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Agentless Backup is Not a Myth

I also wasn’t hugely impressed with the slightly slippery nature of the keys. Thankfully, the large touchpad is far more welcoming, with its matte texture aiding usability.

Dell Studio 17

The keyboard is a tad too bendy in the middle

Should you, for whatever reason, be using the laptop in the dark, the rather nifty backlight on the keyboard means you won’t be fumbling around. Although present on the review unit, the backlight is actually an optional extra, so if you’ve no need for it, £30 can be shaved off the asking price.

Fans of the Context key - you know, the one that lets you bring up a right-click menu - will be disappointed to hear Dell’s seen fit to banish it from the Studio 17. Instead, you’ll need to use the Shift + F10 combo. Dell has also decided the Function keys along the top of the keyboard aren’t as important as its shortcut buttons – if you want to send an F2 command, for example, you’ll need to press Fn + F2, otherwise you’ll simply activate the shortcut to switch off Wi-Fi.

If this bothers you, it can be reversed in the Bios, so that the shortcuts, not the function keys, require a simultaneous press of the Fn key.

Dell Studio 17

Customer Success Testimonial: Recovery is Everything

Latest Comments

Still has right click

The laptop has a right click button on the trackpad like any other. It's missing the context menu key from the keyboard (the one next to the right start button on a standard keyboard)

It's not as big a loss but it's still a key I use.

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Anonymous Coward

Well...

You don't have to use the BIOS to switch the Function key behaviour. Win + X and use mobility centre - the Dell Quickset plugins let you change it there.

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Glossy screen

eewww....

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