Was planning to buy a  laptop with a decent configuration for a long time.  A one month online research  ended me in to  Dell Studio series. Dell Studio was the only one that could  be in my budget with the required configuration. My budget was for about Half a lakh indian rupees and dell studio was starting on 42,500 INR range  on its base model.  The configuration i was looking  for was a core 2 duo processor, RAM more than 2 GB,  256MB graphics card , 250GB Hardisk, 9 cell batteries for more backup, 15″+ screen with higher resolution.

Buying Process:

Went to dell.co.in ->laptop->studio. Choose the base model from its preconfigured models and started customizing the laptop. Customizing the laptop is a good option that Dell provides to its customers. So after customizing i ended up in the below given configuration

• Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo Processor T6500 (2.10GHz/ 800 FSB/ 2MB Cache)
• Genuine Windows Vista(R) Home Premium 32 bit SP1 Edition (English)
• 15.6 ” Full HD(1080p)WLED (1920 x 1080)Display with TrueLife
• Integrated 2.0 Mega Pixel Web Cam
• 4GB Dual-channel DDR2 SDRAM
• 320GB SATA 7200RPM Performance Hard Drive
• Slot Load 8X DVD + /-RW Drive with DVD + R double layer write capability
• 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570
• Artic Silver Palmrest
• Intel(R) WiFi Link 5100 (802.11a/g/n) Half Mini-card
• Integrated Stereo Sound with Subwoofer
• Dell(TM) Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module
• 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
• -1 Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
• Integrated Fast Ethernet 10/100/1000
• 34mm ExpressCard Slot, (DOES NOT SUPPORT PC CARDS)

Amount : Rs 46,318.50
BCD/CVD/Excise Duty : Rs 3,268.01
VAT/CST/WCT 4% :  Rs 1,983.46
Total Rs : 1,983.46
Total before Discount :  Rs 51,569.97
Less Discount:  Rs 1,983.46

Total Amount:  Rs 49,586.51

After adding it to the cart, a form was given where i added my contact details and it was written than a dell executive would be contacting me. Mean while a pdf file with the customized configuration was e-mailed to me. Next day evening got the call from dell executive, it was from Chennai  and the customer executives name was Girish Krishnan .  He confirmed my order with the amount and asked me by which way i would make the payment,  he said if i do it via credit card the VAT would be waved off and also if  i do it on that day itself i would also get a DELL laser mouse and a Creative earphones as compensation. I told him to call me back after half-an hour so that i could make necessary arrangements. He again called after 30 Minutes and for the credit transfer he connected me to a IVR service in which i had to type the credit card details right through the phone.  After successful credit transfer he said that the laptop would be shipped to my given address in 7 days and told me to reply back to a mail that he just emailed me. The email was a kind of declaration form that i filled  and mailed him back

There was a delivery status  portal at dell.co.in that keeps track of the laptop delivery . Logging in to it with the reference details would show at what process  the laptop. is   I waited for 7  days and it wasn’t delivered on time, the delivery status  portal was  showing 14 days late delivery time. I just wrote back to the customer executive  but didn’t get any response from him. On the 10th day got a SMS from BlueDart(courier service) that its dispatched from Chennai, so on 12th day ie. on 11th September’09 i got the laptop delivered. It had a cartoon with a bunch of documents .After it  i didnt get a call back from the dell Customer service either asking if the laptop was delivered or is the laptop working well .

The Courier Pack with the Bill

The first Deck which has the accessories

The Second Deck with the laptop

At last in my hand. My first look

The Hood Logo

The right side with Power on switch, A/C port, USB port, Card Reader port

The left side with HDMI port, VGA port, LAN port, e-SATA port, USB port ,1394 port, mic jack  and 2 speaker-out jack(can be used for 5+1 speaker output)

The right side bottom view

Open View

The Keyboard

The power Button on right side

My Experience:

Well as i worked on it i think its a small beast. With 4 GB RAM almost all heavy RAM eating  application where running like a charm, the 7,200RPM hardisk also has a big hand on this performance.  The HD screen  with 1920 *1080 pixel resolution the desktop looked very lively and crystal clear.The 9 Cell battery is giving almost 4+ hours backup. Saying about its looks it looks real simple not that stylish, Well i wasn’t looking for look i was looking for performance . Tried playing  NFS undercover [ATI Radeon HD4570 with 512RAM ] and it  ran good on medium settings . Half-life 2 and Counter Strike was running good on high resolution. Playing games on 1920 *1080 is a bit amazing. The laptop speakers are giving a pretty good output..  loud and clear, i haven’t heard   anything  better than this on any other laptop.

Vista Base Score for this system is: 5

CRAP:

As the laptop was shipped with a preloaded vista it had only two partitioned drives. One was of about 270 GB(OS loaded) and another 15GB(recovery drive). But i needed it all partitioned to about 80GB drive each . So tried shrinking the drives with the default disk management utility from vista itself. But the 270GB disk wasn’t shrinking  beyond 170GB. The last option left was to use Partition magic for re partitioning . So i loaded Partition Magic 10 and as i opened the application it showed warning saying that there is a error in the disk and press yes to fix it, I had no other choice because without clicking YES the Partition Magic wont proceed . I Hit the YES button and all of sudden my desktop  ended in a blank screen . After a reset i found i lost my Vista. Checking the hard disk table, found that the whole 270GB drive was lost.WHAT THE CRAP,  Hopefully the vista installation disk was shipped with the package. Without wasting time used The Hiren bootable CD to partition the disk  to my desired size  and then installed Vista.  In almost 2 Hours finished installing both vista and its drivers.

My desktop