Dell Studio 14

With so many sleek and light laptops flooding the market right now, the traditional chunky-bodied mainstream models seem to have walked out of the limelight. We're testing one such model today; the Dell Studio 14. Dell face-lifted its Inspiron line to match the good looks of the Studio series. Now, the Studio series gets some much-appreciated features from the top-tier XPS range of laptops. This model looks good and packs quite the punch. Is this one of the best 14-inch mainstream multimedia laptop out there? Let's explore for the answers now.





Build and Design:

The Dell Studio 14 has a really cool look. The main distinguishing factor between the Inspiron and the Studio is the customizable top cover. With the Studio, you can either get a solid color or a groovy looking designer one for more money. Our red colored version had a smooth velvety feel.




Comparing it with mainstream 14-inch models out there, the dimensions of the Studio 14 are quite fair. At 2.4 kilos, it's not exactly feather-weight. But its design is quite ergonomic which makes it easy to carry. Dell has done a commendable job with regards to its build quality. The laptop feels sturdy when held. This is especially felt in its meaty screen hinge. On the inside, the black and silver combination looks awesome as well. Overall, the Studio 14 is quite a sporty looking model.





The 14-inch screen that we received was configured with a higher 1600x900 pixel resolution. A regular 1366x768 pixel version is also available. This screen looks pretty crisp and the brightness is just about adequate. The resolution isn't too high to make fonts tiny and unreadable. Placed under the screen is a rectangular speaker grille. They are quite loud and emanate decent quality sound. The keyboard has a nice feel and offers good tactility. The model we got had backlighting under every key as well. It has two levels of brightness and is helpful while typing in dark environments. Lastly, the function buttons are primarily configured to control brightness, media playback among other things like Wi-Fi/power profile/key backlighting toggle. The touch-pad has a slightly rough texture. It has decent accuracy and supports multi-touch gestures like scrolling and zooming -- which are quite nifty, if you ask us. The web-cam on-board delivers a clear output and smooth frame-rate.



On the left, we have a LAN port, one USB and an eSATA/USB combo port, VGA, HDMI, Expresscard/34 and a memory card slot. To the right, we have the slot-loading optical drive, one USB port, one microphone and two head-phone jacks -- which will allow connecting two pairs of headphones at the same time. Another helpful addition is the USB power-share feature. The eSATA/USB port on this machine can charge USB-powered devices even when the laptop itself is off.