I Want My Seven Gigabytes!
Written: Aug 19 '05 (Updated Aug 20 '05)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Quality of Tech Support: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Basic functions work well, free wireless card and printer.
Cons: Poor screen picture, missing drive space, horrible support.
The Bottom Line: Spend a little more and get a better computer.
|
|
|
| Bruguru's Full Review: Dell Inspiron 2200 PC Notebook |
These days, the trend with computers is towards increasingly lower prices. I think that the trend has probably peaked, with brand new desktop systems being offered by top names like Dell for as little as $299, and laptops going for as little as $499. That’s all great, and almost two years ago I got a great deal on my Dimension 2400 . I also got many great years of service out of my Dell Latitude laptop computer, so I’m no stranger to Dell.
Recently, a friend was in the market for a laptop computer, and I recommended Dell to him. Knowing what his needs were (basic programs and net surfing), I recommended the Dell Inspiron 2200 as something that offered enough computing power to satisfy his needs at a very affordable price (it starts at $599). That means I get to play with it, and I’m offering you my thoughts in case you are considering same,
What You Get
Intel Celeron M360 @1.4GHZ/1MB Cache/400MHz FSB)
14.1 XGA Display
256MB Onboard DDR RAM 1 DIMM
40GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive
Microsoft Windows XP ($10 extra for backup disk)
56K Internal modem
24 X CD/DVD drive
Basic software assortment
As a bonus we got
Free ground shipping
Free Dell Printer
Free wireless network card
Some basics:
The Inspiron 2200 is fairly lightweight, maybe ten pounds or so. The case seems somewhat sturdy and should survive average use for years to come. This is a functional unit, with a side-mounted CD-DVD drive and battery. On the opposite side are headphone and microphone jacks as well as PCM/CIA slot.
In the back you will find the power cord input, one standard IO jack, three USB ports, and a telephone line and NIC jack. Appearance is fairly straightforward in flat black. The keyboard is adequately spaced for easy typing, and the mouse pad is functional as well. All pretty basic stuff here, not much different from a notebook you could have bought five years ago.
Which is fine, considering the price. This isn’t meant to be a monster gaming machine after all. For $599, it’s fine for writing in Word, creating spreadsheets, surfing the net, watching movies, listening to music, playing non-demanding games, etc. You know, simple stuff.
That said, given a choice, I would recommend spending a little more and passing this one by. There are several things I don’t like about the Inspiron 2200, primary among which is the screen. The size is fine, to be sure, but the picture is not. No matter at which angle I adjust the LCD screen, I can’t really get a decent picture. It seems dull and lifeless to me, and too dark for my taste. Fiddling with it just doesn’t seem to help, either. In the dark, it seems too dark, in direct light, there’s too much glare. It’s the same when viewing DVDs or loading a web page.
The computer is somewhat slow at times too, especially when booting up. Loading programs seems to take longer than it should, though admittedly I have experienced worse. And then there’s the hard drive. The unit comes with a 40GB drive, but Windows only recognizes 33GB capacity. There are 7GB of system software installed, leaving you only 25GB available to use.
Other than that, this is an average unit. The wireless card (802.11 b/g, 54MBPS) works well enough with a wireless router bought separately, or on the go at a hotel or your favorite “Wi-Fi” hotspot. The system will automatically detect available Wi-Fi connections. It picked up two right out of the box.
The RAM is sufficient for multitasking several programs at the same time, and even at a reduced 25GB, the hard drive should be plenty and enough for most users. Battery life is good with an average of about 4 hours on a full charge.
The free printer and Wi-Fi were nice touches, thought the ground shipping is a scam. There’s a $19 “handling fee” which probably covered the shipping cost on this computer anyway.
Should you need to use customer service, it’s deplorable. I called for several problems that I had, most notably the hard drive issue and the fact that they charged me $20 too much for sales tax. Apparently they think I live in the wrong county. At any rate, I waited for 15 minutes to get a person in India on the line, who told me that while she couldn’t help me with any of my problems, she would be happy to document them and pass me on to the appropriate parties who could help me.
This took another 15 minutes. Then I got transferred to somebody else who had an annoying habit of just saying nothing for long stretches of time. I argued the fact that this 40GB drive was only showing a 33GB capacity. He said that the 7GB of software was “backed up” and the drive partitioned to allow this. Hence, my 33GB drive. I didn’t see the sense of this, since if the drive totally crashes won’t both be lost? And I have (some) of the software on CD anyway.
“I want my seven gigabytes!”, I said. “How do I get rid of the backup?”
“You can’t,” he replied, followed by a long silence.
“Why not?” I demanded.
“Because you need that to back up your software,” he replied, followed by another pause.
“Don’t you think seven gigabytes is a lot of space to tie up to back up another seven gigabytes?” I asked, hoping to reason with him.
“No,” he replied, and then said nothing.
“I want to send this thing back,” I said.
“You can’t,” he replied, followed by a long silence.
“Why not?” I demanded.
“Because there is no problem with your computer,” he said dryly, before he once again went into his mime routine.
I asked to speak with a supervisor, who I was told was on the line with another customer who likely was wondering where the hell his seven gigabytes went. After an interminable hold, I spoke with her. She asked to place me on hold while she reviewed my case. Some time later, she came back and told me the same thing that Mr. Motormouth had told me.
“How much space are you showing available?” she asked.
“Seven gigabytes less than I should have. You tell me,” I said, “How much should I have?” I really outfoxed her on this one. She was silent for a while, and I sat thinking she must have attended the same training class as the motormouth.
“Between 25GB and 32GB,” she finally replied.
“Between 25GB and 32GB?” I asked incredulously. “Can’t you make up your mind?”.
The rest of the conversation went a lot like that which I have already recounted here. That being the case, I will spare the reader any further distress and just tell you that I still feel shorted seven gigabytes.
And don’t even get me started on the hoops you have to jump through to get your rebate.
The screen alone is enough not to buy this computer. The call center support is even more reason. The missing seven gigabytes, then, are just the icing on the cake.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 599
Operating System: Windows
Processor: AMD Athlon (K7)
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 14 inches
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.