[raymondlin]

Been wanting a laptop for ages but held off for many reasons, like money, a good reason to get one, technology not good compare to desktop, graphics is awful on them....etc

Until now

Been surfing the net/forums wirelessly with this, battery last 4 hours from a full charge easily. the 3com WAP has 100 meter range which is enough for me to take this to the shop down the road ! But I have put in a 128bit encryption to stop that thou.

Dell Inspiron 8600

Spec

15.4 inch WSXGA widescreen with a resolution of 1680 x 1050 (beats my 17" TFT for sharpness hands down)
Intel Pentium-M 1.4Ghz
512mb 333Mhz DDR RAM
40G HD
Samsung DVD/CD-RW
128mb Nvidia Geforce 5650 AGP graphic card
Intel Pro 11b wireless wifi (I also have a 3com 11g PCIMCIA card)
2xUSB 2.0, parallel, Serial, Firewire...etc
XP Home SP1

paid about $1500 / £1050

Here are the pics, took them over the weekend but hadn't post them up until now, you'll notice that what looks like dirty marks on the top of the dell and on the hand rest. They are not marks, I've just not took off the clear plastic that is stuck on it when I got it yet.

The little white circle is the Quality control pass sticker

Those are not dirty marks on the top, just the little bit left from a sticker on top of the clear plastic sheet, which I yet to take off.

Hands is a bit shaky here

Widescreen DVD films looks fab as it fills up the screen, from Almost Famous. "I am a Golden God !"

You can see that it can display 2 webpage simultanously with ease on this widescreen, it is almost like a dual monitor.

 

[RickG]

Very, very, nice Ray! Congrats...

 

[Ari]

WOW !!! Congrats !!

Jealous here...

Ari

 

[warubozu]

Congrats on the score! Now you got me thinking on upgrading to a laptop with a widescreen.

 

[jessica00]

bestbuy has an awsome deal on the acer travelmate 290,
1024x768, but it lasts over 5 hours (centrino)
not as flashy as dell too.
1100 after rebates

 

[bootman]

Very sweet!
How is the headphone out on these?
(We got to keep it related or this might get moved to inane.

)

I'm looking forward to my laptop upgrade at work.
(We only get Latitudes, so I'm hoping for a D800.

)

 

[ProFingerSk8er]

wow...nice...
im also getting a laptop sometime next month

 

[raymondlin]

The headphone out on it is average, acceptable you might say, but the speakers is pretty good actually, I was expecting that to be really bad.

Jessica, I really need a higher res screen, it helps a lot when usng photoshop, CAD..etc, plus it is so much nicer to look at.

 

[hempcamp]

Pretty

Best wishes on your new purchase.

--Chris

 

[RickG]

Quote:

Originally posted by raymondlin Jessica, I really need a higher res screen, it helps a lot when usng photoshop, CAD..etc, plus it is so much nicer to look at.

I'm not proud...I'll tell the truth!

I have a big high rez screen on my HP, but it's because I can't see anymore...

Edit: LOL, I have to use my readers as well...

 

[lan]

Awesome. I have a widescreen laptop also but it's only like 8.9". A small lil thing.

 

[jim]

congrats!

I must say your wireless range is very impressive. I wish mine would go that far, but I don't think my orinoco card would do it without an external antenna.

have fun with the new computer.

I have to give you a fair warning though: I hope you got a good warrantee package!

 

[Trawlerman]

Very sweet..... Are you sure you can handle a machine of that calibre?

Anyway, congrats... I have a Compaq 1 Gig that is a similar spec.

Laptops are great fun. I took mine to sea with me a few weeks back and did some work on my website in my spare time.

 

[CaptBubba]

Quote:

Originally posted by jim congrats! I must say your wireless range is very impressive. I wish mine would go that far, but I don't think my orinoco card would do it without an external antenna.

The Orinoco beats the snot out of the Intel 2100 wireless in my experience. I get full reliable 11Mbit connections where people with the 2100, get nothing. The orinoco even gives internal Cisco 350's(!) a run for their money in range. It sucks to have a thing sticking out the side of your computer, but it is better than not getting any connection at all.

mmmm, widescreen.

 

[Sol_Zhen]

Nice!

Congrats!

[edit] And I'm happy to see an IBM-like eraser thingy in the keyboard for mouse work. Those are so much better than a touchpad.