My Dell laptop has arrived
- From: Sandman <mr@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005 10:14:36 +0200
It arrived yesterday, so I thought I'd post about it here to let you know what
I think. Remember, this is the first brand PC I've bought since... 1997 or
something like that.
<http://www.sandman.net/files/dell.jpg>
SO, to recap - I bought the Dell Inspiron XPS Gen 2 - which quite possible is
the most powerful laptop you'll find, save AlienWares laptops. This is how I
configured it:
2.3Ghz Pentium-M
Windows XP Professional
1GB of RAM
Geforce Go 6800 Ultra
Stuff like bluetooth and 802.11g is standard on these models as well. It also
has a FW400 _mini_ port, so if I want to connect an external HD, I'll have to
get the right cable.
The pros:
Installation was very smooth. I opened the lid, turned it on and the
installation process started, very much like with a Mac, only not as good
looking. The installation screens all had "Windows XP - Dell" on them, so I am
guessing that this application is custom for Dell PCs. It wasn't the standard
Windows installation.
This graphics card *kicks ass*. It most certainly is the fastest mobile GPU. It
rivals my desktop ATI X800 and pushes over 60fps in Half-Life 2 and som ~50 fps
in F.E.A.R. That's bitching for a laptop.
The cons:
After the installation, it found my Airport base station, but I couldn't log on
to it with my network password - I had to use the WEP key, which is some
20-characters long (and took me a while to find in the airport admin utility).
Is this Apple being special or Windows being stupid? I don't know.
This laptop is *HUGE*. It could barely be called a laptop. Sure, it's a 17"
screen, so it's bound to be bigger than a 15", but with the lid open, the
"base" is 1mm *thicker* than my powerbook when my powerbook is *closed*.
Closing the Dell adds a whole 0.4 inch to the thickness. I won't be lugging it
around, but I don't think anyone would.
<http://www.sandman.net/files/dell_powerbook.jpg>
<http://www.sandman.net/files/dell_powerbook2.jpg>
The screen is deep black and glossy. It looks very stylish at first, until you
realise that it reflects just about everything in a lit room and the matte
finnish of the powerbook really helps.
It has a really really high resolution, which you might think would end up in
the pros section, but since everything become literally TINY on the screen, it
can sometimes be hard to select characters in save dialogs and such. I high
resolutions so it is working ok, but for anyone with just slightly worse
eyesight, it would be a strain. And you'd think that setting WIndows to display
at a higher resolution (which means that thinks would look normal on a high-res
screen just ends up really screwing up the fonts, which looks jagged beyond
belief.
It takes some 6-10 seconds to wake from sleep! Thats awful!
It has LEDS!
<http://www.sandman.net/files/dell_leds.jpg>
That's all I've yet to discover. Happy trolling! :-D
--
Sandman[.net]
.
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