Dell Reveals 14" Studio 14z, Forgets Optical Drive

Posted by Daniel Shain

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Dell has introduced a new laptop into the Studio family - the Studio 14z. It's lightweight and has no optical drive, and yet has a full keyboard and large display. Is this an unholy combination of netbook and laptop, or the most perfect attempt at balance yet?

It weighs less than 2kgs. It is .79" thick at its thinnest point. It has no optical drive either. And yet it can have as much as 5GB RAM. It can feature a 500GB HDD. It sports an NVidia GeForce 9400M and a 14" HD display (either 720p or an unusual 900p resolution). Starting at $649, what exactly is this from Dell?

A good idea, I think. Dell is clearly gambling that the average user watches more media on YouTube and Hulu than on DVD/Blu-Ray, and that these internet-only media moguls might want a nice large display without paying top dollar for a change. It is a break from the traditional in that systems of this size are rarely packaged without some sort of optical setup, but it is likely to be part of a growing trend as computers rely more and more on the internet as opposed to physical pieces to get things done.

What do you think? Is this silliness from Dell, to release a computer large enough to watch HD movies and beefy enough to think about gaming with... without any way of sticking a CD in it? Or might this be just crazy enough to work?

If you like everything about the laptop but can't stand the lack of an optical drive, Dell will of course oblige you with an external drive upon purchase.

Source: www.laptopical.com