Dell hits hard with its laptop Dell Inspiron 17R Special Edition: Review & Specs

Technically, the high-end Dell Inspiron 17R Special Edition is successful. Power, ergonomics and even stereoscopic 3D are waiting for you on this machine called 3D Special Edition + Blu-Ray on the manufacturer’s website. Its price a little high at first glance, seems justified.

Dell Inspiron 17R Special Edition

Despite its chassis a little thick for our taste, this laptop-screen 17.3-inch Dell offers very complete equipment. Full HD screen, Blu-ray, 3D Vision, computing power: this justifies the asking price.

The promise

The Dell Inspiron 17R Special Edition versions are high-end boxes from Dell Inspiron. Their finish is a little more careful, the finer materials, configurations much more powerful. However, they retain that aspect really thick chunky we had already mentioned in our first contact with them in London in late May 2012. This new laptop from Dell is most expensive i.e. Dell Inspiron 17R Special Edition for 1299 euros, Dell offers a lot: a Full HD compatible with the Nvidia 3D Vision 2, a quad-core processor last generation, the memory amount …

Reality

Placed on a table, the Dell Inspiron 17R Special Edition does not go unnoticed frankly! At the ultrabooks, dare Dell chassis 4 cm thick (and 3.5 kg), the colors black and silver fortunately discrete. With its 17.3-inch screen Full HD 3D compatible, this Inspiron is a laptop that is intended to be realistic substitute for a desktop computer.

But it has a good, wide keyboard chiclet (not backlit, damage) with a satin touch plastic. The touchpad is, in turn, responsive and well wide. To this is added the whole game of connectors around the machine (3 USB, VGA, HDMI, Ethernet, etc). In addition to modules, it has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. And Performance, there is what is under the hood, evidenced by the hardware adorned for the stereoscopic 3D.

Dell opts for the 3D

With the Nvidia 3D Vision technology and Blu-ray onboard, the HD movies and photos to enjoy 3D at Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels). You must obviously fit the active 3D glasses provided. They can be recharged from the USB ports of a PC.

For the 3D video game in relief, however, you must lower the maximum resolution of the screen as the Nvidia GeForce GT 650M and 2GB of GDDR5 memory do not follow. In some official test, the scores of testing games in 3D enabled – were between 45 and 50 frames per second (and playable), it fits the definition in 1280 x 720 pixels. Moreover, without the 3D, the map shows 55 fps in Full HD, which promises good games.

A nice full HD

For the visual rendering of the 3D relief is optimal, it is necessary that the screen is of good quality. Dell has made a special effort on the glossy 17.3-inch. The display of Dell Inspiron 17R Special Edition is bright (358 cd / m 2), which is very pleasant to use and is – above all – crucial for a 3D display that serves to offset the loss of brightness due to the activation of 3D glasses. The sensor which synchronizes the screen with the glasses is integrated into the edge of the screen.

The screen is also have a good contrast ratio (250:1 a) which ensures deep blacks and nuanced colors. Use in 3D with glasses on, the record is good and although the screen is subject to a mild ghost (double image).

Sufficient Computing power

Besides its beautiful screen and graphics card art, the Inspiron 17R Special Edition offers a configuration to match its ambitions (and price). Dell chose an Intel Core i7-3610QM (2.3GHz), 8GB of memory (RAM) and a 750 GB hard drive coupled with a 32GB SSD module format mSata. The latter serves as a cache to the storage device to speed up Windows startup and launching some applications you use often.

In software side, the manufacturer provides a version of Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements 9, a license Cyberlink PowerDVD is compatible with 3D and the Utility home for the update and maintenance programs of the laptop.

The muscular audio to cover the ventilation

The breakdown of the Dell Inspiron 17R Special Edition can be noisy (42.8 dB) but is still effective because the temperatures are not so high for a machine of this caliber (43.2 ° C max. under the machine). Fortunately, the power of the integrated 2.1 audio kit, developed in partnership with Skull Candy, is sufficient to cover the noise of the laptop. Five minutes of audio profiles (movies, games, music, etc..) are available by simply pressing any key above the numeric keypad.

Another advantage of the Dell Inspiron 17R Special Edition, thanks to technology Optimus Nvidia, the graphics card only works when you need it. The GeForce GT 650M sleeping so nicely as you have not started a game or do not enable 3D Vision. Thus, the Inspiron 17R uses only 31.6 watts when you’re running Windows 7 and can swallow up to 102 watts when you put to the test.

The verdict

Technically, the Dell Inspiron 17R Special Edition is successful. Power, ergonomics and even stereoscopic 3D are waiting for you. We regret the lack of a Gigabit Ethernet port and the backlit keyboard, yet available on other machines Special Edition. In addition, you may not be really fan of massive chassis and wide borders around the screen.

Technically, the Dell Inspiron 17R Special Edition is successful. Power, ergonomics and even stereoscopic 3D are waiting for you. We regret the lack of a Gigabit Ethernet port and the backlit keyboard, yet available on other machines Special Edition. In addition, you may not be really fan of massive chassis and wide borders around the screen.

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