Dell Vostro 1720

I've used this 17" Dell Vostro 1720 for 4 years now.... the battery is limping by now, but every other corner is intact and absolutely flawless. The buttons still look like new, it is quiet and stable even in the Japanese summer, it is still fast in spite of everyday heavy use for 4 years and an almost bursting C-drive. The keyboard is nice and comfortable. For a 17" it is even light (though a smaller adaptor would be beneficial!). I can only thank Dell for this very great computer experience I've had.

Dell have come in for some flack over the last few years. I have owned a few Dells and they definitely have their issues - battery life, screen quality etc...

But the latest generation of Vostro's seem much more robust and of higher quality.

Keep it up Dell.

I spent a great deal of time researching laptops to replace my dying Novatech laptop. i purchased that in 2003, it was the first Hyper-thread pentium 4, 3.06ghz, 1 GB Ram, 64mb gpu and built in wifi. it was about £1000 at the time, and it was a storming performer. it has lasted until later 2009, so that is an outstanding duration for a laptop, but i really did look after it, regular servicing and upgraded parts, ram and hard drive for example.

So, when looking for a new one, i decided to set a spending limit of £500 as I wouldn't be using this one as much as the old one. i decided on making the CPU the most important aspect, followed by independent graphics card, the screen resolution, then hard drive, then ram (as this is easily upgradable). i researched various Laptop brands, and Dell seemed to come out on top for quality and cost. They offer a home collection and return within the warranty period which i was very interested in, as well as the customization process the website offered upon ordering, it was very concise from hardware to software and accessories.

So I decided after reading up, to get the Dell Vostro 1720 as it had the Intel Core 2 Duo P7570(2.26GHz,1066MHz,3MB), 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GS Graphic Card Black, 4096MB 800 MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x2GB), 320gb hard drive, standard 1440x900 screen and windows 7 pro installed, and the weekend I bought it it was on offer for £90 off! so i got it for £560 inc Vat.

I am very happy with the performance, it is fast, quiet, surprisingly light, and clearly well put together. the touch pad is responsive, the click buttons give good 'click' feedback.

Negative points are few, but one that stands out is the screen colour, it seems a little washed out, i have tried adjusting the colour, but it seems to be weak when displaying vibrant colours, specially as i use a second monitor (LG LED Screen) when designing websites, and it really does show the poor colour. this was annoying as i am a designer, and colour is important. There is an upgrade option for a higher resolution better quality screen, and i should have opted for that, so when buying, do bare this in mind.

Another point is the laptop itself is nothing special to look at, it is fairly plain with very few hot-keys, just media controls. Although, i did opt for the free Red Shell which makes the outside look pretty special.

The bad points are far outweighed by the shear value, this is a powerhouse of a laptop, i run cs4, a CPU/GPU heavy software and it doesn't have any issues. I regularly run multiple software, and it doesn't struggle. If i had gone for the Studio 17" laptop by Dell with a similar spec, the cost would have been closer to £1200. the few compromises are not a big deal.

overall i love this laptop, but i may reconsider a few points is choosing again, but i once again return to the price... a bargain price for a middle weight laptop.