Dell Inspiron 17R Review

Dell Inspiron 17R Review

Review Summary:

The Dell Inspiron 17R offers great looks, good build quality, and impressive features with a low $499 starting price.

Pros

• Stylish looks
• Very good build quality
• Comfortable keyboard and touchpad

Cons

• Some options not available on all configurations

Dell Inspiron 17R Full Review

 

The newly designed Inspiron 17R is the latest 17.3-inch desktop-replacement notebook from Dell. Equipped with the Intel Core i3 and i5 processors with Intel GMA HD graphics, this budget-friendly system is aimed at the masses. In this review we take an in-depth look at this new system and see how it performs.

Our Dell Inspiron 17R (N7010) Specifications:

• Intel Core i3 370M processor (2.4GHz, 3MB cache)
• 17.3-inch 1600x900 display with LED backlighting
• Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
• 4GB DDR3 memory
• 500GB 5400rpm HDD
• Intel HD integrated graphics
• 10/100 Ethernet, 802.11n wireless, and Bluetooth
• 6-cell Li-ion 48Wh battery
• Dimensions: 16.54 x 10.87 x 1.24-1.38-inches
• Weight: 6.67lbs starting
• MSRP: $679

Build and Design
The newly redesigned Inspiron 17R offers a much cleaner and sleeker look and feel compared to past models. Similar to the Adamo-series, the layout has a hinge-forward design with the screen positioned just slightly in front of the back edge of the chassis. This has the added benefit of moving the screen closer to the keyboard and bringing the action to you. The outside appearance of the new 17R is very stylish, with a faux-brushed metal screen cover. The look gives the appearance of metal, although with an easier to clean painted surface. This look it also shared inside the notebook, with the palmrest and keyboard trim.

Build quality is great with a strong chassis and very durable feeling plastic. Even with its large footprint, the thin chassis resist flex and doesn't creak when you lift it up from the corners. The keyboard and palmrest both have more than adequate support, and don't sag under strong pressure. The screen cover has moderate protection for the LCD, with only strong pressure to the back of the panel causing ripples. The large 17.3-inch screen has no problem staying put with two strong hinges that get the display into position and hold it without any wiggle.

Users looking to upgrade the Inspiron 17R will find it easy through one access panel on the bottom of the notebook. With a few Phillips head screws removed, you gain access to the system memory and hard drive. Components like the wireless card and processor require more disassembly to get at.

Ports and Features
For a budget 17-inch desktop-replacement the Inspiron 17R offers plenty of inputs. We counted three USB 2.0 ports, one eSATA/USB connection, HDMI and VGA-out , audio jacks, and Ethernet. It also featured a SDHC-card reader, but an ExpressCard slot was missing.

Front: Activity lights	Rear: DC-input, one USB 2.0,  VGA-out, one USB 2.0
Left: One USB 2.0,  audio jacks, HDMI-out,  SDHC-card slot

Screen and Speakers
The main attraction to the Inspiron 17R is its large and rather spacious 17.3" display. The display comes in 1600x900 resolution only, with a glossy or glare-type surface. We didn't find the reflections or glare to be as bad as all-glass style panels, but it was still greater than matte finishes. For a budget system the screen rates slightly above average with a strong backlight, measuring a peak of 215nit with our Gossen Mavo-Monitor light meter. The brightness was a bit low for outdoor viewing, but worked quite well under bright office lighting.

We also measured screen contrast as being 215:1 with an average darkness of 0.98nit and minimal backlight bleed around the edges. Color quality was good, although maybe not as vivid as more recent multimedia-oriented systems. Vertical viewing angles were good to about 15-20 degrees before colors started to sharply invert. Horizontal viewing angles were better, staying true to about 60 degrees off-center before reflections started to overpower the panel.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard on the Inspiron 17R is a cross between a Chilet and standard keyboard. The tops of each key are flat with sharp edges, but instead of an inner-bezel they broaden out to meet the sides of other keys. This design is comfortable to type on, although it lacks some of the cupping that is nice to have to center your fingers over each key as you type. The layout is full-size with numberpad, which doesn't feel in any way cramped with the large width of this laptop. The only complaint I have with this keyboard are the directional keys, which are micro-sized for a keyboard this big. They are roughly equal in size to the function keys on the top row. I am guessing it was done this way to maximize the size of the palmrest and get users to use the numberpad for direction keys.

The touchpad is a spacious Synaptics model, which thankfully doesn't incorporate buttons below the touch-sensitive surface. The response times of the touchpad were excellent, exhibiting no lag whatsoever in our testing. The surface texture was a light matte finish that was easy to glide over with a dry or slightly damp fingertip. The touchpad supported multitouch gestures which worked well and with the external buttons, didn't interfere with normal operation of the cursor. The touchpad buttons offered shallow feedback, but they did have slightly more travel than other short-throw buttons. When pressed they emitted a very soft click that didn't make your presence known in a medium to large-sized room.

Right: Optical drive, eSATA/USB  combo port, LAN, Kensington lock slot

Performance and Benchmarks
System performance on the Dell Inspiron 17R was great thanks to the Intel Core i3 and i5 processor selection, as well as Intel GMA HD graphics. While our review sample was a budget-oriented configuration, Dell does offer a dedicated graphics option with the ATI Radeon HD5470 and 1GB of VRAM. On compatible systems this option adds $100 to the purchase price.

Overall we were very pleased with the performance of the 17R in our tests. Our base configuration included the Intel Core i3 370M with 4GB of DDR3 memory, and a 500GB 5400RPM hard drive. After a partial cleaning of pre-installed software, the system was quick to respond and handled most of the tasks we asked of it. The Inspiron 17R handles office productivity applications as well as any web-browsing without a problem. Although playing most modern games is out of the question with the Intel integrated graphics, the 17R had no trouble streaming HD video or playing locally stored 720P and 1080P videos.  For a "budget" system the Inspiron 17R offered plenty of power.

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

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

PCMark Vantage measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

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

CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
Throughout our testing the Inspiron 17R handled heat very well without excessive noise or hot spots. The large chassis handled the Intel Core i3 370M processor with its GMA HD graphics with ease, spreading out the thermal load over a large area. Under normal use the fan stayed off, only coming on in short bursts to cool the heatsink. The fan was very quiet at low speeds, and just above a whisper at high speed. Under a full load while performing benchmarks, the system reached a maximum of 88F on the top edge of the keyboard.

Battery Life
The Dell Inspiron 17R comes standard with a 48Wh 6-cell battery, which worked surprisingly well in our tests. An optional 9-cell 90WH battery is also offered with some configurations if you needed extended runtime. In our tests with the screen brightness reduced to 70%, wireless active and refreshing a webpage ever 60 seconds, and Windows set to the Balanced profile, the Inspiron 17R stayed on for 3 hours and 43 minutes. For a 17.3-inch notebook on a mid-sized battery this was a pretty good time and should easily get you through a few classes or meetings if you so desire.

Conclusion
For shoppers interested in an affordable 17-inch desktop replacement notebook, the Dell Inspiron 17R is a very good choice. Starting at $499, the 17R offers the latest Intel Core processors, Intel GMA HD integrated graphics, optional ATI HD4570 dedicated graphics, and optional Intel Wi-Di for viewing HD movies wirelessly. The new design looks great, with equally impressive build quality inside and out. The full-size keyboard was very comfortable to type on, with a design that crossed between standard and Chilet-style. Overall we were very impressed by all the features of the Inspiron 17R and highly recommend it if you are in the market for a large laptop.

Pros:

• Stylish looks
• Very good build quality
• Comfortable keyboard and touchpad

Cons:

• Some options not available on all configurations

Individual Ratings: *
Software & Support 
Upgrade Capabilities 
Usability 
Design 
Performance 
Features 
Price/Value Rating 

* Ratings averaged to produce final score