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I have just spend a better part of the evening with my new Dell Inspiron 8500 notebook. It is from the new model line that moves away from traditional black theme for a silver metalic look. I was a big fan of the older Inspirons and was a bit leary with the new look. It has grown on me, and I must admit that it does look very handsome to me now. I'ts still questionable on the blue bezel around the keyboard, and although it is a very nice metallic blue, I think I could have just done with out the accent color just as well.
The thing that separates this note book apart from most others is it has a WIDE SCREEN display. The aspect ratio of it is 1:6. The display is in fact quite pleasing to look at in the wide aspect display. Another thing I have read is that the Graphics chip on the 8500 is on a separate daughter card, allowing future upgrades. I did not see an access port, so you must have to virtually take the NB apart to get at it.
The main reason I purchased this machine was for a terciary machine for the family, that would do duties as a kitchen/other room PC, portable gaming rig, mobile DVD player, control system for various pieces of equipment. So while I did not need something as highend as this Dell, I did need a NB with a Serial port, DVD-ROM, something that was capable of at least 1400x1050 resolution and had enough processing power to run some of the applications I was going to throw at it.
The resolution thing was what really pushed me over the edge to go all out for this top line Dell. It seems higher resolutions, SXGA and UXGA are mutually exclusive from a lower priced NB. A person really has to open the wallet wide for the higher resolution displays. It's as if they know the users of this requirement will pay for it, so charge for it they do. I run my desk top 21" CRT at 1600x1200 so I really wanted something similar. I was a bit tentitive about the UXGA resolution of the Dell i8500 for I thought it may be too small on a 15.4" diagonal screen. I concluded the finer pixel pitch of the UXGA screen would be bearable and actually make up for the smaller size of the text and icons. I was not wrong, the display is perfect at UXGA resolutions for my eyes and I must say it is razor sharp, albeit blocky on other things. This is the typical down fault of a LCD monitor and I certainly expected this, so I'm not disapointed in the least. I am stunned with how nice text and some things can look on this fine pitched screen. DVD playback is simply incredible and the black level thing didn't even dawn in my mind as a problem.
I Loaded the game Splinter Cell and set the game at the maximum resolution of the game, 1280x1024. The LCD monitor interpolated it very nicely and I don't have any issues with softeness or the like. There was a slight aliasing present, but this could more due to the game as I have read Splinter cell does not support Anti Aliasing. The game was slightly stretched to fit in to the 1:6 screen, and I actually didn't mind this. There is a setting in the Nvidia drivers to run the game in it actual 1:33 size, however I just ran it in the widescreen size for now. That's the only game I have tried thus far.
Screen resolution of 1280x1024
The first thing I did when I turned on the Dell was attempt to get the internal wireless card setup... This took longer than I anticipated and I don't know why. Even though it showed it was talking to my router, and had great signal strength, it would not connect or find my Network. It wasn't until I ran Windows XP update that it was able to connect and find the network (It had about 25 updates and one was a wifi compatibility one). I then set up the internal 10/100 network (wired) and then the 56K modem, systems were all GO!
Configuered Specs:
Dell Inspiron 8500
2.4 Ghz Pentium 4 Mobile CPU
512 MB DDR RAM
64Mb DDR Nvidia Geforce 4 4200 GO
15.4" 1920x1200 WUXGA Wide aspect Ultra sharp LCD screen (0.17 pixel pitch)
40 GB, 5400 RPM hard drive
24x CD-RW/DVD Combo drive
72Whr 9 cell Lithium Ion Battery
Integrated 10/100 Network card with 56K Modem
Internal Dell True Mobile Wireless WAN 802.11b/g
Internal Dell 300 Bluetooth card
64Mb USB Memory Key
Windows XP Home
Corel Productivity Suite
Dell nylon carry case
3 Year Total Care Mail in Warranty (I drop it, it's covered
)The NB came very well packed and took about 2 weeks from order date to arrive. My first impression was that it was a thing of beauty to behold. Upon closer inspection, I have to say it does have this plastic-key feel to it and the springy keyboard does not lend itself to the solid feel, unlike the vault like security of a Mercedes Benz like IBM or Toshiba. The key board it's self has a nice feel (as nice as a notbook can feel I guess), except for the right side with the CD-RW/DVD cavity under it is like a trampoline, I kid you not, it must deflect almost 1/8". One feature I most liked is that Dell provided both a glide pad and a pointing stick for mousing duties. I'm a fan of the pointing stick as I have become accustomed to it on my corporate IBM laptop, and I actually prefer it to the glide pad, however I'm now getting to like the glide pad as well. The nice thing is you can assign the pointing stick to do duty as a scroll device and it works very well as that for those that are use to a scroll wheel mouse. The springy KB and the plastic feel aside, it is a very nice valued NB/PC, and I think it will make a nice addition to the family. In actual fact, my wife Christine will be using this more than I will, but I just wanted to be sure it would cover the range of my needs as well.
Note the Rare RS232 Serial port that is almost extinct on NB these days.
If I was to nail one thing that I'm happiest the most about this Dell it would be the beautifull WUXGA wide screen display. The resolution of this thing is incredible! It actually takes my eyes a bit to adjust back to my 21" Sony CRT monitor after viewing the ultra fine pitched LCD of the Dell for a while. That said it does show typical LCD problems as well. Color rendition of it is good to poor depending on wheither it running on battery or AC power. It is relatively bright over all and has a crispness to it that has to be seen to be believed. Some web based images can have a really blocky look as well depending on it size.
That's about all I have to say about it now as I have only really worked with it for 2 evenings, I'll post more as I become more accustomed to it and discover more of it's idiosyncrosies or strong points.
I'll leave you with more pictures and notes....
DVD playback is phenominal on the ultra fine pitch screen.
Here I tried to capture how sharp and crisp the text is.
You can see while the text is sharp, the typical LCD blockiness shows up in images like the HTG banner and smiley icons.
Here is why I needed a serial connector and a fast Processor. I'm using an Astromony program called Starry Night Pro that can really require a lot of computational math to calculate places in our universe. As well it does a 3D fly to/by of any cataloged item in our universe. Connected to Katherine's computerized Goto telescope, I just click on any item in the Starry night program and the telescope will slew to the item. ie, if I wanted to look the Orion nebula, I just cursor onto it in the Notebook and click on it. The telescope will then slew to put the nebula in the viewfinder automatically. The added bonus is I have a wealth of technical information at my fingertips about any item in the sky with the SN program... My daughter Katherine is really the Astronomony nut of the family, I just find ways to enhance our experiance and understanding. She is totally thrilled with this set-up.
Bing
Not that I have seen one on a notebook, but I have seen the black generic on the Toshibas and Compaqs...
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