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Dell Introduces Laptop With WUXGA
Cutie Pi writes "Dell has just released the Inspiron 8500, a new 15.4" widescreen notebook with a WUXGA screen--thats 1920x1200, high enough resolution to watch HDTV quality movies. Couple that with the new nVidia 64MB GeForce4 4200 Go (much faster than the ATI Radeon 9000), and you've got quite a notebook!! Can't wait to get my hands on one!"
You realize some geeks are going to use this resolution to view more text on the screen at once and lose their eyesight that much faster, don't you?
Despite the headline, one can't really call it a "laptop", since using it on one's lap would create safety (and fertility) issues. Dell's official term is "notebook", but I believe "mobile computer", "traytop", and "portable space heater" are also acceptable. I challenge anyone to actually sit through a two-hour HD movie with this on their lap.
Gotta love this gouging, under the customization look at what they charge for extra ram:
512MB,DDR,266MHz 2 Dimms
512MB,DDR,266MHz 1 Dimm [add $200.00]
640MB,DDR,266MHz 2 Dimms [add $300.00]
768BM,DDR,266MHz 2 Dimms [add $400.00]
1GB,DDR,266MHz 2 Dimms [add $650.00]
1.5GB,DDR,266MHz 2 Dimms [add $1,800.00]
2GB,DDR,266MHz 2 Dimms [add $3,300.00]
There is no excuse for a 7 pound 15in notebook.
I once beat a man to death in Reno* using nothing but a Dell laptop.
*just to watch him die
I bought an Inspiron 7500 when the PIII 500 chips were first made available in laptops. It has been a few years now and this machine has been all over the US, banged up, dropped, kicked, etc. at jobsites, conventions & seminars. The only thing that has gone wrong with it have been the CD burning out playing CTP and the 'm' key jumping off. I hope the new line can stand up to the kind of abuse this one has because this machine is still kickin and I would certainly consider buying another one in the future.
Prospecting Stinks. Stop Wasting Time on Cold Calling.
I would definitely go thin and light. I bought the most powerful, largest screened laptop I could find (at the time). However, it's so unweildy, and drains battery power like nothing else. If I'm lucky (with two batteries in it) I'll be able to surf for 1 hour before it goes dead. Plus, by the amount of heat it generates, I know I'm going to have lap cancer by age 35.
In other words, I cant do a whole lot with it, and it's really heavy and awkward. My dad on the other hand, has a super small Sony Vaio that can go about 6 hours on a battery and still do everything I do, even though it's more underpowered.
Sweet, a new computer from Dell. Does it come with a free sample of Marijuana? Dude, you're gettin' some weed!
Ok, that's just cruel.
For every post, there is an equal and opposite re-post.
And are drooling about this thing.
I speced one as close as I could to my 1GHz TiBook and it was the same price and the Dell did not include a SuperDrive equivalent.
So considering that the keyboard/mouse thingy has been replaced twice in my Dell Inspiron in 18 months, I think I will stick with my TiBook.
Looks like a nice machine other than the fact that I have seen too many Dell portables fall apart.
Some support the native resolution (for example, I can play Civ III or Warcraft III on my 17" FP iMac in 1440x900). This is fantastic.
Some will keep the screen at native resolution and give you bars on the borders (for example, a 1024x768 box inside my 1440x900 screen). This isn't so bad. Also not so bad is linearly downscaling the screen a little bit -- it's not as blurry as you might think, at least not for me in MacOS X -- displaying an 800x600 box inside a 1024x640 screen, for example.
What's annoying is when the game runs fullscreen in a 4:3 resolution and stretches it. This is what Diablo II / LOD does, so it smears 800x600 out laterally to fill the screen. The OS refers to this as a "stretched" resolution and it looks awful. I play this game in windowed mode and reduce my resolution so that it is a window that nearly fills the screen, with my desktop peeking out the sides. Better.
Nearly all the flat panels I see nowadays are in strange resolutions or aspect ratios (my 17" studio display is 5:4 while my iMac is 8:5), and the persistence of companies that continue to try to slap a new acronym on it like FUGA or BARGA is laughable. Just publish the dimensions and resolution, please.
Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?
When I got my current job, it came with a Dell laptop (Inspiron 5000 series) with a DVD drive. Whee!
On my first business trip, I found out that the battery was enough to watch about 66% of a DVD.
Later that year, I found out that my battery was being recalled, but they'd apologize by giving me two batteries in return -- double-Whee! Now I would have enough battery life to watch a full flick.
I just have to pop out the DVD drive to install the second battery.
Dell: Weight: 6.9 lbs. (2.96 kg) with travel module, battery and Harddrive.
Apple: Weight: 6.8 pounds (3.1 kg) with battery and optical drive installed.
Interesting trick. The Apple weighs more if you use metric measurements!
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"
- Charles Darwin
And just how do they prove themselves to you again if you won't deal with them?
I note that we have 5 Dells in our immediate family, including the 5 year old Dimension I'm typing this on. I've also worked closely with another dozen, and never had any problem with Dell service or support. I submit that your experience is not universal to all Dell owners.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."