Dell Inspiron E1705 for Entertainment, Poker Players and Gamers
Written: Aug 20 '06 (Updated Nov 28 '06)
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Pros: Fast, great resolution; screen.
Cons: Not as easy to carry as others.
The Bottom Line: If you are a gamer or use a lot of graphics and don't mind a larger (or want a larger) computer, this is it.
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| jo.com's Full Review: Dell Inspiron E1705 (E1705S3) PC Notebook |
I am reviewing the Dell Inspiron E1705 PC Notebook. My soon to be son-in-law bought this a few months ago and although I saw him use it I have now had the chance to use it for five days including right now. I am reviewing the option he chose which is the Dual Powerhouse.
You probably know that at www.dell.com you can build your own computer. After looking at the specifications it seems that Rob went with the standard E1705. I am going to review what he has but leave a summary of the specs below which will be from the website.
Why buy the E1705 Dual Powerhouse?
In my opinion there is a specific market for this computer and I’m not the one being targeted however it is an amazing machine. You will buy this if you are a gamer, load a lot of photos, graphics and DVDs. He bought it because he plays Poker as a serious hobby. At home he has two screens set up on a desktop but he wanted a laptop so he could play when not at home. This does the trick and more.
This Next Generation of computers allows four poker games at a time which is not possible with my Dell Inspiron 4100. I play Party Poker with free chips and had a ball playing on the E1705. E stands for entertainment.
You will get a massive 17 inch wide screen. This is one reason it isn’t one I would buy but I can certainly understand why he bought it.
About the E1705:
Memory and hard drive:
This machine’s hard drive is an 80 GB 5400 RPM SATA. This not only affects the storage capacity but the rotational speed of the drive. This is a fast machine. Unlike mine which after hibernating I have to them coax it to wake up, the E1705 opens its eyes immediately. It seems to be one of the fastest machine around looking at the specifications and comparing it to other machine. Compare the 80 to my 2 GB hard drive. You can see why this is a machine for those using a lot of graphics.
What it looks like:
The E1705 is a beautiful machine. The lid and bottom of the notebook are silver which is the magnesium alloy construction which is supposed to add protection. It is several months old and is carried in a wonderful backpack I will try to review. There are no scratches on it although it looks like it would scratch easily.
I read that the lid provides good protection for the screen. I read that I could push in on the back of the screen and not get ripples. I had to try this. I do not get any ripples. Going over to my 4100 and pushing on the lid I see ripples on the screen. I can describe it as almost being able to see my fingerprints through the screen.
It is a bit more than 15 inches wide by a little more than 11 inches deep and 1 and one half inches high. It comes in at close to 8 pounds. The weight will vary depending on how you built it.
One of the benefits of the 17-inch dual screen powerhouse is that you don’t have to minimize screens when using Instand Messanger and to check e-mail. More screen real estate means that the primary activity (Poker, Word, etc.) can share the screen.
It has a full set of keys. One thing I noticed immediately was how different this looked. From the bottom of the key board to the bottom row of the keys I measure 4 1/2 inches. Mine measures 4 inches. That’s only 1/2 of an inch farther for my hands to go but it took me some time to get used to it. Also the additional 1 1/2 inches in depth took me some getting used to.
Visual and Audio:
There are two options on this notebook. He could have chosen a matte style screen or what is called a WUXGA TrueLife screen. This is what he chose including an optional graphics card. I have never seen such a beautiful screen. The difference is like choosing glossy over matte photos. The screen is extremely shiny making the pictures on it amazingly clear and bright. The color contrast is excellent and the colors themselves perfect. I saw pictures of his niece and his bachelor party all of which were as good a quality as I can imagine. So if movies are your thing this would be a good option.
The WUXGA (W stands for wide) resolution (1920 by 1200) means the text and icons are small so if you are going to use this more for flipping through the Internet or reading documents you might want to go with the other option – WXGA.
For Rob’s purposes the WUXGA TrueLife screen is perfect. When playing poker I feel as if I’m inside the rooms! The screen is bright and crisp. I can choose several levels of brightness.
The sound is very good. It is crisp and clear as well. I hear no fuzziness and just listened to a bit of audio at the Dell website. It isn’t tinny or hollow sounding like my 4100.
The E1705 has an Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950.
The E1705 has a high definition integrated stereo sound with an integrated subwoofer.
Other Information:
The E1705 has front-side media buttons making control over music and movies literally at your fingertips. You can play, pause, stop, fast-forward and rewind.
It has 6-USB 2.0 (Universal Serial Bus) ports.
It has a 5-in-1 removable memory card reader.
It has an 85 WHR 9 cell Lithium cell battery. The standard is a 6 cell which lasts about 2 hours. The 9 cell will get you close to 3 hours of battery life.
The operating system is Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 with Windows Vista capable.
Service:
This machine comes with a 3-year warranty. It hasn’t needed service but I can tell you from my own experience that Dell’s service was wonderful. I had the extended warranty (I wish I could have kept extending it!) and had a problem with a couple of keys on the key board. When customer service told me they would pick up my computer fix it and bring it back I got really nervous. I figured I would be without a computer for months and months. In three or four days it was back. Not only had they replaced the keyboard but they noticed a crack in the lid and replaced that.
Do I like it or not?
The E1705 is a beautiful, fast machine which can handle all the entertainment you’ll want. It seems to be competing with the MAC. I like Dell products though my husband has an IBM ThinkPad which is a wonderful machine and my daughter has a MAC and she loves it.
I like it but it isn’t a machine I would buy. However as I noted if you meet the requirement of the target audience I don’t think you’ll do better than this Dell E1705. For me it is heavier than I would go if I were to buy a new computer but I’m not a gamer nor do I do much more than load some travel pictures on my 4100.
This is certainly a 5 star computer and one I would highly recommend. Please feel free to leave me a question or comment if I haven’t answered all your questions.
A summary of all the specs on the computer reviewed:
2GB, DDR2, 533MHz 2 Dimm, for Inspiron 9400/E1705
256MB ATI MOBILITY RADEON X 1400 HyperMemory, for Inspiron9400/E1705
Integrated 10/100 Network Cardand Modem, for Inspiron
CyberLink PowerDVD v5.7 Decoding Sofware for DVD Drives
Integrated High Definition Audio
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11a/g Mini Card (54Mbps)
80 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Intel Core Duo Processor T2500 (2GHz, 2MB Cache, 667MHz FSB)
Combo Drive: 24x/10x/24x CD-RW and 8x DVD-ROM with double-layer DVD R write capability5
IEEE 1394 integrated port (1394 cable and software sold separately)
Digital Video Interface (DVI)
Stereo headphones/speakers miniconnector, microphone miniconnector
2GB Shared4 Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini Card (54Mbps)
Targus Black Messenger Bag
Dell Classic Nylon Carrying Case Inspiron Notebooks
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1135
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: 501-600
Screen Size: Greater than 15 inches
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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