Dell Inspiron 4000 - ? EDITED!
Written: Apr 16 '01 (Updated Jul 30 '01)
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Pros: Battery life, clear crisp screen, Dell customer support, great price, speed with Win2k is GREAT
Cons: Heavier than expected, weak speakers
The Bottom Line: This is the BEST, MOST VERSATILE notebook for the money (get WINDOWS 2k too!)
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| rxl77's Full Review: Dell Inspiron 4000 Series |
----------EDIT---------------
Since my last post, I added 256 MB of RAM to bump the total to 384. I also formatted and installed Windows 2000. My dell is unbelievable now... Performance, stability, reliability have increased probably about 70% over WinME. I can seriously go a few weeks, if not months without having to reboot ONCE. Dell Inspiron 4000 and WINME just don't mix well, which is why everybody complains about the speed.
I've grown to love this notebook with time... It's not the lightest notebook, but it offers so much cmpared to the ultraportables... better battery life, better screen, better video card, and now Dell has the Inspiron 4000XG, which comes with an XGA resolution display, which offers super crisp, super nice video. It's really good already, but the XGA is probably awesome.
I also have no problems opening Word anymore (see previous post below), it takes about 3 seconds now. I also game with my laptop, primarily Counterstrike - and I get like 72 FPS, so the video card is very good.
I DEFINITELY, DEFINITELY, DEFINITELY RECOMMEND getting this laptop. JUST BE SURE TO GET WIN2K and you will be set!
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I bought this laptop back in February, so I've had it for about two - three months. It's reliable and consistent. Just not blazing fast.
READ ON!
I'm running a PIII 600mhz, with 128 RAM, WIN ME, with DVD, along with 8MB video ram ATI MOBILITY RAGE.
THE GOOD!
1)The DVD is nice, I ran Matrix on it, and it was very sharp.
2)The screen is very good, flawless on delivery.
3)The keyboard is very adequate, with good feel and response. It is also comparable to a full size keyboard; to be honest, I can't tell the difference at all.
4) The battery life time is rated at LEAST 3 hours or more. I've never really sat and counted the hours, but I would say, it would run at least 3 to 4 hours.
5) It has both touchpad and a pointing stick, a plus for those who can't decide.
6) Dell has pretty good technical support, although recently it hasn't been as great.
7) Decent to play games on, with about 8MB of ATI Rage mobility.
THE BAD!
1) IT's relatively heavy, especially with the ultralight portable laptops on the market now. I believe with the larger Hard drive (i upgraded to 20GB), more RAM (128 with TWO DIMMS, not ONE), and the better battery, it adds about a pound, maybe two to the overall weight. I'd say it's at about seven pounds, give or take. It depends on what you have in the module bay. With the spacer-saver module installed, it's about 6lbs, which is not too bad. Be wary of what Dell puts in on the website about the weight. It's listed as 5.2lbs, but that's with the cheapest configuration, so everything simply weighs less. If you travel with the floppy, DVD/CD drive, and the AC adaptor, expect the total weight to be about 9 to 10lbs. Believe me, I had thought this laptop would be a lot lighter than expected, especially I employ the Port 2.1 Slimcase (laptop case) which is about 3.75lbs, so I could be lugging approximately 13-15 lbs on my shoulder. Not something I enjoy...
It's apprxomiately 1.47 inches which was fairly accurate as listed on the website.
2) It comes with Win ME, which is relatively ok, but it's incredibly slow with the loading of programs. Dell also pre-installs a lot of their programs, which I think is useless and a waste of space.
3) The speakers are tinny! I was watching a movie with a friend, and we literally had to cup our ears toward the speakers to hear the dialogue, even at full volume up. With headphones or speakers, the sound is good. I believe it's an ESS Maestro soundcard, fairly okay for a laptop.
4) The Hard drive is relatively slow, in my opinion, but it gets the job done (after some waiting!). It's rated at 4200 RPM, so it's expected not to be entirely fast. Be sure to defrag often.
5) It seems SLOW. It's a PIII 600, but my PIII 450 Dell Desktop seems a hecka lot faster. Maybe because it's hard drive is 7200RPM, but overall, the desktop burns the laptop.
6) Microsoft Word takes nearly 17 seconds to load up! It's ridiculous how long it takes to load... And this is even when I have system resources relatively high at bootup; I cut down on the programs at startup, but the computer is just slow. It could Windows ME. But my desktop has WIN ME and it runs plenty fast. I think along the production, Dell cut something out, how else can it explain such poor performance?
7) The touchpad buttons on the laptop are impossible press down. I don't know how other reviewers missed this! You need to put a conscious effort into depressing the button. It also makes a very large 'click' when you press it. It certainly does take time to get used to, but once your fingers have the strength, it’s pretty easy to use.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1950
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 501-600
Screen Size: 14
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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Epinions.com ID:
rxl77
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Member: Raymond Lee
Reviews written: 1
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