I have had my Dell 9300 inspirion for about two weeks now. After reading the forums and using some of its functions I felt its time for a review on what I thought. I divided my review catorgies on design, office applications, DVD/CD applications, gaming applications, sound, display, portability.
The specs of my Inspirion 9300 are
Intel 1.6 M
256 MB Nvidia 6800 Go
80 GB Harddrive
DVDR/CDR
256 MB DDR2 RAM (Still have to upgrade it)
17.1 WXGA+ Screen
2 Years warranty
Everything else was stock.
$1220 + tax = $1293
I order my computer on a sunday it came by the next friday. Inside the delivery box there was just the laptop and the powercord and a user's manual. First thing out of the box I thought the computer was huge yet surprisingly light. I really liked the the white trim with silver case design. The computer's battery was fully charged therefore I turned it on immediately. Of course, there was a lot of junk software that I really didn't need but I wanted to play around with it for a while before I do a full reformat and reinstall. Next, I searched the area for wireless networks and I found 8 of em. On my Dell 2400 which is about 2 years old I could only get 2 networks. I immediately set up my wep and key and started surfing the web. At this point I was impressed by the overall quality of the computer and the next day I started to look at the finer details like applications and processes and all.
Design - 9.5/10
I really felt the design of the 9300 is one of the slickest and sexiest yet. Sure the black which is the norm of the industry still looks good but the design here gives off "Hey I got a new notebook that is awesome". Some might argue that the XPS has a better design but I wanted a computer that appears business-like yet usable in a gaming and video experience. I read on the forum that a fair number of users felt that the white trim looks tacky but I like it. The keyboard looks and feels sturdy. And the touchpad is more than adequate. The only compliant I have against the 9300 design is the lack of a numpad. Its not so much that it isn't there as much as why dell didn't put it there even though there is a lot of space to.
Sound - 9.5/10
I cannot believe the sound out of this thing. It is by far one of the best laptop speakers ever. I was going to buy a set of speakers and subwoofer but now after hearing the thing I will skip it for the time being. Again the only reason I don't give it a perfect score is due to a lack of items. I felt that dell could have put one or two speakers more. But its a small compliant and I am not to peeved about it.
Display - 7/10
I got the lg x4766 which I believe is suppose to be one of the better displays but I was somewhat disappointed. I felt that dell could have done a better job on this considering they really gave this computer some amazing features that separate it from the rest. I have a little bit of light leakage but no dead pixels and I set the DPI to 96. That fixed the grainy problem somewhat. Still when I watching a movie or playing a game really close I can still see the grainy look. But since its is a 17.1 screen I just have to sit back a bit to not to notice it at all. Also, given the price I paid for this computer, I would have to say there is going to be a little bit of compromise and I really don't care about it here since I like what they have done with everything with the coupons and all.
dvd/cd applications - 10/10
Man do I love this dvd/cd combo. I watched movies on it, played games on it, burned DVDs, burned CDs and not a single hitch or problem. Of course the first time I ran it, I thought it was going to fire the CD right out like a machine gun or something but i got used to the sound really quickly and now I don't even notice it. It is definitely worth the extra money.
Gaming applications - 10/10
I ran splinter cell:chaos theory and KOTOR:Sith lords using just the stock ram and wow!!!! That graphics card is some juggurnant. It freaking owned those games. Oh yeah that reminds me I didn't even update my graphics drivers and both of those games were crisp as hell on max res. The only thing that I had to do where the games were concerned was kill some processes so it ran a bit faster.
Office applications - 8/10
I don't run anything too taxing like Maya or Photoshop so I didn't have any problems running stuff like Visual C++, office 2003. Overall I felt it did a adequate job and once I upgrade my ram this ranking will probably go up to 10/10.
Portability - 8.5/10
Here is truly a personal opinion since everyone's portability requirements are different. For me I need a laptop that does work,gaming and DVD and TV(oh yea my dad got me a tuner that lets me watch TV on my computer), without taking up my whole freaking desk(college student). It should be movable at least once maybe twice a week and when I go home should not take up half my car. Here 9300 shines. But it doesn't take away from the fact that it is a big computer and I really wished that dell would have the Nvidia go 256 MB in the 6000 but they didn't and therefore I opted for the 9300.
Overall - 9/10
There are some areas where dell goes lights out and then some areas where its lacking. But that said, it goes back to the old argument of a honda car to a BMW car. You can get a fully load honda car at half the price of a BMW car. Yet in the BMW there is a lot more customization and a status change sort of thing going on. Where as with a honda you get true value for your money but there are certain things you wish could change. As far as I am concerned I am very happy with the product I have. I sure wish that the crap software would be removed and the display was a little nicer. When you try matching those specs up anyware - HP, Alienware, Gateway, IBM, Sony etc. they all are at least 300 bucks more. So, looking at my Dell 9300 as a total package of warranty, price and product I am extremely satisfied with this product and hope dell keeps the good work up.
PS - I will post some pictures of my dell and the games a little later.
The specs of my Inspirion 9300 are
Intel 1.6 M
256 MB Nvidia 6800 Go
80 GB Harddrive
DVDR/CDR
256 MB DDR2 RAM (Still have to upgrade it)
17.1 WXGA+ Screen
2 Years warranty
Everything else was stock.
$1220 + tax = $1293
I order my computer on a sunday it came by the next friday. Inside the delivery box there was just the laptop and the powercord and a user's manual. First thing out of the box I thought the computer was huge yet surprisingly light. I really liked the the white trim with silver case design. The computer's battery was fully charged therefore I turned it on immediately. Of course, there was a lot of junk software that I really didn't need but I wanted to play around with it for a while before I do a full reformat and reinstall. Next, I searched the area for wireless networks and I found 8 of em. On my Dell 2400 which is about 2 years old I could only get 2 networks. I immediately set up my wep and key and started surfing the web. At this point I was impressed by the overall quality of the computer and the next day I started to look at the finer details like applications and processes and all.
Design - 9.5/10
I really felt the design of the 9300 is one of the slickest and sexiest yet. Sure the black which is the norm of the industry still looks good but the design here gives off "Hey I got a new notebook that is awesome". Some might argue that the XPS has a better design but I wanted a computer that appears business-like yet usable in a gaming and video experience. I read on the forum that a fair number of users felt that the white trim looks tacky but I like it. The keyboard looks and feels sturdy. And the touchpad is more than adequate. The only compliant I have against the 9300 design is the lack of a numpad. Its not so much that it isn't there as much as why dell didn't put it there even though there is a lot of space to.
Sound - 9.5/10
I cannot believe the sound out of this thing. It is by far one of the best laptop speakers ever. I was going to buy a set of speakers and subwoofer but now after hearing the thing I will skip it for the time being. Again the only reason I don't give it a perfect score is due to a lack of items. I felt that dell could have put one or two speakers more. But its a small compliant and I am not to peeved about it.
Display - 7/10
I got the lg x4766 which I believe is suppose to be one of the better displays but I was somewhat disappointed. I felt that dell could have done a better job on this considering they really gave this computer some amazing features that separate it from the rest. I have a little bit of light leakage but no dead pixels and I set the DPI to 96. That fixed the grainy problem somewhat. Still when I watching a movie or playing a game really close I can still see the grainy look. But since its is a 17.1 screen I just have to sit back a bit to not to notice it at all. Also, given the price I paid for this computer, I would have to say there is going to be a little bit of compromise and I really don't care about it here since I like what they have done with everything with the coupons and all.
dvd/cd applications - 10/10
Man do I love this dvd/cd combo. I watched movies on it, played games on it, burned DVDs, burned CDs and not a single hitch or problem. Of course the first time I ran it, I thought it was going to fire the CD right out like a machine gun or something but i got used to the sound really quickly and now I don't even notice it. It is definitely worth the extra money.
Gaming applications - 10/10
I ran splinter cell:chaos theory and KOTOR:Sith lords using just the stock ram and wow!!!! That graphics card is some juggurnant. It freaking owned those games. Oh yeah that reminds me I didn't even update my graphics drivers and both of those games were crisp as hell on max res. The only thing that I had to do where the games were concerned was kill some processes so it ran a bit faster.
Office applications - 8/10
I don't run anything too taxing like Maya or Photoshop so I didn't have any problems running stuff like Visual C++, office 2003. Overall I felt it did a adequate job and once I upgrade my ram this ranking will probably go up to 10/10.
Portability - 8.5/10
Here is truly a personal opinion since everyone's portability requirements are different. For me I need a laptop that does work,gaming and DVD and TV(oh yea my dad got me a tuner that lets me watch TV on my computer), without taking up my whole freaking desk(college student). It should be movable at least once maybe twice a week and when I go home should not take up half my car. Here 9300 shines. But it doesn't take away from the fact that it is a big computer and I really wished that dell would have the Nvidia go 256 MB in the 6000 but they didn't and therefore I opted for the 9300.
Overall - 9/10
There are some areas where dell goes lights out and then some areas where its lacking. But that said, it goes back to the old argument of a honda car to a BMW car. You can get a fully load honda car at half the price of a BMW car. Yet in the BMW there is a lot more customization and a status change sort of thing going on. Where as with a honda you get true value for your money but there are certain things you wish could change. As far as I am concerned I am very happy with the product I have. I sure wish that the crap software would be removed and the display was a little nicer. When you try matching those specs up anyware - HP, Alienware, Gateway, IBM, Sony etc. they all are at least 300 bucks more. So, looking at my Dell 9300 as a total package of warranty, price and product I am extremely satisfied with this product and hope dell keeps the good work up.
PS - I will post some pictures of my dell and the games a little later.
Sweet price though. Mine was $1651 after tax. I'll post specs when I get it 
. Just remember that your 9300 will come with about 50+ processes running in the background. So what you will need to do either kill some processes or do a reformat and reinstall or just use MSCONFIG and control panel to remove some the useless services and processes. I just used MSCONFIG and Control Panel and got my processes down to 32. After that everything runs smoothly.
