I have been wanting a new laptop for quite some time, but never could justify spending the money to get what I would want in one.
Every laptop I've had until now were hand-me-downs from old jobs... old pentium 90's, my latest being a nice Sony Vaio 300mhz ultrathin model.
So my review will be somewhat biased since I have no newer models to compare to. I have, however, seen many Toshiba and Dell laptops here at work. Two friends have 9100's, which are a bit heavy.
So I jumped on the $750 discount like 500,000 other people did and ordered an 8600. I'm not a gamer so I wasn't too concerned with getting the fastest processor or biggest video... my configuration was the following:
1.5 Pentium M processor
WSXGA+ Screen
512 meg of RAM
60 gig Hard Drive
64 Meg nVidia GeForce
Dell 1350 Wireless
Dell 300 Bluetooth module (purchased after the fact, I forgot to order it with the lappy)
all the other standard 8600 features... onboard nic, modem, sound, XP Home, etc.
of course, mentioned in another thread, it arrived with the 1.6 processor! That was a nice surprise.
I already have XP Pro to load, so I didn't want to pay extra for it to come with the machine, so I left XP Home on there with the full intention of wiping the drive when it arrived and installing clean. When it arrived, I did play with it for a little while with XP Home just to see how much stuff was loaded and get a feel for the laptop. Right out of the box I plugged it in and booted it up. After going through the finishing steps to load XP, I put in my wireless key and was on my home network. I'll get into a bit more detail on each piece later, but overall... the wireless range is good for me, the screen is beautiful, it's a very quiet running machine and I don't really mind the looks of it, even the blue trim!
= I'll start with the WSXGA screen. I love the resolution! I like my 19" monitors at work to run at 1280x1024. I don't like big icons or text. I think this screen was the perfect resolution for me. I did change the fonts to 96dpi when I first ran the machine, and after installing XP Pro, it was already 96dpi and it looks great. I see no dead pixels anywhere, and light leakage doesn't seem to be very bad, nothing I really notice.
= wireless.... very easy to configure. I had a Sony Vaio with a Linksys wireless g card and the range was spotty in my house. So far with this, I've sat out in the living room and it's still getting 54mb connection. I'll test out in the garage and other places soon. Configuring it at work was a snap. We use certs here, so once I hooked up with the wire and got my cert, the wireless authenticates me right away and always has good strength.
= Bluetooth... I forgot to order this piece so I bought one separate. It took me all of 30 seconds to install. The XP Home install from Dell recognized it and loaded drivers, but the blue light was not coming on and it was a pain to work with. I downloaded the driver from the Dell site and loaded it and it's SOOOO much easier to use now! Hooked up my pda, my t610 and my wife's t610 phones in a snap. And the blue indicator light comes on now!
= performance... so far the 8600 runs great for me. After loading XP Pro from scratch, I have loaded Office 2003, Streets & Trips, Windows Debugging tools and other apps... everything runs great. The computer boots up nice and fast.
= size.... this laptop is a bit on the large size because of the screen. But it's not heavy like the 9100. Very good compromise between size/weight and features. I love the big screen and the lighter weight makes the size bearable.
= battery.... I haven't had it unplugged long enough to see how long it will run!
what else have I done with it so far? I've added the Microsoft wireless laptop mouse... a very cool usb wireless mouse that holds the usb plug in the bottom when not in use and turns the power off. Just pull the usb piece off the bottom, plug it in the back and go! Also added a 160 gig external USB drive... actually, I have been using this drive to move data between work and home, but it works great on the laptop. I've got tons of music on that drive, so I use it as my jukebox at work.
So far, I really like this laptop. No issues with it at all.
Every laptop I've had until now were hand-me-downs from old jobs... old pentium 90's, my latest being a nice Sony Vaio 300mhz ultrathin model.
So my review will be somewhat biased since I have no newer models to compare to. I have, however, seen many Toshiba and Dell laptops here at work. Two friends have 9100's, which are a bit heavy.
So I jumped on the $750 discount like 500,000 other people did and ordered an 8600. I'm not a gamer so I wasn't too concerned with getting the fastest processor or biggest video... my configuration was the following:
1.5 Pentium M processor
WSXGA+ Screen
512 meg of RAM
60 gig Hard Drive
64 Meg nVidia GeForce
Dell 1350 Wireless
Dell 300 Bluetooth module (purchased after the fact, I forgot to order it with the lappy)
all the other standard 8600 features... onboard nic, modem, sound, XP Home, etc.
of course, mentioned in another thread, it arrived with the 1.6 processor! That was a nice surprise.
I already have XP Pro to load, so I didn't want to pay extra for it to come with the machine, so I left XP Home on there with the full intention of wiping the drive when it arrived and installing clean. When it arrived, I did play with it for a little while with XP Home just to see how much stuff was loaded and get a feel for the laptop. Right out of the box I plugged it in and booted it up. After going through the finishing steps to load XP, I put in my wireless key and was on my home network. I'll get into a bit more detail on each piece later, but overall... the wireless range is good for me, the screen is beautiful, it's a very quiet running machine and I don't really mind the looks of it, even the blue trim!
= I'll start with the WSXGA screen. I love the resolution! I like my 19" monitors at work to run at 1280x1024. I don't like big icons or text. I think this screen was the perfect resolution for me. I did change the fonts to 96dpi when I first ran the machine, and after installing XP Pro, it was already 96dpi and it looks great. I see no dead pixels anywhere, and light leakage doesn't seem to be very bad, nothing I really notice.
= wireless.... very easy to configure. I had a Sony Vaio with a Linksys wireless g card and the range was spotty in my house. So far with this, I've sat out in the living room and it's still getting 54mb connection. I'll test out in the garage and other places soon. Configuring it at work was a snap. We use certs here, so once I hooked up with the wire and got my cert, the wireless authenticates me right away and always has good strength.
= Bluetooth... I forgot to order this piece so I bought one separate. It took me all of 30 seconds to install. The XP Home install from Dell recognized it and loaded drivers, but the blue light was not coming on and it was a pain to work with. I downloaded the driver from the Dell site and loaded it and it's SOOOO much easier to use now! Hooked up my pda, my t610 and my wife's t610 phones in a snap. And the blue indicator light comes on now!
= performance... so far the 8600 runs great for me. After loading XP Pro from scratch, I have loaded Office 2003, Streets & Trips, Windows Debugging tools and other apps... everything runs great. The computer boots up nice and fast.
= size.... this laptop is a bit on the large size because of the screen. But it's not heavy like the 9100. Very good compromise between size/weight and features. I love the big screen and the lighter weight makes the size bearable.
= battery.... I haven't had it unplugged long enough to see how long it will run!
what else have I done with it so far? I've added the Microsoft wireless laptop mouse... a very cool usb wireless mouse that holds the usb plug in the bottom when not in use and turns the power off. Just pull the usb piece off the bottom, plug it in the back and go! Also added a 160 gig external USB drive... actually, I have been using this drive to move data between work and home, but it works great on the laptop. I've got tons of music on that drive, so I use it as my jukebox at work.
So far, I really like this laptop. No issues with it at all.
