Ordered my little gem of a 6400 from Dell Korea early last week and received at the end of the week.. building and boxing only took 1 day. Shipping was the biggest time factor here.
The specs:
1.73 GHz Core Duo T2250
120 GB Western Digital HD 5400 RPM
1 GB DDR2 RAM 533 MHz
ATI Mobility Radeon X1400
15.4 WSXGA+ with TrueLife
NEC 6650A CD-RW/DVD burner
Intel 3945 ABG wireless
Dell Bluetooth 355 Bluetooth card
English XP Home and English Keyboard (didn't want the Korean versions!)
Freebies: 9-cell battery upgrade, "charcoal leather" Quicksnap cover, Dell optical mouse, 90-watt AC adapter upgrade, A/V cable kit.
First impressions:
This is one well-built machine. The fit and finish is impeccible. It feels rock-solid and there is no sag on the keyboard or palm rest, no creaking plastic sounds when I press on the case, etc. All of the buttons and switches have a high-quality feel with good tactile response. Build quality: 10/10.
Display:
The TrueLife screen is gorgeous. Colors are vibrant and bright. No dead pixels, no sparkleies. The viewing angle seems to have a sweet spot that I sometimes miss, but when the display is at the sweet spot, it's perfect. There is some noticeable light leakage, but it's not serious. In fact, it might even be light reflections due to the shiny screen. Screen score: 9/10.
Hard drive:
The 120GB drive seems fast enough and of course, has gobs of storage. Pretty quiet too. It runs VERY HOT though (51 degrees C. has been my highest reading so far) and the bottom gets rather hot quickly. Also the right side of the keyboard is warm. Hard drive score: 8/10 due to heat, all else is good.
Sound:
I used to have an Inspiron 9100, the noisiest beast in all the land of notebooks. The new 6400 is practically silent, especially compared to the 9100. The fan barely goes above low speed and it's whisper-quiet. The sound card seems adequate, and I'm impressed with the notebook's built-in speakers. They sound much better than I was expecting and the volume can pump up fairly high. Sound/Sound Card score: 10/10.
Keyboard:
No complaints here. Good key travel, keys are quiet and feel good, and as I mentioned, no flex and feels rock-solid. 10/10.
Speed:
The Intel Core Duo T2250 makes for one snappy responding system. I haven't run any benchmarks on it, but it feels faster than my 2.8Ghz 9100. Runs Photoshop fast and smooth, even while doing a virus-scan. 10/10.
Video Card:
The ATI x1400 seems like a decent enough card. I'm no hard-core gamer, but I do like to play some older games (Sid Meier's Pirates, Civ IV, Roller Coaster Tycoon) and it handles them just fine. DVDs and video files play smoothly. For my needs, it's 10/10.
Optical Drive:
The NEC 6650A will burn CDs at up to 24x and DVD+/- R/RW at up to 8x. I've burnt a couple of CDs and DVDs so far with no complaint except that the drive is a bit noisy at full speed. 9/10.
Crapware:
This machine came from Dell Korea, so there wasn't the normal crapware you'd find on a North-American spec machine. There was no AOL, no Earthlink, no trial anti-virus subscriptions. The only crapware I removed was the Sonic Record software and the outdated PowerDVD software. No HD reformat necessary in this case. 10/10.
Battery:
I got the 9-cell battery as a free upgrade. Got about 6 hours from it just surfing the net with WiFi and bluetooth off and screen brightness set to the middle. Got about 4 hours from watching DVDs. 10/10.
Wireless card:
The Intel 3945 ABG wireless card works just fine. I've used it at home and in a couple of public hotspots with no problem. 10/10.
Bluetooth:
Haven't used it, since I don't have any bluetooth accessories at the moment.
Overall, I'm very pleased with the machine. It's so light and quiet (compared to the old I9100) and the build quality is fantastic. The screen is gorgeous and I'm pleased with the speed and battery life. The only issues I have are the heat from the hard drive and the somewhat small viewing angle for the screen. The charcoal leather Quicksnap cover is quite ugly, also. But hey, it was free.
I paid about $1200USD for this machine, which, for Korea is a very very good price and I'm happy with that. I could have bought from Dell USA for about $250-300 less, but counting the expense of having it shipped here from the US ($100 + insurance) and 10% VAT in Korea and 15% duty tax, I actually came out ahead.
I love my new Inspiron 6400 and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a powerful, yet fairly light and quiet machine for basic tasks, photo-editing, DVD viewing and low-medium level gaming.
The specs:
1.73 GHz Core Duo T2250
120 GB Western Digital HD 5400 RPM
1 GB DDR2 RAM 533 MHz
ATI Mobility Radeon X1400
15.4 WSXGA+ with TrueLife
NEC 6650A CD-RW/DVD burner
Intel 3945 ABG wireless
Dell Bluetooth 355 Bluetooth card
English XP Home and English Keyboard (didn't want the Korean versions!)
Freebies: 9-cell battery upgrade, "charcoal leather" Quicksnap cover, Dell optical mouse, 90-watt AC adapter upgrade, A/V cable kit.
First impressions:
This is one well-built machine. The fit and finish is impeccible. It feels rock-solid and there is no sag on the keyboard or palm rest, no creaking plastic sounds when I press on the case, etc. All of the buttons and switches have a high-quality feel with good tactile response. Build quality: 10/10.
Display:
The TrueLife screen is gorgeous. Colors are vibrant and bright. No dead pixels, no sparkleies. The viewing angle seems to have a sweet spot that I sometimes miss, but when the display is at the sweet spot, it's perfect. There is some noticeable light leakage, but it's not serious. In fact, it might even be light reflections due to the shiny screen. Screen score: 9/10.
Hard drive:
The 120GB drive seems fast enough and of course, has gobs of storage. Pretty quiet too. It runs VERY HOT though (51 degrees C. has been my highest reading so far) and the bottom gets rather hot quickly. Also the right side of the keyboard is warm. Hard drive score: 8/10 due to heat, all else is good.
Sound:
I used to have an Inspiron 9100, the noisiest beast in all the land of notebooks. The new 6400 is practically silent, especially compared to the 9100. The fan barely goes above low speed and it's whisper-quiet. The sound card seems adequate, and I'm impressed with the notebook's built-in speakers. They sound much better than I was expecting and the volume can pump up fairly high. Sound/Sound Card score: 10/10.
Keyboard:
No complaints here. Good key travel, keys are quiet and feel good, and as I mentioned, no flex and feels rock-solid. 10/10.
Speed:
The Intel Core Duo T2250 makes for one snappy responding system. I haven't run any benchmarks on it, but it feels faster than my 2.8Ghz 9100. Runs Photoshop fast and smooth, even while doing a virus-scan. 10/10.
Video Card:
The ATI x1400 seems like a decent enough card. I'm no hard-core gamer, but I do like to play some older games (Sid Meier's Pirates, Civ IV, Roller Coaster Tycoon) and it handles them just fine. DVDs and video files play smoothly. For my needs, it's 10/10.
Optical Drive:
The NEC 6650A will burn CDs at up to 24x and DVD+/- R/RW at up to 8x. I've burnt a couple of CDs and DVDs so far with no complaint except that the drive is a bit noisy at full speed. 9/10.
Crapware:
This machine came from Dell Korea, so there wasn't the normal crapware you'd find on a North-American spec machine. There was no AOL, no Earthlink, no trial anti-virus subscriptions. The only crapware I removed was the Sonic Record software and the outdated PowerDVD software. No HD reformat necessary in this case. 10/10.
Battery:
I got the 9-cell battery as a free upgrade. Got about 6 hours from it just surfing the net with WiFi and bluetooth off and screen brightness set to the middle. Got about 4 hours from watching DVDs. 10/10.
Wireless card:
The Intel 3945 ABG wireless card works just fine. I've used it at home and in a couple of public hotspots with no problem. 10/10.
Bluetooth:
Haven't used it, since I don't have any bluetooth accessories at the moment.
Overall, I'm very pleased with the machine. It's so light and quiet (compared to the old I9100) and the build quality is fantastic. The screen is gorgeous and I'm pleased with the speed and battery life. The only issues I have are the heat from the hard drive and the somewhat small viewing angle for the screen. The charcoal leather Quicksnap cover is quite ugly, also. But hey, it was free.
I paid about $1200USD for this machine, which, for Korea is a very very good price and I'm happy with that. I could have bought from Dell USA for about $250-300 less, but counting the expense of having it shipped here from the US ($100 + insurance) and 10% VAT in Korea and 15% duty tax, I actually came out ahead.
I love my new Inspiron 6400 and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a powerful, yet fairly light and quiet machine for basic tasks, photo-editing, DVD viewing and low-medium level gaming.
