If any of you remember I cancelled my first 9300 that I ordered thru small business with the 35 percent off coupon. Don’t want to rehash that whole story, but basically Dell and its reps pretty much lost the sale by not making a minimum effort to find out order status. I realized after canceling that the for my needs, there was nothing out there currently that I could get besides the 9300, so I ended up reordering, played the Dell game and ended up getting the same laptop for 250 dollars less.
Specs
Win XP
1 GB Ram
6800 Go video
60 GB 7200 hard drive
17” WUXGA LPL Screen
Blue Tooth
Dell a,b,g wireless
2 GHz processor
Cherry wood snap on cover
2 years complete warranty
Dell Bag
Bought thru home at 2,160 with 35% off minus another 250 by playing the Dell game for a grand total of $1,910.
Screen
As mentioned above I have the LG Phillips screen on mine verified thru power strip and the level 2-3 brightness being the same. So like most of you the first thing I did upon booting up was open WordPad and expanding it full screen with a white back drop. It was almost like I wanted to see sparkles, but on my screen anyway it is very minimal. Ran the dead pixel tests, and was happy to see no dead pixels. Light leakage slightly from the bottom edge, but very very minor. DVD playback and the high def downloads from Microsoft’s content showcase look great. So for you people with the screen problems I do feel your pain, but I got lucky I guess on the screen. Having said that, looking at the shots that you have shown of your screens I would be very unhappy myself. Besides the sparkles, one of my main worries about the screen was the viewing angle, as I will be using this laptop for software demonstrations. The viewing angle with normal lighting is very good, not nearly as much reflection as I was expecting.
Fit and Finish
Except for the white stripe around the outside I love the way the I9300 looks. If they would have made the strip black ala the xp2 It would have been perfect for me. The Cherry Wood snap on fits snug and I like the different look it gives my laptop. As others have mentioned this is a very well built laptop. No flex when picked up from one corner.
Other
Touch pad, does not have a good feel. I prefer the IBM style, but this is a personal preference, and I am going to get a blue tooth mouse so it will not affect me. The 6800 Go like people have been stating, is way under clocked. Coolbits detected 379 and 784 as the optimal frequency, and I was able to bump that to 379 810. I received 3950 on the 3dmark05 with stock drivers, no fresh format, and with all of Dell’s little applications running in the background.
The I9300 is very quite. One of my big pet peeves is a loud machine, so this was a great feature for me. Even over clocked the machine did not get above slightly warm levels underneath, so it is both quite and efficient about dissipating heat. Have not done a thorough battery check, so I can’t give you a report on my 9 Cells life.
The Dell Wireless picked up the access point in my house two stories up with no problem. Keyboard, has a very nice feel to it, no flex detected.
Overall
Pros
*Screen, surprise surprise came through for me
*6800 go
*Fit and finish
*Very quite
*Light for its form factor and features
*Keyboard
Cons
*Did not come with an XP Disk, terrible cost cutting. Dell just give me answers and send the XP disk and I will save you money by not playing your game.
*No driver disk, not as big as above, but still we are talking a 10 cent item here. At least I can download the drivers off of their site.
I would definitely recommend the 9300 to my friends if their needs required a desktop replacement, and they do not mind playing the Dell game. So unless the new Fujitsu that comes out in a couple of months really blows me away, I think I have a laptop that I am going to keep awhile.
Specs
Win XP
1 GB Ram
6800 Go video
60 GB 7200 hard drive
17” WUXGA LPL Screen
Blue Tooth
Dell a,b,g wireless
2 GHz processor
Cherry wood snap on cover
2 years complete warranty
Dell Bag
Bought thru home at 2,160 with 35% off minus another 250 by playing the Dell game for a grand total of $1,910.
Screen
As mentioned above I have the LG Phillips screen on mine verified thru power strip and the level 2-3 brightness being the same. So like most of you the first thing I did upon booting up was open WordPad and expanding it full screen with a white back drop. It was almost like I wanted to see sparkles, but on my screen anyway it is very minimal. Ran the dead pixel tests, and was happy to see no dead pixels. Light leakage slightly from the bottom edge, but very very minor. DVD playback and the high def downloads from Microsoft’s content showcase look great. So for you people with the screen problems I do feel your pain, but I got lucky I guess on the screen. Having said that, looking at the shots that you have shown of your screens I would be very unhappy myself. Besides the sparkles, one of my main worries about the screen was the viewing angle, as I will be using this laptop for software demonstrations. The viewing angle with normal lighting is very good, not nearly as much reflection as I was expecting.
Fit and Finish
Except for the white stripe around the outside I love the way the I9300 looks. If they would have made the strip black ala the xp2 It would have been perfect for me. The Cherry Wood snap on fits snug and I like the different look it gives my laptop. As others have mentioned this is a very well built laptop. No flex when picked up from one corner.
Other
Touch pad, does not have a good feel. I prefer the IBM style, but this is a personal preference, and I am going to get a blue tooth mouse so it will not affect me. The 6800 Go like people have been stating, is way under clocked. Coolbits detected 379 and 784 as the optimal frequency, and I was able to bump that to 379 810. I received 3950 on the 3dmark05 with stock drivers, no fresh format, and with all of Dell’s little applications running in the background.
The I9300 is very quite. One of my big pet peeves is a loud machine, so this was a great feature for me. Even over clocked the machine did not get above slightly warm levels underneath, so it is both quite and efficient about dissipating heat. Have not done a thorough battery check, so I can’t give you a report on my 9 Cells life.
The Dell Wireless picked up the access point in my house two stories up with no problem. Keyboard, has a very nice feel to it, no flex detected.
Overall
Pros
*Screen, surprise surprise came through for me
*6800 go
*Fit and finish
*Very quite
*Light for its form factor and features
*Keyboard
Cons
*Did not come with an XP Disk, terrible cost cutting. Dell just give me answers and send the XP disk and I will save you money by not playing your game.
*No driver disk, not as big as above, but still we are talking a 10 cent item here. At least I can download the drivers off of their site.
I would definitely recommend the 9300 to my friends if their needs required a desktop replacement, and they do not mind playing the Dell game. So unless the new Fujitsu that comes out in a couple of months really blows me away, I think I have a laptop that I am going to keep awhile.
