

Vista 64-bit is WAAAY better than XP's attempt at a 64-bit system, and I would say it's even better than Vista 32-bit. Vista has come a long way since its rough start, and let's be honest - XP was nothing phenomenal when it first came out either.

 

great, thank you guys. With the current discount on the big Studio 15 (canada), it's a done deal.

 

Excellent, I'm sure you'll be happy with it. I've heard nothing but fantastic things about the quality of the 1080p display.

 

definitely
900p at least
720p would blow on this beautiful screen

 

If you have the cash, 1080p; if not then 900p.
No sound blaster. I personally use a usb sound card, but then I have a 7.1 setup which my laptop would not cater for otherwise.
Vista 64 if you have 4GB+ of RAM or plan to upgrade to more at a later stage.

 

Damn... I found this forum a little too late.. I already ordered the 720 because I didn't think it would make a difference.

My laptop has been in production for the last 13 days... Is there anything I can do?
And how easy is the screen to upgrade on my own?

 

You can call Dell customer service and see if they can cancel your order, and start a new one.

Unfortunately, replacing the display is one of the most difficult and complex things you can do on a laptop. You have to disassemble pretty much the entire base, separate the hinges, then take apart the lid itself to remove the LCD panel.

 

Ugh.... I have been waiting for so long too.. Maybe I will call them up, the better screen would be worth it... I think.

Edit:
Well I called up Dell and requested a cancel. Thanks for the speedy response, Mastershroom. If I had waited another day, they might not have been able to cancel my order.

 

Worst case would have been you recieved laptop and sent it straight back - you are fully entitled to - but then they may charge a restocking fee.
Glad you got it cancelled in time anyway.

BTW, replacing a laptop screen is not that complex, but it is very time consuming, as Mastershroom says you have to strip away a large amount of notebook normally.

 

Time-consuming, that's the word I was looking for. It's a pretty fair-sized investment of time.

 

Haha.. that's great.

I'm sure the 720p screen won't be that bad. If you never see a 900 or 1080p on a studio 15... you will be happy because you won't know the difference.

 

Everything I've read says that it's not just a difference of resolution, but of overall display quality. Supposedly the 720p panels are made by Samsung, and have inferior brightness, color, and viewing angles. The 900p and 1080p displays are made by AUOptronics, and are allegedly much better and brighter, as well as having significantly greater viewing angles.

 

But i doubt the 720p is much, if any, inferior to a store bought, over the corner, computer from best buy....

either way... if you can... upgrade.

 

As it has been said before :

go for 1080p, trust me as i have an acer h233h 23" 1080p lcd monitor and the resolution is just amazing and great realestate....I know that im comparing a 15.6 " screen to a 23" screen but.....its just beautiful for movies, and if your notebook can handle it; games.

 

Hey,

I just received my Dell! Looks simple, but that's what I wanted. I would have liked some HDD activity leds, but hey, I have the processor and the video card so..

The only thing I noticed really easily on my first boot is the flickering of the screen in the right end side of the screen, more visible top-right. I can make it "invisible" if I have a wallpaper with good colors, but on the default wallpaper, it's visible enough to make me wonder if I have a problem with my screen. The left end is correct. The size of the flickering is approx. the size of the sidebar, but it was visible even when I was configuring the early parameters of the laptop on the first boot. By flickering, I mean like if the refresh rate was slow enough to see frames update.

So, my question is: is it normal because the screen is new and it will disappear once the screen has been working for some time? Or, do I have a problem with my screen? I put the laptop in the center of a room, changed the angle to see if it was an outside disturbance, no luck.

My girlfriend barely see it, but I definitly do.

Any ideas?
Thanks !!

PS: I tried to lower the resolution, same thing at the exact same place.

 

There's definitely something wrong there. You should not be able to see the display flickering. Odds are it's either an issue with the display itself, or the backlight.

Which display do you have? Have you tried adjusting the brightness settings?

 

sorry for taking long to answer. Finally this as settled the next day. I really tried to see the flicker and was not able to. It felt like the screen needed some time on.

The laptop is a gem. Works great, GREAT display (1080p), fast, efficient, wow.

Hey I do have a question... when it arrived, there was some kind of menu at the top of the screen with some icons like Music, Movies, etc... I formated and reinstalled Vista (cause I like to partition my drive always the same way) and I haven't been able to reinstall this app. I forgot to check what it was before formating. Any idea?

Thanks again !

 

Thats the Dell Dock, I think you could get it from one of the disks that came with your laptop. If not you should be able to get it online easily

 

http://www.delldock.com/

 

great thanks.

Hey, I thought my screen problem was away and it's not. I called Dell and I need to send the laptop. They will change the screen. That's a bummer

 

oh, and it's made by Stardock, one of the greatest company!! (GalCiv2, Sins, etc.)