This review is about the 14Z, this model's immediate predecessor, but with key similarities that make a review worthwhile. I have had this machine for 4 months, and basically I am very pleased that I have it. The keyboard action is terrific, and the placement of keys is perfect, making touch typing a pleasure. The backlit keyboard is outstanding I have decided I can no longer live without a backlit keyboard like this. The machine runs fairly quietly you can hear the fan, but it is definitely not intrusive, and I happen to be very sensitive to fan noise.
On the other hand, there are some negatives. The left and right buttons under the keypad are terrible. It feels like you are pressing on a board, and like pressing a board, you can not tell how much of a press is enough to make contact. It is incomprehensible that after all these many years of making laptops, Dell can not come up with better mouse buttons than this these buttons are an irritation every time I use them.
Likewise, Dell has not provided 2 headphone jacks (1 microphone and 1 headphone) instead they have combined them into 1 jack. So you need to buy an adapter, which is easy and cheap. But the quality of the voice input is bad every person I call on Skype or Google complains of the voice quality. So I have had to buy a headphone/microphone unit that is USB, and use up a USB port. I would rather have the traditional 2 jack input for microphone and headset.
Dell allows for system recovery by creating backup media. However, they do not allow you to create backup media on an external drive you can only create it on a flash drive on on blank CDs or DVDs.
If you are tempted to buy this machine through Dell's website, don't. Buy it through Amazon. I made the mistake of going through the Dell website, and they loaded $350 worth of extra services onto my order that I did not know were being added and would have refused if I had known. But they allow you only a few hours to o.k. the order, without showing you the extras unless you specifically request to see them. Order through Amazon.
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