Already in its nth edition, Dell releases the Dell Studio 15, and promptly equips it with the most current hardware in light of the Intel Core i5 launch. In plain text this means a Core i5 520M at 2.4 Ghz and the Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) HD graphics chip integrated onto the processor. Find out in this review whether this new combination confirms the suspicion of a price/performance champion.
Dell Studio 1557 is the specific appellation of the, until now, current version of the fancy multimedia specialist from Dell. On offer is/was a notebook with a Pentium Dual-Core, Core 2 Duo or respectively the high-performance Core i7 chips from Intel. A certain systematic application of performance was chosen to your whim or respectively as far as your pennies went. The entry-level configuration was around 479 Euro (plus delivery), equipped with an Intel T4300 CPU (2.1 GHz) and integrated Intel GMA 4500M HD graphics chip.
A pre-sample of the new Studio 1558 underlies the following review, equipped with a combination of the brand-new Intel Core i5 520M CPU and the just-as-new CPU-integrated Intel GMA HD graphics solution. Therefore the laptop appears in the entry-level range of the series and shouldnt cost much more than its predecessor of a comparable configuration. As seen in the Core i7 architecture, you can count on an enormous performance leap in the Core i5 dual-core CPUs, and a whole range of new features are carried over, which only recently catapulted the i7 chips onto the tops of the CPU charts.
Case
A quick peek at the case confirms our first observation: nothing much has changed on the case of the Studio 1558. Apart from a blue display lid(Midnight Blue micro-satin surface) the laptop at hand cant be told apart from the already reviewed Dell Studio 1557. Oh well, the Intel Core i5 sticker is new, but on first glance its a spitting image of the i7 sticker.
Regarding the case theres nothing more to say, apart from pointing to the relevant passage of the Studio 1557, to which the current device corresponds. The key points to mention here are consequently the customisable case (display lid), but also weaknesses concerning the stability of the display lid.
Connectivity
Along with the case, the notebooks ports on offer are the same. The connections are limited to the sides of the case like before; the front and rear of the notebook remain free from interfaces. As for the number of offered interfaces, no hairs will be on end; the Studio 1558 sports 3 USB ports, HDMI, eSATA and Firewire ports. However, the positioning of these ports needs some getting used to. The location of the Expresscard Slot is just over the card reader, which isnt optimal by any means, and left-handed users have to make do with a wide phalanx of connections when using an external mouse.
Input Devices
Once again it suffices to refer to the existing review of the predecessor, Dell Studio 1557. When it comes to the keyboard unit basically nothing has changed, with the exception that in the sample at hand a keyboard with English layout was used. The single-row enter key is nevertheless omitted in the German layout, as usual, and you can delight in the double-height enter key.
The touchpad is embedded in the wrist rest area making it almost flush and it offers pleasant gliding qualities with good reaction behaviour. A soft gap towards the outer edges characterises the input device and facilitates navigation.
Display
The last time that we refer to the existing review of the Studio 1557 regards the display. In the pre-sample of the Studio 1558 we also found a LED displaywith a 15.6-inch TrueLife panel, that is, a reflective glare surface. The maximum resolution adds up to 1366×768 pixels in the 16:9 format and thus supports the playback of HD media.
The measured results we obtained regarding display brightness correspond to those of the Studio 1557 with a possible deviance of up to around 15%. Reasons for the difference could be manufacturing margins, haziness with the measurements, or different panel types could be used. In the notebook at hand there was an InnoLux 156GW01 panel. In the already reviewed Studio 1557 the specific panel type could not be read.
Youll have to come to terms with reflective display surfaces, because the alternative Full HD display with WLED illumination also has the same finish. Outdoor use thus becomes rather problematic, as you have to deal with strong reflections in unfavourably bright surrounding light, which can even appear in average, bright indoor rooms.
Intel Core i5 CPU
The deployed i5-520M CPU is manufactured in the 32 nanometer process and offers two physical computing cores and can respectively simulate a total of four threads via Hyper-Threading. The chip has 3MB cache and supports 1066MHz DDR3 RAM. With a Thermal Design Power TDP of 35W the CPU is on the level of the hitherto existing Core 2 Duo Txxx chips. Through a range of features the energy consumption should nevertheless turn out to be very low on the whole.
An important feature concerning this would be the possibility to completely deactivate a core, as long as the core isnt used. In a conventional dual-core, both cores idle along. An excellent solution is presented by Turbo-Boost technology in order to unite performance and energy efficiency. The CPU can be flexible in terms of clock speed according to the required performance. In the case of our test samples i5-520M the basic clock speed varies from 2.4 Ghz up to 2.93 Ghz, always bearing in mind the cooling performance of the system thats available.
An important point is of course the price of the new chips. The i5 520M CPU is produced by Intel with a market price (1000k units) of 225 US Dollars. For this reason the chip ranges between the hitherto existing P8400/P8600 and P8800 processors ($209) and the T9400/T9550 ($316) in terms of price.
In terms of performance, Intel speaks of an increase of up to 34% in multi-tasking (PCMark Vantage) and a productivity increase of 20% (Sysmark 2007) when comparing a P7550 Core 2 Duo CPU at 2.26 Ghz with the Core i5 430M at 2.26-2.53 GHz. As both cores deal with dual-core architectures with the same basic clock speed, this is a thoroughly respectable increase.
Intel GMA HD graphics chip
Apart from the improvements mentioned above, the new Nehalem architecture has another fundamental difference to the existing Penryn chips. Intel now integrates the graphics chip directly onto the CPU unit, which is also visually similar to the first multi-core CPUs.
The integrated graphics chip is now called Graphic Media Accelerator (GMA) HD and is manufactured in the 45 nanometer process. Its also here that Intel makes an enormous leap in the downsizing of the assembly, which is only allowed by the integration onto the CPU unit. As communication with the graphics chip (and the memory controller) via Frontsidebus no longer takes place, together with the new architecture of the GPU, a clear performance leap is seen.
Intel names several new features, like switchable graphics; the possibility to change between a more powerful dedicated graphics card and the energy-saving GMA HD, which is already existent on each i5 chip. As a highlight the possibility of Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Audio is also cited.
Generic benchmarks
We begin with the CPU benchmarks for rating the processor performance of the Intel Core i5 chip. In the well known SuperPi Benchmark for the computation of the number Pi to a preset precision (millions of decimal places) the Core i5-520M reached an excellent 854 seconds in the 32M test. Therefore the chip is on the same level as the Core i7-720QM CPU that reaches a value of 857-839 seconds (fewer=faster=better). For this reason the middle-class CPU can even outperform former dual-core heavyweights like the Intel Core 2 Extreme X9100 CPU (906 seconds).
The Cinebench Rendering Test is also exciting. It simulates rendering an image with support of not only a single core but also with the help of all cores available. In the Single Core Rendering Test the Dell Studio 1558 with Intel Core i5-520M reaches a respectable 3067 points (32bit). Thus the chip is in the ranks of high-performance Dual-Core chips (X9000, P8700, T9600). This level also remains in the Multi-Core Rendering Test. At 6585 points, the processor is to be found in the region of the aforementioned processors or respectively above these. Also strong T9900 chips are to be found just above the i5-520M CPU. The quad-core Core i7-720QM is actually ranked considerably higher (performing up to +50% better). Thanks to the 64-bit operating system the Studio 1558 is also open to the 64-bit variant of the benchmark test. At 3724 and 8116 points respectively in the Single/Multi CPU Rendering Test a clear improvement of the results can be found.
The PC Mark Vantage benchmark test offers the possibility to classify theoverall performance of the system, and also evaluates the respective test system in terms of the whole spectrum of individual tests. To get straight to the point: the result of the Dell Studio 1558 with Intel Core i5-520M is impressive. We chose to compare the system with the Inspiron 1545and the Thinkpad SL510 which are above all two office entry-level machines. We did this in particular to judge the performance of the GMA HD in comparison with the hitherto existing 4500M HD. The gaming suite, of the GMA HD, onto which of course quite a lot of weight on graphics performance is put, exhibits more than double the performance compared to the 4500M HD.
Our test configuration was no less imposing in the other subdomains. Evenstrong multimedia notebooks like the mySN MG6 with a T9800 CPU and HD 4650 graphics cannot keep up, apart from in the gaming test and the HDD test, which is limited by the hard disk. Only the Dell Studio 1557, that is the predecessor of our test sample, equipped with a Core i7-CPU and potent ATI HD4570 graphics, can top the results of the i5 GMA HD combination in many places. The unusually good result in the communications suite was on the whole striking, where the system performed almost twice as well compared to miscellaneous comparable devices.
Here the new Crypto-unit of the i5 CPU could get its chance, as AES Encryption is a basic component of the communication test of PC Mark Vantage. This feature is new and even hasnt been used on the i7 processors. The Studio 1558 outperforms its more high-performancepredecessor, the 1557 in the overall rating, and a good part of this can be accounted for by the unusually high communications rating.
Emissions
System Noise
After turning on the notebook you can notice a periodic running of the fan that after a few minutes develops into constant running. The noise level of 35.7 dB(A) is maintained at average office load. Subjectively the fan can be described as present but not truly disturbing. If you load the core components, that is the CPU and GPU, the Dell Studio 1558 reaches a maximum of 46.1 dB(A). The laptop can thus be described as becoming almost unpleasantly loud. Presumably its the high TDP of the CPU, at 35W, that plays an important role. As the fan remains on the maximum level under gaming load also it could mean that our pre-sample didnt have optimal fan regulation.
Temperature
Without load the case of the Dell 1558 remains particularly cool. On the upper side of the base unit the measured temperatures didnt even reach the 30°C mark. On the underside the result really doesnt turn out much higher. The maximum temperature recorded here was only 30.6°C.
After loading the system for at least an hour (Furmark, Prime95) the laptop correspondingly warmed up and afterwards the upper side of the base unit reached a maximum of 39.4°C. The wrist-rests, however, still remained under the 30°C mark and the laptop thus remains pleasant to use. On the underside of the base unit peak values of just short of 50°C can be recorded. The particularly thin and light power adapter from Dell (380g) provided authentic record values. In the case of the Studio 1558 this warmed up to a maximum of 62.8°C.
If you compare the achieved battery life with that of the already reviewed Studio 1557 with a more high-performance configuration (Core i7 720QM, ATI 4570), the 1558 records slightly gains in all domains, which are primarily down to the energy-saving Intel GMA HD graphic solution. As a maximum the Studio 1558 reaches a battery life of 290 minutes in the BatterEater Readers Test. Under load in the worst-case scenario, the laptop holds on for 70 minutes with the deployed 62Wh dell studio 1558 battery.
The practical battery life, like WLAN surfing with maximum display brightness, was 170 minutes on the Dell Studio 1558. Playback of a DVD was a still practical result of 160 minutes, which should suffice for an extended Hollywood title.
Regarding energy consumption the laptop also scores points. A minimum energy consumption of 12.3 Watt was recorded (minimum display brightness, communication modules off, energy-saving mode). The Eee 1201N netbook from Asus is somewhat on the same level. Under gaming load the device requires an average of 43.7W. If you purposefully load the core components an absolute maximum of 59.3 Watt was recorded.
Compared to the Pxxx Core 2 Duo models from Intel (25W TDP) and chipset graphics, the TDP of 35W (CPU+GPU) in the new i5 processors under load seems rather played out, as the CPU constantly changes its TDP and seeks to provide the maximum possible performance available.
