Well I've had my 9200 for a few days now - and I am really very happy with it.
I've got
1.8 Ghz PM
1 GB Ram
7200 RPM Hard Drive (60 GB)
WXGA Screen (1440 x 900)
Bluetooth Module
Wireless Card
Win XP Pro
Screen
The LCD panel is lovely - the brightness tones down a bit when you put it on battery power (but you can change that really easily), the colours are nice, rich and crisp and the text is a nice size. I really miss the extra screen estate afforded to me by this when I move to a 4:3 screen.
Look and Feel
The laptop is really very classy - a lot nicer looking than my old 2500 (although its not a 17" powerbook) and is very solidly built. There is no flex on the screen whatsoever and the backlight on the front media buttons is nice also. The laptop is also surprisingly light...
Performance
Games wise the Radeon 9700 really gives this laptop some oomph. I can run games like C'n'C Generals with everything on in native resolution with no slowdown, Halo with everything on except specular effects at native res with no slowdown (have only played the first two levels - mainly wanted to get to level 2 - Halo) and Battlefield 1942 (and Desert Combat) with everything on at native res with no slowdown (strangely enough this laptop loads desert combat maps faster than any computer I've ever encountered). I'm gonna get Half Life 2 in the new year. Other games like Homeworld 2 and Rome Total War look beautiful and run easily at native resolution.
3D Mark 03 - 3512 - Omega Drivers gave me about a 50 point improvement...
Sound
I was very impressed by the speakers on this laptop - while my 5.1 system trumps it easily they are really very good (for a lappy) with the subwoofer affording it a nice dynamic range. However distortion is fairly evident at higher levels of volume.
Battery Life
I got both the big and small capacity batteries and am very impressed. To test the big one I played Rome Total War (in which I noticed no real slowdown) for about an hour and a half and watched a DVD (Blackadder the Third) for about an hour as well - I had around an hour of battery life left according to the meter which I was really very impressed with.
Keyboard
Pretty nice - nothing amazingly special.
Screenies... - Somethings up with the Halo screenies - I'll post some other ones later...
I've got
1.8 Ghz PM
1 GB Ram
7200 RPM Hard Drive (60 GB)
WXGA Screen (1440 x 900)
Bluetooth Module
Wireless Card
Win XP Pro
Screen
The LCD panel is lovely - the brightness tones down a bit when you put it on battery power (but you can change that really easily), the colours are nice, rich and crisp and the text is a nice size. I really miss the extra screen estate afforded to me by this when I move to a 4:3 screen.
Look and Feel
The laptop is really very classy - a lot nicer looking than my old 2500 (although its not a 17" powerbook) and is very solidly built. There is no flex on the screen whatsoever and the backlight on the front media buttons is nice also. The laptop is also surprisingly light...
Performance
Games wise the Radeon 9700 really gives this laptop some oomph. I can run games like C'n'C Generals with everything on in native resolution with no slowdown, Halo with everything on except specular effects at native res with no slowdown (have only played the first two levels - mainly wanted to get to level 2 - Halo) and Battlefield 1942 (and Desert Combat) with everything on at native res with no slowdown (strangely enough this laptop loads desert combat maps faster than any computer I've ever encountered). I'm gonna get Half Life 2 in the new year. Other games like Homeworld 2 and Rome Total War look beautiful and run easily at native resolution.
3D Mark 03 - 3512 - Omega Drivers gave me about a 50 point improvement...
Sound
I was very impressed by the speakers on this laptop - while my 5.1 system trumps it easily they are really very good (for a lappy) with the subwoofer affording it a nice dynamic range. However distortion is fairly evident at higher levels of volume.
Battery Life
I got both the big and small capacity batteries and am very impressed. To test the big one I played Rome Total War (in which I noticed no real slowdown) for about an hour and a half and watched a DVD (Blackadder the Third) for about an hour as well - I had around an hour of battery life left according to the meter which I was really very impressed with.
Keyboard
Pretty nice - nothing amazingly special.
Screenies... - Somethings up with the Halo screenies - I'll post some other ones later...
