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New Laptop: Likes and Dislikes
New Laptop: Likes and Dislikes
My needs have changed over the years. While I needed fast 3D graphics to do university research, I now need portability to stay connected in the business world. Moving from a 9lb Dell Inspiron 9100 to a 5lb Inspiron 1420 feels like having the weight of a baby removed from your belly. Well, it might feel that way.
I've seen them, but I never really got a chance to use this 'glossy' screen before and I am disappointed by the glare it produces around a light source. I wish I was able to test them side by side but I shipped my old laptop the same day I got my new one. Not sure why it is labled as superior, must make pictures look all nice and shiny. Along with the weight I dropped an inch and went with the 14" screen, losing a lot of real estate going from resolution 1680x1050 to 1440x900.
Speed wise P4 3Ghz HT (Win XP) to Core 2 Duo 2Ghz (Vista) feels similar, I wonder where 5 years in processor advances went. Doing some multithreaded enabled encoding would probably reveal the inner beast of this machine. The nVidia 8400M GS might be a downgrade from the mobile ATI 9700, both with 128Mb. Main memory is now at a large 3Gb, up from 1Gb. And hard drive 250Gb up from 60Gb.
Noticeably missing is the pencil-head mouse controller, although I opted for an internal bluetooth connector and wireless mouse, which is great. Overall the build quality feels good, battery life is around 3-4 hours with a long-life battery. Dell still sticks a couple 3rd party programs I could have lived without, I did uninstall them without any problems.
With a 30% off coupon code found using a Google search, I was able to get all a pretty good laptop for only $1140. If you are buying something online and see a coupon code box, always do a google search, I've been getting free Papa John's toppings by just doing a google search. More money saved = earlier retirement.
I've seen them, but I never really got a chance to use this 'glossy' screen before and I am disappointed by the glare it produces around a light source. I wish I was able to test them side by side but I shipped my old laptop the same day I got my new one. Not sure why it is labled as superior, must make pictures look all nice and shiny. Along with the weight I dropped an inch and went with the 14" screen, losing a lot of real estate going from resolution 1680x1050 to 1440x900.
Speed wise P4 3Ghz HT (Win XP) to Core 2 Duo 2Ghz (Vista) feels similar, I wonder where 5 years in processor advances went. Doing some multithreaded enabled encoding would probably reveal the inner beast of this machine. The nVidia 8400M GS might be a downgrade from the mobile ATI 9700, both with 128Mb. Main memory is now at a large 3Gb, up from 1Gb. And hard drive 250Gb up from 60Gb.
Noticeably missing is the pencil-head mouse controller, although I opted for an internal bluetooth connector and wireless mouse, which is great. Overall the build quality feels good, battery life is around 3-4 hours with a long-life battery. Dell still sticks a couple 3rd party programs I could have lived without, I did uninstall them without any problems.
With a 30% off coupon code found using a Google search, I was able to get all a pretty good laptop for only $1140. If you are buying something online and see a coupon code box, always do a google search, I've been getting free Papa John's toppings by just doing a google search. More money saved = earlier retirement.
5/11/2008 11:32:49 PM
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