Monday, 2 January 2012



Dell XPS-17
(with 2nd Generation Intel Core Processors)

What's Hot

  • Well priced
  • Plenty of RAM and storage capacity
  • Excellent for multitasking
  • Good graphics card
  • Suitable for gaming
  • USB 3.0
  • Up to 16GB of RAM

    What's Not

  • Lacks an expansion slot
  • Gets very warm when the graphics card is in use
  • No remote control
          

    •           It's been quite a while since we've seen a new 17-inch laptop from Dell's XPS range, which is home to the company's multimedia machines.



         Dell hasn't been twiddling its thumbs, however, and this laptop boasts fantastic design, power (for the money) and a huge range of multimedia features.




         

         
    Intel's Core i5 2410M processor provides comprehensive performance for all, but the most avid multimedia users.





              You'll easily be able to multi-task resource-intensive applications, such as music and movie editing software, while everyday applications, such as your web browser and word processing program, run with real fluidity.
              

    Brace yourselfA powerful Nvidia Optimus GeForce GTX 555M graphics card means that those looking to play the latest games and edit their home movies in high definition, will find plenty of power here.


    Introducing the Dell XPS 17 (1710X) notebook


              The Dell XPS 17 (1710X) is a desktop replacement notebook that's primed for use as a gaming laptop, a media centre or a mobile workstation — the best part is it costs well under $2000! It's a versatile Dell notebook with a 17.3in touchscreen and a high-end configuration that includes a quad-core Intel Core i7 CPU, two hard drives and a powerful NVIDIA graphics processor. Dell has done away with many older connectivity options, such as VGA, but included mod cons such as DisplayPort, instead.

    Benchmarks
    Battery life: 442 minutes
    Mobile Mark 2007: 297

    3D Mark 2003: 24,029

           Storage seems a little stingy for the price, however, and we expected more than 320GB from a machine designed to hold large film, photo and music libraries.
        
           Dell has done a great job in terms of design, and the XPS 17 looks and feels high end. The metallic finish on the lid, brushed-aluminium palmrest and chrome accents give off a luxurious feel, while also contribute to the solid build of the laptop.

           The 17-inch screen features a 1600 x 900-pixel resolution. It's bright enough for indoor use and, while not extremely vibrant, colour reproduction is good enough to make the best of your photos and movies. The sheer size of the screen itself provides for an absorbing viewing experience, making it great for the film fans out there.

          The large keyboard features a bit of flex, so the action isn't quite as hard as we'd like, but the isolation-style keys are still very comfortable to use for hours on end.


    Dell XPS 17 (1710X): Design and features

           The Dell XPS 17 (1710X) is a big notebook: its base is 415mm wide and 285mm deep, and it weighs just over 4kg. It's not a unit you will want to use on your lap, and you won't want to transport to and from the office too often. It feels well built, and has a large multitouch touchpad and a very sturdy, backlit keyboard.
           Along the sides of the notebook are two USB 2.0 ports (one of which also doubles as an eSATA port), three audio ports (including digital output), an SD card slot and a Blu-ray drive (or burner, depending on the configuration you opt for). More connections are located along the rear of the notebook: you get two USB 3.0 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, HDMI and DisplayPort, and an antenna port for the internal digital TV tuner.
           It lacks FireWire and VGA, and it also doesn't have an ExpressCard expansion slot. We're not at all sad about these omissions, though it would be nice to have an ExpressCard slot in case you need to use FireWire or an expansion dock in the future. The XPS 17 also has Bluetooth, 802.11n dual-band Wi-Fi.


    Feature-packed



              The range of features the XPS 17 boasts is highly impressive. A pair of dedicated JBL speakers sit imbedded in the laptop's chassis and provide some of the best audio we've ever heard from a laptop. If you use your machine for music playback, this will be a massive bonus for you.

              The laptop also comes bundled with Nvidia's 3DTV Play technology. This means that, while the laptop's panel isn't 3D ready, you can stream 3D content to a compatible TV or monitor through the laptop. This makes it a great option for those looking to stream 3D games and films to share on the big screen. There's also 2-megapixel webcam included.

              The XPS 17 is an impressive multimedia machine that doesn't cost the earth. Great performance and usability are joined by a highly impressive features list to make this a competitive package.
      
    3D at home or on the go


            3D games and movies come alive right on your laptop display, letting you take the 3D experience with you wherever you go. Enjoy a surreal 3D experience with an optional Full HD (1080p) 3D display plus active shutter technology. 3D panel is optional.

           Or just kick back and enjoy your 3D content at home on the big screen with integrated NVIDIA® 3DTV Play technology. Your XPS comes standard with NVIDIA® 3DTV Play technology, which enables you to use the 3D processing power of GeForce® graphics to create an immersive 3D experience at home on a compatible 3D TV. Simply connect your laptop to a compatible 3D TV and project your favorite 3D Blu-ray movies (optional Blu-ray Disc™ drive required) and 3D photo slideshows for a real-life theater experience. You can also bring your 3D-enabled PC games to life.


    2nd Generation Intel® Core™ processor
            Whether it’s HD or 3D, multitasking or multimedia, this processor can handle it all. 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7 processors are up to 42 percent faster on content creation than previous-generation i7 processors1, so you can spend more time creating and less time waiting.
    ·         Edit video from a camcorder up to 47 percent faster than with previous-generation processors1
    ·         Create digital photo memories up to 35 percent faster than with previous-generation processors1
            

             Content creation benchmark: Based on Intel® HDxPRT 2009 overall score results by Intel® labs in August 2010 with pre-production Intel® Core™ i7-2820QM processor (8MB cache, 2.3GHz), 4GB DDR3- 1333 RAM and ATI HD 4850 graphics compared to Intel® Core™ i7 – 840QM processor (8MB cache, 1.87GHz), 4GB DDR3 – 1333MHz RAM and ATI HD 4850 graphics. Actual performance will vary based on configuration, usage and manufacturing variability.

    Razor-sharp graphics


             
    Maximum entertainment
    The XPS 17 has leading-edge NVIDIA® performance graphics (up to 3GB) for powerful photo and video editing and high-resolution gaming with breathtaking detail.
    ·         
               Want to edit, share and watch your HD videos without the wait? NVIDIA® graphics let you speed up your high-res photo editing, HD video enhancing and web surfing like never before.
    ·        
               NVIDIA® Optimus™ technology automatically optimizes your battery life while maintaining the graphics performance you expect—completely, seamlessly and transparently—whether you’re watching an HD movie, surfing the web or playing a game.

    Mind-blowing audio

            Mind-blowing audioHigh-fidelity JBL® speakers combined with Waves MaxxAudio® 3 technology produce rich, full sound that delivers booming bass and razor-sharp clarity to your favorite movies, music and games. 


           Treat your ears with up to 22W of peak audio performance on the XPS 17. Using the same Waves algorithms heard on hit records, major motion pictures and popular video games the world over, MaxxAudio® 3 is designed to deliver better dynamic range, frequency response and imaging, with maximum transparency, clarity and natural sound.

           Your sound is fully customizable. Personalize, store and dial up your own precision presets. With a touch of your finger, the exclusive Waves button on your XPS 17 laptop gives you instant access to the MaxxAudio® 3 interface.  


    Your life in Hi-Def



           Your life in Hi-DefXPS 17 has the first webcam to offer HD video streaming for ultra-clear 720p resolution. That means you can go to full screen while chatting and still maintain a crisp image of your loved ones. You can also record and share videos at low resolution for sending via email or at high resolution to post to YouTube™.


          Video conferencing is now even easier with Dell and Skype™1. The new XPS 17 is one of the first laptops to be certified by Skype and offers preinstalled Skype software standard.







    All the world on your Stage

    Using your PC is now easier than ever with Dell Stage. 


    ·                                               All the world on your Stage Access your favorite multimedia content and most frequently used apps with a simple click.
    ·         Organize your videos, music, photos and more, so you always know where everything is. Your most recent content is always front and center.
    ·                                               With just one button, you can share content on Facebook®, or even listen to your favorite radio stations from around the globe. It’s all right there, at your fingertips.


         Dell XPS 17: Specifications and performance
              
                 The XPS 17 we tested comes with 6GB of DDR3 SDRAM, and it has a maximum capacity of 16GB. For storage, the review unit had two 7200rpm, 500GB hard drives, but you can configure it with up to 1.2TB of storage if you wish. There is also an option for solid-state drives, but unfortunately, there is no option to configure the XPS 17 with one solid-state drive (as a boot drive) and one regular hard drive (as a secondary drive). The drives in our test model performed exceptionally, registering an average transfer rate of 35.59 megabytes per second.
                 The Dell XPS 17 is equipped with a quad-core Intel Core i7-740QM CPU, which has Hyper-Threading (for a total of eight virtual cores). To make the most of this CPU, you need to run applications that are optimised for multithreading; because the frequency of the CPU is only 1.73GHz, even some Core i5-based notebooks with higher frequencies (such as the MSI FX600 and the Dell Inspiron 15R N1010) will beat the XPS in certain types of applications. But the good thing about the quad-core CPU is that you can run many tasks in the background, yet still use the computer for Web browsing and working on documents without noticing a performance hit.
                 In our performance tests, the Dell XPS 17 (1710X) supplied mixed results. It recorded a time of 46sec in the Blender 3D rendering test when using all eight virtual cores, which is an excellent result; but its time of 1min 11sec in our iTunes MP3 encoding test is a poor showing. Even the Lenovo ThinkPad T510, which runs a dual-core 2.66GHz Core i7-620M CPU, recorded a faster time of 54sec.
                 In our video encoding test, in which we use AutoGordianKnot to convert a DVD file to a 1.5GB Xvid file, the XPS 17 (1710X) recorded a slow time of 1hr 16min. Even the Core i3–based Medion Akoya P6624 recorded a faster time of 1hr 14min in this test, which really highlights the fact that if your applications can't put all the cores and the Hyper-Threading to good use, a higher-frequency CPU will generally give you better performance.
                 For gaming, the XPS 17 has a 3GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 445M graphics adapter, which supplies excellent performance. It recorded 10,940 in 3DMark06, and it will happily run most of today's games at the native 1600x900 resolution of the 17.3in screen. There is a caveat though: because the graphics adapter and one of the hard drives are located on the left side of the chassis under the palm rest, the notebook will get too hot to rest your hand on the palm rest while using the keyboard. You'll have to plug in a controller or an external keyboard if you will be playing games.

    Conclusion
                 For $1799, the Dell XPS 17 (1710X) is a grand deal. You get lots of RAM, plenty of hard drive space, and most importantly, heaps of CPU and graphics grunt. We like the fact that modern ports such as DisplayPort and USB 3.0 are standard and that it has a built-in digital TV tuner and Blu-ray drive, but we lament the lack of a remote control and an ExpressCard slot. Furthermore, we think that the touchscreen isn't really that useful. All things considered though, the XPS 17 would make for a great desktop replacement notebook if a regular tower-style PC isn't your cup of tea — it can be used for just about any type of task.





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