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Inspiron 9400 - First impressions

post #1 of 33
2/8/06 at 9:03am
Thread Starter 
Just received it after only 7 days from the ordering day!

It's not mine, I've bought it for my uncle........... I'm still on my Toshy M30...... nevertheless as I will have a drive on it for a few days, I'll give you my impressions.

Just unpacked, it was freezy, so I'll wait a couple hours to warm it up.

It's huge.... little thick and...... heavy!

Don't like much the design to be honest, those white bands on the sides makes it look like a toy.

The keyboard is rather small, IMHO they could have designed a better layout, considering that there's about 4cm per side (that's an extra 8cm) , Dell could have set a small keypad?

In the meanwhile while waiting for the warming up, I've plugged in the AC adaptor, and a slight, high frequency, whistle is perceptible.

It looks like there's no manual.....hum strange.... also the original Windows XP CD is missing, couls it be inside the reader? I'll give a call to the helpdesk.

Apart from the cables, remote control and a quickstart paper, only Office CD is present.

Lunch time.

I'll be back in the afternoon.
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post #2 of 33
2/8/06 at 1:46pm
Thread Starter 
Back again.
My config:

Inspiron 9400 Duo Processor T2400 (1.83 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 667 MHz FSB)
17" UltraSharp Wide Screen WXGA+ (1440 x 900) TFT Display
Free Upgrade to Windows Media Center 2005
Promo DYM from DDR_512Mb (533)2S to DDR_1024Mb (533)2S
Money Off 50¿ inc VAT
Snap-On LCD Cover - Carbon Fibre
Italian - System Documentation
Eruopean - Power Cord
No Resource CD
Memoria 1024MB (2x512) 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM
External 3.5in 1.44 MB Floppy Drive Media Bay
80GB (5,400 rpm) SATA Hard Drive
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive with Software
DVD Cyberlink Decoder Software (No Media)
Software (No Media) Decoder DVD My DVD
90W AC Adapter
Primary 80 Watt/Hour, 9 CELL Battery (Optional Upsell)
Extra Large Black/Grey Nylon Carry Case
Kit cavo Multimedia Audio/Video
Intel Media Accelerator 950 Graphics Up to 128MB shared system memory
Italian - Modem Cable and Adapter
Europe - Intel Pro WLAN 3945 Internal Wireless (802.11a/b/g 54 Mbps) for Duo Processors
European - Dell TrueMobile 350 internal Bluetooth Module
Italian (QWERTY) - Internal Keyboard
Software Drivers
Italian - Genuine Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
PC Restore recovery system by Symantec
Remote Control for Media Center Edition
Italiano - Microsoft Office 2003 Basic
No Dell Support
Italian - Photo Album SE Basic
Italian - Paint Shop ProBasic Edition
Italian - Adobe Reader 6.0
European - Tiscali ISP with No Media
No Dell Media Experience
Italian - McAfee Security Centre 90 day Trial Version
Svc Basic 3Y At Home Service incl. Evenings and Saturdays, 30day online MM Training

Ok, power on.

The screen seems unevenly light....

They keyboard feeling is pretty good.

The sound speakers

The screen is defintely poor... probabily it is so big that it's difficult to spread ligth across it....I really dont' like it

Let me go on........
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post #3 of 33
2/8/06 at 1:55pm
LOL this review makes me laugh.
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post #4 of 33
2/8/06 at 1:57pm
If everything you say is true, send that puppy back. Not happy with it now, I doubt you or your uncle will ever be happy with it.
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post #5 of 33
2/8/06 at 2:06pm
Post a pic of the screen if you can (preferably with a black back ground on it).

Zyb
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post #6 of 33
2/8/06 at 2:07pm
Is it a truelife display?
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post #7 of 33
2/8/06 at 2:19pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by LiquidG
Is it a truelife display?
Don't know really....

Do you think I need un updated driver from Dell??

Particullarly it is difficult to read black fonts on white....

Tonight (18:08 here now) I'll make a pic of it and send it....

Fortunatelly I have a 7 days return option
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post #8 of 33
2/8/06 at 2:24pm
Thread Starter 
The speakers, have a clear and powerful sound
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post #9 of 33
2/8/06 at 3:24pm
Thread Starter 
Could you suggest any utility worth trying, like HDTune or a cpu benchmark?
I would post results.

Tonight I'll post some pix eventually placing my Toshy M30 close to Delly 9400.... Any hint comparing the two? Black screen, then?
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post #10 of 33
2/8/06 at 4:07pm
17" UltraSharp Wide Screen WXGA+ (1440 x 900) TFT Display

obviously not a truelife screen.. huge difference between the two.
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post #11 of 33
2/8/06 at 4:32pm
Send it back. The 17" WSXGA+ screens are terrible IMHO. I am sending back a 9300 with the WSXGA+ screen and now I'm getting a WUXGA on an e1705.
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post #12 of 33
2/8/06 at 6:18pm
I love my E1705, is soo beatiful, I just could not say more about it. My fan is extreme quite, more quiter than my desktop. I almost could not hear the fans, off most of the time, while serving and when the fan turns on is very quite. Maybe you have got a not well made one or something. My screen had very minimal light leakage and the screen passed all testes perfect. Have fun!!
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post #13 of 33
2/8/06 at 6:22pm
once u go wuxga u wont go back... trulife rox, seriously...

and font isnt actualyl that small, its very readable! u can adjust font size in windows anyway...

and down scaling the resolution is also reallly not too bad.. not very blurryt at all
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post #14 of 33
2/8/06 at 6:46pm
Well having my E1705 for a solid 5 hours now I'm very impressed, I see no problems with the WXGA+ screen, It is performing very well without a complete reformat, simply an hour of uninstalling the bloat. I have to say it works really well on my lap so far, haven't tested the batteries very much but I'm gonna love this beast
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post #15 of 33
2/8/06 at 7:15pm
Thread Starter 
How can I post pics?
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post #16 of 33
2/8/06 at 7:41pm
Thread Starter 
Ok I've got many pics made side by side a Toshiba M30 (2004) vs Dell Inspiron 9400 (2006). Awaiting for instrucions to post.

In the meanwhile, I definitely confirm what I wrote in the first posts.

The Dell is bigger, heavier and probably more robust than the M30.

They keyboard has a really poor design but it seems more robust than the Toshy.

Definitely the 9400 lacks styles, but for a workhorse who cares?

The Delly's display (in my config) is a piece of crap. A picture is worth thousands words. You will judge yourself.

The hard disk also is crappy. I'm comparing it with a speedy Travelstar 7K100 on my Toshy...that has a far slower CPU (Pentium M 1.6, first generation). But gives higher results in HDTune; as a result, boot and disk operations are slower on the 9400.

Conclusions

Don't buy a config like mine.

9400 probably deserves a better screen, and also a better disk than the Fujitsu. It's like having a Ferrari with no weels..... what's the point?

There's no point in spendind 2100 Euros to have an unusable display and a slow disk.

Put more bucks on it and buy a faster hard disk, and check out the trulife display....
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post #17 of 33
2/8/06 at 8:08pm
I feel sorry about you!
I think you can't aprechiate the laptop you have.
1st of all go ahead and make a Windows Reinstall! Delete all the junk what Dell put on it.
Download a good video card Drvier. Overclock it and after it you can eat your "toshi" cos the Dell is about 10 times better noti...
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post #18 of 33
2/8/06 at 11:27pm
You will have to upload your pictures to a website, search goolge for free picutre hosting.

I use uploadit.org but there is exactly 9,673,756 hosting sites up.
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post #19 of 33
2/9/06 at 12:24am
bigmo, seriosuly, just do a reformat...

i uninstalled all the firmware, it got a bit faster.

but u wont believe what ur missing until u load up windows with a fresh format...
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post #20 of 33
2/9/06 at 12:41am
I didn't get the XPMCE Install CD....I have one of the earlier versions but I want '05. If someone wanted to make the ISO of that and I could give ya the page to put it on....I'd do the reformat haha.
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