Just got my 8600 Inspiron!!!

Okay,

If any of you guys have frequented the Toshiba forums, I had recently made a Toshiba 5205-S119 purchase. To be honest, I loved this laptop but for two reasons, the weight/size/cumbrance (is that a word?) and the video card. That said, as a multi-media center with the CASV screen and the Harman Kardon+Subwoofer sound it can NOT be beat at the price.

That said the things that were important to me in choosing a laptop was screen quality, video card performance in a decent-sized aesthetically pleasing form factor.

The Dell 8600 has always been on my radar but the recent Hitachi debacle kept me from ordering it but in recent days it seems like everyone's been getting the Samsung so I took the plunge last Friday and just received it this Wednesday via the free UPS ground (GO DELL!).

Here are my initial impressions. I won't go into detail about batterly life, video performance, etc as that has all been covered. However, I will mention the screen. I still have my toshiba so I have it to compare too. The screen is obviously inferior to the Toshibas. However, placed next to my 1800FP desktop lcd (which I use as the standard), the Dell's laptop seemed to have better color accuracy. I don't know if Rais3d or any of the other Toshiba owners could verify this but the red's didn't seem BRIGHT red as do a few other colors. Believe me I'm a stickler as I've asked my friends if they can tell but they say they never would have noticed if I didn't show them. All in all, the Toshiba is still a much nicer screen...especially in a 2d environment. In a 3d environment, it doen't matter as much as the games are WAY too fast to tell. As a comparison, it kicks the crap out of the 1280x800 WXGA screens out there. I "think" I have the Samsung as I notice no ghosting in 3dmark.

The keyboard definitely exhibits a bit of the flex that the 8600's is known for over the I-O-P section. I'm touch typist so it doesn't bother me as I barely put any pressue on it anyhow anyhow. The keyboard clicks which is an added bonus as I'm used to desktop keyboards that do the same thing. Other than that the rest of the system feels rock solid.

The system runs COOL and QUIET. The Toshiba laptop I owned had a 5400 drive whereas the Dell has a 4200 drive. I could care less either way.

All in all, so far so good. The laptop actually feels like a laptop vs the S119.
I'm just running the laptop through the ringer behind me looping 3dmark. Let me know if you have any questions or any particular tests you want me to run that have you haven't seen (I'd rather not rehash 3dmark scores, blah blah) and time permitting, I'll perform them.

Btw, here's my system specs:
1.5 Centrino
WSXGA+ Screen
40 gb 4200 drive ( )
ATI 9600 128 Mb
DVD Burner
256 megs ram (yeah I know, I have a stick of 256 mb Kingmax I'm about to install as soon as I get around to it)
Wireless blah blah...
$1589 shipped.

I've been busy packing up my Toshiba unit for RMA .

My final verdict is that the book is a keeper and is recommended with the following caveats:

1. You get the screen YOU want. Some people with the Hitachi's on Dell forums are please with there's (although personally I don't think they are as anal as most of us on these forums). If you want a Samsung, it's reported that they're being shipped out as replacements. Btw does anyone know how to do that Knoppix linux thingamajig?
2. The keyboard is tolerable.

Those are honestly the only reasons I can think of other than getting a defective book. My book runs cool. It's screen doesn't have the infamous Rain effect. The keyboard is a bit flimsy but is well within my own tolerances. It feels light AND I have the ATI 9600 128 meg. It seems that Dell's quality that's being shipped out runs the gamut so as long as "it ain't broke" it's one of the best value's out there. Heck they have a 30 day return policy with no restocking fee so you really have no reason not to give it a shot if you're considering it.