After long consideration, reading reviews and comparing, I bought the Dell Inspiron 8000. The other machines I was considering were the Apple new iBook and the Apple Titanium notebook. Toshiba, IBM and the likes didn't get on the shortlist because here in Belgium they are way too expensive.

The Titanium got scrapped because it was too expensive (in basic mode it was around $400-500 more expensive then the most expensive Inspiron I configured and that was excluding the longer warranty). I scrapped the iBook because it's screen is only 13 inch, it can only clone what's on your TFT screen (no dual screen feauture) and I thought it might be a bit slow running a windows emulator (there are some windows only programs I really need).

Also, I leaned more towards a PC in the end because I have all the programs for it and it seemed a bit easier to network wirelessly with my desktop.

So, I ordered an Inspiron 8000 with these specifications:

Pentium 3 800Mhz
128 mb RAM
32 MB nVidia Geforce 2 go video card
20GB harddisk
15.1" UXGA screen (native resolution 1600 x 1200)
DVD reader
3 years collect and return warranty (instead of the standard A year)

This cost me 125.000 Belgian Francs which is around $2300.
I received my order in a rather swift 7 days.

It came installed with Win ME, but I quickly replaced that with Win 2000.

The screen is absolutely great. The only better TFT screens I've seen is that on the iBook and Apples desktop TFT screens. The high resolution works wonders for the graphics programs I run on it. If you don't really need all that screenspace, you might be better off with a lower native resolution...

Although the keyboard is obviously smaller than a desktop model, all the important keys are on there and it feels very sturdy and comfortable to type on. What I didn't like is the fact that the words (like escape and delete) are all in French.. I guess that's the price you have to pay if you need an Azerty layout..

For mousing around, you have two devices. The eraserhead (nipple) and the touchpad. I find the first is a lot quicker and accurate, but other people seem to like the touchpad.. on this machine you have both, so you win either way :)

I run mostly graphic programs on the notebook (flash, dreamweaver, photoshop, coreldraw,..) and it performs really well in those. It outpaces my desktop in most of them. Multitasking, however, reaches it limit earlier on my notebook (but the desktrop has double the ram). So, I'm going to upgrade my ram pretty soon. I really suggest buying the minimum ram possible from dell and then buying the rest elsewhere. The price difference is really enorm..

DVD playback is really good too, wether you watch it on the laptop screen or connect it to TV.

Sound is also great when connected to spekers or a headphone and decent when you use the internal speakers.

What I don't like about the laptop is that it weighs a lot (you can move it about in a backpack, but isn't nearly as comfortable as other models). Also, the battery runs down pretty fast. You can watch one DVD on it or do 2.5 hours of work.. You can however insert a second battery giving you 5 hours of battery time.

Another minus is that it gets pretty hot.. The summery weather at the moment isn't makling it any better, but it isn't really comfortable to put it on your lap without putting something inbetween..


Overall I really like this laptop, it works great with the wireless network and my desktop. The cons aren't too bad and it surely is the mostr value for money (at least here in Europe)

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 2300
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 801-900
Screen Size: 15
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20