The laptop arrived in a plain brown Dell box. There are already a good amount of pictures of the 9300 in shipping form, so I won't spend too many words on it. But to be redundant with other reviews, the package were designed by minimalists. There are no thrills nor extra accessories save one CD - WordPerfect 12. I was disappointed that it didn't even at least come with S-Video and audio out cables. They are easily obtainable and not expensive at all, but I thought that for a "multimedia" notebook of this price, it would get thrown in. I guess that's how Dell can give out 40% off coupons huh?
Lifting the laptop out of the box one quickly realizes how light the notebook really is. Considering that this is a "desktop replacement", 8 lbs is not rediculous at all. In comparison, I picked up my cousins' Inspiron 5100, and to my surprise, mine was lighter. Ponder for a moment - a P4 15" screen machine weights more than this modern marvel. I was impressed.
The texture of the laptop is not great. The outer shell is a little too smooth, and although the handling of the 9300 isn't really scary, I wish there was more tactile feel to induce better carrying confidence. A good example is an IBM Thinkpad T40 - now I know that the footprints of the notebooks aren't similar, but the plastics on that just feel better. The 9300 surface is certainly not slippery though, so I guess it'll do.
I remember reading a review where s/he thought the white trim and silver plastics looked cheap - I don't agree. Sure, it is no Apple iBook in terms of design and choice of material; esthetically, Sony/Fujitsu lappies are better too, but we are talking competitors who feel they need to charge upwards of ~$500 for the privilge of looking/feeling elite. Personally, the look of the 9300 clamshelled is fine, and unless you're a fine arts major, you too will not be disappointed. Get an XPS2 if you want more bling - the 9300 is already too attention getting due to its hefty size and monolithic footprint. Flashing lights will only scream "Jack me for my laptop, yo!"
One thing that truly sucks though is how easily the plastics scratch. Within owning my 9300 for no more than a weekend, there's already a nice battle scar on the top surface of the lid. Now it's not noticeable without me pointing it out - but still! I know it's there and it erks me.
I won't go into the ports configuration of the 9300. You've probably seen it all in countless other reviews. I will reiterate that Dell decided people using external USB mice will either all be left-handed (since there are two USB ports from the left side), go wireless, or don't mind tangled cords out the back. This is a slight annoyance at most, but other more thoughtful designs have a USB port at right for the majority of right-handed mice users. Score one for the lefties of this world.
One of the more oft unreviewed aspects of any laptop is the latch mechanism. Believe it or not, I find that to be somewhat of a big deal. Of course, it depends heavily on how one uses their device, but for me, I tend to shut and open my lappy a lot - usually with one hand. Hence, the actuation of the latch and the hinge of the LCD panel is something I pay attention to. Folks, I'm happy to report that the latch is good. It is a single-slide jobbie in the dead center of the panel. The spring action is fluid and light, and guarantee to unlatch everytime (save wear and tear 2-3 years down the road). Comparing once more to the Thinkpad T40, the 9300 is miles better in this regard.
The hinge action however, is stiff - which is actually a good thing. Although one can lift the LCD panel to fully open without the base following suit (so that's what the 8 lbs are good for!) It'll probably stay tight a good while longer.
Phew, I can't believe I just spent two paragraphs talking about the latch and hinges. Let's move on.
So now the laptop is opened, and we're greeted with the fullsize keyboard. I will only say this, the black keyboard layout surrounded by silver plastics do not work. This makes the laptop look tacky. I for one hate it, and from a form-over-function standpoint, it does not compliment the rest of the laptop. Kind of reminds me engineering samples of some prototype notebook from the R&D department. *yech*
Scuff marks!
Also, a bad side to the silver colour is how every speck of dirt and rub mark shows up. Snacking and typing is highly discouraged. I think rubbing alcohol will be a very familiar smell from now on. This bad boy gets dirty and tarnished real quick.
What I do like however, are the full size keys. I guess with a laptop surface this big, it'd be idiotic not to have a full set of keys - save the Function and the insert/home/etc. They are still laptop-sized. Not a big deal as they are easily identifiable and logically placed. I read that some people would like a seperate numeric keypad as well, but unless you're an accountant or someone who habitually like to add up their paychecks for fun, you really don't need a dedicated keypad. I prefer it gone just so I can have more run-off space between the keys and the edge of the laptop.
I've read that there are different keyboard manufacturers for the 9300 which produces different feels. I've never worried about how keys felt before, until now.
As a subjective preference, I'd wish the action a little stiffer with more travel. However, it is impossible to expect laptop keyboards to behave like their desktop brethren. I can only say that my 9300's keys are a little too light and doesn't give enough feedback when depressed. They seem to bottom out too fast. Having said that, I touch type over 100 wpm, and as I conjure this review on them, I realize I don't have a strong enough opinion to pass judgement. They also tend to - for lack of a better description, give off a spongy "click" when typing fast. I'll try this on other laptops once I get around to it, but I'm lazy. I probably won't bother.
Another thing I like to discuss that no one else will care about is the On button. I use it often because I like to have my machine in hibernation mode when shuttling between my office/car/home/motorcycle. Hence I use it enough for me to write about it. I actually thought that the first time I powered her up the button was broken. It travels pretty deep and the angle of depression isn't uniform. That is to say, pushing down will wobble every which way until reaching the bottom and triggering contact. Some other laptops I've used extensively doesn't do this. It's a hard press that turns it on or off. It feels like a button. This Dell one, feels like I'm pushing someone's belly button - an outie. I guess the long travel is good in preventing accidental shut downs. I have to say though, you'd have to be pretty clumsy to push it down by accident, but then that's what the word "accident" really means right?
As a quick confirmation, I asked one of my friends to turn on my machine, and she couldn't for the first several seconds, because she didn't expect the contact point to be that deep. It's just an odd quirky observation that no one cares about, I hope.
Now that the computer is on, we come to the hottest topic concerning the 9300/XPS2. How is that Trulife screen? (Grab a coffee, I've got lots to say.)
Let's have some background story first. I've read every single post (or nearly) concerning the 9300 TruLife Screens (TLS). I've justified, debated, and even lost sleep over 1440x900 matte vs. 1920x1200 glossy. I've read enough angry posts and massive exodus-like returns never before seen since the Old Testiment itself. Initially I was set on the WXGA, as I thought that the 1440x900 resolution was good enough for me.
I reached out to my uber-geek friends and came up with a contact that had a WXGA 9300 engineering sample. (Long story, fuggetaboudit). I saw it and man, was I disappointed. Native resolution without any tweaks reminded me of a Fisher-Price OS. The desktop icons were goofy big. Now I know that these things can be resized and fitted to preference, but it was abundantly clear that photo-editing (my primary use of said lappy) would be restrictive, especially in portrait mode. 900 pixels no matter how you resize, just isn't tall enough. That would also translate into more Page Downs during website browses. I use Firefox exclusively and yeah, I can dynamically resize the fonts to fit more lines per page, but in an age of rampant carpel tunnel syndrome (ow! - there it goes again), I'd like to minimize my clicks as much as humanly possible.
After checking on Dell.com, I saw that the TLS went down from $125 to $100 US, and I was sold. I did more research and found out the differences betweeen LG and Samsung brand, and settled for greyer whites over shimmer - which means I went with Samsung.
I called Dell to try to specifically ask for Samsung, but was unsuccessful. I finally got a hold of Parts dept, and they assured me that I was getting the Samsung model. I haven't bothered to confirm, but all signs point to "Yes". The whites are indeed grey-ish (in the grand scheme of things) and I can understand why people would wish it to be several shades brighter than maximum brightness.
Except, I like it just the way it is fine. My eyes are very sensitive to light, and I much prefer dimmer lights than not. My surroundings reflect that. The interior lights in my car do NOT turn on automatically because my eyes hurt when they come on at night. I sit in my room with one light containing a 60 watt bulb and the 9300 screen set to minimum brightness and curtains down at night; it's perfect for me. (I'm actually typing this on my room floor with nothing but my 9300 at lowest brightness, and a night light nearby.)
The screen could definitely be brighter during outdoor usage I will concede. When used in the daytime, it is not strong enough to overpower the natural radiance of the sun. But let's face some truths, few LCDs can pass this test, as they always look just a shade too washed out. A 17" laptop that runs on a 6 cell battery while needing to conserve every ounce of juice just isn't going to be electronic-billboard bright. You can't ask for miracles and expect it to be free.
What you do get is a well lit panel for indoor office/use. Colour reproduction for me is fairly spot on. I haven't had a chance to look at many pictures yet, but I like what I see so far. I'm not going to geek out and run countless colour accuracy tests until I'm blue in the face and seeing red. I'm not going to scan for every single one of those 16.7million colours until I find 2 shades that may be "off". Frankly, I'm red/green colour-blind anyway, so I'll miss a bunch of red/greens regardless. I think for the average user who cares about value and honest to goodness usability, you'll not be disappointed.
So how about the nasty glare that people have worked up to a slather? Yeah, I'm disappointed to confirm, it's mirror-like shine is humour inducing. My cousin saw it and right away began styling his hair. It was hilarious (I guess you had to be there.)
You know what the real kicker is? You only notices how bad it gets when you dwell on that fact. It's like zoning in on someone's enormous pimple and forgeting that the rest of the person is attractive. If you ignore what's on-screen and just stare at the glare, you'd more than likely toss it out of a moving vehicle, then back up and run it over just to make sure it's dead. Yeah, it's glary, so what, most of the glossy laptops I've seen had this problem. I think what exaggerates this phenomenom is the fact that we have a 17" widescreen laptop to find faults on. The screen is big, it's going to reflect a lot of surfaces. You can cry about it and return your lappy, or you can stop being hyper critical and enjoy the DVD you've just popped in with snacks and a diet soda. I was cracking up at my buddy's Family Guy Season 1 episodes at 4 in the afternoon on a sunny long-weekend while taking a ten hour road trip in my car. Did I see glare? Heckz yeah - especially when my desktop is a yellow Gallardo with a black background because the blacks produced a lot of glare. Was I upset? Not one drop. I'm telling you, if you want a screen that doesn't have any glare, carry black-out drapes and learn to pitch a tent or build a lean-to before turning on your machine. The rest of us anal retentively-challenged human beings will continue to watch the movie. Pass the popcorn!
Now the shimmer. I will admit that because I've never seen the shimmer in effect, I don't know what it is supposed to look like. If it is anything like dot crawl on a TV while reading text from composite-out on an 800x600 resolution piped from a PC, then no, I didn't see anything remotely close to that. I've surfed a bunch of sites, all using different colour schemes, and not one has thrown me for a loop. I'm typing this out in Windows Notepad, standard black text and while background. Aside from the aforementioned greyish whites, nothing is "twinkle, twinkle, little star."
Native text at resolution 1920x1200 is extremely legible. Standard XP labels of icons and such are fine for me. It feels smallish to be sure, but not hobbit-like. I'm nearsighted in both eyes, 75 in left eye and abuot 110 in right. I don't feel any eye strain when I use my 9300, which is more than I can say about for some drivers I encounted during my 10 hour road trip of two paragraphs ago.
I hope I've shed more light into the TLS vs. matte debate. I can't decide for you, but if you're asking me, I recommend it - unless you're the Grinch that Stole Christmas; then stay far away.
So what graphics card power my two and three Dee? I cheaped out and kept the X300 64 Meg card, foregoing the upgrade to Team Green card for several reasons.
First, I don't game much anymore. Sure, I'd love to play games hours on end until my index finger has worn through the left mouse button, but in reality, I haven't the time to play all the latest games. The last I finished was Half-Life 2 on a P4 2Ghz, 512 meg rig with an AiW9700Pro. It wasn't Pixar real-time rendering by any stretch, but once you get into the game, you get into the game and forget that the reflection in the water isn't 16x AA at some insane resolution that you can't even begin to count. Your mileage may vary. I finished Doom 1 and 2 on a 386x25 DX and 4meg ram, in thumbnail-like window at low res so maybe I'm not the best guy to talk to. I'm still old-school in that I think quality of gameplay and storyline will always be much better than just pretty graphics.
Oh yes, there is light leakage at the bottom, most bothersome during the Windows XP load up screen before OS is booted. Sure, it's erksome, but only lasts 15-30 seconds. In XP proper, the light leaking isn't noticeable at all, and during DVD Playback, it shouldn't be a focal point - unless the movie is THAT boring; then maybe you should use your time more constructively....
For chips and giggles I threw on the Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 demo, and at 1280x720@32bpp, with default graphics setting, I wasn't experiencing any noticeable slowdowns. I had a good time playing, and that was that. Heck, 1024x768 passes the eye-candy test for me. Of course, by all means upgrade to the NVidia board as soon as you can because for the price, you are getting an amazing graphics chip. You know this is true because Dell recently bumped up the price of the graphics upgrade from $159 to $199 - and it is still a necessary upgrade if you intend to game on yours. For us who don't, the X300 64meg card may suffice. I guess if you need H.264 video decoding, the X300 will choke, but does the NVidia 6800 do it either? Not sure. I digress. The simple truth is this: If you game, go Nvidia. Otherwise, save your dosh and buy beer, or any other liquids that make you happy.
Video goes hand-in-hand with audio. The first thing I tried after powering up my 9300 was to stick in my USB key with Streetlife's album (Rap) in 192 VBR MP3 format. My cousins with the 5100s were flabbergasted. The 9300 speakers sound better than cheap desktop speakers. The 9300's "subwoofer" really does make a HUGE difference in tonal representation. It covers more of the audio spectrum and therefore sounds fuller. I'm right now listening to the soundtrack of Samurai Champloo (Japanese anime soundtracks) using Winamp 5.1, and I'm more than satisfied. I'm sure my Sony MDR-EX51 will sound MUCH better, but these are the first laptop speakers I've ever heard that didn't make me go run and plug in earbuds at the first sign of sound. I will go as far as to say that if you sat at home by yourself in a smallish space, you CAN and will finish an action movie without attaching any external speakers. One tip to give the "subwoofer" (I laugh everytime I type that) a little more kick - use two books to prop up the 9300 without covering the "subwoofer" (hehe). That helps; I guess typing with the 9300 resting on your quads does the same thing. All in all it has great sound giving it's delivery system on a platform doesn't doesn't lend well to its format.
The incessant fans do not bug me and keeps the whole machine relatively cool. I've been typing for well over an hour on battery alone with it on my legs, and I haven't felt uncomfortable yet. What they say about the 9300 running cool is true. I'm extremely happy with just how little heat it's giving off - warmish at best. My opinion may change in the winter when I'll be hoping for a secondary heat source, but during the summer months, I could not ask for anything more.
If you're still reading, let me go back to the silvery coating of the 9300 one last time. I like it over black for one simple reason, it doesn't absorb heat. Yeah, I think the designers actually did it on purpose, and if not, it certainly is a happy accident indeed - not on par to the discovery of antibiotics or pennicillian, but you get my drift.
That 10 hour car ride in mostly sunlight proved this. The plastics never got hot to the touch. I can't get over that. It turned out to be a great choice in colour scheme, and quite frankly, sets itself apart from all of the me-too-black laptops out there.
The touchpad is worth mentioning. It is too small for the 17" widescreen space it must attempt to cover. Nothing is more annoying to me than to multi-scroll from left to right just to get the cursor over from one side of the desktop to the other. I won't even imagine how much more it'll suck if I dual-monitored during some Photoshop sessions, but then I remembered that pointer speed can be changed to faster via Control Panel > Mouse > Pointer Options. I set it to the fastest speed possible, and this helped single desktop navigation immensely. For dual-monitor acccess, a mouse must be attached. As a bonus, I also changed the pointer schemes to Windows Extra Large. I don't like hunting for my cursor. If you do, cool. It's just not a game I enjoy much.
Finally, I come to software. Dell, like most OEMs now, love to laden its OS with pre-installed trial-ware. I truly regret that I didn't keep an accurate tally of what I've deleted so far. Quite frankly, what I wish to kill you may want to keep. It's a personal preference to be sure. I hate trial-ware that do nothing but nag you to buy it. It does not make me happy to see beg screens each time I sneeze on a menu. I also don't want crap like AOL, as 1. I'm not American - and therefore I don't need to be "on line"; and 2. Well, who uses AOL anyway, and why would you? Anyway, below is a list of software I've deleted from my HDD. It isn't complete and certainly not in any type of order, but it is a good start.
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simple start edition - quickbooks
Jasc Paintshop Pro
Real Player Basic
Microsoft Photo Story 2 LE
Dell Jukebox by musicmatch
AOL
Earthlink
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I guess it's time for me to end it. I'm impressed you've read this far, as I can get wordy. I just wanted to contribute to the 9300 posts as I've thoroughly enjoyed every tidbit of information I could glean from around the web. I bought my 9300 in early August and didn't actually get it until Sept 2, 2005. Long story short, I am a Canadian with family in Chicago. They ordered the laptop for me, and I drove down to pick it up. In all, I paid $1100 US (~$1320 CAD) for a low end 9300 that would be $1899 + 15% tax, before the screen upgrade ($100 US) and the 1GB Kingston ram ($105 US - shipped) from newegg.com. It comes down to a huge saving of a $1000 CAD, which in any currency, is a good amount of money. I know, I have no warranty, but I could get it fixed several times over before I start going into the red, so it's a worthy gamble.
Oh yes, I'm not done - that free Dell 720 printer I was supposed to receive never made it to my cousin's door. I don't know if it's Dell or UPS' fault, but I'll follow up on it from Dell and hopefully get that rectified. I know it's free and I'm not hurting by not receiving it. It's not greed but principle of the matter when it was thrown in to further entice me to buy it. Therefore I feel I should get it, even if I don't ever intend to buy a cartridge for it once it runs out, as I've already got 2 other colour printers at home, with many more from work to choose from. I guess low end printers are pretty disposable as it is these days.
Okay that's it, if my writing isn't narcolepsy inducing, I applaud you. I wrote a very long post with these pictures on purpose because nothing makes me happier than reading about a gadget I'm waiting to receive from ordered date to arriving at my door. I did it with my Sony UX-50 clie. I did it when I bought my Nikon D70 camera, and I certainly did it with my 9300. Thanks everyone for sharing their knowledge and experience, and I hope my post will furhter encourage you to save up for the 9300 of your dream.
My humble config:
P4M 1.6GHz
1.25 GB ram (256MB + 1GB)
17" TruLife (kind of positive it's Samsung)
ATI X300 64MB video
40 GB HDD @ 5400 RPM
0 warranty
40% off coupon code
= ~$1100 US for a very capable laptop.
Here are some more random pix of the 9300 I took.
