Mobile Buyers' Guide: 14" and Larger Notebooks and DTRs
by Dustin Sklavos on June 30, 2010 12:53 AM ESTVideo/Multimedia Workstation: Dell Studio 17
If there's one category we know particularly well and have exhaustively researched—if only for personal reasons—it's this one. The aforementioned griping about ExpressCard and FireWire returns, substantially narrowing the field. A need for a high resolution screen narrows it further, and at the end of the day we're left with just two companies seeking to fill this particular niche: Dell and Sony.
Our initial leanings went toward Sony's F series notebooks. These sport Core i7 quad-core processors, can be custom-ordered with 1080p screens (or even found in retail with those screens), and have all of the needed ports and expansion abilities. On top of that, they're just attractive machines and the pricing is fairly reasonable. The only major complaint that can be levied against the F series is the strangely anemic GeForce GT 330M Sony chose to equip them with. The preceding Core 2-based series used a Mobility Radeon HD 4650, making the move to the GT 330M lateral at best. And since the F series uses quad-core i7s, there's no integrated graphics to at least try to justify the GT 330M through Optimus.
Unfortunately for Sony, Dell has an ace in the hole that they just can't touch: the Dell Studio 17 may not have been updated with the refreshed mobile Core i7 chips yet, but that's only a matter of time, and we'd gladly take the performance hit for one of Dell's RGB LED-backlit 1080p screens. If you're doing any kind of color-sensitive media work with the notebook, that screen is going to pay big dividends. Dell doesn't charge an unreasonable sum for the upgrade either: $150 isn't that much to ask for one of the best looking screens you can find on a notebook. Given how dismal the quality of many modern screens have become, and how vital a good one can be for any kind of serious media work, Dell clinches this recommendation. If you want a media workstation, look no further than the Dell Studio 17.
Video/Multimedia Workstation Runner Up: Sony F Series
Of course, if you don't want to shell out for the RGB LED-backlit 1080p screen in Dell's Studio 17, the Sony F series is mighty attractive on its own. The line was recently refreshed with the updated Core i7-740QM, and can be had with a 1600x900 screen for just $1000. That's not bad at all, and it's easy to custom order a fairly reasonable machine from Sony's site. It comes with the standard 4GB of DDR3, a 320GB hard drive, and the aforementioned underwhelming but still decent GeForce GT 330M. At just a grand for an excellent piece of video editing hardware, the Sony F series is very tempting indeed.
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ExodusC - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
I noticed you mentioned the HP Envy line on the last page. At $1099, the Envy 14 is looking like a fairly good deal for a premium notebook, considering the specs it offers.That being said, is AnandTech planning to review the Envy 14? I'm dying to know. I emailed Anand, but he's a busy man and I'm sure he didn't have time to respond. :) It's hard to find out how to contact the AnandTech writers/editors, honestly.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
Most of us are [name] at AnandTech.com... I'm jarred.walton; others are dustin, vivek, anand, brian, rajinder.gill, ryan.smith, and johan. The email stuff should start showing up again in the not too distant future.As for the Envy, I've asked multiple times to get one of the Envy laptops, and so far no luck. We've recently had HP ship us a couple business laptops, but they haven't sent out consumer stuff for review in quite a while for some reason. So unless that changes, it's unlikely we'll get an Envy review. :-(
Dustin Sklavos - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
It's my understanding this isn't at all unusual. I started doing reviews at NotebookReview.com (and still write there regularly), and I've also written for Tech Report. HP tends to be extremely cagey with review hardware of any kind (Sony's even worse that way). Personally I don't think that does them any favors at all; Dell and Acer for example are both extremely forthcoming and proactive about getting review kit in the hands of reviewers.rwei - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
Want to borrow mine? ;) I've been enjoying my Envy 17 for a week or so now but I'm incredibly curious to see what you guys think. I might even be half serious about the borrowing.As someone who's been using (and still uses, to some extent) an A8Jm from 4 years ago, the change was very interesting.
Sure, the 17 is way bigger, but the build quality is immeasurably better, and the high quality (for my purposes, anyways) screen/keyboard make for a completely different experience. Of course, I may just be biased because both hinges on my A8Jm are half to fully broken off, and the 7600 Go can't accelerate video. I suspect that Asus' current mid-range 14" line will have similar build issues - gotta make room for those components somwhere in the price.
I did realize after reading your article I realized that I gave up my Firewire port =(. The thought didn't even occur to me when I ordered. Looks like my 2nd gen 10GB iPod will finally need to be retired...a moment of silence, please.
Milleman - Monday, July 5, 2010 - link
I just hate notebooks with 16:9 screens. Can't do anything productive through that letterbox peep hole, except watching movies or maybe play games. Bot for netsurfing, wordprocessing and other applications, it is just a pain. I want the 4:3 format back on laptops!Akv - Monday, July 5, 2010 - link
Agreed. 16:9 is an intrusion in the computer productivity world.Not everybody watches movies. Some people still write.
anactoraaron - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
What happened to that last giveaway? Up until that mousepad there was an update posted the next day and nothing now for a few days...I still think all of the giveaways Anandtech does is awesome, don't get me wrong...
therealnickdanger - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
The iPhone 4 and Laptop articles ARE the giveaways - and we all won! :)timpagden - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
Interesting snapshot of the marketplace. I am somewhat bemused by the lack of high resolution in notebooks today, a few years (3?) ago, you couldn't move for 1920x1200's in 17" AND with AMD processors! This lack of resolution has pretty much removed me and my family from the notebook marketplace, we now opt for 'transportable' PCs with 1920x1200 LCDs. For on-the-go computing & connectivity, a smartphone (854x480) with a VPN into the at-home servers is looking like the way forward - are we seeing the death knell of the notebook PC?Dustin Sklavos - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
It's actually the reason I opted to replace my current notebook with a Dell Studio 17 (en route) and a netbook. At this point 17"ers are the only place you're going to get a screen with a halfway decent vertical resolution for doing any kind of media work, and actually the 17" lineup is the only place where the move to 16:9 widescreen has actually been beneficial overall. Before, 17"ers were 1440x900 standard, now they're 1600x900. It's true you lose resolution buying top end where you used to be able to snag 1920x1200, but that's not as nasty a hit as the mainstream jump from 1280x800 to 1366x768. It's amazing just how brutal losing even 32 pixels of vertical real estate winds up being for media work.