Dell Studio 14z Review

by Jerry Jackson

Dell'slatest premium 14-inch consumer notebook,the Dell Studio 14z, promises to give students everything they want in a high-performance notebook for the back-to-school season. The Studio 14z is indeed the thinnest and lightest 14-inch notebook Dell has ever produced and promises more than 6 hours of battery life, but you might have to make a few sacrifices. Keep reading to discover what we found after spending a few weeks with the Studio 14z.

Dell Studio 14z Specifications:

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 (2.4GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 3MB L2 cache)
• OS: Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64 bit)
• Memory: 3GB Shared DDR3 at 1066MHz
• Storage: 320GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9400M G
• Screen: 14.0” High Definition (1600 x 900) LED Display with TrueLife
• Software: 15-month McAfee SecurityCenter subscription, Microsoft Works
• Other: Ruby Red lid, LED Backlit keyboard
• Wireless: Dell 1515 Wireless N
• Battery: 8-cell 74Whr Li Ion Battery
• Dimensions: 0.79"-1.2" x 13.2" x 9.0" (H x W x D)
• Weight: 4 lbs, 9 oz
• Retail Price as configured: $979

Build and Design
The design of the Studio 14z looks extremely similar to the Studio 15, but Dell managed to make this notebook much thinner and lighter ... thanks in no small part to the removal of the optical drive. At first glance, the lack of a built-in optical drive might seem to be a disadvantage, but most students and mobile users will confess that they rarely use an optical drive when away from a desk. You can, of course, purchase a matching external optical drive (DVD burner or DVD burner/Blu-ray player) ... just in case you need it when you're working at the office.

The notebook chassis is constructed from a combination of plastics and magnesium alloy for a balance of light weight and durability, and I have no doubt the Studio 14z can survive several years of use and abuse by college students, although I'd feel better about the build quality if the plastic palmrests where made of magnesium alloy instead.

When closed theStudio 14zfeels nice and thin, but the weight of the 8-cell battery in our review unit makes the notebook feel like it's a little too heavy in the rear. The Ruby Red screen lid features a nice thickmatte paint with a rubberized texture that should hold up over the years of travel to and from classes. The screen lid shows signs of obvious flex under strong pressure, but I wasn't able to create any screen ripples when pressing on the back.

The Dell Studio 14z is currently available with your choice of colors including, Black Chain Link, Midnight Blue, Promise Pink, Spring Green, Plum Purple, and Ruby Red. Dell will also donate $5 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure from the purchase of each Promise Pink laptop. Starting in September the Dell Design Studio will offer the Studio 14z in your choice of more than 120 different designs, so you won't have to worry about owning a laptop that looks identical to a classmate's notebook.

The bottom of the notebook features the battery anda singleaccess plates that must be removed in order to upgrade the RAM. My only frustration here is that you haveno easy access tothe hard drive, so be prepared to completely disassemble the notebook if you want to upgrade the hard drive on your own.

Screen and Speakers
The 14-inch high-definition panel on the Dell Studio 14z easily rates as one of the better screens we've seen with vibrant colors, excellent contrast, and good viewing angles. The LED backlighting in our review unit is pretty even and offers a range of brightness settings. Yes, it is a 16:9 screen ratio, but this is starting to become standard for all notebooks andDell was wise enough to offer the Studio 14zwith a higher resolution 1600x900 display like the one in our review unit. Horizontal viewing angles are extremely good, so you won't have any trouble sharing a movie with a friend or two. Upper vertical viewing angles are a little better than average since the colors don't wash out too much when viewed from above, butcolors begin to distort and invert as you move the screen back.

At first glance the two tiny speakers located above and to either side of the keyboard on the Studio 14z look weak and pathetic. Most people would expect speakers like these to produce weak, tinny sound ... but we'll forgivethose peoplefor jumping to conclusions. In fact, the Dell Studio 14z includes four stereo speakers: the two tiny speakers located above the keyboard that direct sound up and two larger speakers located beneath the palmrests that direct sound down. The two smaller speakers focus on the high frequencies while the two larger speakers are tuned for the midtones and bass. The sound isn't quite as impressive as what you'll hear from two large speakers and a dedicated subwoofer, but this is easily the best sound quality we've heard on any 14-inch notebook. Bottom line, if you don't need to fill an entire room with sound for a party then external speakers are NOT needed with this notebook. The built-in speakers perform surprisingly well.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard on our review unit has full-sized keys with good key spacing and an excellentdepth tothe key throw. Each key has a textured black finish and a relatively flat surface. More importantly, the keyboard is available with optional backlighting for easy typing in a dark classroom or dorm room. The only complaint that I have with the keyboard on the Studio 14z is the surprising amount of flex across the entire width of the board. Even when typing with minimal pressure the keyboard bounces and flexes as you type. If you apply heavy pressure then the keyboard almost feels like a trampoline. Considering that theStudio 14z doesn't have an optical drive to create an empty cavity beneath the keyboard we were very surprised to find this much keyboard flex while typing.

On the other hand, if you can overlook the keyboardflexthis really is a very nice keyboard.

The multi-touch, gesture-based touchpad is reasonably large for a thin and light 14-inch notebook and the dual touchpad buttons have deep feedback with quiet clicks. The touchpad itself is an ALPS model that uses Dell proprietary touchpad drivers. I'm not a fan of the Dell touchpad drivers, but the touchpad was reasonably responsive with good sensitivity and very little lag.

Ports and Features
The port selection on theStudio 14z is a bit of a mixed bag. Dell included three USB ports, one of which isa combo USB/eSATA port, as well as FireWire and an ExpressCard/34expansion slot.If you have a new external monitor or HDTV thenyou'll also bepleased to hear that the Studio 14z includes both HDMI and DisplayPort for digital video and audio output. Unfortunately, Dell madethree sacrifices with the Studio 14z that might be problematic depending on what your needs happen to be.As previously mentioned, there's no built-in optical drive, so forget about watching DVDs or installing software from a installation disk unless you're usingan external optical drive. Second, Dell forgot to include a built-in SD card reader with the Studio 14z. Dell does offer an optional SD card reader that fits inside the ExpressCard slot, but it's 2009 ... every laptop should have a built-in SD card slot. The lastthing you mightfind missing on the Studio 14z is the lack of a standard VGA port. Granted, most new monitors and HDTVs use either HDMI or DisplayPort, but there are stillmany projectors that require a VGA port. Considering that many students might need to use this notebook to show a presentation in class it seems odd that there's no VGA port for a classroom projector.

Front: Nothing here

Rear: Screen hinges and battery

Left: Kensington lock slot, Ethernet, USB, heat vent, DisplayPort, and HDMI

Right: ExpressCard/34, dual headphone jacks, microphone jack, FireWire, USB/eSATA combo port, USB, and power jack

<!--nextpage--><!--pagetitleell Studio 14z Performance, Battery Life and Conclusion-->

Performance
The performance of the Studio 14zwith an Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 processor and Nvidia GeForce 9400M G graphics is quite goodfor a mobilemultimedia notebook. It's worth mentioning that our review configuration of the Dell Studio 14z has very similar specs to the 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro but our performance benchmarks suggest the Dell has better performance for less than the price of the MacBook Pro.

System performance is excellent considering the sub-$1,000 price. The Nvidia 9400M graphics offer superiorvideo playback and gamingwhen compared to Intel integrated graphis. With an average 3DMark06 score of more than 2,200 3DMarks, it is comparable to low-end dedicated options and can handle previous generation games with some tweaking of the resolution and detail settings. In our test of the game Portal, the Studio 14z delivered 39-45 frames per second (FPS) at 1280x800 resolution on high settings looking through a single portal. Looking through no portals the framerate would be as high as 60FPS, and if you were looking through two it would drop down to about 23-25FPS.

Indeed,the $649 starting price of the Studio 14z starts to look even better when you consider the Nvidia graphics performance and large storage drive options. Unlike netbooks that usually feature no more than a 160GB hard drive, the Studio 14z is available with up to a 500GB hard drive that can store a full music library of up to 125,000 songs, 142,000 photos or 133 DVD quality movies. The 320GB hard drive in our review unit offers a good balance of performance, storage capacity, and price.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

HP Pavilion dv4t (Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 @ 2.8GHz)	26.972 seconds
Dell Studio 14z (Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 @ 2.4GHz)	31.713 seconds
Toshiba Satellite E105 (Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 @ 2.26GHz)	33.961 seconds
Apple MacBook Pro 13 (Core 2 Duo P8400 @ 2.26GHz)	34.209 seconds
Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 (Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 @ 2.26GHz)	34.628 seconds
Lenovo IdeaPad Y450 (Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 @ 2.0GHz)	38.125 seconds
Sony VAIO CS (Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 @ 2.0GHz)	38.314 seconds

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

HP Pavilion dv4t (2.8GHz Intel T9600, NVIDIA 9200M GS 256MB)	5,463 PCMarks
Dell Studio 14z (2.4GHz Intel P8600, NVIDIA 9400M G)	5,370 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 (2.26GHz Intel P8400, NVIDIA 9300M GS 256MB)	5,173 PCMarks
Toshiba Satellite E105 (2.26GHz Intel P8400, Intel 4500MHD)	4,836 PCMarks
Sony VAIO CS (2.0GHz Intel T6400, Intel X4500)	4,428 PCMarks
Lenovo IdeaPad Y450 (2.0GHz Intel T6400, Intel 4500MHD)	4,143 PCMarks
Apple MacBook Pro 13 (2.26GHz Intel P8400, Nvidia 9400M)	4,136 PCMarks

3DMark06 measures video and gaming performance (higher scores mean better performance):

Dell Studio 14z (2.4GHz Intel P8600, NVIDIA 9400M G)	2,233 3DMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 (2.26GHz Intel P8400, NVIDIA 9300M GS 256MB)	2,211 3DMarks
Apple MacBook Pro 13 (2.26GHz Intel P8400, Nvidia 9400M)	2,139 3DMarks
HP Pavilion dv4t (2.8GHz Intel T9600, NVIDIA 9200M GS 256MB)	1,741 3DMarks
Toshiba Satellite E105 (2.26GHz Intel P8400, Intel 4500MHD)	1,030 3DMarks
Sony VAIO CS (2.0GHz Intel T6400, Intel X4500)	899 3DMarks
Lenovo IdeaPad Y450 (2.0GHz Intel T6400, Intel 4500MHD)	811 3DMarks

All of the 3DMark06 scores for all of the systems listed above were run at 1280 x 800 resolution (for 16:10 ratio screens) or 1280 x 768 resolution (for 16:9 ratio screens).

HDTune storage drive performance results:

Battery
With the screen brightness set to 70%, wireless active, and the Vista power profile set to "Balanced" theStudio 14zstayed on for 4 hours and 58 minutes. For use in the classroom or on your lap in front of the TV this amount of battery life was fine, but it may be cutting it close for all-day traveling. The 8-cell 5400mAh 74Wh battery seems to do a pretty acceptable job for 14-inch laptop, but this isn't even close to Dell's claim of "more than 6 hours of battery life."

Heat and Noise
The cooling system does a reasonablyimpressive job keeping the external temperatures down. After extended periods of use the right palmrest gets quite warm and the bottom of the notebook near the hard drive and RAMget warm, but temperatures remain well below 100 degreesFahrenheit. The temperature readings below were taken after stressing the system with performance benchmarks for 30 minutes and should reflect typical external temperatures after more than an hour of serious use.

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Noise levels are fairly quiet when running on battery as the fan produces a constant weak "hum" as hot air is pushed out. The fan gets louder when the laptop is set to the "high performance" power profile under Microsoft Vista and was plugged into the AC adapter, but the fan should only benoticeable by others in a very, VERY quiet room.

Conclusion
TheDell Studio 14z is an impressive 14-inch notebook that arrives just in time to give students (and parents) something to consider for back-to-school season.If your childoryourfamily is looking for aconvenient laptop for general use then the Studio 14z can handle just about anything you throw at it. The overall price/performance ratio makes theStudio 14z one of the more impressivenotebooks on the market if you're looking for something with a 14-inch screen. The nice design, great sounding speakers and a gorgeous screen make the Studio 14z a touch act to follow.

That said, theStudio 14zhas some strong competition from notebooks like the Lenovo IdeaPad Y450 and the popular HP Pavilion dv4t. The fact that the Studio 14z lacks an optical drive, SD card slot, and standard VGA port means that some potential buyers will need to look elsewhere.Likewise, the keyboard flex was more than a little disappointing. Still, if you wantan alternative to the MacBook Pro that is both attractiveand reasonably powerful then the Studio 14zmakes asolid choice.

Pros:

• Attractive design
• Good overall performance for the price
• Great screen and speakers

Cons:

• No optical drive
• No standard VGA port
• No standard SD card slot

Related Articles:

• Dell Inspiron 14 First Look[/URL]
• Dell Studio 14z First Look[/URL]
• Dell Inspiron 1420 Review[/URL]

 

I would trade my Inspron 1420 for that in a heart beat. But no VGA is real killer, at school VGA ports will be around for many years (slow turn around in tech).

But it would be good to recommend another way to connect to a vga port if there is a way.

 

Really, the only "convenient" way to get VGA would be with a USB-to-VGA converter box like this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815101003

 

And I could imagine the SD card reader issue could be resolved with a USB or ExpressCard solution.
This seriously looks and sounds like the new student's best friend - good battery life, great media capabilities, and gaming thanks to that GeForce 9400M G.
The only weird thing is the memory configuration - 3GB or 5GB of DDR3. Huh?

 

Indeed. As mentioned in the review, Dell offers a SD card reader that fits into the ExpressCard slot, but then you lose the ExpressCard slot. Dell could have fit an SD card slot in the front of the notebook considering that there are no ports or switches on the front edge of the notebook.

 

I was pretty impressed with the solid build of the 14z and I definitely think it looks attractive, the look is much like the XPS M1330. However, I think I'd go with the XPS M1330 simply because I'm old fashioned and like an optical drive (the XPS M1330 slot loading is especially nice), VGA port and yes media card reader. In fact, if they'd have taken the XPS M1330 body and put in an Nvidia 9400 and called that the Studio 13z I'd call that a better option. I was surprised the 14z wasn't thinner and lighter than what it is given there's no optical drive, it's not a whole lot thinner than most other 14-inch laptops.

 

In many cases, students don't connect their notebook directly to the projector. The most common setup I've seen is for a projector to be built into a classroom, and then a single cable runs from the projector to a convenient location (podium or whatever).

The room's projector could be brand-new and festooned with every port imaginable, but there's still that one cord running out from it. Displayport might catch on, but students in college @ Fall 2009 would probably be better off with VGA (presentations) and HDMI (dorm room fun) than DisplayPort and HDMI.

 

Well it could just be my school but I as using VGA up till the last day and that was with the new projectors and for availability it is still the majority.

 

Nice review.

No optical Drive!?!? wow and no card slot, kinda sad for such a nice laptop

 

@Clutch: I think we're 100% in agreement. Definitely, a lot of classroom will have older technology. In those cases, it's VGA or nothing. I was just pointing out that even when colleges expand, build new classrooms, and purchase new projectors with 'modern' connectivity, they're still going to be under pressure to choose a single, standard cable to run. And that's still probably going to be VGA. I wouldn't buy a notebook for college without it. It's a shame, b/c the 14z looks like it ticks just about all of the boxes.

@Jerry:Yike, is that contraption really the best way? You can't just spend a couple bucks for a dongle (similar to what MacBook users have to use) at someplace like monoprice? Sheesh.

edit: I wonder if this would work:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10428&cs_id=1042801&p_id=5135&seq=1&format=2

 

To establish whether it can reach 6 hours it would have to be put in Energy saver, as you probably know.

If you get 5 hours on Balanced, chances are it reaches over 6 in Energy saver.

 

Maybe nitpicking but the HDtune results are rather peculiar. Maybe the OS was hard at work accessing something, hence the abnormally high access time?

 

That's the first time I've seen one of those. It should work, though I've never used one before. Sad that Dell doesn't include such an adapter with the Studio 14z ... or at least make it an optional accessory when you place your order online.

 

Lots of flex in the keyboard, eh?

That kinda killed it interest wise for me. I like strong and sturdy keyboards in a laptop.

Is having no vga port a relatively "new" thing? I can't recall ever hearing of that before....

 

Dont waste your money. Crippled 16:9 .. 1600 x 900 screen

 

These notebook are nice for the money.

The 9400 G also has some pretty good performance. I'm surprised they havent changed to the G105 yet.

 

I think this is one of the only cases where I would prefer a 16:9 screen - the 16:9 1600x900 screen fits into a profile of 13.2" x 9.0" versus, for example, the T400's profile of 13.2" x 9.4", which has instead a 16:10 1440x900 screen. In effect, you are gaining horizontal pixels without losing vertical pixels in a chassis that is about the same size as a 16:10 14" laptop.

If I were in the market for a notebook, and business laptops were barred, I would probably choose the Studio 14z. I really wish more laptops cut out the optical drive, especially 14" and below - it makes room for more ports and cooling vents, which, in my opinion, are worth much more than a CD drive that you use pretty much only when you are at a desk.

Great review, Jerry!

 

How is this crippled? The highest resolution on this 14" is 1600x900, while the previous maximum was 1440x900. If the resolution was actually reduced to say,
1440x810, then we would have a problem.

 

I think some people just will never accept the fact the industry has moved to widescreen and we're never going back. Relative to other offerings, the 14z laptop definitely can't be knocked for its screen and resolution. I'd definitely go with the 900p and avoid the 720p when you configure, for $50 (I believe the upgrade cost) it's worth every penny. You can definitely fit a couple of windows next to each other on the screen and be more productive.

 

Widescreen was the 16:10. This is even wider screen.

Maybe, but can you actually read them? By my reckoning, 1600 x 900 @ 14" is 131 pixels per inch (ppi) which is smaller than 1680 x 1050 @ 15.4" (128ppi) whereas 1440 x 900 @ 14.1" is 120ppi. I know that my eyes can't handle the 128ppi so 131 ppi is even worse. So I would end up needing to get a 15.6" 1600 x 900 (117ppi) except that I find the bigger notebook inconveniently large for travelling.

John

 

I don't think 16:9 is making me more productive. It's making me scroll more

I agree 1600*900 is quite nice. But I'd rather have 1680*1050.

 

Oh, I'm not arguing that widescreen and the progression to 16:9 is a good thing, I'm just saying due to screen makers and industry decisions we're not going back to standard screen so regardless of whether you like widescreen or not, higher resolution is the only way to overcome what turns out to be a less productive screen orientation (outside of rotating your laptop to be oriented like a tablet). Of course, higher resolution only helps if your eyes can take it as John says.

 

this laptop is not comparable with the 13" macbook pro as it has not cd/dvd drive which we, students use quite a lot. lack of vga port(apple users still have the display port), 13.3" vs 14.1"..the mac is made up of aluminum.. the mac is loads better..

 

MBP 13" is a great notebook, with a better touchpad and better build quality. But Dell has some advantages over the MBP: Starting configuration is cheaper, 1600*900 resolution, up to T9550 CPUs and HDMI.

I own a 13" MBP, but I would gladly take a Studio 14z with 1600*900 instead.

 

It is comparable in that if someone were comparing PC vs Apple, this is, undoubtebly on the informed consumer's checklist of PC's to look at. What does "loads better" mean? I love loading 45 virtual windows to run my applications better.

 

So the macbook doesn't get points off for having a mini-displayport which needs an adapter? What? And the aluminum is honestly a preference thing, I'm begining to think it's actually not that important.

IMO, 14.1" is a better tradeoff compared to a 13.3". Just the right amount of screen space, and size.

Plus, for the model they used in this review (which is still below the starting cost of a MBP 13" I might add), it has more hard drive space, more ram, a faster CPU, a higher resolution screen, and decent battery life that may almost be comparable.

 

Luke must've missed the fact that our 14z's actually have nicer video-out options as compared to the MBP 13". We get the (non mini) DisplayPort AND an HDMI

 

I am considering buying this notebook because it sounds great for what I am looking for. My only concern is that in the winter I bought a NEW mini 10 and experienced hardware problems from the beginning. Dealing with dell was the biggest pain in the butt ... I ended up having a new system sent out to me, selling it on craigslist, and swearing off dell saying Id never buy from them again.
What is everyones experience with their dell systems? Maybe i just got a bad one..
I really want to buy this computer but I am apprehensive of purchasing from dell again. I feel as though their customer service sucks and I had troubles with my brand new system from the beginning! What kinda computer is that!
Please let me know what you think of dell and also if youve had the studio 14z for awhile... if youve had any problems with the hard ware, any freeze ups... not starting... or anything like that.
Thanks!

 

Wanna trade?

 

In case you're serious: What config do you have?

Here in the Netherlands we can't get the Studio 14z.

 

the mac costs 300$ more.

 

Jesus christ this review took FOREVER.... But thanks

 

you reek of fanboyism

 

why keyboard flex is not listed under cons?
IMHO that is one of the bigest flaws in notebook, which is designed
for college student...

 

FInally a review on such a popular laptop around here. Most people on the WNSIB suggest this one, and we finally have the review.

Thanks a lot! It looks like a very nice laptop for the money!

 

It's still a very nice keyboard despite the flex. While typing, I don't notice or feel it flexing it all. Usually when trying out other laptops I feel a slight awkwardness, but with the 14z everything felt natural.

 

The only keyboard flex I've noticed was around the vbn keys and everywhere else is barely noticeable. This is my first lappy so I don't have much experience with latop keyboards, I thought it was just a solid board. Everyone that's used it though has complimented the feel of the board or the brightness and definition of the screen or both . Having a high res screen isn't an eye strain when you have dynamic scaling in all of your major browsers and Vista has a very thorough DPI scaling/resolution independence. Change one setting, restart your computer and all is well.

 

well, yes. but I fear that if keyboard already flexes when laptop is new, then with time it only will get worse - I had such situation with my old hp omnibook.
but maybe there will be no problem at all.

 

Is it true the 9400M G is getting dated? Still, for the price tag, the performance is great! performance/price ratio is great on this laptop

 

The 9400M G performed much better than I expected! This laptop is pretty much on par with my old computer (3700+, 7600GT). I've tested the following games:

• Bioshock: 30FPS, medium
• Call of Duty 4: 30-40FPS, medium-high
• Counter-Strike: Source: 50-60FPS, high
• Crysis: 20-30FPS, low-medium
• F.E.A.R.: 50FPS, high
• GTA: San Andreas: 50FPS, high
• Runes of Magic, 40FPS, medium-high (WoW should perform similarly)
• Street Fighter IV: 50-60FPS, low-medium
• Team Fortress 2: 40FPS, medium-high
• The Sims 3: 30FPS, medium-high

For light-medium gaming it's perfect.

The 16:9 resolution is very nice. It's pretty convenient having Microsoft Word + a PDF or Photoshop + Firefox open side-by-side. It makes multi-tasking easier because of the extra horizontal screen estate... Less alt tabbing and clicking between programs. Not to mention it's pleasant to the eyes.

Also on power saver mode, I get the stated 6hrs of battery life. It's showing 3:20 right now at 50% battery.

 

The 16:9 display is a matter of personal preference. I would rather have 16:10, but if the 900P works for you fine, then it is great to hear that you are pleased with your laptop.

How about keyboard flex? The review states that is almost as typing on a trampoline...do you notice this on yours?

 

Anyone know if this machine will be released in Europe yet?
I've tried talking to dell support in both the U.S, UK and Norway but to no avail.

It's really annoying as this machine, with it's price matches my need's perfectly.

 

9400m in my M17x gets 8 FPS on high @ 1900 res in the RE 5 benchmark


thanks for the review and some one beat me with they fan boy comment about the mac

 

Can Notebook Review get the specs right?


Weight.

According to Dell site:
Weight: Starting weight of 4.30 lbs8 (1.95 kg) (14.0" HD display, 6 cell battery

So, this tested 8-celler should be even heftier.

 

4.3lbs to oz is 68.8 ounces
1lb=16 ounces(oz)
4lb, 9 oz=64 oz+9 oz=73 ounces total for the review unit, so isn't that heftier?


Anyway, thanks for the review, JerryJ. Glad to see that they didn't include a IMO useless Optical drive. With emulation software, I rarely use my optical drive(one reason, I am glad I decided to go with an ancient D410).


Though with a larger notebook, they could have decided to use an optical bay slot along with a caddy to hold an extra hdd or sdd, but I guess thin and light was a priority.

 

For those of you that are complaining of lack of VGA out:

This computer has Displayport!

Step 1. Stop complaining
Step 2. Go out and get a Displayport to VGA adaptor
Step 3. Use your outdated monitor with your new 14z

You can also do Displayport to DVI, and Displayport to HDMI (dual hdmi display?).

The MacBook has used a proprietary mini Displayport for some time now, and it hasn't stopped mac owners from using their machines with external screens; old or new.


YARR!
}:^)~
Zappit'an