Dell Inspiron 13 1700 Special Edition

   The Dell Inspiron 1700 Special Edition is a very sturdy laptop. It is smooth, comes with a matte lid  and a bottom case. This hybrid laptop has a soft touch plastic and it feels so nice to touch. It is stylish. Since it is a matte finish you can find fingerprints on it. You’ll have to wipe it out from time to time. This laptop is a bit heavier in weight than some of the hybrids out there in the market. The lid flexes a little bit but it remains strong. There are magnets located on the palm rest that helps the screen to stay closed.  The palm rest has a dull finish to it. It has 45 degree angled edges. It does soften the edges and it won’t hurt your wrists. The keyboard is spacious and it has a normal size. It has chiclet keys and Dell says it’s water resistant. I don’t think so it will hold up if a full glass of water is spilled on it. The keys give enough tactile feedback and the travel speed is good. It has backlit lights that brightens up when are you using it in the dark. The edges have smaller keys .The multi touch trackpad is large It has also a right click area on the right side of the hybrid. Dell Inspiron 1700 Special Edition power switch is located on the right edge of the hybrid laptop. Alongside It, you can spot a  rocker switch that allows you to modify the volume .On the right side you will find  a USB 2.0 port and a SD card slot. The left side edge features the power port, 1 HDMI port, 2 USB 3.0 ports. One of these ports supports Power Share. There is also a headphone/microphone jack.

   The specifications are as follows: The Dell Inspiron 1700 Special Edition has a 2.4GHz Intel Core I7-5500 dual core 4MB cache up to 2.9GHz Turbo Boost. It uses the Intel HD Graphics 5500. This hybrid laptop has 8GB of DDR3L RAM. The screen is 13.3 inch and has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 FHD IPS touchscreen. The Dell Inspiron 1700 Special Edition has a 256GB SD storage. There are several ports:  you can find:  2 USB 3.0, 1 USB 2.0, HDMI, SD/MMC card reader and a headphone / microphone. For connectivity it uses  a 802.11ac WI-FI ( 2x2 ) and a Bluetooth 4.0. The camera has a 720p front facing webcam  with built-in dual digital microphones.  This hybrid laptop’s weight is 3.68 pounds. This configuration will cost $1,000. The Dell Inspiron 1700 Special Edition starts at $749. The standard Dell Inspiron cost $529.

    This hefty hybrid has a lot of power packed in it. This is how it performed in the following tests. In the 3D Mark: Cloud Gate this hybrid scored 4,749: The  Sky Diver test 2,490 ; Fire Strike: 630. The Cinebench ( this is a  performance test ) this hybrid had a score of 273 for it’s CPU; Graphics: 25 fps.  It registered a score of 2,532 points in the PCMark 8 Home test. The PC 8 Battery life registered 3 hours and 12 minutes. Except for the battery life,  all the other tests were good. The battery life needs improvement. .You’ll need to bring your charger if you are going to use this machine outside of your home. The downward speakers  of this hybrid performs well. It is clear and loud. The Dell Inspiron 1700 Special Edition comes with skype, McAfee’s LiveSAfe security package and Dell’s usual support and system recovery tools. You will have a 1 year subscription to Dropbox’s 20GB storage plan. The Dell Inspiron 1700 Special Edition performs well and is fast enough. My only concern is it’s battery life.