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Review of Dell Studio 15

Posted Dec 17, 2008 Laptopical.com

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Full review of Dell Studio 15

The Dell Studio 1537 is a beautifully designed laptop that manages to look good without sacrificing computing power or running up the starting price. Sporting a red lid and an overall smooth appearance, our 1537 came packed with an Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26GHz to go along with a 320GB HDD, 4GB RAM, and a dedicated 256MB ATI Radeon HD 3450 GPU. For a price that won't surpass 3 digits, the 1537 does an admirable job or satisfying you, your onlookers, and your wallet.

Design, Keyboard and Mouse

The look and feel of the Studio 1537 is stylishly smooth. The red lid features a shiny silver Dell logo in the center and is smooth to the touch. The screen is wide and glossy and there is a silver frame around the display as well as the black speakers and backlit keyboard, which creates a nice effect. Beyond being backlit, the keyboard also features a number of multimedia touch buttons and is full sized. The trackpad is comfortable to use and appears as only a slight depression in the palmrest. The Studio has a tapered front which helps avoid the boxy look, and reaches thinness of 1" in the front. However, it is about 1/3" deeper in the back, and our model shipped with a 9-cell battery which made it even bulkier. It's not so thick that it looks bad at all, it's simply not competing with the thinnest of thin laptops.

Connectivity

The 1537 comes with a solid array of connectivity options. For your high quality video needs you get HDMI as well as the older VGA, and for your data transfer needs there is mini FireWire in addition to 3USB ports and 1USB/eSATA. The Studio 1537 also comes with a nice looking slot loading DVD player, eliminating the need for unsightly trays, as well as 2 audio out jacks so that you and a friend can both listen at the same time. You can even connect through your fingers with the biometric fingerprint reader. Audio in, Ethernet, and wireless on/off switch (as well as a button for Dell's "WiFi Catcher") round out the remaining options.

Display

The display on the Studio is great, and the colors look sharp on the glossy screen. The display is LED backlit and extremely bright, making outdoor use possible even in direct sunlight. The viewing angles are excellent, especially from the sides or below. The only thing holding our Studio back was the rather average WXGA 1280x800 resolution, which is fine for most purposes but a little short of impressive.

Performance and Conclusion

With a score of 79 on Worldbench, the Studio 1537 fit in fairly well next to other multimedia laptops we tested. A score of 2845 PCMarks was a little less encouraging, and we had expected the notebook to do better. Still, overall we found the performance to be quite acceptable and when we remember we're getting a notebook with a few style points too it made it easier to cut the Studio some slack. With the 9 cell battery the battery life hit almost 6 hours, which is plenty. On the whole, the Studio is a beautifully designed and perfectly capable laptop for a price that won't break the bank.

Summary and Details

The Studio 15 from Dell is an affordable mid-range 15-inch laptop. Just like all other Dell laptops, you can customize it down to the smallest detail and the Studio 15 more so than others. It's even available in custom lid colors and patterns.

It can be configured with either lower-end Pentium Dual Core processors with a slower FSB, or the more efficient Core 2 Duo. The 256MB ATI Radeon 3450 is also an optional upgrade from the integrated Intel GMA; the 3450 is not the fastest graphics card on the market, but should be sufficient for games in low detail settings. Intel graphics are however not at all suited for gaming.

Another detail worth noting is that either a dedicated GPU or a fast processor is mandatory if you select the optional Blu-Ray player upgrade.

Dell Studio 15 Technical Specifications

  • Processor 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
  • Memory 4GB
  • Harddrive 320GB
  • OS Windows Vista Home Premium
  • Weight 6.11 lbs (w/ 9-cell battery)
  • Screen 15.4 in
  • Screen resolution 1280x800
  • Graphic Card ATI Mobility Radeon HD3450
  • Battery Life 6 hrs

Pros

  • Great value for money
  • Good battery life
  • Nice design
  • Pleasant display

Cons

  • A bit bulky
  • Slower than expected GPU

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  • By: Molly Aug 09, 2009 8:25 AM

    loved the laptop everything was great but after a week its eject button came on everytime i turned it on and it wouldnt go off for half an hour or so after it being on. This got really annoying when wanting to install anything, because it automatically would eject the disk and i would have to start over. Dell did everything, even changing the motherboard and nothing solved the problem, in the end had to get a refund from dell. If you get one without these hitches its great, but i find from friends who also have it if there a problem it never really gets solved.

  • By: Gabriel Jun 23, 2009 8:13 AM

    I received a dell studio 15, first impression : I was surprised by the absence of status led for hard drive, wifi and num/caps lock. It's really disturbing as we don't know if computer is "alive or not". Second point is the keyboard. I do not like special keys disposition. To access keys F1 F2 F3 etc.. we need to pass through button Fn. It's ennuying because I use to control apps thx to my keyboard, so good by alt f4, ctrl f1 etc... (not good bye, but more complicated).

  • By: asha.brahambhatt Jun 15, 2009 10:28 PM

    i like it to much any other colour for this.

  • By: Nicky May 24, 2009 5:12 AM

    I was given a studio 1537 as a gift and I love it! It looks great, the back lit keyboard is a surprisingly useful feature and the way the dvd drive and multi-media keys are laid out is slick. The mouse pad is off centre, which took a bit of getting used to. I haven't had any significant problems with my laptop (am 6 months into owning it). The only problem I've encountered is that the dvd drive occasionally decides to eject the disk of it's own accord (this is never when it's in use), even sometimes when no one is anywhere near the machine. Other than that - it's perfect and I wouldn't swap it for any of my other laptops!

  • By: Deborah May 18, 2009 10:26 AM

    I have the studio 1537. I love it have had no problems. This is my second Dell, wouldn't by anything else.

  • By: Lasy May 05, 2009 12:11 PM

    I like studio 15 very much because it has various of spesific using and I think want to own it but sory because it is expensive in Indonesia so how the way to buy it from other country,to get cheap price,thanks for u attantion.

  • By: Brian Apr 24, 2009 10:49 AM

    I have the same laptop...for those with too-quiet volume..un-install the sound card...let Windows re-find and install it's own drivers and this should resolve that issue. Let the rest of us know if that worked for you or not!

    My Specs: 500 Gig hard drive, 4 gig ram, P8600 Processor, DVD-RW, Webcam, Creative Sound..blah blah blah.

  • By: Mark Apr 14, 2009 12:43 AM

    Bought a Studio 15 with numerious upgrades. Have had it 4 weeks and have got only 4 days use out of it. Have not been able to get Dell to repair or replace it i.e., fullfill there warranty. Their warranty is useless. All they want to do is diagnose and not repair. $1,500 worth of useless junk laying on my desk. I am a victim of grand theft!

  • By: mark Feb 17, 2009 10:44 PM

    popping noise but not only with the headphones. the laptop speakers will produce the same noise but very hard to hear. also have problems with the soft touch multimedia keys, mostly the cd eject key. very annoying. im going on my fourth replacement.

  • By: kari Jan 09, 2009 2:16 AM

    bought the studio 1537, the 18th of dec 2008, turned it on first thing upon receiving, heard this popping noise the longer it was on the louder it became,, called dell, they sent me a replacement and had it not even a week same thing happened called dell again and just returned it for refund so i can buy a good one this time,, dell told me it should have a recall on it because same problem on alot of theses studio 1537 ,,, never deal with dell again!!!!

  • By: eddie Dec 19, 2008 5:27 PM

    Its look nice

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