Display and Speakers

The Inspiron 1720 comes with a whopping 17" LCD screen that can be customised to either native 1440 x 900 resolutions or 1920 x 1200 resolutions. Our 1440 X 900 WXGA screen on the unit was quite good with little to no dead pixels in the tests. Colour on the screen was very vibrant and the viewing angles were pretty good to. Even at odd angles, images displayed on the screen were still relatively sharp which meant that even a few people could get partake of watching movies on the 1720.

The Inspiron1720 also comes with a 2.0 megapixel webcam that is situated just above the LCD screen. 

As for the speakers, though the Inspiron 1720 has better sound production compared to most notebooks, bass volume was still kind of lacking when compared to that of a proper set of standalone speakers. However, bass volume aside, the speakers of the Inspiron 1720 should prove sufficient for most of your needs, including movie watching, though if you're going to leave the notebook on your desk more often, a set standalone speakers would be recommended.

Performance

Now performance wise, the Inspiron 1720 was pretty good and should you decide to customise the notebook to the maximum specs available, its performance would be even more impressive. We ran the notebook through our 3D Mark 06 and PC Mark 05 test and did a comparison with the other desktop replacement notebook we reviewed before, the BenQ Joybook S41 and as you can see from the table below, the Inspiron 1720 did much better than the Joybook  S41.  In terms of graphics performance as well, the Inspiron 1720 managed to beat the Joybook  S41. 

PC Mark 05 Scores  

3D Mark 06 Scores

As far as gaming is concerned, the Inspiron 1720 did pretty well as it managed a nice 110 fps in our Far Cry test at a 1024 x 768 resolution.  As for battery life, we found that the notebook could go on for a good 3 hours 35 minutes, which was although not very impressive, was still good for a notebook of its caliber.

The Dell Inspiron 1720 is a pretty impressive notebook if you're looking for a desktop replacement. It gives a good balance in terms of performance for both work and play and even has the screen size to back up the play part. Of course its biggest strength and weakness lies in the sheer size of it. The size of the Inspiron 1720 makes it really bulky to lug around though not impossible as it is still a notebook. However, when you compare it to the almost similar specked BenQ S41, which is much smaller and portable and almost as good in terms of performance, you might think twice about getting the Inspiron 1720. However, bear in mind, the Inspiron 1720 that we reviewed is not the fully tricked out version that you can purchase on Dell. Should you customise the 1720 to its full capacity, then you will have a notebook that can easily rival and normal PCs.

So it boils down to what you're looking at. Should you want a pretty good performing PC that is very easy to carry and doesn't break your shoulders, you might want to consider the BenQ S41. Considering the size of the Inspiron 1720, you'd want it to perform way much better the S41 instead of doing slightly better. So, it would be better if you get the Inspiron 1720 fully tricked out instead of it being. Doing that would make the Inspiron 1720 more worth it as a desktop replacement.

Name: learnyee	Comment: if you compared this model with Inspiron 9400, I would really much prefered that unit. with HDMI output, GeForceGo 7900GS, flashable to Geforce Go 7900GTX, though no fullsize keyboard and runs on older Intel chipset, but 3dMark05 score at 6500+, that was pretty good though
Rated Article: Posted: 2007-12-06 01:15:44

Name: chalorlay	Comment: Own one since 23/09/2007. A bit heavy on the pocket but worth every ringgit paid. Now November, how come this model baru buat review ?
Rated Article: Posted: 2007-11-30 18:15:26

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