FIRST EVER! Dell Studio 17 Laptop, Model 1737 Blu-ray Review

[pmac]

Originally Posted by rod442

Hi. Looking forward to your review.

I just ordered a studio 17 last week. Mines still in the "boxing" stage, with a projected delivery date of April 21 uggg . Hopefully thats wrong.

I am regretting not ordering it with a blu ray drive, and am looking for one I can order and install myself. When you get yours, can you let me know what drive dell puts in them?

Enjoy!

For april 21st, call them and cancel it then re-order, but you have to cancel it over the phone. I had a delay on our mini we ordered so I cancelled to update a feature or two, we received it sooner then the original estimate was expected. Or if cancelling doesnt work, just refuse delivery if it is really bugging you. then re-order. Getting these apart is not an easy task with all the wires I was unable to comfortably open the mini. So I just left it. but i think they forgot to install the Bluetooth adapter, so I need to send to the repair depot to verify or its a dud and in which case needs ot be replaced anyways.

[rod442]

Found out it shipped today, 04-04. Glad the website isn't all that accurate . Delivery looks to be happening on the 8th now. So, 2 weeks from order to delivery.

Thats a bummer about how difficult it is to replace the dvd drive. Hmmmm. I still might do it, if I can find the right drive at a reasonable price. Looks like they use a slot load optiarc 5000 (sony-nec?), or whatever.

Thanks for the info guys.

BTW, my build is a Studio 17, blue cover, P8600 2.4ghz, 4gb memory, 250GB 7200 rpm drive, RGB led screen, ati 3650, bluetooth, 5100 wireless, 9 cell battery. came in at 1167 plus tax.

Price was decent, I do wish there was a better graphics card option. I looked at a lot more choices, and anything that had better video, and the same features was $400-500+ more.

Also, I thought I had selected the 64bit OS, but my build sheet doesn't say. Ive got a copy of vista ultimate I can put on it anyway. I might do that the 1st day.

[BLindsay]

yeah i hope i get mine sooner, ordered it the 1st and it says i wont get it till like the 14th, its listed as in "production" right now. Pretty psyched to be getting a blu-ray burner in mine

[onehothemi]

Video's are going up tonight, I've been sick, so it sucks... Pictures as well. The unit is flawless. I liked the Dell media center software, but with the video card maxed out the interface for it was way to slow so I bought the latest version of powerdvd ultra and I've been running that for the past night and its sweet.

[Bobby Henderson]

I was interested in the Studio 17 notebook a few weeks back. The 1680 X 1050 display in my now old Dell Inspiron 6000 notebook died. So I went shopping around for new notebooks and the Studio 17 was high on the list.

One thing I don't like about that model: no eSATA port. Oddly, the Studio 15 has a combo USB/eSATA port. So it's extremely strange the higher priced 17" notebooks lack similar capability.

As luck would have it, a friend had some "decommissioned" Dell Latitude notebooks with 15.4" displays compatible with the Inspiron 6000. He shipped me a 1920 X 1200 part. It worked great.

Hopefully Dell will improve the kinds of connectors offered in its notebooks over the next 12-18 months. By then I'll probably be getting a new one loaded with Windows 7 64-bit and lots of hardware goodies, like a Blu-ray burner and a ridiculous amount of RAM.

[onehothemi]

The 1737 has full powered ESATA port on the left hand side and works perfectly along with 4 other USB 2.0 ports and a firewire port.

[onehothemi]

REVIEW IS ALL DONE, CHECK THE FIRST ORIGINAL POST!!! Thanks!