Dell Inspiron E1705 PC Notebook Review

The Dell Inspiron E1705 PC Notebook is my son-in-law’s computer. I have used it enough to be able to review it. Not too long ago he bought me one similar but smaller which I will review

Why did Rob buy the E1705 Dual Powerhouse?

He chose this one because he is a gamer, loads lots of photos, graphics and DVDs. He bought it because he plays Poker as a serious hobby. This Next Generation of computers allows four poker games at a time which is not possible with my old Dell Inspiron 4100. The E in the name stands for entertainment.

The screen is massive coming in at 17- inched wide screen.

This machine’s hard drive is an 80 GB 5400 RPM SATA. This is a fast machine. It also wakes up after hibernating right away.

To understand how bit 80 is my old 4100 had a 2 GB hard drive. You can see why this is a machine for those using a lot of graphics.

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 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 build it which can be done at www.dell.com.

One of the benefits of the 17-inch dual screen powerhouse is that you don’t have to minimize screens when using Instant Messenger and to check e-mail.

Rob could have chosen matte style screen or what is called a WUXGA TrueLife screen. He chose the latter. Until he bought me mine I had never seen such a beautiful screen. The difference is like choosing glossy over matte photos. The color contrast is excellent and the colors themselves perfect.

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.

The sound is very good. It doesn’t sound tinny or hollow like some computers sound.

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.

Warranty

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.

The E1705 is a beautiful, fast machine which can handle all the entertainment you’ll want. If you meet the requirements of the target audience I don’t think you’ll do better than this Dell E1705.

The price is in the $1100 range.

Jo says

Thumbs Up!