Foreword:

Dell’s latest Studio offering has struck the perfect balance between price and features, rating very high on the “value for money” scale. It is not too cheap at $799, however, it is not too expensive for those who are looking for an affordable desktop replacement. With a plethora of ports, a 500GB HDD and six hours of battery life, this laptop excels wherever it is used.

+Ves:

• With a 15.6” screen, it is worthy of the name “desktop replacement”. With plenty of screen area for watching a movie or working on spreadsheets, this laptop will definitely take the place of your desktop, even though it has a comparatively smaller screen size than HPdv6 or Y650 (at 16”).
• Even without an adjacent numeric pad like NV5807u and the Toshiba Satellite L505D-S6947, the overall ergonomics of the keyboard provides much for both touch and the hunt-and-peck typists. The touchpad is calibrated well, and the mouse-buttons are soft and easy to click.
• The slightly higher price is justified when it comes to the hard drive department because of the 500GB hard drive against the 320GB found in most of its competitors.
• It comes with a lot of ports, including three USB ports, one of which also functions as an eSATA port. A HDMI-out is a boost for those who wish to see movies in high definition in a larger LCD screen. The CD tray is slot-loading for aesthetic reasons.
• Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Video encoding tests saw this notebook beat the NV5807u, the Inspiron 1545 and the dv6t(1030us) while the PCMark Vintage scores saw this ceding first place to the Y650 (which uses a faster processor).
• The battery life is where this desktop replacement aces its competitors. With a 6-hour battery life, it considerably outshines the closest competition which was nearly double that of its closest competition. This is because of the 9-cell battery (85Wh) that is bundled along with it.
• Since this was a Costco product, the standard 2 year warranty on parts and labor applies to this as well.

-Ves:

• The price does not justify the 2.1GHz Intel core 2 Duo T6500 processor and 4GB RAM that is found in practically all of its cheaper competitors.
• With an integrated graphics card, this computer is incapable of supporting graphics intensive games like Crysis. Gamers are advised to look for better options.
• The laptop itself is bulkier than most of its competition at 1.5” at the back. It is deceptively light, however, at 5.8lbs, while most of its competition is heavier than it.
• The design is not very appealing to the eye with Midnight Blue plastic material adorning it. Some other budget systems are made from fancy metals instead of boring plastic.

Final Word:

While the Dell Studio 1555 (USE006CS) is not the best looking laptops in the desktop replacement category, it is certainly one of the most capable in the $600-$800 price category. It beats competition from the Gateway NV5807u, Inspiron 1545 and the HP dv6t by boosting both battery life and hard drive space, and the inclusion of a two year warranty just goes along in helping its cause.