Go 'head with your bad self,
Dell! The
colorful Studio line is
expanding this fine morning, with the newest member rocking a slightly unorthodox 14-inch (LED) display size. Designed for hipster students and those at the top of the computing bell curve, this perfectly average portable offers up Core 2 Duo CPU options, 720 / 900p screen resolutions, integrated NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics, HDMI / DisplayPort outputs, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, dual headphone jacks, up to 500GB of HDD space, a 34mm ExpressCard slot, six-cell battery (an optional eight-cell will last over six hours), WiFi, optional Bluetooth and even an external Blu-ray drive if you're feeling frisky. Supposedly the machine will be available to order later today in the US and Canada, with prices starting at $649.
posted May 28th 2009 7:41AM
Fuh.. am I just dumb or is there no optical drive on this? On a 14" notebook? Yeah?
no drive ya'll, which is an improvement IMO
Quoted from the article: "and even an external Blu-ray drive if you're feeling frisky"
No internal optical drive, though. A bit shocking that they couldn't find a place to squeeze an optical drive in a 14" notebook.
Dell needs an 11" notebook to fill out the entire spectrum from 9"-17"
I could understand this on a 12" or below notebook but this is just unacceptable.
@ will -
I disagree. I can't remember the last time I needed an optical drive away from home. Already have plenty of other external drives to handle this. Keep the price low with the external if you need it. Sounds like a good deal to me.
>> "I can't remember the last time I needed an optical drive away from home."
I burn lots of CDs for dance studios... but I'd be willing to use a slim external optical drive with this laptop.
14" LED LCD (!!!)
eSATA (!)
HDMI
Optional 8-cell battery for 7 hours
5 pounds
YES PLEASE!!!
The only thing missing for me is a Firewire port (I'm a digital video guy) but that can be added with the Express Card slot.
Now that I think about it... I only burn CDs a couple times a month... there's no need in having an optical drive in the laptop 24/7
UPDATE: The pictures in the hands on article shows a Firewire port!
http://www.engadget.com/photos/dell-studio-14z-hands-on/2041063/
Yup, optical drives are about as useful as a floppy drive these days.
Optical drives are *not* as dead as floppies, but yeah, the need is lessening at about the same rate. When retail product drivers and installation files come on small usb flash drives instead of discs, then I think we can safely say there is no need for optical drives in a pc.
This is exactly what I was waiting for. Thin, light, big screen, no integrated graphics, core 2 duo processors, hdmi... Sounds like its made for those who wish their x200 had a bigger screen. Just hope it has an LED LCD option.
they are LED screens, probably backlit lcd's they don't specify
These are LED Screens, with LED Brite as a $50 upgrade.
Dual headphone jacks? Hey, that's a good idea!
Bluetooth as an option? Not so much.
It's been standard on lots of dell laptops, the main reason for it is to have compatibility with 5.1 sound systems.
The only thing holding me back from ordering one now is the Windows 7 free upgrade program that is supposed to start July 1st, Í'm prepared to wait untill then. But this notebook looks really nice otherwise.
I was just thinking to purchase white macbook. Looking over this Dell tech specs I realized that Apple sells an obsolete hardware (though OS X rocks - maybe windows 7 will too). DELL, GREAT JOB... REALLY NICE MACHINE!
Speaking of obsolete hardware ... how about DELL still trying to clear out XPS m1330 and m1530 inventory?
I'd love to snap up a 1330 if it wasn't for that faulty GPU
I don't mind that it's an external optical drive but i'm kind of disappointed that you have to purchase one separately.
I love the look and this would seriously be what I replace my current laptop (Dell XPS m1530) with. As useful as an optical drive is, I almost never use mine. In the last 6 months I have burned 3 DVDs, 2 CDRs, and have watched 2 movies on DVD. I think the optical drive should still be included in the over all price, or at least give a nice discount when buying the system. I'm kind of surprised there's no options to BUY a slim DVD drive while configuring a system. Although, I've seen slim DVD drives on newegg for around $50 lately so I guess it may not be that important. Over all, I think this is the first laptop with a 16:9 screen and form factor that I actually like.
you don't like the vaio z?
as strange as this sounds, I don't. I think it maybe because I'm more partial towards 14inch screens vs 13inch screens. Also the Vaio Z series has those chiclet keys that I could never find comfortable typing on for long periods of time. When I bought my current laptop, there wasn't any 14inch laptops that really appealed to me. Asus had some really nice systems but they looked really thick and (at the time) were lacking in the video card department. I only got my m1530 because of the 8600GT GPU, its "slim" aesthetics, comfortable keyboard, and price.
720p? 900p? Are these 16:9 or 16:10? What is the actual resolution?
I love how Dell's "tech specs" gives no more information about the screens.
OK, 16:9. I found it on the PRESS RELEASE of all places.
So you get 1280x720 or 1600x900. Is it really that hard to put this on the product page?
it's probably not 1280x720, it's most likely 1366x768
@JR
I apologize, I misread your comment..
Nice. I used to be a Dell hater because all their laptops were boxy rocks.
1) only up to T6600 cpu now? fail
2) No optical drive? maybe fail depend on your purpose but for buz user it's definite fail (PS. i dont see an option to add optical drive)
3) Nvidia 9400m IS an integrated graphic unlike other user mentioned, it draws from your RAM.
4) Relatively, this one is a much better value http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9027714&type=product&id=1218010176167
Gives you Penryn Chip 4 GB ram (albeit slower) DVD drive, dedicated 9300m 512mb video, LED, back lit and bluetooth already with 2
years warranty
Nope, actually it can be customized with up to a T9550. So if the Studio 14z was pre-configured for $899 it would be more powerful, but less-equipped.
You are wrong on every count, and a very very negative individual. I do not approve of you in any way.
This would be so sexy at $499
I whole-heartedly agree. This machine is too overpriced for this dated hardware.
There's no optical drive? WTF??
If I really wanted something without an optical drive, I would have bought a 12" thinkpad or MB Air rather than this PoS.
For some reason these just scream "Della". I suspect that's where these were headed prior to canceling that brand. (I was going to use another word for "cancel" but good taste fortunately hit me up side the head...)
Forgot to mention DDR3. Yeah boy!