Dell Inspiron 9300 Review - Page 5

Reliability.

Hey guys,

Have only had a chance to read through the first few pages of postings. Can you (owners preferred) tell me how reliable the 9300 has been? Any quirks we should know about?

I ask because a friend of mine from Europe claims that all of his friends that have owned Inspirons have had to return them to be fixed for one reason or another. That Acer notebooks are better by far...etc.

Why did you choose the Dell 9300? Or Dell period...

Also, where is the light leak comeing out of exactly? The bottom of the screen where the screen meets the keyboard? Perhaps some one could take some pics? With and with out room lighting on...

Thanks!

I have owned several Inspirons since 1998. The Inspiron 7000, 8500, 700m and 9300. I have never had to call technical support for repairs. However, I did have to call them for a LCD replacement, which took a total of 15 min - a very good time in my book.
My girlfriend has also had an Inspiron 8000, 8600 and 700m and she has never had any problems either. The reason why I chose Dell and recommend Dell to all my friends is because they are pretty reliable and always offer the best price. I have probably overseen more than 20 Dell purchases thorugh friends and family and I don't believe that they have had any problems with it, or else I will hear about it.

Thanks for your reply! That is reassuring to know.

I was out with my buddy yesterday. He's used Dell notebooks at work in the past and present. Owns a 600m himself. Not a single problem to mention.

Maybe my European buddy's friends were just all unlucky. Hope he wasn't making up a story just to get me interested in an Acer 8104.

Keep the comments coming!!

Excellent review! Thanks.

Can you go into a little more detail on the Sony VAIO A690 (is that what you have?) Specifically, how do you feel about the quality/value comparison between the two?

Here are details on the Sony:
http://www.exactchoice.com/profile_3404.aspx

You get more in most respect with the 9300 for the same money (especially with the 35% coupon).

The reaons I'm curious is that I'm awaiting shipment of the 9300, but have read a lot of bad things about the screen all over this forum. I went to Circuit City yesterday and was very impressed by the Sony A-series compared to other 17 inchers (Hp and Toshiba). What impressed me about the screen was how consistent the clearness/color was all over the screen. The others seemed to fade toward black in the corners when looking straight into the middle of the screen.

I'll give you guys an update too when I get mine and even take it down to CCity and compare side-by-side.

I completely agree with Joseyu. I've gone through several different brands of laptops in the last 6 years and, in my opinion, Dell provides me with the best of all worlds, particularly now with the 9300's build quality. For the price I payed I couldn't have found a more suited laptop.

This is all very subjective, but it is worth mentioning that as a digital content creator I run performance intensitve programs like Alias Maya, Adobe After FX, Photoshop, and Flash MX on my 9300 and the laptop performs faster than the dual processor workstation I run at work. The combination of a sturdy casing, a crisp high res screen with a performant processor and gpu, fast front side bus, memory, and hard drive, not to mention the inclusion of communication devices like blueteeth and wireless, make the purchase well worth my while.

(And Half Life 2 looks and plays something ludicrous on this machine...)

Just my 2 cents...

Pk20

LOL blueteeth

hi guys, new to this forum, strongly recommended by another website, so thought I should ask here how do you find out whether your lcd is samsung or something else? I got my 9300 yesterday and the part is labelled as K9975 on the invoice. I do notice that white colour does not appear white on my UXGA screen, rather it has a pale texture to it. All the other colours look pretty sharp and good to me. I would appreciate it if anyone could let me know how I can find out information about manufacturer of the LCD in my 9300.Thanks

I too would love to know how we can find out what LCD screens are used in certain production runs. I'm from Toronto (Ontario, Canada) so obviously I would like to know about the units being shipped to Canadians. Assuming some of them aren't manufactured up here.

In past postings, people have agreed that the Samsung screen is better than the LG. More bright whether you're looking at the screen straight-on or at an angle. I have a sneaking suspicion that we're getting the LG's. Am I right?

Hello Sweden calling...about the bad quality of Dell in Europe,i cant agrree...i have had Dell for many years and i have never ever had any problems.

Right now i am looking to buy a Dell XPS or a 9300.

Sweden here to!!! i agree Dell service is exellent when u got next day on site warranty......but to order them sucks so many problems.....just got my 9300 anyway.....i did order bluetooth ....but they forgot to install....but in some wierd way they decided i should have a barrying bag instead......anyway i like the toy.....maybe a shoer review and some pics later

Well after much research I went ahead and got the I9300 but I got the WXGA+ screen instead of the UXGA screen cause honestly I doubt Ill ever go up to those ultra high resolutions. Sort of hurts my eyes. Heck Ive been in 1024x768 for like 8 years not. I may just go up a notch with this one but other than that nothin higher than the 1200 resolution will ever see the light of day.

When it boils down to the money you spend and the computer you get there simply is no comparison, who cares about the "sparkle" affect. I know I would have a problem with that. And as for the reflection I own a PSP and NOTHING reflects more than that lil system and I love the screen on that. Just makes watching it in the sun impossible....

Discs included with the 9300.

Just curious. What discs come with the 9300? Only the software that was installed? What about the drivers for all the hardware? I mean, just in case there comes a day when you have to do a clean reinstall of the OS (e.g. nuking the hard drive, having to reformat and reinstall all the software...etc.).

Thanks.

3-4 hours!! Not in my world.....

Ok, I am seriously missing something here. On what settings (power scheme, LCD brightness) are people getting these results? I have settings on Max Battery Life and medium brightness using Internet Explorer/Firefox and get freakin' 1.5 hours. Are you doing something special. Please help seeing I can't even go to a coffee shop and get work done.

Thanks!

perhaps a defective battery? how long have you had your comp?

9300 good buy

just got a 9300 this week (1.6PM/512/60GB-7200/x300-128/MediaCenter/9Cell/TV/WUXGA-TL/Intel2200BG). only took 6 days from order to delivery (chicago)! so far very happy. in the past i never found dell notebooks especially appealing aesthetically or price/feature wise, but times have changed; with a $750 coupon this was a great deal and the styling is much better than the dells of old.

FIT & FINISH: the build quality is nice. feels solid. especially in comparison to 3 other dell inspirons i've handled in the past with smooshy flexing & creaking body panels. i like the aluminum (or magnesium alloy?) pieces (i think they are metal; anyway they feel cold to the touch). gives it a premium look and feel. even though the chassis is mostly plastic, the metallic portions are positioned for maximum effect. i dont notice any flexing except for a small bit right under the lcd screen by the logo (betwen the hinges when open) and the battery wiggles slightly. the keyboard is quite usable. i miss the numpad that my Sager 4760 has. the touchpad speed of acceleration is way slow at default.

LCD: when i first saw a glossy type of lcd screen i didn't think i would like it, but i've since seen the light so to speak. the glossy surface makes for better contrast and the colors look deeper, described well by Psinewave in a prev post. i opted for the WUXGA true life and i think it looks great. no sparkling that i've noticed, no dead pixels. the part number i got is J9662 (service tag on the web) but the invoice says K9975. the screen color balance is too blue; having photography/design background i have a pretty good eye for color, but easy enough to fix in advanced settings. 1920x1200 is excellent resolution/ i wear corrective vision and can read the 96 dpi fonts fine. there is a bit of light leakage at the bottom of the lcd but only noticeable during boot up. i watched 2 movies and did not notice it. on close inspection the back light is slightly uneven, seems to fade a bit right at the lower corners (noticeable on a full screen of a solid color).

9 CELL BATTERY: haven't run it dead yet but on a 100% charge i'm getting about 4-5 hours estimate run down time. the most i've used it is about 75 min on battery with wireless, just web browsing, screen brightness around 4 (or 5?)(three steps down from the brightest) and it was down to about 80%. seems like 4+ hours is a good guess with general tasks.

SPEAKERS: very good sound for a notebook; subwoofer definitely makes a big difference. and loud. sleeves/wrists muffle the sound while typing though.

SOFTWARE: its my understanding that dells come with a hidden partition on the HD that contains restore image. so there is no included restore/WinXP disc (although i think one can be ordered for perhaps an additional price). there are 2 software app discs included with the Word Perfect and so forth. even though it takes up HD space ~4GB, i like the easy OS restore ability; convenience.

PERFORMANCE: i haven't had the computer long enough to have done any photoshop or video to give a better assessment of the performance. but initially it seems the system is fast. the best thing is that while being fast it is also super quiet and does not get hot! my sager gets HOT (pentium 4 2.66ghz) and the fans can get loud (gaming). so definitely top rating for quietness and temperature.

the tv tuner while functionally good is a disapointment becuase its external (USB) and to compound, the infra red for the remote is not built in, there is a separate plug in for the IR recevier, as a result TOO MANY WIRES. wish the whole thing was built in to the notebook.

OVERALL DELL 9300 initial review: THUMBS UP! love the hi-res screen, long battery, quiet and cool running, nice styling. 9/10 stars

my only wish: dvd playing capability while not booted into OS! hopefully dell will come out with a bios/software update to allow this!

Hello Mule,

It seems Dell is being a little inconsistent when it comes to including "recovery/drivers" and OS discs. I picked up a Dimension 4700 recently. Got all the needed discs except the "recovery/drivers" disc. Heard from friends and people on this forum that they had received these discs. Mostly anyway.

All the laptop owners I've spoke to or read about (online forums) have received the discs. So, what I did was e-mail Dell a few times and they have since ordered me the discs. Will take almot 10 days. Which is fine since I'm not in a hurry for them.

Oh, and I did get the XP OS disc...in case you're wondering.

I'm looking for a laptop. Will still consider the Dell 9300 and XPS (among others...such as a 15" Apple Powerbook, Acer Travelmate 8104...etc.).

Perhaps you can take some pictures. Screenshots included. I've only seen one forum member post one with the True Life screen. Didn't have but one application on screen.

Thanks! And congrats on the new laptop!!

i guess maybe dell is in transition whereby some computers are shipping with os cd's and some get the hidden partition on the HD. in my case, i received the latter.

3 cd's included: 1) word perfect 2) cyberlink dvd installer 3) sonic record now software. and a thick piece of card with the shape of a cd printed on it that says: 'your new computer does not require an operating system cd or drivers cd. instead, if you ever need to reinstall your software, use one of the following methods' which are 1) xp system restore or 2) 'dell pc restore'. the pc restore wipes the hd 'returns your computer to its original operating state' from the hidden (not visible in explorer but shows up in disk management) 4.64GB partition on the drive using a Ghostlike app (described as 'Powered by Symantec'). the user manual describes to reboot and press Ctrl F11 during the blue dell screen. to access the restore process.

i will post a comparison photo of WSXGA 1440x900 and WUXGA 17" 1920x1200 resolutions shortly. let me know what sorts of things u would like to see pics of.

comparison pics

here's some comparison pictures & screen shots of a 17" WSXGA and 17" WUXGA with True Life.

the computers are:
Sager 4760/WSXGA1440x900/P4 2.66/512DDR333/60GB-5400/Radeon9000-64
Dell i9300/WUXGA1920x1200/PM 1.66/512DDR2/60GB-7200/RadeonX300-128

please note, i didn't really spend all day on these so don't base too much on the looks. i was just trying to show the difference in display area, what can fit on the screen and how big the text is.

17" WSXGA vs WUXGA

Hiya Mule,

Thanks for the pics! Though, I wasn't sure which pics were for which screen. For me, it seemed as iif in the first pair, the first pic was clearer. But in the other 2 pairs the 2nd pictures were nicer. I'm guessing the 2nd was the True Life?

In any event, I have the idea...it only costs $200.00 (Cdn.) more to get the WUXGA screen. So whether I get the 9300 or XPS I'll most likely order it with the WUXGA screen. Nice to be able to view 1080p movie clips in their native resolution.

Thanks for your efforts! And, have a great week!!