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Dell Inspiron 8500

post #1 of 14
8/29/03 at 1:18am
Thread Starter 
It arrived today..... and it is going back. The 15" WUXGA screen is too high res for me. Icons & text are tiny! It gave me a headache within 30 minutes of using it. Mine had the 2.6GHz chip & got extremely hot as well. Lastly, the 8600 was just released w/better video! I'm going to return it for a refund & start looking into other options, probably with a 16" screen at a slightly lower res.
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post #2 of 14
8/29/03 at 1:59am
icons and text can be independently resized you know

personally, i'd hate to give up the option of higher res for those times when its useful

unless you think you'll just never need it and would like to save some money. cause that makes sense i guess
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post #3 of 14
8/29/03 at 6:28pm
Thread Starter 
I tried resizing them, but still the screen makes things a bit too small for my tastes. It was very pretty with graphics though. The build quality of the machine was a bit less than I expected as well considering the cost. ($2900)
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post #4 of 14
8/29/03 at 6:40pm
Holy Cow! 2900??

Did you try getting it through small business? I got my M60 for less than that, but used coupons.

That is annoying that the 8600 came out right after you received yours.

You may check out the Sager 8890, it's a monster in terms of overall size, but the screen would probably suit your needs perfectly.
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post #5 of 14
8/30/03 at 9:39am
Thread Starter 
Well there are a couple reasons it was $2900...... I got a 4 year warranty on it, it was fairly loaded up & I ordered it about 2 weeks ago. (Prices have already dropped quite a bit) I must say when I called Dell Customer Service I was very disappointed. I got an Indian woman who was doing her best but the line quality was poor & she was unable to transfer me to the appropriate person. Suggested I "call back later". I ended up E-mailing Dell yesterday, got a response today saying in 2-3 days they will have someone contact me regarding returning the unit. Dell has gone downhill bigtime compared to 5 or 6 years ago when I bought my last system from them. I won't be getting another.
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post #6 of 14
8/30/03 at 11:02am
jt, the rule of thumb when you call any tech. support queue is that you hang up if you aren't getting the right answers, or ask to speak to a manager.

Although Dell has farmed out most of its tech support to India, they seem to do a good job. You are bound to have a few techs that aren't as knowledgable as you might be, but at least you have different channels to go through.
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post #7 of 14
8/31/03 at 4:08pm

Re: Dell Inspiron 8500

Quote:
Originally posted by jt325i
It arrived today..... and it is going back. The 15" WUXGA screen is too high res for me. Icons & text are tiny!

I'm going to return it for a refund & start looking into other options, probably with a 16" screen at a slightly lower res.
that's one of the reasons i returned the d800 was the WUXGA screen... but i bought mine refurbished, so couldn't reconfigure. i got it at a great price, too ($1600 for 1.6ghz, 64meg 4200, wireless a/b/g, 40gb 5400rpm, WUXGA, cdrw/dvd). another reason i returned it was the poor kb. it's very, very flexy.

i have a samsung 240t wide LCD at 24 inches that runs at the SAME RESOLUTION as the 15" dell WUXGA. that's just insane.

it's way too hard to read --- and when u adjust the DPI/font settings, it makes IE pages/desktop look distorted.
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post #8 of 14
8/31/03 at 6:27pm
You guys just dont have it set up right. Native resolution is the best way to go. I run my dell inspiron 8200 at 1600x1200 Once you get used to that you wont go back. I run my dual 21" trinitrons on my desktop at 3200x1200 between both monitors. Which is dual 1600x1200s then. Its all in adjusting your icon sizes, and text sizes. Desktop reality is valuable. Use all that you can. If you run anything adobe, or the likes you need lots of space.
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post #9 of 14
8/31/03 at 6:53pm
Quote:
Originally posted by rkingston
You guys just dont have it set up right. Native resolution is the best way to go.
of course native rez on LCD is the best.

but not everyone is like you. some ppl get headaches from reading text that small even at native rez.

i have 20/20, and yes - i can see the text fine at 1600 x 1200 on a 15"... but sometimes i literally have to put my nose up to the screen... resizing text to a dif DPI does not work - especially if ur a graphics artist (me) cuz u dont get wysiwyg in IE and other apps - a lot of distortion.

of course, it's all a matter of opinion - but many ppl do not like having such a HIGH REZ relative to a SMALL SCREEN.
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post #10 of 14
9/4/03 at 1:02am
Thread Starter 
Finally got Dell to give me a return authorization number to ship the laptop back. I sent it back today. I'll see how long it takes to get my Mastercard credited. They offered me a printer, digital camera or $150 off to keep the system but it isn't of much use since I couldn't see the screen. Both times the person I first talked to was a woman in India. Poor line quality & had to repeat myself a number of times. When I finally got transferred to a higher up who authorized the return, it was a woman in Texas. Dell used to be a lot better than this. I'm really let down & go away from the experience deciding I won't buy from them again. I'm going to check out a few at the stores. One I would like to see is the newer Toshiba model w/17" screen. My old 1905-S277 did a good job, never had any trouble with it. I am not a fan of HP/Compaq so I've already ruled those out.
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post #11 of 14
9/4/03 at 1:10am
whats a 60m? dell doesnt sell anything like that that i can find unless you mean the 600m
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post #12 of 14
9/5/03 at 2:03am
beware of burn-in issues with the UXGA screen

and i agree, way too small

i got the wsxga
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post #13 of 14
9/5/03 at 3:19am
i like my uxga

its nice
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post #14 of 14
9/9/03 at 5:52am
Thread Starter 
Just an update..... I got another system. This one is a step in the opposite direction but is more of an ultra-portable. Decided I'll just stick to my desktop for a powerhouse & get something easier to haul around with me. It's a Sony Vaio V505BX.
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