You will never go back to a desktop machine again !!
Written: Jun 09 '02
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Pros: Well priced, fast machine, love the display and keyboard, room to upgrade
Cons: No USB 2.0, construction is not very rugged, speaker output is decent but not great
The Bottom Line: Low priced laptop, stellar performance. Perfect mobile machine for programming, gaming and running business software (as long as you don't need to take it on the road frequently).
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| andy318's Full Review: Dell Inspiron 8200 (8TWORH) PC Notebook |
Here is the skinny - If you are in the market to buy a laptop and are looking for a desktop replacement rather than a road warrior, this is the machine to buy.
I have owned an Inspiron 8000 previously which i was extremely happy with. I upgraded to this model a week ago.
For $1,628 i got a 1.8GHz Pentium 4, 128MB RAM, 20GB HDD, DVD, 15" SXGA+ (1400*1050) display, 32MB GeForce4Go, Windows XP Home and 1yr warranty. I spent another $70 buying a 256MB stick of RAM from www.upgradenation.com.
When i first got my laptop, i was pleasantly surprised to observe that the construction quality had improved since the 8000 model. The display tilts much more smoothly, the keyboard is subtly better, the body seems more rigid. However, its still not as good as i would like to be - example Sony Vaio. But for its price, the quality is extremely good. I was actually worried that since these laptops are cheaper (i bought my Inspiron 8000 for $2,300), they might have skimped on quality but i was wrong.
I ran the 3DMark2001 benchmark to check out the performance of the GeForce4Go video card and was amazed to see a score of 4,900. This means it will play even the latest action games smoothly. I also have my PCMark2002 scores posted at -http://service.madonion.com/compare?pcm=389933 if you'd like to compare with your existing laptop to see if its worthwhile to upgrade.
The other good thing about a laptop like this is that you can keep it current by upgrading down the road. You can buy a bigger and faster hard disk to further improve performance. The memory can be upgraded all the way to 1,024MB. Just like the older models, i expect Dell will allow you to upgrade the video card in the future also.
The only thing this laptop is missing (which a lot of other new ones are too) is USB 2.0 support. Considering that most of the new external devices like DVD/CD burners, hard disks provide connectivity through USB 2.0 instead of FireWire, i am afraid that i might not be able to buy the accessories i want 'cause this laptop wont support them.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1700
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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Epinions.com ID:
andy318
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Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 2 members
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