Dell's mid-range segment of laptops, Studio, is for people who want something more than what the basic entry-level models have to offer. We'd tested the Studio 14 a while back when it was in its Core 2 Duo iteration, and found it to be a darn good 14-inch laptop. It had a good build and finish, and great flexibility in its specifications.
It had upgrades like a 1600 x 900 pixel display and a Blu-ray drive to satiate a videophile. Today, we're testing the 15-inch version of the Studio. While its cheaper variants (the Inspiron range) have gone through a body job, the Studio series still looks exactly the same. Just that its internals are now based on Intel's latest Core 'i' offerings. The Studio 15 we're testing has a Core i5 processor. Let's take it for a spin to see if it is still worthy paying the extra thousands over an Inspiron laptop.
It had upgrades like a 1600 x 900 pixel display and a Blu-ray drive to satiate a videophile. Today, we're testing the 15-inch version of the Studio. While its cheaper variants (the Inspiron range) have gone through a body job, the Studio series still looks exactly the same. Just that its internals are now based on Intel's latest Core 'i' offerings. The Studio 15 we're testing has a Core i5 processor. Let's take it for a spin to see if it is still worthy paying the extra thousands over an Inspiron laptop.
Design and Build
The Studio 15 looks exactly like an enlarged version of the Studio 14. Contrary to the anorexic laptops that are sold these days, the Studio 15 is meaty and thick. But what you get in return is a feeling of solidity. The Studio 15 has good build quality; the screen hinge especially reaffirms it. At 2.5 kilos, it is kinda heavy and isn't that convenient to carry it around everywhere. If you're looking for something small and lightweight, then cross this model off your list. Looks-wise, the Studio is definitely more appealing than standard run-of-the-mill laptops. The top can be customized with some crazy designer covers if plain solid shades don t please you. The silver-black combination on the inside has become quite a trademark design for the Studio series.
The Studio 15 looks exactly like an enlarged version of the Studio 14. Contrary to the anorexic laptops that are sold these days, the Studio 15 is meaty and thick. But what you get in return is a feeling of solidity. The Studio 15 has good build quality; the screen hinge especially reaffirms it. At 2.5 kilos, it is kinda heavy and isn't that convenient to carry it around everywhere. If you're looking for something small and lightweight, then cross this model off your list. Looks-wise, the Studio is definitely more appealing than standard run-of-the-mill laptops. The top can be customized with some crazy designer covers if plain solid shades don t please you. The silver-black combination on the inside has become quite a trademark design for the Studio series.
On the inside, we have a bright screen bearing an HD (1366 x 768) resolution that delivers good clarity. You also have the option to upgrade to a Full HD 1080p display, which is quite nice if you're into watching HD movies. One thing I like about 1366 x 768 pixel displays on a 15-inch screen is that the fonts are nicely sized and easily readable without increasing font size. With a Full HD display, the movies may look better, but the fonts appear tiny in their original form.
The webcam above delivers decent clarity. The large strip of speakers beneath the display emit a fairly loud output. They feature SRS technology, which when enabled sounds nice while playing movies, but makes music crackle unnecessarily. Despite turning it off, the speakers did manage to crack a little at max volume. Overall, the speakers are good enough for watching movies without an external pair.
Nowadays, most 15-inch laptops have a num-pad along side the QWERTY part like desktop keyboards. But the Studio 15 doesn't have one; instead the QWERTY portion takes center stage with empty borders to the sides. The keys aren't of the isolated, chiclet style but have decent tactility. But typing was hindered by the fact that a major chunk of the weight is towards the display and the LCD panel. Thus when typing with the notebook on the lap, the laptop tends to fall backwards and your hands have to counter the force the top half exerts.
Another sore point was the removal of the backlit keyboard option, which was available on the Studio 14. On a positive note, the Function keys primarily serve frequently used tasks like adjusting brightness, media playback, volume etc. After checking out the new huge trackpads on the Inspiron 14R and 15R, the Studio 15's feels smallish in comparison. But while its touch response is accurate, what's irritating is that some multi-touch gestures, which were present in the Studio 14, have been removed. So instead of two fingered scrolling, you have the side-scrolling strip or a circular scrolling option.
On the left, you've got an HDMI, VGA, LAN, an eSATA/USB combo and another USB below it, a Firewire (IEEE 1394), a microphone and two headphone jacks (for coupled listening). Phew. To the right we have a slot-loading DVD drive, another USB port, an 8-in-1 card reader and an Expresscard/34 slot. At the bottom, the battery has a nifty LED indicator displaying the amount of charge left. Overall, we weren't entirely happy with some of the kinks mentioned with the design and build of this laptop.
Benchmarks
PCMark Vantage
PCMark Vantage
3DMark Vantage
SiSoft Sandra 2009
Real World Performance
The Studio 15 comes with Windows 7 Home Premium pre-installed. Being powered by the Core i5 M450 processor that runs at 2.4 GHz and 4GB RAM, the system had no trouble in delivering a smooth operation. Basic tasks like internet surfing and watching HD movies aside, this machine is capable to crunch some serious numbers thanks to Intel's Turbo Boost technology. With it, one core can automatically over-clock to 2.66 GHz when heavy single-threaded applications require it to.
The Studio 15 also came with an ATI Radeon 5470 GPU. This is the lower-mid-range graphics chip seen on many laptops in the bracket of Rs. 40 to 50 grand. Resident Evil 5's benchmark delivered a fairly playable 18.3 fps on maxed out settings. We tried Dirt 2's in-game benchmark at high settings, but it lagged badly at 12.8 fps. Surprisingly, dropping the settings to medium or even low didn't really make a big impact. The game was barely playable even on low settings; slight jitter was still observed.
Unfortunately, this is the only GPU that Dell has to offer with the Studio 15. The higher-power Radeon 5650 (that powers the Aspire 5740G) would have been a deserving upgrade to people who want to play today's games on this laptop. But alas, you'll just be stuck with playing games from a few years ago, that too at moderate detail. Repeat: The Studio 15 is definitely not a gamer's choice, but will probably do for people who just want to casually run a few.
Battery Life
Our Studio 15 came with a 56 Whr 6-cell battery but an upgrade to a 9-cell variant is also available. In our video drain test, the laptop lasted for 1 hour 35 minutes with a 720p video played back in loop with full brightness and sound. In the real world test, we reduced the brightness to 70 percent. We could surf the web over Wi-Fi for a total of 2 hours and 20 minutes. These are average figures, but expected from a 15-inch laptop with power-sipping internals. But still, it is certain that this laptop is no road warrior and you'll have to make sure that you have a wall charger nearby often.
Price and Verdict
The Studio 15 we received comes to a total of Rs. 48,700 with delivery. This machine isn't ergonomically the best out there. It's got souped up specs (except for the graphics chip) inside, enclosed in a what can be called in today's day and age a 'bulky' body. The main incentive to buy a Studio 15 is the option to upgrade to a Full HD screen and a Blu-ray drive. Otherwise for Rs. 50,000 you get the HP Pavilion DV6-3057tx, which comes with a higher-power ATI Radeon 5650 chip. It has a Core i3 processor (although clocked at a similar 2.4 GHz speed, but no Turbo boost). But on the good side, it comes with that chiclet keyboard we like.
Then there's also the Asus N61J, which has a potent NVIDIA GT325M graphics chip, and also pulls extra tricks like auto-graphics switching (NVIDIA Optimus) to save battery life, and USB 3.0 support. If you want something cheaper, there's always the Acer Aspire 5740G with the same Radeon 5650 graphics chip for a whole Rs. 10,000 less.
The Studio 15 is a decent laptop overall, but there's nothing that stands out for us to go out and hoot about it. Especially after the Inspiron line drawing so close to the Studio, there's not much different between the two. The Studio series is in need of a refresh. If you're just looking for a typical big screened laptop to do your office work, the Inspiron 15R should do just fine.
The Studio 15 comes with Windows 7 Home Premium pre-installed. Being powered by the Core i5 M450 processor that runs at 2.4 GHz and 4GB RAM, the system had no trouble in delivering a smooth operation. Basic tasks like internet surfing and watching HD movies aside, this machine is capable to crunch some serious numbers thanks to Intel's Turbo Boost technology. With it, one core can automatically over-clock to 2.66 GHz when heavy single-threaded applications require it to.
The Studio 15 also came with an ATI Radeon 5470 GPU. This is the lower-mid-range graphics chip seen on many laptops in the bracket of Rs. 40 to 50 grand. Resident Evil 5's benchmark delivered a fairly playable 18.3 fps on maxed out settings. We tried Dirt 2's in-game benchmark at high settings, but it lagged badly at 12.8 fps. Surprisingly, dropping the settings to medium or even low didn't really make a big impact. The game was barely playable even on low settings; slight jitter was still observed.
Unfortunately, this is the only GPU that Dell has to offer with the Studio 15. The higher-power Radeon 5650 (that powers the Aspire 5740G) would have been a deserving upgrade to people who want to play today's games on this laptop. But alas, you'll just be stuck with playing games from a few years ago, that too at moderate detail. Repeat: The Studio 15 is definitely not a gamer's choice, but will probably do for people who just want to casually run a few.
Battery Life
Our Studio 15 came with a 56 Whr 6-cell battery but an upgrade to a 9-cell variant is also available. In our video drain test, the laptop lasted for 1 hour 35 minutes with a 720p video played back in loop with full brightness and sound. In the real world test, we reduced the brightness to 70 percent. We could surf the web over Wi-Fi for a total of 2 hours and 20 minutes. These are average figures, but expected from a 15-inch laptop with power-sipping internals. But still, it is certain that this laptop is no road warrior and you'll have to make sure that you have a wall charger nearby often.
Price and Verdict
The Studio 15 we received comes to a total of Rs. 48,700 with delivery. This machine isn't ergonomically the best out there. It's got souped up specs (except for the graphics chip) inside, enclosed in a what can be called in today's day and age a 'bulky' body. The main incentive to buy a Studio 15 is the option to upgrade to a Full HD screen and a Blu-ray drive. Otherwise for Rs. 50,000 you get the HP Pavilion DV6-3057tx, which comes with a higher-power ATI Radeon 5650 chip. It has a Core i3 processor (although clocked at a similar 2.4 GHz speed, but no Turbo boost). But on the good side, it comes with that chiclet keyboard we like.
Then there's also the Asus N61J, which has a potent NVIDIA GT325M graphics chip, and also pulls extra tricks like auto-graphics switching (NVIDIA Optimus) to save battery life, and USB 3.0 support. If you want something cheaper, there's always the Acer Aspire 5740G with the same Radeon 5650 graphics chip for a whole Rs. 10,000 less.
The Studio 15 is a decent laptop overall, but there's nothing that stands out for us to go out and hoot about it. Especially after the Inspiron line drawing so close to the Studio, there's not much different between the two. The Studio series is in need of a refresh. If you're just looking for a typical big screened laptop to do your office work, the Inspiron 15R should do just fine.
