I am usually one to be skeptical about big ticket refurb items, but I have been nothing but happy with refurbished Dell systems. They are all I have bought laptop-wise for the past few years because you can get much more bang for your buck.
I did have some problems with my last refurb Inspiron a couple months ago, but Dell kindly replaced it with a top of the line Studio XPS at no extra cost to me, and all I had was the factory warranty. Now I am sitting with a $1400 computer, and the one I only spent $550 on my original one!
It seems that it is about 6-8 hours on this laptop. That saying you aren’t doing anything that takes a lot of computing to do. If you are just surfing the web or writing a paper, you’ll get about 6-8 hours because of how it varies with use.
17 inches should mean it is a good PC substitute. Having an integrated and not dedicated GPU makes notebook this not exactly good for much. Just a large notebook.
… all screen sizes are diagonals… so use pythagrean theorem on the width and depth… 15 and 11 on each side… yields about 18, so that leaves some for margins…
I was messing around with it yesterday and it’s kind of confusing. If you are dealing with low-lighting scenarios, it will give you the message, “lighting not adequate” or something like that. But it seems as though it takes your picture and and remembers your facial features and picture, and then unlocks the computer for you when the computer image is matched with the image that is currently being seen.
Geometry. The 17" is a diagonal measurement of the screen. 15.46" is the width of the laptop. The diagonal measurement of the entire laptop is 19.185", which is more than 17".
I have a 16", and originally thought it would be way to big. Now I love it.
It has made one of the new Windows 7 features indispensable: The ability to drag a window to the right/left of the screen and have it auto-size to half the screen size. 17" is plenty of real estate to be working in two windows side by side without any problem, and that feature makes it super fast and easy.
Not that this comes with Windows 7… just sayin’. Adds a bit of value to the huge screen.
I need a new laptop for my mom she mainly just does banking and email on her laptop. She rarely takes it off the power cord either. Would this be good for her?
I want something overkill for what she wants so that it will last her.
I have the Dell Studio 15 and I LOVE IT! The battery life is amazing 7 hours and 30 minutes (9-cell), and the screen has a beautiful display. I sold my HP Pavilion which I haven’t been impressed with. So far (I’ve had it for about 5 months).
This is made with what seems much better parts than Dell’s latest Inspirons. I did a lot of research and I decided to get the Studio 15 and I haven’t looked back since!
6-8 hours? Really? Reviews have the battery life at 2-3 hours, though the specific models used had better components.
Performance-wise, this computer should be totally average: Decent proc, decent HD, 4GB of RAM… all good, but not great.
Graphics are lacking on this machine–4500MHD is the best integrated solution Intel offers, but you won’t be doing any high-end gaming on this machine. Plenty of simpler or older games will run, but probably not at the highest resolution or settings. The graphics should be good enough for HD playback thru HDMI.
But I also think that the deal could be way better.
I mean for 100.00 OR LESS More dollars, you can have a Brand new one.
I looked atthe other posters link that said look what they are going for ion ebay - butt hose are listings. if you look at actual completed auctions or buy it nows you can see a little different deal.
at any rate i am not in the market for a lap top. I have too many as it is - seems when these things are owned by silly people that do not know how to mantaine a computer they bring them to me often for trade becuase they believe they are broken. - Bajajaja! I just do a clean up on the hard drive - wipe all the miss installed programs off - get all the conflicts taken care of and POOF - like new for some other idiot to ruin again. LOL
for real though - this is a good one - even if you don’t buy it here. if you have had a old single core for a long time you will love this one. 300+ gn SATA HD is awsome for a stock reman. pretty slick glossy screen too.
Be Good people. happy wooting. Too rich for my blood.
bought one of these for my wife refurb from Dell. Did all the windows updates and it constantly blue screened. 2 weeks later and many Dell India calls, she finally got a replacement.
Works great for surfing the web, not very good for gaming though.
I was a Dell remote technician until they recently decided to make all Dell XPS support outsourced to India and the Philipines (unless you bought the $150 upgrade to your warranty.) If the success with their fingerprint reader is any indication I would not get your hopes up. Dozens of times I was called because the reader wouldn’t work even after replacing the hardware. For kicks and giggles I tried registering my own print on a system but apparently my fingerprints are unrecognizable. I would hate to see how well facial recognition would work if I were in a bad mood.
Also, Dell has a knack for refurbing really thoroughly. I’ve had 3 refurbished Dells in the past to save money and you honestly can’t tell that they’re not new. The way it should be.