My personal review of my Inspiron 8600
Here is my personal review of my Inspiron 8600 that I've had now for about 2-3 weeks. So far I'm very satisfied with it. I'll start off with a few pics of the system itself and its specs:
Intel Centrino 1.4GHZ
512MB DDR
40GB
Mobility Radeon 9000 32MB
4X DVD+R /+RW
15.4" WSXGA+
http://209.250.192.46/~s_beboob/laptop/1.jpg
http://209.250.192.46/~s_beboob/laptop/2.jpg
The screen resolution I got is WSXGA+, which is 1680x1050. A picture best describes how well this resolution fits with the screen, so here it goes:
http://209.250.192.46/~s_beboob/laptop/3.jpg
There is a ton of room with this screen resolution, I love it. Dell shipped this with the DPI set at 120, but I set it back to the normal 96 DPI simply because I enjoyed the smaller text and more room.
I'm sure many are curious about how the screen handles other resolutions, such as 4:3 and 5:4 ratios. Well here it goes. The advanced properties of the display gives you a checkbox option to enable or disable stretching of the screen display. So if this option is disabled, then it will display lower resolutions with black borders on the unused screen space, yet maintaining the correct screen ratio for the given resolution. Once again, pictures best describe this:
1024x768
http://209.250.192.46/~s_beboob/laptop/5.jpg
1280x1024:
http://209.250.192.46/~s_beboob/laptop/7.jpg
3DMark2001SE @ 1024x768 maintaining a 4:3 screen ratio:
http://209.250.192.46/~s_beboob/laptop/6.jpg
Since 3DMark2001SE came up, here is the results of that test run. I just did a first-test run with no tweaking, etc. This laptop is running a Mobility Radeon 9000 32MB.
http://209.250.192.46/~s_beboob/laptop/4.jpg
In terms of the wireless capabilites of this laptop, i'm pleased with what it has to offer. In my college apartment we have a Netgear WGR614 802.11g router with 3 desktop and 3 laptops connected. My laptop will connect and work very well with it, but there are certain locations in the apartment where the laptop will have problems connecting. I think this is due to some interference. My laptop also sees a linksys 802.11b signal and can connect to it as well, so somewhere near us (we live in a complex) someone has another wireless connection, which I think gives me the interference problems in the certain locations in my apartment. It's not too big of a deal because in the locations where I can't connect with ours, I just connect to thiers :). At home, I'm using a Netgear MR814v2 802.11b router, where my laptop's built in centrino package picks up the wireless connection perfectly, and I can go anywhere in the house with a full connection.
Battery life is pretty good, I'm happy with it. I usually get about 3 1/2 hours with average use, and maybe 4+ hours if I did next to nothing on the system. I haven't tested battery life with full stress on the system, but I'm assuming the battery would drop down to about 2 1/2 hours when the system is at full load the whole time. Recharging is great, even with the system operating the charging is fast, and even faster of course when the system is off and the AC still plugged in.
The dvd burner option was definitly a great decision (considering it and the 512 of RAM were FREE upgrades!). I use Nero 6, Easy CD & DVD Creator 6, and DVD X Copy Platnum for all my burning needs, and so far the burner has worked perfectly. I've made a few data discs and some personal backups of my dvd's and they have all worked perfectly on every dvd player I have tried them on.
The overall feel of the laptop is wonderful. It fits very nicely on my lap, isn't that heavy, and I have no problems carrying it around, doing what I want with it. You do have to make sure you have a firm grip when carrying it, it has the potential to slip away from you if you are not careful. The keyboard layout is great, I felt comfortable right away, and there is plenty of room to type with the firm and smooth keys. The same goes with the mousepad, very responsive and works great. I use the mouseball on the keyboard for scrolling, using one hand to move around, and the other to scroll down on pages. It works out pretty well but it kinda hard to explain. Dell included a great utility that allows tons of options with the keys and mouse properties, so it's all good.
The sound from the laptop is pretty much standard, the speakers are in the front of the system. They get the job done, that's about it. If I want good sound, i'll just plug in my HD-280 Pro's and jam away. Once headphones are used the sound quality increases big time. From standard mp3 listening to using PowerDVD for Dobly Headphone DVD playback, the sound is very good for a laptop. While it doesn't quite match my desktop headphone sound, I'm still satisfied by it's sound output with my headphones.
One thing I like is that the video card is upgradable, as with the miniPCI wireless connection card, so later on down the road I can throw in a Radeon 9600 (which is now an option for these laptops) or an upgraded wireless card with no problem.
The system came with Windows XP Home, but I soon reformatted and put my copy of Windows XP Prof. w/ SP1a and updated all the drivers and software as needed. I was surprised, when I initially was using it, dell didn't throw too much junk on the system. Plus they were easy to remove through add/remove programs if you didn't want to format, and just keep it clean. Dell does a good job on thier website for listing updates and drivers for these laptops.
One last pic, the carrying case I ordered with the system. It's a VERY nice case, I'm very happy i decided to get it for an extra $59. The laptop fits perfectly, and still has tons of room in the bag for whatever I want.
http://209.250.192.46/~s_beboob/laptop/8.jpg
Well that's all for now, if you have questions feel free to post em, i'll check back often!
