I just wanted to say, for all of you out there that whin and cry about the Dell Inspiron 8000 being TOO heavy: SHUT YOUR TRAP!!! Theres a reason that dell markets this laptop as the TRUE DESKTOP REPLACEMENT. If you're whinning and crying about it being too heavy, go buy yourself a pal pilot or something because if you want the best, you have to shoulder the weight.

Well, with that said, lets get on with the review.

SCREEN
Dell truly has the most beautiful laptop screens that i have ever seen. My unit came with a 15" UXGA TFT screen, which means 1600 x 1200 pixels. That is 140% more pixels than the standard 15" screen. More pixels means much greater clarity and desktop space. However, it does come at a heafty price and for the average joe, UXGA may be a waste of money. Most people would be content with a SXGA+ 1400x1050 pixels. Dell is the only computer company to incorporate this kind of technology into their laptops. It is truly something to see to believe. This makes the dell very versatile, from watching dvds to creating graphics.

SPEED
Obviously if you're going to pay 3000+ on a notebook, speed must be a top priority. The speed of a computer in dependant on many different things but for the most part, the following play the most important roles. Processor speed is perhaps the most important of all. The Pentium III 1 GHz is the fastest available on the market for notebooks today(maybe faster when you're reading this). Processor speed determines on a VERY general level, how fast your computer is going to run.
Next in importance is the amount of RAM installed. If you're new to the computer scene, RAM means "random access memory." Basically think of this as how big you're work desk is. If you need to complete many different tasks at once, the bigger the table you have, the more organized you'll be. Thus, you'll be able to accomplish your tasks a lot faster. Same deal with computers. More RAM means a faster overall computer performance as well as greater ability to use more programs at once. DIMM is also a term that your might now be familiar with and that just means how many sticks your memory comes with. DIMM stands for Dual Inline Memory Module. A 2-DIMM 128 MB of ram means that it is using both your notebook RAM slots to account for the 128 MB of ram, chiefly 64 and 64 MB each. If you use more DIMM, your RAM price will be cheaper, but on the downside, you will have to replace on DIMM if you want to upgrade later. Therefore 2 1-DIMM 128MB sticks of RAM is much cheapter than a 1DIMM 128 stick of RAM.
Another thing that is important to overall speed is the system bus. Bus is basically the speed at which the processor communicates with your other system components. Cheaper notebooks run at slower bus speeds like 66 mHz while the dell 8000 runs at 100MHz. One important note is that no matter how much RAM you have or how fast your processor is, if you have a slow bus speed, your computer will still be damn slow. Think of this as a bottleneck. Your big end is the processor. No matter how big the end is, the flow is only so much because of the skinny bottle neck.

Lastly, i'm going to end the eopinion with just some of my random thoughts

- the keyboard is a bit awkward. It seems a bit cheaper to me than the previous Inspiron 7500 that it replaces. It is also very loud to type on.
- the dual pointing stick and touch pad is a nice welcome, though not a necessity. If you're using this laptop as a desktop replacement, you may want to stick with an external mouse.
- a port replicator is very handy if you're on the go a lot and don't want to waste time plugging stuff back into the back of the notebook after your return home.
- the speakers on the system are a bit "weak." Though a major improvement from the 7500 speakers, these speakers have no bass.
- if you're planning on getting the DVD/CDRW combo, don't. The CDRW combo only writes at 4x, while if purchased and installed on the secondary bay, it can write at 8x.
- Oh, the Video card installed is just plain AWESOME. Gone are the days where 4MB video ram was considered the high end. The installed nVidia 32MB GeForce is unbelievable. A great video card for gamers and dvd fanatics.
- the colored palm rests can be changed. An interesting addition.


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 3500
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: Greater than 15
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 41-50