Dell Studio 14z: A cool 14-inch for the back to school season
Monday, 15 August 2011
15:12
Labels: 13 inch macbook pro , 16:9 , apple macbook , back to school , dell , dell 14 inch laptop , dell laptops , dell studio , Dell Studio 14 inch , dell studio 14z , Laptops
Labels: 13 inch macbook pro , 16:9 , apple macbook , back to school , dell , dell 14 inch laptop , dell laptops , dell studio , Dell Studio 14 inch , dell studio 14z , Laptops
Read on if you are in the market for a sub $1000 laptop with a $649 entry point that is a solid all round performer and perfect for students.
The Dell Studio 14z looks similar to the Studio 15z but is much lighter and thinner than it. That is thanks mainly to the fact that the 14z does not have an optical drive. Now a lot of people will see the lack of an optical as a negative but the fact of the matter is that most people these days hardly ever use optical media. They either use the Internet or a flash drive or even an external storage for transporting and storing their data. Thus, in the modern age a laptop lacking an optical drive is not a big deal. Users like students who are always on the move hardly ever use it when they have WiFi, Mobile broadband and USB sticks at their disposal. If you really need an optical drive, you can always get a matching external one from Dell.
The 14z’s chassis is a great blend of plastic and magnesium alloy to provide a good balance between lightweight, durability and rigidity. The strong chassis will help it survive through long-term abuse at the hands of the students. However, the interiors are not magnesium alloy.
In the closed position the notebook looks and feels quite thin. Since it has a large 8-cell battery at the rear and an overall light chassis, the rear end feels heavier than it should. This makes the laptop feel a bit unbalanced.
The lid has a nice thick matte finish with a rubberized surface that is meant to stay on through a lot of travel that the laptop will see in its time. The reviewers note that the lid is not strong enough to withstand pressure being applied to it and does flex a bit. However, the thickness apparently keeps it from reaching the screen, which remains distortion free.As is usual with school laptops, the 14z is available in multiple colors. Dell specializes in this because almost all the recent Dells laptops that I have reviewed come in a positive rainbow range of colors. Dell also intends to start offering about 120 designs this September onwards so that people can have more variety in their laptops. Also to be noted that $5 from the purchase of every pink colored 14z (Promise Pink) will given to the Susan G. Komen for Cureorganization.
At the bottom of the notebook there is the battery and the access panels for upgrading your Studio 14z. When I say panels however, I mean that you have the battery panel and a panel to access the RAM. There is absolutely no easy access to the hard drive or other components, which can cause some amount of vexation amongst the customers. This was probably done to safeguard the components but it also means that you will have to open up the entire bottom casing to upgrade the hard drive.
Cheaper notebooks in comparison like yesterday’s Lenovo G550 have more access panels than this but may not be as securely built.
The 14z has a decent 14-inch screen and is definitely one of the better screens in the market. It has great color that pops out, text is rendered very well, there is a good amount of contrast and it has good viewing angles. That is more or less all you need from a decent laptop screen. It has a high native resolution of 1600×900, giving it a proper 16:9 aspect ratio and a good amount of screen real estate. Reviewers report that the side-ways viewing angles are quite good and hence it would be great for watching movies with friends. The vertical viewing angles aren’t all that above average but most people will not be bothered by it.Most users will notice the tiny speakers on the two upper corners above the keyboard and will not think much of them. Well, the14z actually has four speakers and those two are the ones that point upwards and handle the higher frequencies. The ones that handle the lower frequencies are pointed downwards and are larger. The sound will not rival larger standalone speakers but will give you a better sound quality than what you would expect from a laptop.
The keyboard on the 14z has comfortably spaced keys that are large and textured. They have good travel and muted clicks and should make for comfortable typing. There is an optional LED backlighting upgrade for the keyboard, which should help students with all-nighters and late night chatting. The keyboard however is not the strongest and reviewers have noted some bounce even under minimal typing pressure. Other than it is a nice keyboard. The touchpad is a decent one with good tracking and sensitivity.The 14z has 3 USB 2.0 ports with one being a combo eSATA/USB port, 1 FireWire, 1 ExpressCard/34, HDMI and DisplayPort but no VGA port. There is also no SD card reader, which is more of a let down than the lack of a VGA port. An optional upgrade puts the card reader in the ExpressCard slot. It also has a Kensington lock to keep the laptop safe.
The 14z runs on an Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 processor (2.4GHz, 1066Mhz FSB, 3MB L2 cache). It has 3GB shared DDR3 1066Mhz RAM and 320GB SATA HDD at 5400rpm. An Nvidia GeForce 9400M G handles the graphics. It has a good overall performance and performs better than the new 13-inch Apple MacBook, which has a similar configuration but a higher price. The 8-cell battery is supposed to give 6 hours of runtime at the cost of a few performance cuts when you switch to power saving mode.
This configuration will cost you $979 and the 14z starts from $649 with quite a bit of the goodness intact at the entry point. It is a great laptop for anyone who wants solid build, durability and performance for a good price.
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