VERDICT:With the Inspiron 1720, Dell ups the ante in the super-performance notebook category. A 17-incher, the Inspiron 1720 is quite bulky, but the good design hides this. The 17-inch glossy widescreen (1920 x 1200) panel is beautiful; colour reproduction is vibrant, and it has a wide viewing angle. The full-sized keyboard is a delight to type on—silent and great tactile response. 500 GB of storage should be enough for most users, and 4 GB of RAM is adequate for most applications, games, and for the bundled Microsoft Vista Home Premium. In terms of performance, the Dell Inspiron 1720 scores better than the Digit Best Buy Gold winner (the HP DV6226tx) in the Performance Laptops category of our July 2007 laptop test.
