Computing on the Go!
Written: Sep 15 '02 (Updated Oct 23 '07)
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Pros: Great display, comes almost fully loaded
Cons: Heavy
The Bottom Line: Well worth the money if you need some power in your laptop.
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| keiths001's Full Review: Dell Inspiron 8200 (8TWORH) PC Notebook |
This being my first laptop, I have no real comparison I can make as far as laptops themselves go, but I will just talk about it as far as computing power.
Note: I got this computer through school as it's part of my program, so I can't give a price on it, and it has been slightly configured for what we need so what you normally get from Dell may be slightly different.
Out of the box, the laptop came with nearly everything I would need in order to get going right away. A built in battery, a plug-in adapter and Windows XP Home edition already installed.
Processor
The configuration we got included a Pentium 4 running at 1.6 GHz. This thing seriously blazes along. I've run some pretty graphic intensive games on it, and it hasn't even flinched. At the same time, I'm a software engineer and it's calculating speed blows my mind at times.
Memory
It came with 256Mb of RAM which I have subsequently upgraded to 512Mb. I did notice that the RAM got overworked at 256 with some of my games, but that's about it. There are two DIMM PC2100 slots in the laptop, but the max you can get in there with official DELL memory is 512 as they only sell sticks of 256MB. I haven't had any problems at all since I upgraded.
Hard Drive
Came with a 40Gb hard drive. I feel like I have more room on this thing than I'll ever need, as I've filled it with everything I have, and I still have only used around 10Gb.
Drives
This is the beautiful part. Aside from the 1.44" floppy drive on the front, it comes with a combo DVD/CD-RW drive as well.
Video Card
Another nice thing about the Inspiron 8200, is that mine came with a GeForce4 440 Go card in it. They come in both the 32Mb and 64Mb variety.
Sound Card
Yeah, well, sound cards on a laptop aren't a huge thing as far as I know, and this one isn't anything great. It's a Cirrus Logic/Crystal CS4205. Never heard of it before. Sounds fine though, even though the speakers on a laptop aren't great to begin with either.
Display
The display is beautiful. It's 15" which is larger than most laptops I've seen before. When you have the power adapter plugged in to improve the brightness, it's better than most CRT monitors for desktops. The default resolution when it shipped was 1400 x 1050, showing you the kind of power this thing has.
Communications
56K modem, 10/100 Ethernet connection, and Wi-Fi wireless support
Ports
Holy crap, does thing thing have a ton of ports. Here we go: 9-pin serial, 25-hole parallel, 15-hole video connector for external monitor, line in/out sterer connections, headphone port, mic port, PS/2 port for mouse/keyboard, 2 USB ports, an infrared sensor, S-video TV-out to hook up to a TV, RJ-11 Modem port, RJ-45 Network adapter, and IEEE 1394 (Firewire) port. Phew.
Battery
I've found that the battery tends to last between 2 and 3 hours, depending on whether I'm playing games or programming, with games draining it faster. It takes an hour or so to recharge with the computer on, and I haven't noticed how long it takes with the computer off.
Keyboard
One of the things I normally hate about laptops are the squished little keyboards. Seeing as how the Inspiron 8200 has a 15" display, it means the bottom half of the laptop is larger as well, giving more room for the keyboard, and it now seems easier to type on than a normal keyboard for me. I still hate not having a normal NumPad, but you make do.
Mouse, Trackpad, blah blah blah
I hate these things. First thing I did was go out and buy a mouse to use exclusively with the laptop. I absolutely detest touchpads, and I'll never touch this thing. I'm sure it works the same as most. I don't like the little Track Stick thing in the middle of the keyboard much either, although this one is better than most I've seen. It's textured so your finger tends to stick to it instead of constantly sliding off. It's also more accurate than most I've seen.
The one thing that really sucks, is that both the Track Stick and Touchpad have their own set of mouse buttons. What's bad about this is the fact that the Touchpad ones are right beside the palm rests, and you have a tendency to push them with your palm when you use the Shift key and move one hand over to the other side of the keyboard. It's annoying.
Software
Honestly, I was kind of disappointed with the software that came with it, but it may be due to the configuration I get from school. I got the Windows XP Home (Can't even give me Professional), WinDVD, Easy CD Creator, and not a whole lot else other than that. No Office or Works programs, though I've heard that's an option you can add on. It did come with MicroSoft Visual Studio, but that's a programming suite that we got for school.
Expansion
It comes with 2 PCM expansion slots, which as far as I know, are basically the laptop equivalent of PCI slots.
Enough Spec Crap
That's the technical jibber-jabber. What do I really think of this laptop?
I love it. Plain and simple. It worked perfectly right out of the box, and there weren't a whole lot of modifications I had to make to it. I did order the extra memory and buy the mouse, but that's just personal preference.
My favorite parts? The quality of the video card/display, and the ease of the keyboard. The fast processor and combo drive are also nice as well.
What I don't like? Not much. Other than the touch pad/ track stick crap, but that's standard on a laptop so there's no real getting around it. It is a little heavier than other laptops I've picked up, but it's not really a big complaint.
The only contact I've had with tech support so far was in ordering the new RAM and that was extremely easy. I've heard their tech support is pretty good, and they gave us a pretty exhaustive warranty that covers nearly everything for the next 3 years or so I believe.
The Dell Inspiron 8200 is a powerful, extremely useful laptop, that gives you nearly everything you could want in a laptop. They have a port for nearly every use you could think of. I have all kinds of things hooked up to mine right now, and I still have lots of options left over to further add to it.
I'd recommend this to anyone looking for some real processing power in their laptop, especially for more graphically-intensive applications. It may be a little too much for the casual user though.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): ---------
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15 inches
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
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Epinions.com ID:
keiths001
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Member: Keith Staines
Location: Lethbridge, Alberta
Reviews written: 46
Trusted by: 29 members
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