After looking for a new notebook for a few months, the 35% off coupon and the 21-day return period was too good to pass up, so I took the plunge. I got my 9300 two days ago and have been playing with it quite a bit since. I'm upgrading from a Sager 56XX-equivalent. Here are my thoughts:
i9300
2.0GHz Pentium-M
WUXGA
1GB RAM (2 sticks)
6800 Go
7200RPM 60GB HD
Build Quality
Generally, quite good. The notebook feels very solid and rigid. Lots of metal parts, and although I find painted metal to a bit ugly, it still looks fairly nice. I like that it's fairly slim and fairly light for its size. Definitely takes up a bit of desktop, though. Fan noise is very low compared to my 56XX, and is rarely even audable.
Keyboard
Everyone seems to be loving the keyboard, but I actually prefer my old keyboard. The keys are somewhat shallow and have sharp edges, and there are times where I catch my finger under the key adjacent to the one I'm pressing. Not a huge deal, but still not perfect.
Speakers
Again, everyone seems to be raving about the sound quality, but I find it very muffled and flat. It's got more base than my 56XX, but the trebles are horrible on this notebook. Anyone know if there's any EQ software for the sound driver? I'm fairly unsatisfied with the sound -- it's one clear downgrade from my 56XX.
Software
Well, Dell loads a ton of crap on the notebook that really just needs to be cleaned off. Strangely, my "Build PC Recovery Disc" option didn't show up until after I rebooted my machine once. The nice thing about this WinXP install disc is that not only is it lacking all the Dell crap, it includes all the drivers for all the notebook hardware. First post-format WinXP bootup and EVERYTHING had drivers. Not a single yellow ! in Device Manager. Very impressive.
Screen
So, this seems like a big one for a lot of people, but my opinion's a bit different. First of all, I'm very picky about screens. I've got a lot of LCDs, I have a home theater projector that I've done full 6500K calibrations on, etc. Problems with the screen would be dealbreakers for me.
Anyway, I have the LG screen, and yes it's got some sparkles. Honestly I don't think it's as bad as my 2001FP, and in normal use it's literally never bothered me. I don't even notice them any more, and when I look for them in typical screens I often can't see them at all.
I have no dead or stuck-on pixels, which is good. Any dead/stuck pixels would likely mean a return of the notebook for me.
I have a bit of light leakage from the bottom, but it's not horrible. It's only noticable in dark rooms which is not typical usage for me, so generally I can't see it at all.
Now, my biggest problem with the screen -- the viewing angle. The horizontal viewing angle is very good with little color distortion, but the vertical viewing angle isn't very good at all. At about 30 degrees from center I can get medium greys to invert, and from my normal viewing position the bottom of the screen looks very different from the top of the screen. If I haven't adjusted the screen to point directly at my head, I'll often have a too-dark (crushed blacks) or too-bright (blown-out whites) image. It's not a dealbreaker, but it's certainly not the viewing angle I was expecting.
Having never used a glossy screen before I was unsure about it, but after a couple of days I'm loving it. The blacks and contrast this LCD can display is just astounding. Color saturation is amazing -- I'm literally seeing hues that I'd never before noticed.
GPU
Wow, this thing is FAST. Absolutely crushes my 56XX 9600Pro. I did a bit of overclocking (let it find optimal settings) and I'm posting just shy of 10K and just shy of 4K in 3dMark03/05. That's a 35% increase from the stock values, and though I know people have gotten better scores, I'm happy with it. Even under full load the nvidia control panel has never reported a temp above 61C. Not being much of an overclocker I don't know how hot that actually is (what's considered "cool", or "hot", or "too hot"?), but the machine itself doesn't get very hot and it doesn't seem like the fans are trying too hard to keep up.
It scores better than my desktop's 6800GT. Wow.
CPU
This CPU gets higher PCMark04 scores than my previous P4-3.2Ghz and my desktop's 3.0Ghz Xeon. Wow.
Overall
In general, I'm very happy with my purchase. I paid just a hair over $2000 (had to pay tax since I live in Austin) and saved $1120 with coupons. Performance is great, screen is overall very good, it's not too heavy, has nice build quality, supposedly has good battery life (though I haven't tested that)...I'm a happy customer.
More than happy to answer any questions, too.
i9300
2.0GHz Pentium-M
WUXGA
1GB RAM (2 sticks)
6800 Go
7200RPM 60GB HD
Build Quality
Generally, quite good. The notebook feels very solid and rigid. Lots of metal parts, and although I find painted metal to a bit ugly, it still looks fairly nice. I like that it's fairly slim and fairly light for its size. Definitely takes up a bit of desktop, though. Fan noise is very low compared to my 56XX, and is rarely even audable.
Keyboard
Everyone seems to be loving the keyboard, but I actually prefer my old keyboard. The keys are somewhat shallow and have sharp edges, and there are times where I catch my finger under the key adjacent to the one I'm pressing. Not a huge deal, but still not perfect.
Speakers
Again, everyone seems to be raving about the sound quality, but I find it very muffled and flat. It's got more base than my 56XX, but the trebles are horrible on this notebook. Anyone know if there's any EQ software for the sound driver? I'm fairly unsatisfied with the sound -- it's one clear downgrade from my 56XX.
Software
Well, Dell loads a ton of crap on the notebook that really just needs to be cleaned off. Strangely, my "Build PC Recovery Disc" option didn't show up until after I rebooted my machine once. The nice thing about this WinXP install disc is that not only is it lacking all the Dell crap, it includes all the drivers for all the notebook hardware. First post-format WinXP bootup and EVERYTHING had drivers. Not a single yellow ! in Device Manager. Very impressive.
Screen
So, this seems like a big one for a lot of people, but my opinion's a bit different. First of all, I'm very picky about screens. I've got a lot of LCDs, I have a home theater projector that I've done full 6500K calibrations on, etc. Problems with the screen would be dealbreakers for me.
Anyway, I have the LG screen, and yes it's got some sparkles. Honestly I don't think it's as bad as my 2001FP, and in normal use it's literally never bothered me. I don't even notice them any more, and when I look for them in typical screens I often can't see them at all.
I have no dead or stuck-on pixels, which is good. Any dead/stuck pixels would likely mean a return of the notebook for me.
I have a bit of light leakage from the bottom, but it's not horrible. It's only noticable in dark rooms which is not typical usage for me, so generally I can't see it at all.
Now, my biggest problem with the screen -- the viewing angle. The horizontal viewing angle is very good with little color distortion, but the vertical viewing angle isn't very good at all. At about 30 degrees from center I can get medium greys to invert, and from my normal viewing position the bottom of the screen looks very different from the top of the screen. If I haven't adjusted the screen to point directly at my head, I'll often have a too-dark (crushed blacks) or too-bright (blown-out whites) image. It's not a dealbreaker, but it's certainly not the viewing angle I was expecting.
Having never used a glossy screen before I was unsure about it, but after a couple of days I'm loving it. The blacks and contrast this LCD can display is just astounding. Color saturation is amazing -- I'm literally seeing hues that I'd never before noticed.
GPU
Wow, this thing is FAST. Absolutely crushes my 56XX 9600Pro. I did a bit of overclocking (let it find optimal settings) and I'm posting just shy of 10K and just shy of 4K in 3dMark03/05. That's a 35% increase from the stock values, and though I know people have gotten better scores, I'm happy with it. Even under full load the nvidia control panel has never reported a temp above 61C. Not being much of an overclocker I don't know how hot that actually is (what's considered "cool", or "hot", or "too hot"?), but the machine itself doesn't get very hot and it doesn't seem like the fans are trying too hard to keep up.
It scores better than my desktop's 6800GT. Wow.
CPU
This CPU gets higher PCMark04 scores than my previous P4-3.2Ghz and my desktop's 3.0Ghz Xeon. Wow.
Overall
In general, I'm very happy with my purchase. I paid just a hair over $2000 (had to pay tax since I live in Austin) and saved $1120 with coupons. Performance is great, screen is overall very good, it's not too heavy, has nice build quality, supposedly has good battery life (though I haven't tested that)...I'm a happy customer.
More than happy to answer any questions, too.
