You are browsing within the review sections of our forums. Content within these sections reflect consumer opinions of laptops. Our admins take the best and most objective laptop reviews and index them here to create a distinct selection of quality reviews with averaged overall ratings. Many of these reviews have benchmarks attached to them which allows for users to compare their laptop's performance with others, and ultimately enables us to provide a sortable list which at a glance show the fastest laptops amongst a variety of applications (gaming, video editing, web browsing, etc...). Help us build a better laptop database by submitting your laptop review.

I sold my Inspiron 9100 a week ago and I got the 9300 2 days ago. This little review is my personal comparison of the two systems.

CPU: (9300 wins)

I had the P4 3.2 CPU on the Inspiron 9100 and now have the 1.86 P-M on the 9300. I did not have the chance to test much but I'd say those perform about the same. Given the fact that the P-M uses less power the bettery lasts longer of course. While the 9100 would run about 1 hour, the 9300 runs about 2.5 to 3 hours for me. It depends on what you are doing. This point clearly goes to the 9300.

Display: (9100 wins)

My 9300 has a 17" WUXGA display from LG while my 9100 had a 15" WUXGA from Samsung. A 17" display on a laptop is neak I really love the size and the amount of stuff I can see at the same time. However, regarding the quality, the display of the 9100 was better imho. I had like no leakage on the 9100 and I have minimal leakage on the 9300, that isn't something that disturbs me at all since it's so minimal. Some people that get their 9300 with a Samsung display complain about more leakage though, so be aware.

Another difference between the two is the glossy effect on the 9300. While I really like it on dark backgrounds I hate it on white ones. The price you seem to pay for the glossy is the widely known issue with sparkles. My LG screen does have them and they are noticable on white and light backgrounds. I've been playing around with the Notebook for 2 days now and they still bother me a bit. Honestly I don't know if they would bother me if I hadn't read that much about them on these forums but at the moment they do. On the other hand, I was very picky the first two days on my Inspiron 9100 screen too and after a while I had to say that it was just perfect. I think you'll get used to the sparkles (unless you are a graphics designer). However, maybe I was just lucky but my 9100 Samsung screen was perfect and the 9300 LG isn't so this one goes to the 9100, in terms of quality, not size. However, I like the 17" alot and personally would still go with it again.

GPU: (9300 wins)

Well actually there is nothing to compare here. The Go 6800 simply eats the ATI 9700 I had in my 9100. I did play alot on my 9100 and never had any problems, so if you have an ATI 9800 which is even better I wouldn't see what game you couldn't throw at it. Now, with the Go 6800 I can not only play any game but I can have the setting on high while I had them on medium on my 9100.

DVD: (9300 wins if you don't get a noisy Sony)

My 9100 DVD was a NEC 4x RW+ while my 9300 DVD is a Sony 8x RW+-. I did not have the chance to really test it. One thing that is very noticable is the noise. My Sony DVD is too loud compared to the one in my 9100. For some it did help to take it out and stick it in again, for me this didnt help. I am not sure if it will be running at that speed and noise all the time but I don't see how one could watch a movie at that level. I've not heard of problems from people with NEC drives so if you can I'd suggest to get a NEC.

Build / Weight : (9300 wins)

Well, they are both Dell's and they really like to use cheap platic. The 9100 looked cheap and so does the 9300, at least when you compare them to other brands such as Toshiba, Sony, Acer or Asus. Personally I don't care how a laptop looks, it needs to perform, not win model contests. Actually I heard of people who even like the design of the 9300

The 9100 is a truck. It's bulky and heavy. The 9300 is bigger of course, due to the 17" screen. To my surprise it is still lighter than the 9100. Also I think it's not as thick as the 9100, at least that's my impression. So this one would go to the 9300 again.

Keyboard (9100 wins)

I like pointing sticks and the 9300 does not come with one. The keyboard is the same as the one in the 9100 to me, at least I cant see or feel a difference. I can't really compate the touchpad since I never use it. So since I like pointing sticks I'll give this one to the 9100.

Sound:

I'm not much of an audio person and I dpn't know much about it. But both systems really impressed me. I did never expect such good sound from a notebook. They are both great.

Conclusion:

Time will tell if it was the right choice, since I'll have to wait how the system performs in the long run. I had the 9100 for 1.5 years with not one single problem. I had the 9300 for two days and already don't like the DVD drive.

I am still happy I got the 9300 althought the LG screen has sparkles and although the DVD is noisy. It's personal taste, but to me having a 17" display with the Go 6800 is better than having a 15" with the ATI 9700. Considered what an upgrade to the ATI 9800 would have cost me it was worth it to get the 9300. If my 9100 had the ATI 9800 already I might would not have switched since I'm not that much of a gamer.

cheers

debian75

Hahah, I used to have a 9100 with a Samsung WSXGA. That screen was excellent, no kidding. I sold it too (it was wayyyy to noisy [the cpu fans], and raised my room temp by 5 degrees), for a MSI MS-1029 (still waiting for it to arrive)

Never had a problem in terms of noise with my I9100.

The one thing, I don't follow, is how a Pentium moblity processor, could be faster then basically a desktop processor, jammed into a slightly large latop.

Really, my i9100 sounded like an airplane, when doing anything other than surfing the web.......

All 3 fans turned on the highest speed when playing the old CS.

I need to add that if you buy the Inspiron 9300 get the Dell Truemobile Wirelss card not the Intel ones. They suck, I wish I had known this before.

I don't think Dell sells their wireless cards in their notebook anymore, unless they come with Celeron processors. With Pentium M processors, I think they only offer the Intel 2200 and 2556 (or something like that) wireless cards in order to take advantage of Centrino mobile technology. Some people have trouble with their Intel wireless cards, I have not had any problems with mine and I am even connecting to wireless networks hundreds of feet away. I guess it is luck of the draw.

I don't have problems when browsing...it's in games that the intel sucks. Also no matter what setting I try and maximize the intel junk keeps switching speeds altgough I disabled that power safer feature.

I got the Intel wireless card because my Dell 1300 card works like crap. When I'm using wireless, no matter what access point I'm on, opening files slows to a crawl. I tried everything from the ol' format c: to updating drivers and firmware, to no avail. I disable the card, and files instantly open. I have no idea why they're related, but they are.

I decided to go with the Intel card in my new machine because I would be pissed if this happened again on my new laptop.

The Intel 2200bg runs flawlessy with the latest drivers

Before, it was unstable. Oh well..

Yeah, the 1300 is old first-gen technology. Broadcom came out with a later version, 1350, which was rendered obsolete by the new Broadcom chipset found in the latest TrueMobile 1370 or 1470 A/B/G...