Dell Inspiron i9300
1.87ghz Pentium M
2x512mb DDR2
6800go 256mb
60gb 5.400rpm (soon to be replaced with my already bought Hitachi 7.200rpm)
WUXGA+ truelife
winXP Home (Dell)
Dell 17" carrying bag (not backpack)
Dell service : 8/10
Had ordered my i9300 the 4th of april. It stayed in pre-production for about 2 weeks. After a call to Dell, they said it wouldn't pass production before may 4th. I found this ridiculous so cancelled my order to get the Acer Travelmate 8104...but I felt the 8104 would not live up to my needs, so I called Dell asking if they could re-order it. They said they felt bad about my experience and would make it a urgent order. Ordered it again on april 12th, got my laptop on april 22nd. Not VERY fast, but I was happy to finally get it. So I'm happy with Dell but not overly.
Size & build quality : 9/10
I knew I could expect a pretty big laptop, especially considering my previous laptops were an Acer Travelmate 800LCiB and a Acer Travelmate 4601WLMi, but very sleek lappies. Nothing could prepare me for the first impression in person. Man this thing is HUGE... But then again, it's not THAT heavy (especially considering I got the 9cell battery) and it sure feels comfortable working with it on my lap.
I'm very very surprised about the build quality though. This laptop is without a doubt one of the most sturdy laptops I've ever had my hands on (and I've used quite a lot of them, being an IT professional). Keyboard is very nice, touchpad could be a tad more responsive. Only negative for me is the lack of a belgian keyboard (only AZERTY Dell supplies is a French-keyboard which is not that easy to adapt to for me).
Screen : 9.5/10
Well, if there was ONE thing I was VERY worried about, it should've been the screen. I mean, reading these forums, you'd expect Dell selling the most outrageous crap ever seen on a laptop. So I *was* worried and I'm in no way telling people expressing their problems with the screens are wrong, but I can assure you there is NOTHING wrong with mine. NO-THING. There VERY minimal light leakage at the bottom, but you really have to know what to look for to see it, there are 0 dead pixels and I've tried every possible combination of bright green/blue whatever but no sign of sparkle. Maybe Dell is using some other brand/type in Europe, but this screen is without a doubt the best I've ever used. I would even consider it better then my desktop's Sony X-black 17" TFT.
The screen resolution is just amazing. I especially got the WUXGA+ because as an amateur photographer I can use a large screen and this is just great. Gotta look for a good tool to calibrate the colors, but as it is, working with PhotoshopCS is just a joy (mind, I use a Canon 20D which shoots 8megapixels pictures, so they're..well..big
)
Performance : 9/10
This thing is fast, but what else is new right? I got a 1.87ghz cpu combined with the 6800go. Even without overclocking the videocard, I can play all recent games at highest settings and some even with the native TFT resolution. HalfLife2 and CS:Source just look and play amazing. I tried overlocking with the nvidia drivers and got even better performance, but I'm a little worried if I should leave the card overclocked (I sure don't want to damage it). I gotta mention a setting in the nvidia drivers where you can choose to scale the screen while keeping the right aspect ratio. This is something I have VERY MUCH missed on my previous (Ati-based) laptops.
I haven't benchmarked a lot because I need to tweak my system a little. I don't like the winXP Dell put on my laptop, but as it is, using the latest official nvidia drivers, I get about 3300 3DMark2005 points (without oc-ing) and about 60fps in the CS:Source test at native resolution!! Will post more optimized/overclocked benchmarks later.
Conclusion
First of all, don't consider this my final review. I will post a more elaborate one later on, but mind that I typed this in about 10mins and I don't even speak english for native language (I'm a dutch speaking belgian).
The 9300 so far has surprised me in a VERY positive way. I reallly really like this laptop and having used it for about 1 day now, I can say I won't regret the purchase. Keep an eye out on this thread for more information and more pictures. Thx for reading.
1.87ghz Pentium M
2x512mb DDR2
6800go 256mb
60gb 5.400rpm (soon to be replaced with my already bought Hitachi 7.200rpm)
WUXGA+ truelife
winXP Home (Dell)
Dell 17" carrying bag (not backpack)
Dell service : 8/10
Had ordered my i9300 the 4th of april. It stayed in pre-production for about 2 weeks. After a call to Dell, they said it wouldn't pass production before may 4th. I found this ridiculous so cancelled my order to get the Acer Travelmate 8104...but I felt the 8104 would not live up to my needs, so I called Dell asking if they could re-order it. They said they felt bad about my experience and would make it a urgent order. Ordered it again on april 12th, got my laptop on april 22nd. Not VERY fast, but I was happy to finally get it. So I'm happy with Dell but not overly.
Size & build quality : 9/10
I knew I could expect a pretty big laptop, especially considering my previous laptops were an Acer Travelmate 800LCiB and a Acer Travelmate 4601WLMi, but very sleek lappies. Nothing could prepare me for the first impression in person. Man this thing is HUGE... But then again, it's not THAT heavy (especially considering I got the 9cell battery) and it sure feels comfortable working with it on my lap.
I'm very very surprised about the build quality though. This laptop is without a doubt one of the most sturdy laptops I've ever had my hands on (and I've used quite a lot of them, being an IT professional). Keyboard is very nice, touchpad could be a tad more responsive. Only negative for me is the lack of a belgian keyboard (only AZERTY Dell supplies is a French-keyboard which is not that easy to adapt to for me).
Screen : 9.5/10
Well, if there was ONE thing I was VERY worried about, it should've been the screen. I mean, reading these forums, you'd expect Dell selling the most outrageous crap ever seen on a laptop. So I *was* worried and I'm in no way telling people expressing their problems with the screens are wrong, but I can assure you there is NOTHING wrong with mine. NO-THING. There VERY minimal light leakage at the bottom, but you really have to know what to look for to see it, there are 0 dead pixels and I've tried every possible combination of bright green/blue whatever but no sign of sparkle. Maybe Dell is using some other brand/type in Europe, but this screen is without a doubt the best I've ever used. I would even consider it better then my desktop's Sony X-black 17" TFT.
The screen resolution is just amazing. I especially got the WUXGA+ because as an amateur photographer I can use a large screen and this is just great. Gotta look for a good tool to calibrate the colors, but as it is, working with PhotoshopCS is just a joy (mind, I use a Canon 20D which shoots 8megapixels pictures, so they're..well..big
)Performance : 9/10
This thing is fast, but what else is new right? I got a 1.87ghz cpu combined with the 6800go. Even without overclocking the videocard, I can play all recent games at highest settings and some even with the native TFT resolution. HalfLife2 and CS:Source just look and play amazing. I tried overlocking with the nvidia drivers and got even better performance, but I'm a little worried if I should leave the card overclocked (I sure don't want to damage it). I gotta mention a setting in the nvidia drivers where you can choose to scale the screen while keeping the right aspect ratio. This is something I have VERY MUCH missed on my previous (Ati-based) laptops.
I haven't benchmarked a lot because I need to tweak my system a little. I don't like the winXP Dell put on my laptop, but as it is, using the latest official nvidia drivers, I get about 3300 3DMark2005 points (without oc-ing) and about 60fps in the CS:Source test at native resolution!! Will post more optimized/overclocked benchmarks later.
Conclusion
First of all, don't consider this my final review. I will post a more elaborate one later on, but mind that I typed this in about 10mins and I don't even speak english for native language (I'm a dutch speaking belgian).
The 9300 so far has surprised me in a VERY positive way. I reallly really like this laptop and having used it for about 1 day now, I can say I won't regret the purchase. Keep an eye out on this thread for more information and more pictures. Thx for reading.
) pic of the keyboard and how windows desktop looks on that wuxga screen. ( with Word doc opened and 12 pt text? 
