9200 Pros and Cons

Howdy all,

I recently placed an order for a new Inspiron 9200 (is it going to ship on the day they tell me it will or are they being overly abitious?) and I'm obsessed with it. The thing looks phenomenal and I'm sure it will blow my mind.

Reading about it all over the net, I have gotten many different perspectives. I know the 17-inch size will work for me (I think it'll complement my 6'4" frame nicely), the 2.0 GHz Dothan is going to rock my world, the 1 GB of RAM is going to be hot (is DDR333 the max or can I upgrade to 400?), and the thing looks as sleek as a Powerbook. I'm actually glad it doesn't have a full keyboard or a trackstick. Basically this computer looks perfect (in fact, I canceled my Alienware Area-51m order for it). But I still have questions for those who've seen / confirmed things about it.

Firstly, the PC Magazine review reports that the BatteryMark score is 4:59. Which is unreal. But when I go on Dell's site (link), Dell reports that the 9200's battery life is *worse* than the XPS's. It got a barely-filled circle whereas the XPS got a half-filled circle. Is this just an oversight on the web site or is the battery life actually that bad? I am counting on this thing being portable.

Speaking of battery, I ordered the 9-cell instead of the 6-cell battery. Was this a mistake? Am I going to need a 6-cell battery to be able to have an optical drive in the machine? Is the 9-cell physically larger than the 6-cell and does it protrude from the bottom / out so the machine isn't flush?

Also, re: the screen. I've read that it may be "XBrite"-ish technology. I hope this isn't the case -- is it?

If I have any other questions I suppose I'll post them later. Thanks for your help -- some of you users of this forum are really helpful and I look forward to your replies.

Andy

That's what I'd hoped. Is PC Magazine the only place to have seen and tested this computer? I haven't found anything else... I feel like I'm taking a big plunge here. It's exciting, however.

Ordered 11/2, supposed to ship 12/3. Same as you; In fact, the specs are exactly the same. I am fully convinced it's worth the wait. The battery is still a mystery, however. Also - are you still in "Pre-Production?" When is that going to change? This brings back the nightmares I had with Alienware's Phases.

Yep, mine is still in pre-pro as well. I'm not all that frustrated -- yet -- because at least Dell doesn't blatantly lie about ship dates (cough Alienware cough). It would be really nice to get it earlier, though. Keep me updated.