Inspiron 17r special edition laptop reviews

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In this article… 1. Verdict 2. This laptop is not really bigger and thicker than midprice desktop-replacement laptops from a couple of years ago.

What has changed, however, is what the rest of the laptop market looks like, as well as consumers' expectations for laptops across all sizes and price ranges. Today's laptop shopper is inundated with messages about ultrabooks and other slim laptops, with superthin designs moving from inch models into and inch or larger territory.

As on the Inspiron 17R SE, the 17R's keyboard is Dell's standard variation on the flat-topped, widely spaced, island-style keyboard found in most current laptops. In the Dell version, the keys have more rounded corners than most, and the top row of function keys is half-height. The current Dell XPS laptops have essentially the same keyboard, but with a slightly more stylized font on the letter keys.

The keys feel tight and responsive, but there's still a good deal of flex in the middle. The touch pad is big enough to be useful on a inch laptop, but still includes separate left and right mouse buttons. You'll have to trade up to the more expensive XPS line to get a full buttonless clickpad. Gestures such as two-finger scroll worked, but not as smoothly as on a MacBook. Dell's proprietary software dock, called Stage, is here, and by default includes tiles linking to your music, photo, and video collections, as well as tiles for paid services such as Zinio for magazines and WildTangent for games.

The size, position, and types of tiles can be adjusted in the settings menu, or you can simply send the entire thing away. As is, it's inoffensive, but it may be obsolete in the coming Windows 8 world. The The native resolution is 1,x pixels, instead of the 1,x1, pixels in the 17R SE model and most other desktop-replacement laptops.

Onscreen text and images can be overly large, cartoonishly so at times, and you won't be able to fit as many browser windows or photos on the screen at once. Compared with the matte finish on the 17R SE's screen, this one was glossy, with that slightly wavy reflective quality found in less expensive displays.

Side by side, there was a clear difference in image quality, with the more expensive SE version of the 17R having a brighter, more colorful screen, even with the brightness turned all the way up on both. A quick-launch button above the keyboard launches a series of audio presets from Waves, a company known for its sound plug-ins, but don't expect miracles.

It ran our very tough Metro test at 1,x1, pixels at Anecdotally, I was able to run Modern Warfare 3 smoothly at full resolution, with graphics settings on high. No one expects a desktop-replacement laptop to run for very long on its internal battery. Given that plus the power-hungry high-end components and the modest price, I'm surprised it can run for more than 2 hours.

It actually lasted for just under 3 hours on our video playback battery drain test, at That's longer than many big-screen laptops, but gaming and other intensive tasks would certainly shorten the time. Dell's higher-end XPS laptops include extras such as accidental damage protection and LoJack service. The more basic Inspiron plan does include on-site service, which is welcome, but only 90 days of what Dell calls premium phone support, which it claims means shorter wait times.

If you buy a Dell Inspiron 17R SE, no one is going to see it and marvel at your aesthetic sensibilities or experience serious tech envy. But, you'll at least be secure in the knowledge that gadget beauty is only skin-deep, and you've assembled a powerful set of components for a few hundred dollars less than some slicker, thinner machines with similar specs.

Find out more about how we test laptops. Dan Ackerman. The thick, inelegant body won't impress anyone. Dell's Inspiron 17R SE packs reasonably high-end parts into a budget-feeling chassis, saving a few hundred dollars or more over similarly configured laptops.

Multimedia multitasking test in seconds Shorter bars indicate better performance. Maingear EX-L 15 Dell Inspiron 15R SE Dell XPS 15 Adobe Photoshop CS5 image-processing test in seconds Shorter bars indicate better performance.

Dell Inspiron 17Rse - BK Apple iTunes encoding test in seconds Shorter bars indicate better performance.