Dell Inspiron 17R

Considered the premium version of the Dell Inspiron 17, the Inspiron 17R has more options in terms of graphics card, memory and Wi-Fi yet at the same time offering a great design, screen and overall usability. The dedicated graphics card is capable of handling even some of the most demanding games and the huge 17.3” inch high definition screen is more than perfect for watching the latest DVDs and the i5 processor is more than capable of handling multiple applications with ease. The screen and the entire laptop as a whole is extrememly reflective. Even though this isn’t much of a problem it certainly does attract finger prints and dust a lot. However, even though the battery life is quite miserable but for a desktop replacement laptop that is far from being portable it is satisfactory. The Inspiron range is one of the better consumer laptop ranges on the market and the Inspiron 17R is the latest in Dell’s latest big-screen media centre laptop. Putting aside the small problems such as a highly reflective finsih and screen and the fact that it attracts dust and finger prints it is one of the greatest desktop replacement laptops.

The Inspiron 17R has a great specification our test unit consisted of a i5-450M processor with 2.4GHz processing speed. Just like other Core i5 CPUs, the i5-450M is based on 32nm Arrandale core, main features of wihch are dual-core architecture. A dual-core laptop CPU that clocks due to Turbo Boost to a maximum 2.66GHz. Turbo Boosting is automatically undertaken by the laptop when necessary to help multi-task and support running applications. The dual core processor due to hyperthreading is able to work with four threads simulatenously and thus support multi-tasking with ease. With the ability to multi-task effortlessly partly due to the 4GB of RAM the Intel Core i5-450M is certainly a great processor for a great laptop.
In addition, to the Intel Core i5-450M processor the Inspiron 17R features a 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 a middle class DirectX 11 graphics card and due to the higher clock rate the 3D gaming performance is above the HD 4570. As a result even some of the most demanding games such as Crysis plays fluently on the HD 4570, even if in low settings, and less demanding games such as Left 4 Dead runs fluently in higher settings. Similar to the HD 5000 series the Mobility HD 5470 supports Eyefinity which allows to connect the graphics chip to up to four monitors. The power consumption of the graphics chip is between 12 and 15 watts and therefore the GPU is used in 13-17” laptops.

The 17.3” inch HD display is more than spectacular and even though this laptop is far from mobile the screen certainly makes it worth while. The glorious 1600:900, or more commonly 16:9 aspect ratio is prefect for watching widescreen movies whilst the stunning brightness and TrueLife colours bring images to life and with a great 320GB hard drive you will be able to store all of your photos, films and files without a hassle at all.

With a wide range of ports from 3 USB ports, a VGA port, a HDMI port, an eSata port, an ethernet port and a microphone and audio in port there really isn’t anything that you cannot connect to this great laptop. In addition, with the inclusion of Bluetooth you can certainly connect to just about every peripheral of yours.

Even though Dell claims that the battery life is up to 5 hours long we found out that under max performance the battery lasted only a minor 90 minutes and even in power saving mode we could only manage around about three and a half hours. However, one great inovation is the laptop charger that is well pre-bent in order to avoid the wear and tear and destruction of the charger
With other great features such as a 1.3 megapixel camera and SRS Premium Sound Stereo Speakers this is certainly an overall winner. Even by desktop replacement standards the sound that pours out of these two stereo speakers is adequate and provides great music playback.

For such a low price and for the great specification in multiple areas such as GPU, CPU and HardDisk this 3Kg laptop is certainly a great overall multimedia desktop replacement laptop.