Dell's Studio 1558 is a sturdy and attractive laptop with a 15.6in widescreen display. We were very taken by the rubber-textured metallic aubergine finish on the lid. Inside, it is more restrained, with a black bezel around the screen and a silver wrist rest.
Unlike most of the 15.6in laptops we've seen recently, the Studio 1558 lacks a numeric keypad. This isn't likely to be a big problem for most people and means that there's more space for the keyboard.
We found that the standard laptop keyboard was comfortable to use. With no unusual layouts or large gaps between the keys, we didn’t have to adapt our typing style to accommodate it.
The touchpad is sufficiently well positioned to prevent us from brushing it by accident while typing although we occasionally pinched-to-zoom by accident while moving the mouse cursor. The keyboard itself has a backlight, which makes it easy to use under low light levels.
