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Fusion of style and functionality; of design and practicality- that is what the Dell Studio XPS 16 is all about although we find there is a little more emphasis on the style and design aspect. Aimed at both homebuyers and business users, XPS line is a notch above Dell’s Vostro and Inspiron series. The arresting design is both beautiful to look at and to touch. Decked with a glossy coat and some well-placed metal and leather trim – this is the laptop that represents the good life.

 

The Dell’s Studio XPS 16 is targeted at buyers who prefer more entertainment features from their laptops. It is a solidly built multimedia notebook, which offers a lot of features for the entry price.

 

The eye-catching design continues to be evident inside. Opening this notebook reveals a black-on-black motif that gives it a clean and classy look. The full-sized keyboard is comfortable and well laid-out and the touchpad is a breeze to use. An attention-grabbing screen is one of this mobile device’s highlights. A 15.6-inch LED display is standard while a 16-inch RGBLED with seamless display is top of the line. The RGBLED offers incredible display – really meant for watching movies and enjoying streaming videos. Sound, too, is top of the line with great speakers and an excellent audio card.

 

 The Studio XPS 16 has a standard array of ports (USB, eSATA, FireWire,) and Dell also included VGA and HDMI port connectors for external displays. Users, though, lamented the limited number of USB ports (only two). On the downside, we noticed that the unit runs hot quite quickly and battery life is short for a laptop of this type.

 

Expansion options are an ExpressCard slot and an 8-in-1 memory card reader. An 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi is standard while Bluetooth is an option.

 

Dell Studio XPS 16 Specs	AVAILABLE OPTIONS (from Dell’s website)
CPU	Up to Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T9800 (2.93GHz, 6MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
RAM	Up to 8GB 1067MHz DDR3 SDRAM3
Screen Size	15.6″ LED or optional 16″ RGBLED seamless display.
Operating System	Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate x64 EditionGenuine Windows Vista® Home Premium x64 Edition
Battery Life	Around 3 hours for the six-cell battery
Graphics	ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3670-512MBATI Mobility RADEON HD 4670-1GB

 

Pros:

The Dell Studio XPS 16 is a beautifully designed laptop. Build quality is top-notch and sturdy and the design is clean and seamless. The RGB LED Display option is amazing and offers great, sharp images. The VGA and HDMI port options are always a plus as it allows one to connect with external displays. Setting this device is easy and enjoying multimedia is hassle-free.

 

Cons:

The unit has a short battery life (when using the 6-cell). It does run hot and the surface tends to be left with numerous fingerprints.

 

Conclusion

This is great for multimedia use, gaming or just ordinary, everyday use. Business users will find this useful, too. We were blown away by the 16-inch RGB LED Display. For the price, this is definitely one of the top buys for 2009. The shortcomings are few and can be overlooked (buy a cooling pad to address the heat!) and the benefits are just too many to ignore. Laptopmag.com proclaims “A slick design, impressive performance, and an eye-popping display help catapult this multimedia machine to the top of the pack.”. PCMag rates it a high 4 ½ stars

Related posts:

1. Dell Studio 14z – Review
2. Dell Studio 1537 – Review
3. Dell Studio 15 -Review
4. Dell Studio 17 – Review
5. DELL Vostro 1710 – Review

Tags: Core 2 Duo, Dell, laptop review, XPS

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 at 11:51 am and is filed under Dell, and is tagged with Core 2 Duo, Dell, laptop review, XPS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.