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July 26, 2007

Dell Inspiron 1720 power laptop PC

Dell's Inspiron 1720 is a robust system available in seven colours besides black.

See our Laptop Advisor website for expert reviews of today’s best laptops, plus read our essential advice to make sure you choose the right specs

A powerful laptop does not have to be a boring laptop. The Dell Inspiron 1720 is a heavyish 17in notebook, but its multimedia design is top notch.

Superbly crafted for a demanding home office, the Dell Inspiron 1720 has a full-size keyboard with a separate number pad. Our test machine had one 160GB hard drive, as well as a complete contingent of connections - five USB ports, an ExpressCard/54 slot, and a memory card slot. The Dell Inspiron 1720's 4kg weight makes it a less-than-ideal notebook for the road.

When it's time to kick back, the Dell Inspiron 1720's DirectMedia button provides instant access to the full panoply of entertainment options: DVD movies, music, photo slideshows and videos. The Dell Inspiron 1720's stereo sound is good; a Blu-ray Disc drive is an option, albeit a costly one (£330).

Configured with a 2GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 processor, 2GB of RAM, and an nVidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics card, the Dell Inspiron 1720 proved an agile workhorse and gaming machine. Its WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 75 puts it in the top 10 percent of current notebooks. The Dell Inspiron 1720 kicked booty in our gaming tests, producing 116 frames per second playing Far Cry at 1,024x768 resolution. Its three-hour, 33-minute battery life isn't great, but above average for this class.

Our review notebook had an espresso-brown lid that we found a little drab, but if you're looking for a notebook with some pizzazz, try the Inspiron 1720 in spring green or flamingo pink, among other hues. Who said work isn't fun?

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Independent customer reviews from

Dell Inspiron 1720 scored:
8.4 out of 10 100% real reviews

The 2 most helpful reviews based on 69 reviews:

15 Aug 2008 Lynn, London

8

Good Points

The full size keyboard was the main reason I purchased this is great as it is just like having a desktop PC but with the flexibility of a laptop which in a small flat is ideal! Was impressed everything all pre-loaded and therefore was up and running straight away - last computer I had I had to load everything myself. Found it easy to use as my 'home computer' as it didn't vary too much form the PC I have at work.

Bad Points

It is quite heavy so definitely would not want to lug it round too much personally

08 Aug 2008 Anonymous verified purchaser

9

Good Points

Good value multimedia laptop with excellent large screen and good specifications for the price.

Bad Points

The large screen comes at the cost of the laptop being very heavy and therefore difficult to take anywhere or rest on your legs.

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Total reviews: 4,313

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4/5

Features

4.5/5

Value for money

4/5

Overall

4/5

expert rating

Dell Inspiron 1720

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