Dell Studio XPS 16 review

The Dell Studio XPS 16 shares much of its elegant design with the rest of the Studio XPS range. The result is a stylish, modern machine that's one of the best-looking in this group.

That design is matched with good build quality. Both the screen and the wristrest feel exceedingly well knitted-together, the keyboard is a joy to type on and the trackpad and buttons work well. Meanwhile, the Dell's 3kg weight and modest dimensions mean it isn't entirely averse to travelling either.

Its screen is also an arresting sight. Based on RGB LED technology, the 16.4in 1,920 x 1,080 panel uses an array of red, green and blue LEDs as the screen's light source, instead of the white LEDs or cold-cathode strip lamps of cheaper TFTs. The results are impressive, with the screen providing incredible clarity and accuracy. Colours are vivid, detail is pin-sharp, there's no backlight bleed, and the Full-HD resolution means you can enjoy Blu-ray movies in all their glory.

There's more than enough power to cope with demanding applications. Intel's 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo Mobile T9400 processor and 4GB of DDR3 RAM helped the laptop score 1.35 in our 2D benchmarks. Gamers will be reasonably happy with the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 graphics chip too, which managed 59fps in our low-quality Crysis benchmark before falling to a less acceptable 20fps in the medium-quality test.

It includes a hybrid/analogue TV tuner, a 500GB hard disk and draft-n wireless, as well as both HDMI and DisplayPort outputs alongside the usual USB, Gigabit Ethernet and FireWire. The speakers are also excellent.

Battery life is strictly desktop replacement - just 2hrs 52mins in our light-use test and 1hr 3mins under heavy use - but that isn't a huge issue for a laptop that has so many excellent entertainment features. It might not be quite in the same league as our winners this month, but if you're after a stylish laptop with one of the best screens in the business, the Dell won't disappoint.

Author: Mike Jennings