All hail, the King of Notebooks
Written: Jan 06 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Quality of Tech Support: |
|
|
|
Pros: Excels in almost every which way you can imagine.
Cons: Lower resolutions on the display a bit blury
|
|
|
| Shnit's Full Review: Dell Inspiron 8000 Series |
Can there be another notebook closer to the desktop than this one? I think Dell's gone dunnit this time.... a near perfect desktop replacement, at a decent price!
Got a fat bonus this year so I purchased one of these babies over the Christmas holidays for my girlfriend, since she was in dire need of a computer, but didn't like the clutter of a desktop computer. So I did a bunch of research and finally nailed it down to Dell's Inspiron 8000.
The setup was quite simple: 15" SXGA+ screen, PIII-600, 123MB ram, 10Gb harddrive, 8Mb Video, 24X CD-ROM, and an internal modem. Yeah, I know it wasn't the rip-roar'n PIII-850, with a million MB of RAM or anything, but boy, can this puppy fly. Before buying, I've tested a few notebooks of different classes (i.e., notebooks, ultra-lights, and desk-top replacements from various makers which included Toshiba, Sony, Acer and IBM) and when comparing similar system setups, the Dell was by far the fastest one when it comes to performance. How did I know? On which basis did I test them? Well, I utilized the one most important ...most reliable and most indiscriminate test of them all: I screwed around with each one for hours at a time. The Dell pretty much blew away the competition when I tested the graphics, calculation times, and the ability to run Quake III Arena. Quake 3 was awesome on the Dell, whereas it was subpar on the other models. Of course, this is probably thanks to the faster chipset on the Dell (it utilizes Intel's 815 chipset which is very comparable to the desktop counterparts) and the 4X AGP ATI M4 video card built-in .... That's right....4X AGP (with up to 32MB of RAM!!! that's crazy!).
As well, I love the 15" screen. The damned thing actually measures bigger than my desktop monitor. This is great, because my girlfriend does a lot of work on spreadsheets, so being able to see more on the screen is a definate plus. The clarity of the screen is quite impressive as well...and even with the resolution up at 1400 X 1050 (insane isn't it?)the words were clear and not difficult to read. The only problem I had with the display is that when I lower the resolution, the images on the screen weren't quite as sharp as the 1400 X 1050 resolution. Images on the screen had a noticable blur to them... maybe it was just me doing something wrong or maybe that's the way it's supposed to be, but in either case, it was a bit annoying. However, it was a good thing that the girlfriend liked the highest resolution and wanted to keep it at that (hey, it's her computer...so who am I to complain?)
The keyboard is large and nicely laid out. The dual touchpad/eraser head combo thingy was a nice touch, although I got her a USB optical mouse with the notebook... (nothing beats a mouse, in my opinion). The feel of the keyboard is good. Depressing the keys was easy and definite, although, it was a little loud for my taste (I prefer quite keyboards....don't like a lot of clicking noises). Anyways, I'm just nickel and diming. The quick keys are quite useful. Two of them are programmable, so you can have them do just about anything you want them to do.
The Inspiron 8000 is one of those notebook computers that look better in person than in the pictures (and I thought the pictures looked great). The quality of construction was excellent. The notebook had a good feel to it....the housing is strong and durable. I loved the attention to detail...things like the machined metal features and the color coordination (palm rests can be changed to different colors). Things like this is what makes this a Dell.
The sound on the 8000 is above average. The software package is great. Installation was a piece of cake (everything is pretty much all done for you).
Oh, also, the service was excellent. Everyone I spoke to at Dell was *very* helpful and curteous. Delivery was actually 3 days early. I got the thing in a little more than a week....during Christmas holiday! There's also a 3 year parts and service warranty as well as next business day service, which is VERY nice.
In summary, I highly recommend this notebook. It has all the features anyone would want in a notebook at a half decent price with a name that is backed by a warranty that rivals the industry. It's a bit heavy, but hey....it's light for it's category. If you wanted light, go for the ultra lights or the sub-notebooks. But if you want a desktop replacement, go with the Dell Inspiron 8000....you won't regret it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2,200
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 501-600
Screen Size: 15"
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: CD-ROM
Hard Drive (GB): 9-12
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Shnit
|
|
Location: Toronto, Canada
Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 1 member
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.