Dell Inspiron E1705 does a good job for the price but there's alot of competition
Written: May 05 '07 (Updated May 05 '07)
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Pros: Coupons cut price drastically, Excellent graphics card and screen at reasonable prices
Cons: Customer Service hit or miss, Competition comparable at same price points
The Bottom Line: For a Desktop Replacement notebook, it's very good if you don't need alot of handholding from Customer Support. Note there is alot of competition in the 17inch market.
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| yusakugo's Full Review: Dell Inspiron E1705 (E1705S2) PC Notebook |
In continuing with with my recent purchases of several notebooks, I'll be going over my Dell Inspiron E1705 17 inch notebook with some comparisons versus the HP Pavilion dv9233 17 inch notebook, the Dell XPS M1210, and my 2 year old Inspiron 6000.
The Inspiron E1705 was a brand new purchase from the Dell Home and Home Office site. I got the notebook at about $1700 and spent an additional $200 to upgrade the memory in December 2006 since it was cheaper than buying it from Dell.
This notebook would probably satisfy most of the serious gamer group (this applies to anyone who plays games that require a high powered graphics card), but the reasonable pricing with make it appeal to a fairly wide audience... especially those who want to do some photo and video editing. There is more than enough computing power for the masses, excellent graphical horsepower for a notebook, decent 2.1 sound system, comforable keyboard, and high resolution LCD for plenty of desktop real estate. You do sacrifice portability because of the size and weight of a 17 inch notebook and do sacrifice a bit of battery power (since the E1705 utilizes the same battery as the E1505 series Dell Inspirons). This notebook is more of the desktop replacement type than mobile warrior.
Short Take
The Inspiron E1705 is a bit too bulky to carry around on everyday activities but it provides good power and graphical oomph that can put some mid-range desktop computers to shame. It will not compete against the most decked out desktop systems but then what notebook can (even the highest end laptops from VooDoo, Alienware, Falcon Northwest, etc... can't compete with the latest desktop hardware). However, the properly configured E1705 will give you an above average gaming experience on top of an excellent entertainment hub. Also note that the XPS M1710 offers the highest end graphics card available from Dell in a 17 inch notebook... and that option is not available at this time on the E1705.
Overall, Dell's notebooks have a more solid construction than in the past. Comparisons of the E1705 with my Inspiron 6000 shows that the base of the notebook now is made of a magnesium alloy compared to the plastic feel of the Inspiron 6000. Thankfully, with the abundance of coupons Dell offers for the Insprion notebook lines, the E1705 doesn't cost an arm and a leg like the XPS lines.
The E1705 is a good notebook replacement with a comfortable keyboard, above average graphical capabilities, an above average sound system with integrated subwoofer, and above average to excellent screen. It still has some weaknesses versus some competing 17 inch notebooks like the HP Pavilion dv9000 series notebooks which gives a full 101 key keyboard, an extra hard drive bay (yes two hard drives and the DVD drive bay in a notebook), and a HDMI port. A potential downfall is the questionable Dell Support history. I give the notebook a hearty recommendation although I warily look at Dell's Phone and Email Customer Support. It is really hit or miss with the Support.
Price
I purchased the E1705 in December 2006. This was a brand new unit that I tried to purchase on the web through a fatwallet cashback link. Somehow the order was lost. After talking to Customer Service over 5 days trying to find out what happened to my order, I had to place a new order over the phone (thereby losing the 3% fatwallet discount) and had to pay $1846.35 for the unit (that was a 21% discount from Dell's original price). I placed a complaint through BBB for the ridiculous time I had through the Customer Support to located the original order... and was given another $107 back.
Specs
My E1705 notebook came with:
Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 processor (2.0GHz dual core processor with 4MB L2 cache and 667MHz memory support)
2 GB of 667MHz DDR2 (PC-5300) RAM (self installed - originally came with 1 GB of 533MHz DDR2 RAM)
160 GB 5400rpm hard drive
8x DVD writer with dual layer support (also writes CD-R/RW)
nVidia GeForce 7900 GS graphics card with 256MB of dedicated graphics memory
17 inch LCD display capable of 1920x1200 resolution
Bluetooth 2.0 compliant card (model number 355)
Draft-N wireless Wi-Fi card (1500 Wireless card)
USB 2.0 Multimedia External TV Tuner with Windows Media Player Remote Control
Soundblaster Advanced Audio
Windows XP Media Center Installed
Windows Vista Home Premium CD Upgrade (self-install and you have to pay $10 more to have it shipped to you)
12-month Norton Internet Security subscription
MS Works 8.5
9-cell extended battery
90-Watt power supply
2 year at Home warranty
Styling and Casing
The dimensions of the notebook are 15.5"x1.6"x11.3" Weight of the base configuration with a 6-cell battery starts at 7.94 lbs. although my configuration was likely in the 8.25 to 8.5 lbs range.
The base of the outer casing is made from a magnesium-alloy and painted black. The rest is a heavy gauge plastic either silver-gray or ipod white color scheme. The overall design has been used by Dell for the Inspiron line for the past 2 to 2 1/2 years now. There is a spring latch on the cover/screen section to keep the notebook closed on transport. When closed, the notebook exterior casing is silvery-gray with a white border. You do have the option of changing the silvery-gray section with faceplates that cost extra. The interior casing of the notebook has a silver and grey two tone color scheme. The full sized keyboard is black in color. Overall, the notebook has an overall solid feeling and a good heft to it.
The hinges are pretty tight and the screen stays in the position you leave it in. The front end of the notebook holds the media control buttons (play/pause, mute, increase volume, decrease volume, skip forward, skip backwards, and stop) but lack the LED glow like the XPS lines. The speakers for the system are located on the sides of the full sized 87-key keyboard. The touchpad is generous with a good amount of drag. The touch pad buttons are a good size and the wrist rests are generous. The keyboard is a full sized and very comfortable to type on. The keyboard has good tactile feedback although slightly mushy but the keyboard is easier to type on for a touch typist like me than with some notebooks. I still prefer the better and stiffer tactile feedback of my M1210. There are two buttons above the keyboard which are the MediaDirect button and Power button. Also above the keyboard are the keyboard and wireless status lights between the MediaDirect button and the Power button. On the right hinge is the power light, hard drive light, and battery light.
On the left side, the exhaust vent, optical bay, security cable slot, and 2 USB 2.0 ports.
On the right side is the 5-in-1 memory card reader (SD, MMC, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, xD-Picture card formats), mini-IEEE 1394 connector, 1 headphone port, 1 microphone port, exhaust port, external part of the hard drive housing, and the ExpressCard Slot.
On the back, you have the modem jack (RJ-11), Network jack (RJ-45), S-Video port, DVI port with screw nuts, VGA port with screw nuts (for VGA security cable locks), AC adapter connector, 4 USB 2.0 ports, and 2 more exhaust ports.
Air intake to help cool the computer comes from underneath the computer... you had best remember that. The battery attaches through the bottom of the notebook and is flush with the notebook surface. The subwoofer is also on the bottom of the notebook.
In My Use
The E1705 has been in my possession for a little more than 5 months now. It is primarily used as an entertainment and web browsing notebook. I installed Office 2003, the Dell USB TV tuner, and Adobe Acrobat Professional 7.0. Also installed were Adobe Photoshop CS and Adobe Elements 5.0.
No appreciable differences in running Office 2003 versus my Inspiron 6000 or the Inspiron 1705 notebooks.
I ran a couple of movies on the system the first time with the AC adapter attached. As with my M1210, I ran The Incredibles which looked well... incredible (crisper than my Inspiron 6000 although the colors were a bit on the cool side)! The speakers can fill a small room and has some depth. I also ran Curse of the Golden Flower which looked fantastic, Batman Begins which washed out a bit on the extremely dark scenes, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire which was fine. Ghosting was very minimal to nonexistant versus the Inspiron 6000. Battery life on pure movie playback was about 2 1/2 hours. Using MediaDirect instead of booting Windows XP extended the battery life slightly. This is based off a screen setting of 20% and allowing the system to determine appropriate processor speed on the fly. Of note, I ran a high resolution version of Terminator 2 through Windows Media which looked great and had no slowdowns.
Like the M1210, I've run Rise of Nations, Rise of Legends, Civilizations 4, and Galactic Civilizations II without any problems. I had some graphical problems with these games on my Inspiron 6000 such as stuttering of the graphics and extreme slow down if there are many units on the world map. Obviously, the E1705 could handle a much higher resolution and a greater number of events in the game world. World of Warcraft worked fine as well... no real difference from my Inspiron 6000 although given World of Warcraft is graphically less complicated, it is not a surprise. I have not tried graphically intense programs like Command and Conquer 3, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, F.E.A.R., or Supreme Commander (because I don't own them).
PhotoShop CS was great to use on this system with very few slowdowns (which may be due to the slower 5400rpm drive in some instances compared to having a 7200rpm hard drive). Adobe Photoshop Elements also ran well with photo editing with the GeForce 7900 GS and the high resolution screen.
The choice of a 5400rpm hard drive in the E1705 does slow down the system compared to even out performance in some areas versus my M1210 with a 7200rpm drive. The E1705 outperformed by HP Pavilion dv9233cl but that system had a 1.67 Core 2 Duo processor with 2MB L2 cache, dual 120GB 5400rpm drives, and a weaker GeForce 7400 mobile video card with 256MB of dedicated graphics memory.
Connecting through a NETGEAR WGR614 b/g router was easy and stable. Transmission of data was more consistent than with my Inspiron 6000 (same wireless card installed into my E1705 and M1210).
Screen
I selected the best option which is the 17 inch screen with 1920x1200 resolution. This screen is capable of up to 1080i and 1080p resolutions. The screen is a pleasure to view, and is overall very bright at the medium brightness settings. It has a glossy coat (the TrueLife glossy coating). The response time is pretty good as ghosting in fast games and fast motion seemed to be nonexistant to minimal. Color reproduction is good although a bit on the cool side compared to my Panasonic 42inch Plasma TV.
The screen dimensions are 9.64"x15" (HxW) making the 17 inch diagonal screen. Maximum resolution is 1920x1200 at 16.7 million colors. Refresh rate 60Hz. Viewing angles +/-60 degrees horizontally and +/-45 degrees vertically. Pixel pitch is 0.191 mm.
Speakers
A 2.1 speaker setup with the speakers on the sides of the keyboard and the subwoofer on the bottom of the notebook. They produce good room filling sound and are more than adequate for a small room. It is a bit surprising that you don't have other options for sound (like the potential 5.1 setup on the Dell XPS M1210 through the dual headphone jacks).
The main speakers are 2 Watts and the subwoofer is 5 Watts.
Battery Life
With the 9-cell extended battery, the system lists up to 3 1/2 hours of runtime (through Windows XP Media Center) although I more typically got 2 1/2 hours maximum with WiFi and Bluetooth on and the screen at 20% brightness during my typical use of the laptop which includes watching XViD and DiVX encoded movies, web surfing, and Microsoft Office work.
The battery has a button to tell you an estimate of the power left in it. A 5 bar LED panel telling you 20, 40, 60, 80, or 100% charge.
The battery attaches pretty securely to the bottom of the notebook and is flush with the surface of the notebook. A spring latch keeps the battery in place.
TV Tuners and Windows Media Remotes
I got the external Dell USB TV tuner with Windows Media Remote Control. The tuner is a USB 2.0 compliant device that you can attach a coaxial cable to and composite video with stereo sound. The device is powered strictly with the USB 2.0 cable.
Coupled with Windows Media, the device performs very well although there is a 2-3 second delay versus watching the feed on your TV... but this is to be expected. There is a bit of snow in the pictures versus my Panasonic Plasma TV. Note that the signal is coming from a Cable TV connection. Otherwise, it was like watching TV or video on a 17 inch LCD screen... although some feeds were a bit blocky if you were too close to the screen due to the high resolution.
The remote made navigating through Windows Media Center much easier than using a keyboard and a mouse. It felt more intuitive to use with the remote than with using the keyboard and mouse shift through menus. The remote and receiver might be a bit bulky (the receiver unit is definitely bulky and takes up another USB 2.0 port) but the remote is still comfortable to hold and use. I didn't find any of the remote buttons too small. I was able to use the remote from 15 feet away easily.
Heat
Because of the upgraded components especially the video card, the E1705 generates a decent amount of heat. Getting an E1705 with a weaker video card and slower processor should significantly reduce the heat generated.
Warranty and Dell's Customer Service
As I've been purchasing computers from Dell over the past 10 years... Dell's Customer Service has significantly worsened other the years. However, the Customer Service for Dell can be excellent at times or just plain rotten. The only thing the Customer Service is consistent with... is being inconsistent.
In the End
Given the large amount of promotions and deals available for the notebook, it can be very much a steal. It certainly provides the most flexible and customization for the price with the large amount of choices.
However, the competition wide and varied including Lenovo, Sony, HP, Toshiba, Gateway/EMachines, ACER, and Apple in the mainstream market as well as smaller players. It hard to pick a true winner because the choices are so varied. I do like the customization options that other companies offer with their entertainment notebooks like the fingerprint reader on the HP models and the option of the Pavilion dv9000 series to have an HDMI port and the option of having 2 hard drives installed! As far as low to reasonable priced 17 inch notebooks go, the Dell E1705 may have the best video card available currently... this does NOT include premium 17 inch notebooks which have more powerful graphics cards (although you really pay for them).
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1739
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: Greater than 15 inches
RAM: More than 256
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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yusakugo
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Member: Rich Go
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Losing Sleep and Lacking Time... sigh...
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